Guest Post: New Domain Registrations - Cheap Hot Tip For Great Domains
Many of you, including myself, are always looking for new sources of domains. You’d be surprised to know I spoke to Monte Cahn about a good source on Moniker’s DomainMaster radio over two years ago about this little-known secret, and I’ve helped many of my clients with this angle:
Take a look at online manufacturing industry catalogs and product pages. Find an industry, and investigate it, such as plumbing, electronic, auto parts, chemical, agriculture, etc.
There’s an easy way to find generic domains (do NOT nab product model names or anything with a ™ next to it). Surprisingly, the catalogs of these companies’ nicely define their products’ generic descriptions. That’s right. The catalogs of these companies are defining the generic description of their own products, and most of them don’t buy those domains while they’re designing the catalog. Some of my domains I found this way I sold within a year. I still have some popular ones that make some PPC too, like impactsprinklers.com and chemicaladditive.com. These are big products, and I bought them “OOTB -out of the basket” (New registrations).
With the evolution of marketing the domain name industry and the epiphanal marketing necessity for companies to own their prodserv online, they eventually will back up their popular products with buying the generic domains for them. It’s been done in the past, it’s being done now, and it will be even bigger in the future.
It can be time-consuming, and addictive. It also can be very lucrative. Be careful, learn a lot about the niche industry you’re thinking about following for finding their most popular product generic domains. Use their catalogs and product pages! A goldmine for domainers if you take the time to research.
Okay, now somebody owes me something.
Guest Blog Post by Stephen Douglas, Successclick.com
Jamie Parks Donates Contest Winnings To ICA
Jamie Parks has generously asked to donate his $50 prize to the Internet Commerce Association. Done.
For those that are unfamiliar with the ICA, it’s a non-profit group that represents domain investors and developers. They’re fighting for us and what we do.
They accept donations. But you can also join as an Associate Member for $295 annually, with additional more expensive, and involved, memberships available. I know this fee is not feasible for most people. And I won’t say that you need to join it without having done so myself. I will say that I will be joining them when I can and perhaps you should consider it as well, when you can.
In fact, if any of you are in a generous enough mood to speed up the process for me and purchase the domain I have listed for sale in the right column, I’ll sign up as an Associate Member immediately and donate an additional $700 to the ICA. Just saying 
Again, thanks Jamie for participating and generously offering your prize to the ICA.
Baby Boomers Will Trigger Many Trends
Boomer companions/caregivers where chosen as one of the top jobs of the near future, as chosen by MSNBC. They’re absolutely right. In fact, the Boomers will trigger several huge trends that have already begun to reveal themselves and will be in full swing just 2 years from now.
There are 78 million Boomers, and in the next couple years many of them will be turning 65, making them eligible for Medicare. 78 million! To give you an idea of how many people that is, it is the same amount that live in our three most populated states:
The Baby Boomers are going to begin retiring and hitting up that Medicare. Expect a surge in age-related illness/treatments such as Alzheimer’s and Diabetes in the next couple years. But is that really all that 78 million people can give us?
Hell no. You see, these people will be retiring and that will set in motion oodles of trends.
To start, someone must fill their positions at the workplace as Baby Boomers are one third of America’s workforce. This is something I pointed out in a post about Generation X. Gen X is set to take over. Know their tendencies, likes, dislikes, whatever.
Second, these people may be retiring from their careers, but some (actually, I think most… and so does CNN) will move on to an every-day job… either by necessity to pay the bills, by choice to fill the time, or to fulfill their lifelong dream of starting a business. You should see a boom in the following industries due to retired Boomers:
- Senior job placement and training services. To help them find a job they’ll be happy with.
- Volunteer and non-profit (especially the Peace Corps). Now that they have the time, many will volunteer it.
- Consultants. Many of these seniors will become consultants for the very field they retired from.
- Temp Agencies. Many people turn to them, and Boomers like them because it’s most likely how they started.
- Houseboats. Both sales and rentals. Boomers love them and can now actually spend time in them.
