Kids.US Directory went LIVE !

[bidawinner]

Just went live ...

http://www.kids.us

smithsonian is first and only listed site so far..

We can keep weekly totals in this thread.. (of new sites added) Will be a great way to follow the growth of Kids.Us

[Source]

...with the thunder of a pin drop.

[bidawinner]

Originally posted by Name-Maker
...with the thunder of a pin drop.

You dont see a frieght train cause you're looking the other way !

I honestly believe that anyone that gets in this directory will be rolling in the traffic 6 months from now...

Thats why it's called speculation name-maker....

[OnSpec]

Not a bad start-off Alexa number 282,588 for a pin-drop opening

Go .US Go!

[oxen]

OnSpec - how do you get that number (282,588) - thanks

[izopod]

Originally posted by oxen
OnSpec - how do you get that number (282,588) - thanks

http://www.alexa.com/data/details?url=kids.us

[izopod]

Big problem for "kids.us" is money. If you don't have a lot of it, you certainly won't out of the goodness of your heart create a site that builds no revenue. Kid's can't use credit cards, so selling items to them would be out of the question. You could sell things to parents, but what? ... I suppose you could sell "toys" to parents to give to their kids, but creating the kind of traffic to beat out the likes of Amazon.com/ToysRus.com would be pretty tough.

I see "kids.us" as a "marketing" tool for the major corps... i.e McDonald's, Microsoft etc.

This isn't a "domainers" kind of venture. Think about it. Not every URL address is going to be "big"...

[izopod]

Originally posted by OnSpec

Go .US Go!

Er, um, didn't you mean "Go "kids.us" go??" :-D

[Source]

Hopefully, kids.us won't turn into an additional corporate branding opportunity...

kelloggs.kid.us
logo.kids.us
nintendo.kids.us
etc...

It was encouraging to see the first site is the Smithsonian Institute... that's really what kids.us is all about.

[bidawinner]

Originally posted by izopod
Big problem for "kids.us" is money. If you don't have a lot of it, you certainly won't out of the goodness of your heart create a site that builds no revenue. Kid's can't use credit cards, so selling items to them would be out of the question. You could sell things to parents, but what? ... I suppose you could sell "toys" to parents to give to their kids, but creating the kind of traffic to beat out the likes of Amazon.com/ToysRus.com would be pretty tough.

I see "kids.us" as a "marketing" tool for the major corps... i.e McDonald's, Microsoft etc.

This isn't a "domainers" kind of venture. Think about it. Not every URL address is going to be "big"...

I dont see any problem making sales in the Kids.us name space.. in fact it should make parents more comfortable in opening their wallets in the Kids.us namespace because of the added security measures.

You're right Kids dont have credit cards.. but Mom does and you can bet little Billy knows Mom does !

It's Ok to speculate on all sides.. I guess we will have a lot better idea of how it is going to play out over the next few months...

my bet simply is that the Kids.US dierectory is the key for developers.. that traffic will be excellent as will sales.

Targeted market dropped at your store front.. for $350 bucks..not a bad deal.... can't be anyworse than paying Yahoo $300 a year to hide your website in a sea of a million other websites.

[izopod]

Originally posted by Name-Maker
Hopefully, kids.us won't turn into an additional corporate branding opportunity...

I'm betting it will.... Everything else has. "Cash strapped" school districts have turned to corporate entities in droves to buy sports equipment, uniforms, etc (a.k.a Nike Uniforms). To subsidize school yearbooks advisors are having to turn to local businesses to "sponor" pages just to get the books printed.

[Spider]

but what are you going to offer these kids? webhosting? vacation packages? I think the best chance you have of making money is if your site is a toy store. I don't see them approving and accepting very many of these as it's not something for kids to do on the web. I think there will be a slim chance that many if any make much money on this namespace. Kids.us is something for the kids, game sites, information sites, adventure sites. There just isn't a need for them to accept toy sites.

[Spider]

Just so people don't think I am hating the .us namespace. I actually belive in it, I just don't believe in making money off kids.us.

[izopod]

Originally posted by 207
but what are you going to offer these kids?

Simple... A company will sponsor a "kids only" science page (Dupont). Maybe, Microsoft will want to "sponsor" a computer aided learning site.

:-D

[Spider]

Is that simple?

[izopod]

Originally posted by 207
Just so people don't think I am hating the .us namespace. I actually belive in it, I just don't believe in making money off kids.us.

I believe in making money if what you are doing or selling is going to benefit someone in a positive way. There is nothing wrong in having corporations sponsor kids content.

[izopod]

Originally posted by 207
Is that simple?

Simple... very simple. I bet I could get a hundred local family oriented businesses to sponsor a "kids content" page.

Corporations maybe a "little tougher". Very few like to deal with outside vendors until they have a proven track record. If you prove yourself, it does become a lot "easier".

[Spider]

Listen, if you can do it then by all means go for it. I just don't want people to go out there and register a boat load of these domains with $$$ in their eyes. Making money off this namespace is going to be difficult to say the least but if you have the resources(which will be a lot) and the time(which will be more then you can imagine) then I wish you luck.

In my humble opinion but I will bow out and let others speak their minds.

[izopod]

Originally posted by 207
Listen, if you can do it then by all means go for it. I just don't want people to go out there and register a boat load of these domains with $$$ in their eyes. Making money off this namespace is going to be difficult to say the least but if you have the resources(which will be a lot) and the time(which will be more then you can imagine) then I wish you luck.

In my humble opinion but I will bow out and let others speak their minds.

I totally agree with you 207... Don't buy a "kids.us" for resell. I think if you have a plan, and a way to make a site work for you given the extraordinary restrictions, I say go for it. Otherwise this isn't the name-space for you! Save your $$$ for .eu or something like that. Or better yet. Just save your money.