Advice please - even if it is saying I am an idiot!

[Bill Roy]

Hi All,

As some of you may have seen I havemanaged to acquire a significant number of US county domains where the population is 40,000+, all in the form of 'CountyName'+County.info (e.g. TarrantCounty.info). In fact the portfolio now represents just over 45% of all such counties and parishes (Louisiana has Parishes). I think this number gives me relatively effective control ofthis genre. Obviously the portfolio is skewed to the lower populations but even so the average population is well over 100,000.

Now leaving aside the argument about .com verses .info (yes I do wish they were all the .com - but that niether was nor is feasible) I would like to hear peoples views on development of the portfolio.

I am in preliminary discussions with the devlopers/owners of a commercial script with the intention of branding the portfolio using their script. Obviously I would not be able to develop the sites myself - being in the UK I do not have local knowledge or contacts for any of the sites. I was therefore considering offering the sites for 'franchise' to local people/businesses with the script installed for them to run. What are your thoughts on this?

Obviously this is no Marchex Zip Code endeavour (mind you at least it will not be as big a flop either), but it is a large endeavour none the less.

Apart from selling the portfolio what would members here consider doing with it (parking is and will always remain out of the question).

At the moment traffic is light, it is assumed that most traffic will go to the .com's or those listed high in Google, etc.. Beacause of the disunity between the .com owners and their inability to co-ordinate a development strategy it is my opinion that with development the .info's could easily outstrip the .com's and especially those that are only parked.

I will thank you all in advance, as after reading your comments I might not feel immediately so inclined. Seriously though, please just give your honest opinions.

 

[Biggie]

Hi All,

As some of you may have seen I havemanaged to acquire a significant number of US county domains where the population is 40,000+, all in the form of 'CountyName'+County.info (e.g. TarrantCounty.info). In fact the portfolio now represents just over 45% of all such counties and parishes (Louisiana has Parishes). I think this number gives me relatively effective control ofthis genre. Obviously the portfolio is skewed to the lower populations but even so the average population is well over 100,000.

Now leaving aside the argument about .com verses .info (yes I do wish they were all the .com - but that niether was nor is feasible) I would like to hear peoples views on development of the portfolio.

I am in preliminary discussions with the devlopers/owners of a commercial script with the intention of branding the portfolio using their script. Obviously I would not be able to develop the sites myself - being in the UK I do not have local knowledge or contacts for any of the sites. I was therefore considering offering the sites for 'franchise' to local people/businesses with the script installed for them to run. What are your thoughts on this?

Obviously this is no Marchex Zip Code endeavour (mind you at least it will not be as big a flop either), but it is a large endeavour none the less.

Apart from selling the portfolio what would members here consider doing with it (parking is and will always remain out of the question).

At the moment traffic is light, it is assumed that most traffic will go to the .com's or those listed high in Google, etc.. Beacause of the disunity between the .com owners and their inability to co-ordinate a development strategy it is my opinion that with development the .info's could easily outstrip the .com's and especially those that are only parked.

I will thank you all in advance, as after reading your comments I might not feel immediately so inclined. Seriously though, please just give your honest opinions.

Hi BillBo


if you start with the premise:

that a developed website, regardless of extension, will eventually dominate the SE traffic

then you'll have to either prove it or show enough examples to validate the theory


as for using scripts etc,

you're in the UK, trying to develop content for US counties

using a local coder/developer in US will make you more dependant, which means less control

if this is your baby

i'd do 1 mini-site at a time, starting with a portal for all your intended US locations and build out from there

it may take longer, but each page added can increase your ranking.

as that reach grows, so too should any revenue from g ads, affiliate links, etc

you can research online, g books g maps etc


i think the idea is good, you have a niche' so exploit it... before someone else does

Good Luck!


imo....

 

[Bill Roy]

Hi Bigg,

Your comments and suggestions are really appreciated.

As you say being in the UK is a disadvantage, but one that can be worked around to a certain degree.

I obviously am open to suggestions, and yours about how to develop the portfolio does make sense. It would not actually be too difficult to design and develop a single site template.

Thanks for your time, you have made me think more clearly what my final objectives really are and should be.

I owe you one.

 

[Biggie]

Hi Bigg,

Your comments and suggestions are really appreciated.

As you say being in the UK is a disadvantage, but one that can be worked around to a certain degree.

I obviously am open to suggestions, and yours about how to develop the portfolio does make sense. It would not actually be too difficult to design and develop a single site template.

Thanks for your time, you have made me think more clearly what my final objectives really are and should be.

I owe you one.

you just owe your idea a chance

imo...

