Thread: GEO DOMAINS - Investors Guidelines

Hi ,

What are the guidelines when you buying a geo domain? How to evaluate the price of a specific domain. I usually consider the below.

Population size:
economy size:
Literacy rate:
Job opportunities:
People love for the name:
Name ambiguity ( local people call differently and outsiders call differently):
Tourist destination:


I have the same question on Geo names...especially looking into the org.in / .net.in names..

Is it worth of buying delhi.org.in ?- probably the answer is straight forward .. Yes
If I ask myself about a smallcity.org.in , probably the answers I am getting is depends?
Depends on what ? So trying to see what make sense buying such kind of domains

any inputs from my fellow domainers.

thanks in anticipation

Population is obviously very important factor when evaluating some town name so I always start from checking this on Wikipedia.

Next thing to do is checking if the name isn't ambiguous and if it is, check which version is more popular - Google usually hints you with proper version if you type in a less common or outdated version. When checking this I also see if there are already some dedicated websites which give me some initial idea about local Internet activity.

After that I'm checking for the local searches (exact) in Google Keyword Tool to find how popular the town is across India but that also gives me some rough idea how many people have Internet connections in that particular town. If still having problem to determine which name spelling is more popular - Keyword Tool also will help to solve this question.

Finally I'm checking the town location (in which state it is, what distance from big towns, is that a district/state capital, etc) and trying to learn more details like literacy rate, education, tourist attraction, etc.

Sometimes I also like looking at the town pics in Google Images especially when I still hesitate about buying some name.

When I feel I'm still in limbo I'm trying to get through more thorough analysis and looking for everything related to given name. I must admit that I like browsing and finding information about various India spots, people, culture, history and spirituality but that I always liked India a lot and now I have an opportunity to learn more about this beautiful country when doing my domaining

So, it looks like this in short. Probably missed something to write about. Anyway I hope you can find something useful in my text.

Kokoro

thanks Kokoro for your thoughts. I am planning to register some .org.in / .net.in of district names . But just wondering whether its worth of booking a .org.in/.net.in names of a district where the population is 3 million plus where as the number internet users is around 300 k+. I am also certain that the number of internet users in the same districts will grow by 10 to 15 % for the next 5 years.

cheers

As it is almost impossible to almost give away state/city names in .net.in and .org.in may be it is something you should rethink?

I'm not really convinced to district names especially with inferior extensions. As wot said, it may be problem to sell them at all.

Originally Posted by wot

As it is almost impossible to almost give away state/city names in .net.in and .org.in may be it is something you should rethink?

If only I could go back and get back all the .com names I couldn't 'give away' in 2003.

Honestly, these are long, long term plays. So many domainers cannot view past next week, nevertheless a year down the road to renewal. The ones that are actually seriously prepared to buy and hold some of these names for years and years are few indeed.

I own several and openly say to anyone that right now, they are purely speculative and worth little to nothing, just like all those worthless .orgs I didn't bother registering in 1998 (major world cities, super-premium keywords...)

As such, these names are positively *awful* fodder for domain resellers, simply because the market is so, so small (there's maybe a dozen of us who actively buy them, and none of us pay end-user prices, since "end user prices" in India really don't exist yet)

There are other factors involved, too- a big one being that these are English language domains on a ccTLD where 700,000,000+ people in that country don't speak English- in a larger world where IDN is about to become a very big deal...

There are any number of reasons why these names are not good choices for most people. If you're a domain reseller or a short term domain speculator, there are better places to park your money. If you're a newbie or an impulsive type, you will fail with these names.

For me, these geo names are a small hedge, no different than getting a bit of Emerging Market exposure in my equities porfolio. With these names, I'm placing a twofold bet that costs me less than $1K a year to re-up.

I'm betting that India in 2020 will look very different than India in 2010, and I'm betting that the English Language will continue to be the language of meaningful commerce.

So, I renew NarimanPoint.co.in or Rupees.org.in or Land.org.in, with the belief that India in 2020 will have an entirely different economic metabolism for domain names than they do today and while these names aren't as good as the epynomous keyword on .in, they're still worth renewing and in a few cases, developing.

