It’s gratifying to see some real effort going in to developing Aussie geographic domain names. I’ve long been a fan of the potential of these to be cash cows. (Read Part 1 first).
One of my mates has put a lot of work into Terrigal.com.au, and as you will see, his big emphasis is on being “social rewarding”.
“Terrigal.com.au is a “Socially Rewarding” business directory and local information network that seeks to provide the best recommendations for any service, retail, accommodation or restaurant within 15km of Terrigal beach. Developed by a Terrigal local, businesses can join the network but their ranking is based on social “likes” not their wallet, so we can be sure that we are always recommending the best service!As customers search Terrigal.com.au for your product or service, they can see which of their Facebook friends have liked or checked into your Facebook business page – nothing beats a trusted word-of-mouth referral!”
My other mate (someone who has incredible marketing experience) is currently developing KangarooPoint.com.au ( a site he bought off Flippa from another friend of mine). He is contemporaneously developing Maroochydore.com.au (which is a domain that he purchased from me).
The common denominator with both of these guys is that they have a team selling advertising spots. And so far they seem to be doing really well! Secondly, these geos are just the start for them. Once they have the formula right, no doubt they will “rinse and repeat”.
I wish them all the best – and will certainly be following their progress.
Any thoughts or comments from readers?
Ned O’Meara – 21st December 2016
Thanks for the support Ned, we are seeing lots of opportunities in the geo space with scope to develop a strong geo social network based on trusted word of mouth, stay tuned!
Merry Christmas and I hope your recent birthday celebrations were memorable!
Good luck Troy! And I’m happy you acquired Bowral.com.au as well – that’s been one of my favourites for years.
Birthday overseas (Tassie) was fantastic. 🙂
I’ve had my eye on a few geo’s in the past 12 months but I’m aware of the huge amount of work required to make them successful (in terms of $$). I’ll keep an eye on the sites you mentioned Ned 🙂
@Joel – you’re right; they are a lot of work. But I reckon “beginning is winning” – and once you get some momentum going, hopefully other advertisers will want to jump on board.
I do like the way Troy is doing it via “social” – that in itself should develop some traction.
Geo sites seem great at first but they are quite hard to build and monetize Ned.
Both of these guys have dedicated sales team which matters a lot. Could they be successful without that? Probably not.
The content route with selling direct ads is hard. I think affiliate marketing is a better plan, it you can get traffic and conversions.
If you were just getting started building sites not sure I would recommend going the geo route. Even with category killer .AU domains like these.
In the new year I’m focusing on jobs sites. Simple, charge companies for posting jobs. Nice business model but we’ll see how it goes. 🙂
Forgot to add these are nicely designed geo sites.
Great space, but job listings is very competitive & seek has a strong grip. Recruitment market is evolving quickly as often the best candidates aren’t “active” (depends on role) so businesses are becoming more active. LinkedIn is well positioned, but we feel the market can be disrupted through effeciences in the agency model or industry specialisation, we launched submitted.com.au last year, time will tell! Good luck with the job Site, interested to see it.
Same in North America. Several strong major players with good SEO. In many job areas they have been overtaken by more specific jobs boards though. There are just too many job postings on the major boards. So they typically don’t get applicants they like.
WebHostingJobs.com used to be a jobs board run by iNET Interactive. They run WHT, TheWhir, etc. Some of the work is already been done. 🙂
Hope things gone well with submitted. You recruit in Australia and America?
I like them both. What about real estate as a tab? Sell exclusivity to just one agent? Sales and rentals.
Yes @jeff we are adding real estate, sales & rentals including short term – good opportunity. We own terrigal.apartments also which we are incorporating next year.
Drop it Troy. 🙂
People don’t like, understand, or trust new domains. Stick with the .AU space.
Did you know that millennials trust new domains LESS than older people?
Each way bet lol
I could be wrong but with Kanga Point it looks like COR hasn’t been completed.
You’re right – I’m still showing as the owner!
Nice website guys, both of these domains were mine before Ned stole them from me 🙂
Geo sites can work, but early days make it a slog and it may take years before the roi gets going.
I purchased terrigal.com.au and avocabeach.com.au after I sold byronbay.com.au for 6 figures.
I noticed they both don’t rank yet, so must be fairly new website, good luck with them
The old silver fox emerges! I was just telling someone earlier today that you were the absolute master when it came to monetising geo accommodation sites. You got them ranking; and you never seemed to have trouble selling listings.
Obviously they were the good old days – but people could still learn a thing or two from you Don.
Oh man, those are great sites, but a lot of work! Especially Terrigal.com.au – and I think it’s a great idea to just put every single business that exists on the site and then hope they “Claim their business”. Good idea, will be interested to see how quickly it takes off.
In terms of Geo-Accommodation and Geo-Hotel names, I’m pretty sure I own more than most people. Would be interested in any ideas of how to monetise these, as I’ve tried affiliate hotel and accom engines and the money’s just not there most days. There are some good days, but overall… example: SydneyAccommodation.com.au
@Robert – you should have a talk to Troy. He has a good team in place – perhaps you can come to an arrangement or profit share? A network of geos would have great benefits all round imo.
I wish there was a “Like Button” on these posts…
Thanks Scott! I wish there was too – but that’s above my pay grade!
Ned, I’ll work out a solution for you. It should be pretty straightforward 😉
@Luke – I “like” that! 🙂
“Like”
Done! 🙂
You’re a star Luke! Thank you.
I’m a fan of directories and geo’s are the best place to start IMO, those sites look great and i know hard it is to get them running, deep pockets deep HOURS before you turn to profit but then it seems to grow organically.
creating yourself as the “center of influence” is the key, BE the place to go to and thats why the domain name is so important.
living in the area heaps 300% in getting them running, my experience is “BE in Terrigal” but not available to meet, once it gets to big to service with handshakes, pats on backs and personal visits to renew membership you get a big drop of expectation and lose advertisers, best to keep it “business business” from the start.
A well run directory will provide great revenue for years on end.
thanks for showcasing
tim
@tim great feedback and advice. Thank you!
Interesting stuff.
I’m a player in the Australian geo-domain marketplace since purchased in 1999. I have sold a few but kept the majority. I have developed my own network of Geo-Domain names and created software for advertisers to list on multiple sites both locally or nationally through my Geo-Domains. Yes they can also claim their listings.
The software allows the network administrator to add a listing to one or one hundred sites by just ticking the appropriate location (Geodomain) box’s once the listing has been prepared. This slashes admin time and allows the network to offer multiple domain advertising at extremely affordable prices.
My Network launches in 2017. I welcome other Australian GEOs to discuss partnering opportunities prior to the launch.
As for the extensions debate, the geo.com or .com.au are still the most sought after and in demand extensions out there because it comes with the inherent reputation and prestige that only .com can offer. Anything else is going to take a ton of money to make it work. Even .net has lost its flavor with all the new extensions flooding the market and is just confusing the people even more. Ive just recently cleared out everything but the .coms. .COM is KING and that’s about it. I treally do take my hat off to those trying to make geo-directories work, its a hard slog but can be very rewarding in the long term.
Its a different angle Terrigal.com.au is coming from incorporating facebook likes into the sites I hope that formula proves successful.
Well that’s my 2 bobs worth. It would be great to arrange an Australian Geo-domain meetup if we have enough numbers. It would be a great to meet up with enthusiastic like minded people like ourselves.
Great blog.
@Mick – thanks for your contribution. Can you give us a link to your network of geos? I’m sure many of us would be really interested in having a look.
A meetup sounds like a great idea.
Ive taken them down for now, first time in years, but I will add a link when the software is active and sites reactivated. Cheers