 

[Deleted member 111831]

Well I think development is your only option, I don't think such domains are worth anything really. Good news for you is you can use Wikipedia for lots of information as likely nearly all of them have an entry.

You don't happen to have SonomaCounty and/or NapaCounty do you? That's where I grew up. Very high PPC niche I'm sure as it is the 'wine country' - might want to start with those if you have them. Hotel, Restaurant, Winery and Tour advertisers aplenty no doubt.

Good luck

 

[Gerry]

I look at the potential but also the massive amount of work.

Seems to me that a "master" domain of CountiesOfOhio.com or CountiesOfNevada.net or ...

...would have been the place to start.

Then its a matter of a listing script.

Still its a ton of work.



I do like my CountyDonegal and CountyIreland domains...

 

[Bill Roy]

Hi PP and DC,

Yes development is the only real option - but I originally started to collect them for the traffic, low as it might be, it is good quality geo-traffic ideal for another development I am involved in.

When I reached 10% coverage I thought 20% would be handy, then why not go for 1/3rd, in the end I have to date nearly 46% off the counties. I have received the odd offer for a few of the counties, but generally I feel it would not be worth selling them individually. The only real way of doing that would be to list them on eBay and advertise them on FaceBook locally to the specific likely end-users. But each sale would diminish the remainderof the portfolio!

As for the all encompassing mother site I agree (generally), but people will always type in their own locality just to see what is there.

Oh, and no I do not have either Sonoma or Napa counties, but if they come onto the market I may well try to acquire them, though the counties in California generally are all held onto by their owners.

Again thanks for your observations and suggestions, they reinforce what I personally feel.

 

[David G]

The overall portfolio undeveloped has very low value and full development would be a huge job, especially so since I believe Geo's are tough to develop vs other sites, imo. Maybe you should consider a low priced bulk sale, maybe about $10-$20 each, if you can't develop them with at least minisites.

I have a smaller portfolio of dot-US county names and dot-ORG city names where I thought the .ORG and .US would work well as a result of some govt depts using those 2 extensions.

Some get good traffic and high typein numbers but others get low traffic. I think it's strongly related to certain govt depts using .us and .org names, or else the public thinks .us and .org are being used by gov depts. The trouble with .info is the extension being much more obscure in the USA, especially with the govt vs .com .us and .org which are more commonly tied to govt depts and offices.

 

[Gerry]

but people will always type in their own locality just to see what is there.

I live in Forsyth County.

If you type in that for a seach, you will likely come up with Georgia first, NC second.

I live in NC.

I have done no studies, but I think most would further type in Forsyth County NC.

All of this is going to depend on how you market, keywords, metatagging, and so on.

There are 100 counties in NC.


That is why I thought a "master"StateCounties would make the task easier.

 

[Bill Roy]

All good points being raised, this is turning into a really great and helpful response - and it is really apreciated.

Trader, I fully agree with you about the .org/.us, but the county nor city domains that I initially required were not available (and are still not available by the way). The great boon to developing any gTLD geo portfolio (if you have enough coverage) is that there has not been a unified development of anything worthwile yet. Of course I think it was taken for granted that the .com owners would really work together and develop their mutual domains based on using one or more common templates - has hell frozen over yet?

It is the fact that I will utilize the truly 'local' nature of the domains and sites that will make them popular enough locally - and therefore hopefully profitable. A little well placed advertising could do a great deal for local popularity - and that would be specifically targeted at the communities with little unwanted bleed of advertising resources outside the target area. But that is beyond the scope of this thread.

DC the point you raise is exemplified by Washington County (the most popular county domain in the US) - there are 30 Washington Counties plus a Washington Parish in Louisiana. Here the trick is to make things absolutely simple for the visitor who visits WashingtonCounty.info to get to the County they wanted within one simple click. This of course can easily be done, and in a way the visitor is most likely to easily recognise and associate with.

Again you also raise a point about using what I term a 'mother site'. I should perhaps come clean here and say that I am already well into the development of a truly huge geo 'mother site' as it is. Indeed it was because of this development that \i started registering the US County .info's in the first place so as to utilize their high quality traffic to the developed mother site, now though it works out that such traffic will not be required, hence the possiblilty of developing the sites or having them developed.

 

[Gerry]

A massive undertaking you have on your hands.

Yes, even a Washington County in NC. We almost bought a few of houses (for restoration - one built in 1810, 1855, 1905, 1915 - nearly an entire block) in Plymouth. Very historical area, a great outdoor sportsman area (hunting, fishing) seriously depressed economy (lumber industry), but only 1.5 hours from Cape Hatteras.

Wish you well and great patience to pull this off.

---------- Post added at 06:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:59 PM ----------

I should perhaps come clean here

I figured there must have been a greater motive than "just because".