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?
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Olympics Provide Some Obvious, Some Not-So-Obvious Domaining Opportunities
The Olympics are trodding along, complete with heroes, villains and controversy. As you know, the location for the Olympics is chosen many years in advance. For instance, the 2016 summer Olympics may be held in Chicago (it’s a finalist). Domain Name Wire has reported on a domain name dispute related to Chicago’s Olympics.
I wanted to talk about trends related to the Olympics and how you can take advantage of them. There are plenty of domaining opportunities here while still avoiding the trademarks. The most obvious and easy way to find domains is to find out where the Olympics are being hosted.
- 2010 Vancouver, Canada
- 2012 London, England
- 2014 Sochi, Russia
The 2016 Olympics has not been awarded yet, but Chicago is the U.S.’s official nomination for the games and is considered one of the top candidates.
Though it’s not entirely too late to cash in on these, it’s much easier looking even farther ahead. The best time to register the names is REAL early on when there are whispers and rumors. Cities like Sion, Salzburg and PyeongChang have tried for many years to get awarded an Olympics, and have actually come real close on several occasions. It’s safe to say they will be chosen to host an Olympics in the (relative) near future.
Your best chance is with a rumored city as soon as it has become a rumor. Cities whose names have been thrown around are Sarajevo, Poprad and Jaca. Sure it’s a big risk to register Jaca2016.com, Jaca2018.com (taken!) and Jaca2020.com. I guess you just need to weigh your personal risk versus reward.
So these are the long term investment/risk, but they can really pay off for you if you have the patience. But let’s look a little deeper.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Olympics have been a time of truce and world peace. Some say the main reason the Olympics were started by the Greeks was to give warring clans a breather. Is that true? Who knows. It’s just interesting. The point is that there is an unofficial, but historical, truce between nations during the Olympics.
You may have heard about the recent trouble between Georgia and Russia, amazingly just 25 miles from the 2014 Olympic host city of Sochi. I’m not hear to argue whether who instigated the war or not or who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Many people are quite upset at Russia’s reaction (again, whether it was justified or not isn’t the point here). So much so that there are whispers that Sochi may lose its 2014 Olympics. This is a big deal, and an opportunity for domainers. if this becomes a reality, a new city will need to be chosen. And instead of having to wait until 2020 for your domains to reach peak value, you ‘only’ have to wait six years for 2014.
So who could replace Sochi? The two other cities that were up against Sochi were Salzberg, Austria and PyeongChang, South Korea. If anything, they would be the top two choices to replace Sochi.
But like I said, this would be a huge deal. Real low possibility. High Risk. Huge reward.
Moving onward.
The location of the Olympics isn’t the only source for domaining. Unless you live in a cave, you’ve heard or seen Michael Phelps win a gold medal or two. He now has 13 medals, 11 of which are gold; the most of any Olympian in history. Some are calling him the greatest ever.
Athletes like Michael Phelps come along every once in a while, and they can do miracles for their sports, gender and/or heritage, such as:
- Michael Jordan, for basketball. Sure there were others. But he put it on the map like no other.
- Tiger Woods, for golfers.
- Babe Ruth, for baseball.
- Billie Jean King, for female athletes.
- Secretariat, for horseracing. Yea I know he’s just a horse. But he wasn’t. He inspired a nation.
- Jackie Robinson, for African-Americans and those who saw no barriers.
- Jessie Owens, for ALL Americans and doing it in Hitler’s homeland.
- Lance Armstrong, for bicycling and those who have to overcome illness.
- Pele, for soccer.
- Muhammad Ali, for boxing.
These athletes inspired millions. Kids grew up wanting to slam like the Sultan of Swat, be like Mike and dance on a field like Pele. I don’t care if you hate soccer, pull up some video of Pele and tell me you are not awed and inspired.
These athletes change the sports they play. They change the attitudes of the people. They inspire others to be great, and bring hope to those in need when times are down.
If Michael Phelps is being lumped in with these greats, it bodes well for swimming. Kids that love to swim are watching him in awe right now. They want to be the next Michael Phelps, as will millions of others.
The sport of swimming is being given a gift. All those inspired by Phelps will want to take lessons with their new goggles and swim trunks… or build a pool in their backyard.
Everything related to swimming should increase in popularity over the next few years.
And so should the related domains.
Special atheletes can do this for their sport.
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Free Unique Content: Night Clubs
My first Free Unique Content post was Hotels and Resorts. I now have Night Clubs.
TrendHunter has posted 18 of the worlds “hippest” night clubs. Their words, not mine. Regardless of whether these really are the hippest, any one of these would be great to add to your geo site.
