Cash Cow – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I stated that geographic domains have the potential to be ongoing “cash cows”.

So let me tell you why I think that.

A geodomain investment is similar in many ways to a commercial property investment and re-development (except without the lengthy time involvement, cost and all the regulatory hassles).

In simple terms, you need to acquire the right domain name (property),  develop an attractive website (building); and then find advertisers (tenants).

Ok – so how does one do it?

The following is just a brief overview / broad brush stroke of developing an Australian geographic domain – the detailed process will be in my upcoming eBook. 🙂

Step 1

To me it’s really important that you have a exact match for the city, town or suburb you are wanting to promote. This gives you maximum flexibility for the types of content you may want to include.

Being a proud Queenslander, let me give you some examples: Maroochydore.com.au (city); Tewantin.com.au (town); FortitudeValley.com.au (suburb).

If you can’t get the exact match domain, then you can always opt to add an extra noun, adverb, adjective, abbreviation. e.g. “visit”; “beautiful”, “QLD”. However, in my opinion, these are generally a very poor alternative. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential advertiser – if there were three brand new sites starting up (offering similar advertising rates and terms), and one was Maroochydore.com.au and the other two VisitMaroochydore.com.au or MaroochydoreQLD.com.au, which one would you opt for?

Let’s assume for sake of the exercise that you already have the right domain name (or you can readily acquire it).

Step 2

The best advice I can ever give is to find a motivated local web designer. Someone who already has a client base – and who wants to build their business even more. This can obviously be done online initially – followed by a call or personal visit.

This is the most important selection – they are going to be the equivalent of your architect; project manager and real estate agent!

Let me give you a real life example:

About 18 months ago I was involved in the purchase of a geographic domain name / website. Out of respect for privacy, I won’t go into full details – suffice to say this was a major regional centre.

The purchase price was substantial, but I considered it to be an absolute bargain given that it was an “exact match domain” – and that the previous registrants had acquired a huge stable of loyal paying clients over many years.

However, due to health and retirement issues, the two owners weren’t able to continue giving their clients the same level of service previously enjoyed, so they decided to find a “good home” for their business. It was a part of the sale agreement (and their decision making process) that existing clients would be looked after.

At the peak of their business, the graphic below shows the mind-blowing client stats! (When I got involved with the purchase, numbers had dropped substantially though due to reasons mentioned above).

Another well respected local web designer was ultimately engaged to take over the management of the site.

This whole operation was a real eye-opener for me. I thought if they can do it, then anyone with the “smarts” could duplicate this for other geographic domains.

In Part 3 of this article, I will list some great examples of geographic domains from both Australia and overseas.

Plus give you some other revenue money making tips. Cash cows are out there!

Until next time ……………….