Sharing Information & Knowledge

Although this has changed in the last couple of years, the domain industry has been a fairly secretive industry. People have been reluctant to give advice, and while that might have benefited individuals and companies, I don’t think it was necessarily in the best interest of the industry. The crux of this was that everyone was essentially a competitor, and it doesn’t make sense to give away a competitive advantage.
One reason why I particularly like the geodomain industry is that people interact and share more than in any other niche in the domain industry in which I have been involved. Instead of treating each other like competitors, most geo domain owners are very happy to give advice and share their knowledge, helping others grow their geo websites. People like David and Michael Castello, Dan Pulcrano, Jess Bookstaff, Rob Grant, and others I am forgetting about at the moment have given me great advice to help me with Lowell.com and Burbank.com.
When I meet with geodomainers, our business conversations are centered around how we can improve our websites and marketing strategies to maximize our revenue. I’ve found that business conversations with people outside the geodomain industry tend to revolve more around making deals, which isn’t a bad thing, but from a learning perspective, geodomain conversations are usually more fruitful. For some people who might not have the time to devote to a geodomain, it doesn’t make sense to jump into this part of the industry. However, for those looking for a rewarding business, it might be something worth considering (BTW, Rick Latona is selling NewRochelle.com, which I think is a great name and growing city right outside of Manhattan).
In a sense, .com city, state, regional and other geodomain owners aren’t competitors of each other. Each of us has a different market and strategy, and it makes sense to share and learn with each other. In my limited experience, I’ve done things good and bad, and I am happy to help others so they don’t make similar mistakes, and I am eager to learn from others as well. Typically newspapers and tourism departments are our largest competitors (and not happy about it), as they didn’t buy these important names before we did.
In this vein, if you are going to the Geo Domain Expo next Thursday in Chicago and we haven’t made plans to meet yet, please get in touch with me. If you are new to the industry, I am happy to introduce you to the people I’ve come to know over the past several months, and I know they will be happy to share with you. This is going to be a great learning experience, and I know it’s going to be fun.   I am still hearing rumors about a Michael Seven concert…

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. “Typically newspapers and tourism departments are our largest competitors (and not happy about it)”
    City YellowPages’ feathers are a bit ruffled too, right?
    I’m sure everyone attending the GeoDomainExpo is going to benefit each other in many ways. Although I’m not going this year, I do look forward to someday meeting you and the others who are involved in this promising Internet Asset development space. Have a great time Elliot.
    P.S. – There’s no doubt a MichaelSeven reunion performance would wrap a line of BIG haired creatures around the block of the W. 🙂

  2. Sorry guys the calluses are gone from my fingertips. I have not picked up a guitar in years and my voice has not had the rasp of my drinking Dewar’s for many a year. Playing at that level takes lots of time, practice and energy. All of that is now channeled into the creativity of web site development. Honestly, they are very similar and rewarding. The public instantly offers a response to your work and it is a very synergistic process.
    Elliot you are correct in your analysis regarding the geo niche. It is quite revolutionary in its approach in that, as a grassroots movement, we are driven by the future needs of our public. We are not placing a round peg in a square hole but actually reinventing marketing for the new age. This gives us great strategic positioning as the big “umbrella” service type companies lose their hold and internet visitors find their own way and drill down to relevant content that is not fed via old world media. Basically we are doing away with all the middlemen and making new-age relationships.
    There is a lot I would like to say at the GeoExpo but I also enjoy meeting others one on one and encourage anyone interested in speaking with David or me to approach us during the convention in Chicago.

  3. Elliot, just sent you an email. Looking forward to meeting you in Chicago.
    Michael C, thanks for the open invitation re the convention in Chicago. I feel more comfortable now about approaching you and David at the convention. See you in Chicago.

  4. Tom:
    We were just in your neck of the woods (Bellevue, WA) to meet with Rob Monster/Domain Stratgies about the Traveler.com project. Bellevue has some great sushi/sashimi restaurants.

  5. Hi Elliot:

    I thought I saw on your blog a formula for valuing Geo-Domains. Something like $1000 per 10,000 population. When I checked, I couldn’t find it. Did you list something like this? Or does something like this exist? Perhaps I saw it elsewhere and it was wayyyyy off. Perhaps I simply need a good cup of coffee.

    Just curious,
    Mark

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    It’s really more of a gut feel. Some great cities with tourism, an airport, attractions…etc are worth much more than that, while other areas aren’t worth nearly as much. Lots of factors including the economy, number of businesses, tourism industry and others go into valuing a domain name. An example is that I offered $50,000 for a small (but very popular tourist) town, and the owner rejected it and said he turned down $300,000 before for it.

  6. Mark said: I thought I saw on your blog a formula for valuing Geo-Domains. Something like $1000 per 10,000 population.
    Mark: I believe you saw that at RickLatona.com

  7. David J,
    We have some great steakhouses and seafood restaurants in Bellevue also 🙂 Next time you and Michael are in Bellevue, I would love to show you around Bellevue. Looking forward to meeting you in Chicago.
    Cheers.

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