Steps to Building Out Bahamas.co

Just a quick   evening post to let you know where I am at with the development of Bahamas.co and the steps I’ve taken so far. I want to show you how development doesn’t have to be time consuming.

1) Posted a coming soon page on Bahamas.co and submitted it to Google Webmaster Tools. It’s nothing fancy, but I figured that I might as well put up a placeholder for now. As you can see, it’s already been indexed in Google.

2) Held a logo design contest on 99Designs.   I invited some designers I thought did quality work, and others participated as well. Hey – why don’t you take a minute and vote for your favorite logo?

3) Found a few templates I like on ThemeForest.net, which will be modified and customized to my liking. I don’t have much time to get the site live, so the custom option is going to have to wait. I plan to have a travel search function eventually, but for now a template is going to have to suffice.

4) Did some research to see what people are looking to find when looking for information about the Bahamas and wrote down a list of article topics. There are roughly 40 article topics in total.

5) I posted a job listing on eLance asking for writers to create a proposal for the aforementioned articles, which will need to be sent to me within 2 weeks. All articles need to be custom written and come from at least 2+ sources (with citations in the event there’s ever an issue). I then selected the most cost effective proposal.

One I have the articles written for me, the logo chosen, and the template modified, I will begin the time consuming process of loading the articles onto the site. I will then build a XML sitemap, submit it to Yahoo and Bing, and hopefully start gaining some traction.

At the beginning of 2010, I promised myself there wouldn’t be any additional development projects this year. Having the opportunity to build and own Bahamas.co was too good to pass up, and it is going to launch in a couple of weeks.

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

37 COMMENTS

  1. i think you should come clean and admit that your post, before you edited it, read “Posted a coming soon page on Bahamas.com”

    Meaning even you, the owner of bahamas.co, defaulted to .com.

    you’re honest enough to talk about the challenges there and it is an interesting slip

    • @ Jeremy

      When I wrote it this morning, I wanted to have one .com reference to see if anyone would notice. I realized it wasn’t the best idea after posting 🙂

  2. Thanks for sharing this. I hardly use Webmaster Tools but probably should familiarize myself with it more. OK now I have an option for outsourcing articles 🙂 ELANCE – though I believe a post of yours from a week or so ago did emphasize the importance of avoiding copyright issues – with an outsourced article it may be more difficult to ensure the article is original. I tried outsourcing a weight training article and what I got back was written by someone who had probably never stepped foot in a gym. Keep us abreast of how your site progresses.

  3. @Leonard Britt Another choice for copy is textbroker.com All work is run through copy scape. I had plagarism issues with elance writers on my first few sites, but I have had success too. Only use established writers with repeat customers.

    I will use TextBroker.com for Naperville.co being developed with Epik.com

  4. Thanks for keeping us informed on the development process. As the owner of BahamasVacation.co, I am deeply interested in seeing the outcome of this process.

  5. @Elliot,

    I’m curious about how much you’re paying to have the articles written at Elance? What’s the word count? Would you be willing to share a few of the topics you want to cover? Thanks.

  6. My vote goes out to #23 logo. You’re not attracting many prof. designers because of the prize amount. Are you going to be running the website with a custom script?

  7. I think some of the logo’s are allright, but I just don’t feel that any of them capture the Bahamas. I don’t get all of the colors, when I think Bahama’s I think serene blue water. All of the colors scream Jamaica to me. Not bad, but just not what I think when I think “Bahamas”.

  8. @Elliot,

    Soon after I wrote the message regarding the challenge in finding a 3 character .co domain, I found two in a matter of 10 minutes. I purchased one, and dropped the other.

    I also acquired a few climate-related domains. I think that I’ll hold off on purchasing another .co domain until I make a sale.

  9. @Elliot

    Question, are you concerns with the possibility of your .co domain getting slapped with duplicate content from google giventhat you reposted the samepress release that can be found elsewhere on the web on your comic soon page?

  10. Voted for #62. Very serene and the .co seems to stand out (not jump out at you.)

    BTW: I wasn’t going to register any .co names, but I done
    got me 2 of them.

