French keywords ca domains, worth/potential to develop?

[tt9000]

See topic

[msn]

Yes.

[6sons]

As one example that comes to mind check out recettes (recipes) on google and see what you get.

[Provider]

I think its not worth it, unless you have a premium domain name and a cheap sources of content development in French. My assessment based on a simple logical questions: 1. how big is an audience and 2. can we make the site interesting by providing a new content all the time, and 3. can it be monetized at all. If you can to make 2 to happen, then why would you be stuck on a .ca domain? If you can make a French site, than there is a lot more audience in .fr domain, and an obvious choice being .com. I am pretty sure 6sons has a premium French .ca domain though

[hugegrowth]

Same rules as apply to .ca in english, has to be a good, commercial keyword or have traffic - there is a french market in Canada to market to!

Some of my best traffic is to my french .ca's with even simple development.

Pros are:
less competition from other french sites. with english .ca you have a bigger market, but also heavy competition from the US and other english sites if you decide to develop.
you will also get France traffic and other traffic from small countries with french language.
you can be a bigger fish in a smaller market.
you can use Ad sense to monetize (it will show french ads on pages with french text), and there are more french affiliate programs coming out all the time (like on Clickbank and CJ).
easier/cheaper to acquire good keyword domains. for example I've hand regged or paid <$70 in TBR for the french equivalent of english words like "poem, poems, free, big, nuts, onlinegames, pear, celebrity, girlgames........"
many domainers are english and don't bother with the french market, or can't get into it due to language barrier

Cons are:
french is a smaller market in Canada and the world compared to english, but like mentioned above there is less competition for it.
less monetization opportunities. there are many affiliate programs etc. I'd like to use but they aren't in french, but like mentioned above it is getting better
less resale value, don't think I've ever had a really good offer for a french .ca compared to my english ones.

So yes, all in all good french .ca can be worth developping, I think a quarter to a third of Canada speaks french and you can't reach most of these people with english domains.

[DOTCA]

I think its not worth it, unless you have a premium domain name and a cheap sources of content development in French. My assessment based on a simple logical questions: 1. how big is an audience and 2. can we make the site interesting by providing a new content all the time, and 3. can it be monetized at all. If you can to make 2 to happen, then why would you be stuck on a .ca domain? If you can make a French site, than there is a lot more audience in .fr domain, and an obvious choice being .com. I am pretty sure 6sons has a premium French .ca domain though

Agree.. I don't think 2 & 3 are workable and hence a lost cost!!

[hugegrowth]

Wouldn't the same logic say why develop an english site on a .ca, when there is a lot more english audience on a .com?

Quebec has it's own french culture, trends and entertainment that doesn't necessarily translate to France. Just like any english site doesn't necesarily translate between Canada and the US (some topics can ofcourse, but there are for example regional differences - a Chicago news site wouldn't interest someone in Vancouver or New York too much). Sure Quebec is a relatively small market, but it still has it's own newspapers, tv channels, film industry, etc.

It probably helps to know what the domain or idea is.

[tt9000]

As one example that comes to mind check out recettes (recipes) on google and see what you get.

Maybe food related domain had more potential to develop such as Foiegras dot ca....

[Provider]

Wouldn't the same logic say why develop an english site on a .ca, when there is a lot more english audience on a .com?

Quebec has it's own french culture, trends and entertainment that doesn't necessarily translate to France. Just like any english site doesn't necesarily translate between Canada and the US (some topics can ofcourse, but there are for example regional differences - a Chicago news site wouldn't interest someone in Vancouver or New York too much). Sure Quebec is a relatively small market, but it still has it's own newspapers, tv channels, film industry, etc.

It probably helps to know what the domain or idea is.

My assumption is that we are talking about informational site, not a company that has to have a presence in Quebec. If the population of the province is 25%, than you have a lot less audience. Also, it is harder to generate French content.

re: Wouldn't the same logic say why develop an English site on a .ca, when there is a lot more English audience on a .com?
There are many levels to development. What are we talking about here? I think .ca in general worth developing only if it is a premium domain, or generic keyword. If you have time, or money, or both to invest it is always better to work on .com. Am I wrong?

[msn]

If I owned recherche.ca or trouver.ca - searching or finding then they would be more worth developing than freshberriesoshawa.ca or something like that, so it depends upon the domains.

By the way, trouve.ca and trouver.ca are both owned by YellowPages, which says something, while recherche.ca and rechercher.ca belong to different registrants. If they would cooperate, or one sells their domain to the other, there is a business there.