Lets take the Qua Bottle Lounge in Austin, TX. It’s claim to fame is that its clear acrylic dance floor has an aquarium underneath it. “So!?” you say? The aquarium doesn’t have clown fish or turtles. It has sharks.
SHARKS!
The blacktip reef shark and leopard shark to be exact.
Sure, it doesn’t have great whites or tiger sharks. But these aren’t tiny by any means. Blacktip reef reaches 6 feet in length. The point is that it’s unique and just about anyone would want to see it at least once.
As you can imagine, there are some who are not thrilled about this, mainly PETA. They have gone after the Qua Bottle Lounge so often and so hard that, it can be argued, THEY are the ones responsible for the popularity of this bar. I don’t know why PETA cares so much about these fish, but not other fish used in other establishments.
The shear uniqueness of these night clubs can provide you a couple pages of unique content as they are often accompanied by an interesting story, such as PETA feeding its popularity.
This stuff is gold for your geo site. If you have a geo site focusing on Austin, you should add an article or two about the Qua Bottle Lounge. Your readers will dig it.
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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.
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Top 10 Cities Under 500k In Which To Build A Dating Site Around
I’m presenting to you a top 10 list where every entry is on one page! For the win!
The reason why I’m limiting this list to cities with a population under 500k is because common sense comes in to play. Though Hoboken has the highest percentage of singles in the U.S., there is no comparison when you consider cities with large populations like New York, Chicago or even Portland.
So by limiting this list to smaller cities, I’m weeding out obvious choices and venturing into bargain territory.
The criteria I’m using are:
- Population. City needs to be large enough.
- Number of singles. Singles attract singles!
- Nightlife and Activities. Things people do or go to on dates, such as restaurants, bars and theaters.
- Job Growth. This is important as it can bring in new people.
- Cost of living (CoL). Again, something that will attract new people.
- Proximity. I’m including metro areas (thus will make some above 500k) and bonus points for being very close to other large cities.
- Youth. Though I’m not excluding older people, the youth replenish the dating pool and are more tech savvy.
- The domain. Sorry RanchoCucamongaDating.com, you simply don’t roll off the tongue very well.
Most “top cities for singles” lists are heavy on college towns. But I feel that college towns should be penalized to the point of being completely excluded due to the fact that (most) students are often single by choice; their primary concern is their education. So it’s of my opinion that college towns are highly overrated for singles. I’m applying this exclusion to cities like Ann Arbor and Cambridge, whose population is almost completely influenced by their universities. I’m not applying this to cities that have small campuses or satellites of universities since every city has these.
I aimed for cities with singles who actually live in the city, and thus would find value in, and pay, for a local dating site. In other words, I wanted to avoid spring break and party towns known for tourists, such as South Padre Island and Las Vegas, respectively.
So without further ado, my top 10 cities under 500k in which to build a dating site around:
10 - Orlando, FL - 220k people
Orlando is known for its tourist destinations. But what most don’t know is that this is a decent sized, racially diverse city with plenty for locals to do. It has one of the largest malls in the country and a diverse business industry that’s strong in popular fields like technology and moviemaking (with no income tax). It’s economy is solid year after year, and has very affordable housing when comparing it to the national average.
9 - Lexington, KY - 270k
The biggest attraction is the CoL as it’s one the lowest on this list. Lexington had it’s biggest growth spurt in the 80’s, and it’s been slowly climbing since. Though not flashy, or racially diverse like some of the other cities on this list, Lexington still has culture with plenty of music, festivals, theater, events and fairs. And horses! Detailed urban planning and strict zoning laws have preserved historic Lexington. The city is technology and medical oriented, two industries that show no signs of dying off.
8 - Miami, FL - 404k
Miami is one of the cities that breaks barriers: it’s a tourist and college town, yet it’s large population consists of hardcore locals that love to party and a participate in it’s thriving, clean nightlife scene. The overall cost of living and expensive housing prevents this from being higher on the list.
7 - Henderson, NV - 240k
Henderson has been one of the fastest growing cities in the country, with it’s population growing 66% since 2000; for an already large city this is amazing. A very short drive to Las Vegas helped get Henderson onto this list. It seems to find its way onto best places to live lists; in 2006, it was ranked 20th overall and 3rd among large cities by CNN Money. With the overall growth rate and no income tax, this city is very attractive for those looking for employment. Henderson is also packed with bars, having 50% more than the average town.