  11. Elliott, I wish you luck with the project but I wouldn’t hold my breath about Google treating dot co in the same light as com/net/org – at best it will have the status of me/tv/info which is nothing to be excited about as far as search engine traffic is concerned.
    I’m sure the project is worthwhile if only to give you material for your blog, but honestly if you seriously want to develop an authority site about the Bahamas which will get some traction in the search engines I would stick to com/net/org – obviously this would mean not having the pure place name, but I’d much rather use something like visitbahamas.com (currently parked) than a dot co domain name.
    One advantage you have at this early stage is that as one of the 1st developed .co sites you should be able to attract some decent links – make sure you milk that and then 301 redirect to a dot com 🙂

  12. hi Elliot, thanks for the detailed process overview. It looks like you’re doing the full 9 yards.

    I would also love to hear a little more on articles, how many? and how do you verify that they haven’t been copied without spending too much time?

    thanks.

  13. @ VD

    I think there are about 40 articles. I will do spot checks and have someone else check as well. I was very explicit about the content being written by that person and from at least 2-3 different sources for each article. I also relied on the person’s reputation and feedback on ELance, and if I find any copyright issues where things were lifted, I won’t hesitate to leave a negative feedback.

    Since I will be uploading all of the articles to WordPress, I will review them as they’re being posted.

  14. I’m not sure whether there’s a system available – like Turnitin.com – where you can run the content through the system to analyze whether the right sources are incorporated into the articles. I’m sure you’ll get good work.

    Just because another has a bad experience doesn’t mean you will too. It’s good to have one writer prepare the work, making it much more consistent and credible. Good luck.

  15. Bahamas.com doesn’t own the name Bahamas. It’s not a copyright protected name like Disney, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Expedia.If Bahamas.com snoozed on picking up the .co, then they lost out on a premium name. Moreover, they wouldn’t waste their time, money and reputation going after a domain, especially when they don’t own the name.City names are not copyrighted. Otherwise, we couldn’t register any names that bear the city name preceding services such as hotels or tickets. I wouldn’t even worry about anything regarding the name.

    I registered Pier39.co. The .com actually purchased the .info from me. Most companies operate in monopolistic competition. All domainers have access to information, can enter the industry with buying names and are free to compete against others.

    Microsoft(operating system) AT&T(phone service) and IBM(punch machines) have all experienced problems with suits associated with monopoly actions. Eventually, they major corporations adjusted their approach.If the owner of Burbank.co develops a site, that doesn’t mean the .com owner (Elliot) would try to go after the name. City or country names are not protected. If that were the case, domain investing would be a waste of time.

    I’m sure Bahamas.co will compete against the .com, but it won’t be to the point in which the competition sites will create any problems. It almost seems like an oliogopoly – one name versus two competing extensions. One must pay attention to what the other does. However, both sites can help one another to attract business.

    Good luck.

  16. @Elliot

    If you didn’t have this web site as a marketing vehicle to get the word out, how would you do it to generate traffic for your new site.

    It seems to me, it’s difficult for newbies like me to start a web site and hoping to get any sort of decent traffic.

    Can you create a site to generate $1000/month in 6 months, knowing what you know now without using any of the advantages that us newbies don’t have (namely your networks) and no major out of pocket expense?

    Can you make it with $100 budget?

  17. @Poor Uncle,

    I think the best way to make $1000 per month on a $100 budget is to find 5 good .com domains. Find a cheap hosting account to write articles, place affiliate banners, and work with advertisers.

    Set aside a few hours per day to leave good comments on blogs and news sites that are similar to your domains. Provide your website links in the website section.

    The budget is as follows:

    5 .com domains = $8 X 5 = $40

    Write how to articles at Demand Studios. You will make between $15-30 per 400 word article. Reference your websites in the “how to” articles. As long as you use reference that are consistent with your article and website, they will be credible enough. You will receive some traffic from these articles.