On a moments notice, I'm prepared to punt on these names. Let a few market dynamics change and every single one of them will hit the aftermarket and if unsold there, the drop list.

That's the domain game. You don't get into a long term market- which India names are- with a near-sighted approach, which seems to be the prevalent theme amongst most Indian domainers. They're so worried about scraping up pocket change now that they overlook what might happen tommorow. Perhaps this is because there is such poverty in India and money goes a lot further there, I don't know. What I do know is that this is a very long term market and if you aren't prepared to play it that way, you aren't playing it right.

10, 15, 20 years is a long, long time but people who are able to make 10, 15, 20 year decisions- with a degree of accurate foresight- are the ones who usually win biggest. Every guy you see who owns a portfolio of seven-figure .com names was registering them 15 years ago, knowing that he would eventually arrive here, today, and have the last laugh.

I buy these names and forget about them. When the renewal bill comes due, I give them a quick glance, see if there's anything I missed in my initial assessment, see if things have changed and if everything still lines up, I renew, perhaps trimming a few on the bottom. I invest very little active thought into them. If in 5 years they still have no traction whatsoever and the 3rd level TLDs become meaningless, then maybe I'll reconsider. If in 5 years IDN completely blows English language domains out of the water in India, then maybe I'll reconsider. Otherwise, these are "buy and forget" names to me. I can afford to do this... Can you?

As far as 'what I look for' when making a decision to buy, I don't give away my playbook, but I can tell you this. In the same amount of time a cricket batsman takes to decide to swing at an incoming ball is about how long it takes me to know whether I want to buy a city name or not, after nothing more than looking it up on Wikipedia.

Fantastic points Dman!

I COMPLETELY agree with your assesment of Indian domainers(and other domainers too) that don't want to renew the domain and just get a quick flip. The upsides of renewing the .in domains that are good enough to flip now are huge. THe .in market is just warming up, and this is still the growth phase. The numbers favor us alot and we have to believe in that for the long run.

As for Geo domains, i like only .in and .co.ins, and the town/city should have at least 200K population. ALso, the populations i see on wikipedia aren't updated because the results are from a census a few years ago,so the populations are probably higher. What about lll.ins that bring up geo searches in google?do you guys think that adds extra value?

There is a huge world of difference between .com and .net.in/.org.in.

There is, and has always been a market for .com and that is likely to continue.

It is unlikely there will ever be much of a market for net.in/.org.in/ind.in etc unless for VERY premium names. Unless of course you have a good development strategy.

The good money has, and will continue to be made with good .co.in and the bigger money likely from .in.

But all simply my opinion.

Originally Posted by wot

It is unlikely there will ever be much of a market for net.in/.org.in/ind.in etc unless for VERY premium names.

I happen to believe that pure geo of big cities in a matching ccTLD (Like London.org.uk, etc) happens to be as 'premium' as it gets for that ccTLD- particularly in the 3rd levels, where geo still makes sense, whereas commercial keywords can get awkward (creditcards.org.in). Plus, they make superb development platforms for tourism affiliates.

As an aside, I do recall people saying the *exact* same thing about .org in 1999, 2000... "Those things? Those are for non-profits. Those won't ever be worth a dime... Don't bother registering Florida.org..."

Originally Posted by Dman

I happen to believe that pure geo of big cities in a matching ccTLD (Like London.org.uk, etc) happens to be as 'premium' as it gets for that ccTLD- particularly in the 3rd levels, where geo still makes sense, whereas commercial keywords can get awkward (creditcards.org.in). Plus, they make superb development platforms for tourism affiliates.

As an aside, I do recall people saying the *exact* same thing about .org in 1999, 2000... "Those things? Those are for non-profits. Those won't ever be worth a dime... Don't bother registering Florida.org..."

We agree to differ.


Comparing .org.in to .org and even org.in to .org.uk? Chalk and cheese.

I have some very nice .orgs based on previous offers will probably sell for reasonable prices.

I have some nice geo.org.in, geo.net.in which I will be selling off cheaply in the not too distant future-if anybody wants them, great for development!