- RV’s. Oh this will be big. You heard it here first: I don’t care about the gas crisis, Boomers LOVE their RV’s. Boomers love to travel, and they’ll do it in an RV.
Third, Boomers are going to want to live in their dream home. The key is WHERE their dream home is located. Like I said: they love to travel, so Boomers have timeshares, second homes and favorite vacation spots all across the U.S. These are the places they will want to move to. So where are these?
In no particular order:
- Flagstaff, AZ
- Tucson, AZ
- Sedona, AZ
- Palm Springs, CA
- San Diego, CA
- Lake Tahoe, CA
- Aspen, CO
- Boulder, CO
- Tampa, FL
- Port St. Lucie, FL
- Sarasota, FL
- Key West, FL
- Orlando, FL
- Boca Raton, FL
- Fort Myers, FL
- Cape Cod, MA
- Santa Fe, NM
- Las Vegas, NV
- Reno, NV
- Myrtle Beach, SC
- Hilton Head Island, SC
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Anywhere Hawaii
- OK, anywhere Florida
- The Caribbean
Boomers already own timeshares or second homes in these cities. I feel there will be a significant surge in population in most, if not all, of these cities/places over the next couple years as the Boomers move in permanently. They are already familiar with them and will want to spend their remaining days, and money, in the place that most makes them happy. Expect healthy real estate markets in these cities.
I’m sure there are plenty more trends as 78 million people are bound to produce many. Are there any you can see the Boomers setting off?
Anyone Can Participate In The Geodomain Game
During the second part of my interview with Neal Voron of Fractional Domaining Blog, he asked me how I translated my research into actual registrations. I wandered off into an idea of combining trends, and suggested that you could combine:
Dating Sites + Gas Crisis = Hyperlocalized Dating
Off the top of my head, I gave three examples:
- LeagueCitySingles.com
- UticaSingles.com
- WestBoroughDating.com
I work out of League City, TX and Utica, MI is a city near the town where I grew up. Westborough was a city that just popped into my head because it was on a list I recently read. Anyways, I went on to say that even though these cities are relatively small, domains like these are more likely to be available than, say, NewYorkSingles.com.
Even though, overall, I’m right, in this particular instance I was wrong.
On Friday I was driving through League City and saw 5 signs on the side of the road that advertised LeagueCitySingles.com! When I got home, my curiosity lead me to check the other two and UticaSingles.com is also registered. Though the Utica was the NY version, not the MI, as it’s much bigger.
WestboroughDating.com is available.
League City, TX has around 45k people where Utica, NY has 60k. Even if 50% of the population is married, that still leaves more than 20k that are single. How many of those are comfortable with online dating? It may be a small number, who knows. But even if it’s just 1k, that’s more than enough to monetize a site. This is highly targeted traffic.
Obviously there are people thinking the same thing I am: You don’t need New York, Chicago, LA or Houston to have a great geodomain. What you DO need is a real functioning site on that geodomain.
EDIT:
I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before, but I just checked and HyperlocalizedDating.com was available. Not anymore.
Neal Voron of Fractional Domaining Blog Interviews… Me?
Neal Voron of Fractional Domaining Blog has posted an interview with yours truly. It is a four part series; you can view part 1 here. If you wanted to know a little bit more about how I research trends and apply them to domaining then this is a must read.
While you are there, be sure to read up on fractional domaining. Not familiar with it? From Neal’s blog:
[Domainers can] decide to purchase a small fraction of many premium domains rather than 100 percent of fewer domains, thus spreading his or her risk/reward potential while associating with other co-owners who each bring their own knowledge, experience, skills, and resources to the venture(s).
Obviously any domainer, amateur or veteran, can take advantage of this strategy. But I believe this is something that newer domainers should take a moment and strongly consider. By purchasing a fraction of a domain, you can team up with veterans and learn so much from them. Now, I’ll be honest and say that this isn’t from experience as I have not participated in this strategy yet. But it’s something I believe works and will try in the near future.
And if this interests you, then you should probably check out his Fractional GeoDomaining group over at GeoDomainer.com.
Thanks Neal!