6 - Madison, WI - 223k
The census says that about 43% of Madison’s population are single, ranking it 25th in the U.S. Madison is also right on the water. Four complete seasons provide year-round recreation. In 1995, CNN Money ranked it as the #1 best place to live, and, relatively, it hasn’t faltered much: ranking 55th in 2005, 53rd in 2006 and 89th in 2008. That’s impressive to be that consistent over 13 years.
Named a top green city and top healthy city year after year, the Wisconsin capital is quite liberal; being listed among the most gay-friendly cities to live in. The famously great education system attracts new people and keeps the locals, well, local. 48% of the population over the age of 25 has a bachelors degree or higher.
5 - Minneapolis, MN - 372k
Like Madison, the census says that roughly 46% of Minneapolis’ population are single, ranking it 11th in the U.S. But with the CoL at 110% of the national average, it kept this city from being higher on the list. Lying on the Mississippi river, Minneapolis is a great recreation city with pleasant summers and cold snowy winters.
It is second only to NYC in theaters per capita and has a vibrant local band scene. There is no gender gap, as the men to women ratio is almost equal. Minneapolis was ranked the 5th best city for young professionals by Forbes and has the highest concentration of “top companies” in the U.S. Oh, and there is that Mall of America nearby.
4 - Atlanta, GA - 486k
Census says that roughly 45% of Atlanta’s population are single, ranking it 13th in the U.S. Atlanta has become a popular destination for young people looking for a warm, but not outrageously hot, climate that doesn’t kill their wallets. Forbes has named it the 8th best restaurant city and 4th best singles city(as did Dating Weblog), while Maxim has named it the 7th best party city and AmericanStyle named it 8th as an Arts destination among mid-sized cities.
3 - Colorado Springs, CO - 372k
BestPlaces.net lists it as the second best city for dating. It was CNN Money’s #1 best place to live among big cities as recently as 2006, and Men’s Health’s #1 city for… dogs. It ranks as Kiplinger’s 5th best place to live, work and play in 2008. It’s second only to Raleigh as the chic choice in top 10 lists for 2008. It’s housing is 85% of the national average, and overall CoL is 93%.
2 - Raleigh, NC - 356k
Raleigh has been one of the lucky areas to not be as hard hit by the housing market crash. Duke (Durham) and UNC (Chapel Hill) are near, but aren’t the reason (well, not directly) for the large population of the North Carolina capital; a population that has increased by 36% since 2000, and the job market is keeping up with it.
Though the city attracts many educated young people after they graduate from aforementioned schools, they’re not ALL youngins. Raleigh has quietly surpassed St. Louis, Minneapolis, Tampa, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in municipal population and is a chic choice right now as you can find it on just about every “top 10″ list out there, including the 2nd best place to live, work and play in 2008, according to Kiplinger.
1 - Chandler, AZ - 240k
It was really difficult to choose between the cities within the hugely popular and bustling Phoenix area: Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Glendale and Peoria. You really can’t go wrong with any of them. The job growth here is some of the best in the nation, including the popular tech and biotech jobs. The population is deceptively huge (Maricopa county is the 4th largest in the U.S.) and still growing at one of the fastest rates in the nation. The cost of living is just below the national average, but it is rising due to wealthy Californians arriving in droves.
I narrowed it down to Chandler and Scottsdale. Chandler is much more affordable (don’t read this as ghetto, the city is *new*) than Scottsdale, which is swanky. And they’re just 15 minutes apart. Scottsdale routinely makes best places to live lists, but Chandlers CoL beats it out on my list.
Things to note:
- This is only my opinion. There are many other cities that could just as easily been argued onto this list. I just used the 10 that I felt had the best chance for success and personally would do if I were to make a dating site.
- The population numbers may be a tad off. Different sites report different numbers. But with populations this large, being 10k off isn’t a big deal. I pulled mine from CNN Money.
- Before you say that I listed a couple college towns when I said I wouldn’t, the reason is that those schools don’t make up a large percentage of residents within those towns.
- I’ve never actually been to any of these cities. This was concluded from hours of reading and research. Speaking of…
To show that I didn’t just throw crap into a list, I have more references:
- City-Data.com and it’s excellent forums
- CNN Money’s top 100 places to live
- Club Planet’s top 10 party cities
- Travel + Leisure’s favorite cities
- Kiplinger’s best places to live, work and play in 2008
- ACCRA cost of living index
- Forbes’ best cities for jobs in 2008
- Inc.com’s best cities
- BestPlaces.net
- HubPages.com’s best cities for jobs
- HubPages.com’s top cities for young professionals
- Forbes’ top cities for young professionals
- Good ole Wikipedia.org
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