    Another way is to write on popular subjects such as movies. You can become an affiliate for Fandango. In addition, you can leave comments at IMDB.com. Leave your website addresses to forward traffic.

    Sign up for a Google Affiliate account. Lastly, you have to invest time into the 5 websites. Your goal is to make $200 a month per website. Always provide fresh articles, include pictures and interact with your fans.

    Advertise your website on free websites such as Sales Spider and Craig’s List. Attach your website address as an e-mail signature. Take advantage of Facebook and Twitter.

    For the most part, you will have to invest time into the 5 websites to make money. I think that if you find good names and provide quality content, you’ll generate $1000 per month after 6 months.

    In that time frame, you can add a few more domains to your portfolio. Domain investing, movies, travel, restaurants, tourism, coupons and other fields seem to be most popular.

  18. @ Jason
    @ Poor Uncle
    @ Elliot

    Interesting, isn’t it, how everyone wants to figure out how to make $1000/month off pennies…

    I thought this was a really cool comments thread and I never leave messages, but I absolutely loved what Jason had to say, and I think I can really make a great article about “How to make a thousand a month in 6 months off nothing” (which Elliot you might want to take a crack at too)

    It’s doable, which is the coolest part about your question Poor Uncle. Jason’s reply is incredible, however, I will offer my little bit of help as an SEO expert of sorts…

    Jason’s .com idea is sick! I offer this same advice to so many people who come to me asking me the same question, is some fashion or another, which is how can I earn reliable month to month income off either residuals or consistent sales online?

    5 .com’s hand registered is OK, but here’s my advice to you. Search hard… search really hard… find ONE domain name that is amazing that is either $200 or less, or has great potential. Make sure that you can do the content yourself. Pour your heart into this site like it’s your baby.

    .COMs perform insanely well compared to all other extensions. While .net and .org come second and third for the most part, I’m going for first place if I can. Use the Google Keyword Tool in order to find a really high volume of traffic for that .com that you’re eying. On the flip side, look for a ridiculously high avg. CPC (ref:mesothelioma)
    This usually means the market you’re invading has lot’s of cash to go around…

    Cheers enjoy the novel Elliot appreciate the name kickback

  19. @GoogleSearchEngineOptimazation.com

    Thanks for the game plan. What are your thoughts on using a keyword with a dash for this? Assuming the keywords are strong like dui-lawyer.com. (Not my site)

  20. @BFitz

    While Google penalizes hyphenated domains in comparison to .com without, you can still put hyphenated dot coms in the same category with non-hyphenated .com, .net, and .org, but probably at the end.

    That being said, the one thing going for hyphenated .COM domains is that they preserve the .com integrity and the keyword targeting of that .com. However, the biggest drawback is trying to brand a company with a hyphen.

    The problems arise when type in traffic in browsers pushes all your customers to the non-hyphenated .com owner’s site. That being said, I have seen owners of both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the .COM redirect the non-hyphenated domain to the root of the website, which is the hyphenated domain.

    Reference: BaseballReference.com / Baseball-Reference.com

    Cheers

  21. @GoogleSearchEngineOptimization.com

    Thanks for the feedback. You’re definitely right about choosing domain names that produce high CPC. Anything domains which target student loans, insurance, health-related and education are profitable.

    I will definitely check out your website. Thanks again for the great feedback.

    Regards,

    Jason

  22. @GoogleSearchEngineOptimization.com

    Thank you

    @Fellow .CO optimists

    Let’s follow Elliot’s lead and develop our generic .CO’s. Investing a couple hundred dollars with Why Park or Epik.com will help everyone’s .co ROI.

  23. Good luck with your new venture. Bahamas.co is definitely a good and profitable niche. I also registered few Bahamas travel related domains before even knowing you got Bahamas.co.
    Did Google announced officially .co as global? I can’t wait for an official release so I can get to work on my .co names.

    Good luck

  24. I recently purchased israeltoday.co and kibbutz.co, according to Valuate.com, they’re not worth much first because they are .CO(still the beginning of the .CO Era) but mainly, my point is that once developped, the potential and probable value will be exponentially higher.

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