Visit Geo Domain Names Owned by Tourism Boards & CVBs

Yesterday, I reported that VisitCuba.com sold for $100,000 + stock worth around $11,000. Other Visit geodomain names like VisitStockholm.com, VisitBerlin.com, and VisitFlorida.com have sold for significant sums, and I know of a few pretty large sales and offers that are either private or haven’t been closed yet (like VisitTurkey.com).

I own a few Visit city .com domain names and have been interested in selling these and/or buying additional names (I own VisitSaoPaulo.com, VisitBogota.com, and VisitGrandCayman.com). I’ve done quite a bit of research to see what entities own other Visit domain names, and a considerable number of them are owned by tourism ministries, boards, and CVBs.

I think the usage by these organizations has given some authority to the “Visit” branding, which in turn has made them more valuable. As a domain investor, I see a downside being that when you use the call to action VisitXYZ.com, it sounds like you’re telling people to go and visit XYZ.com.

I want to share some of my research on Visit domain names which are owned by tourism boards of various cities, states, and countries. This is by no means a complete list. Feel free to post the ones you know about in the comment section.

  • VisitCalifornia.com
  • VisitFlorida.com
  • VisitMaine.com
  • VisitNebraska.com
  • VisitVermont.com
  • VisitVirginia.com
  • VisitCharlotte.com
  • VisitDallas.com
  • VisitDenver.com
  • VisitDetroit.com
  • VisitJacksonville.com
  • VisitHouston.com
  • VisitLasVegas.com
  • VisitOrlando.com
  • VisitPittsburgh.com
  • VisitPortland.com
  • VisitSanAntonio.com
  • VisitSanDiego.com
  • VisitStLouis.com
  • VisitChile.com
  • VisitCostaRica.com
  • VisitEngland
  • VisitIceland.com
  • VisitJamaica.com
  • VisitJordan.com
  • VisitMexico.com
  • VisitMonaco.com
  • VisitPanama.com
  • VisitPortugal.com
  • VisitScotland.com
  • VisitSweden.com
  • VisitBarcelona.com
  • VisitBerlin.com
  • VisitDublin.com
  • VisitPuertoVallarta.com
  • VisitStockholm.com
  • VisitVancouver.com
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

129 COMMENTS

  1. How could u miss out visitLasVegas.com ? And visitHouston.com recently sold and redirected to visitHoustonTexas.com.

  2. That’s quit an impressive list of names. I like VisitGEO.com names.

    CityOfGeo.org do a lot of direct navigation. Like these as well.

    VisitColorado.com is on market for 50k. Last time I checked, was sitting still.

    Mediaoptions is broker

    Elliott sold a few over the years I’m sure for nice amounts.

    Impulse sold one few weeks back I believe. On lower end side of things.

  3. Do the following ‘type of domains’ have any value:

    FloridaVisit.com
    FloridaVisiting.com
    USVisit.com
    USVisiting.com
    UKVisit.com
    UKVisiting.com

    etc.

  4. VisitTurkey.com very valuable name,
    I have VisitKemer.com one of the most popular vacation points in Turkey. Offers welcome through sedo.

    Cheers,
    Maksim.

  5. Here’s some that I’v noticed in the past, they might be duplicates from your post as I just copied my notes as they were.

    I’v got about 5 or 6, just got another crappy offer at sedo today for one of them 😉

    MHB owns a ton of em including VisitNewYork !

    Next best thing to a pure GEO and very brandable IMO

    —————————————————–

    Visitbritain.com – Tourism Board

    VisitScotland.com – Tourism Board

    VisitNortheastEngland.com – Tourism Board

    VisitLondon.com – Tourism Board

    VisitWales.com – Tourism Board

    VisitIreland.com – Tourism Board

    VisitDublin.com

    VisitBirmingham.com

    VisitCardiff.com – Tourism Board

    VisitBrighton.com – Tourism Board

    VisitSingapore.com – Tourism Board

    VisitJordan.com – Tourism Board

    VisitPortugal.com – Tourism Board

    VisitNorway.com

    VisitSweden.com

    VisitDenmark.com – tourism Board

    VisitFinland.com

    VisitIceland.com – Tourism Board

    VisitOslo.com

    VisitCopenhagen.com – Tourism Board

    VisitLuxembourg.com – Tourism Board

    VisitCalifornia.com – Tourism Board

    VisitFlorida.com – Tourism Board

    VisitMaine.com

    VisitRhodeIsland.com – Tourism Board

    VisitDetroit.com

    VisitJacksonville.com

    VisitSalake.com – Tourism Board

    VisitRaleigh.com – Tourism Board

    VistNC.com – North Carolina Tourism Board

    VisitMT.com – Montana Tourism Board

    VisitDelaware.com – Tourism Board

    VisitManchester.com

    Visit Liverpool.com – Tourism Board

    VisitEstonia.com

    VisitMexico.com – Tourism Board

    ……………..

    islands

    VisitMalta.com – Tourism Board

    VisitMaldives.com

    VisitJamaica.com

    VisitAruba.com

  6. http://www.destinationmarketing.org/
    Representing CVB’s

    http://www.visitbarbados.org – Barbados and the Barbados Tourism Authority
    http://www.visitbrooklyn.org – Brooklyn Tourism and Visitors Center
    http://www.visitnj.org – State of New Jersey
    http://www.visitannapolis.org – Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau
    http://www.visitlubbock.org – Lubbock Convention and Visitors Bureau
    http://www.visitnacogdoches.org – Nacogdoches Convention & Visitors Bureau
    http://www.visitcharlottesville.org – Charlottesville VA Official Travel Website
    http://www.visitprinceton.org – Official Princeton Travel & Tourism Resource
    http://www.visityork.org
    http://www.visitsiskiyou.org – Siskiyou County Visitors’ Bureau
    http://www.visitseattle.org – Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau
    visitmaryland.org
    visitcambridge.org
    visitcyprus.com
    visitnj.org

  7. GREAT to see so many end users with developed websites.

    Good to see the .org represented here too.

    Here’s my contribution…

    VisitSouthBeach.com owned by South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association but not developed.

    VisitBrighton.com is the official Brighton England tourism guide, not Brighton Massachusetts.

    VisitNewtown.com is owned by Newton IOWA (not Newton Massachusetts) Convention and Visitors Bureau.

    VisitFalmouth.com is owned by Falmouth England (again not Massachusetts) District Hotels Association.

    I own VisitProvincetown.com but Distinctive Inns of Provincetown owns and operates VisitPtown.com.

    If you dig, I think you will find lots of tourism sites on GEOvisitorsguide.com and GEOvacationguide.com or GEOtravelguide.com too.

  8. developing out http://www.visitrio.org right now with a plug and play wordpress geo theme after getting the domain as a dropped reg fee earlier this year, since Rio hosts the 2014 world cup and 2016 summer olympics I figure I have some time to get the rankings and traffic up…thanks for the interesting post.

  9. One of my favorite sites is visitphilly.com. It really makes Philly seem like a desirable place to visit for a fun vacation!

  10. I own these and have had offers on them but the offerswere too low…

    VisitCanouanIsland.com
    VisitMontereyBay.com
    VisitSobe.com
    VisitTorontoHotels.com
    VisitVegasCasino.com
    VisitWaikikiBeach.com
    VisitWashingtonDC.net
    VisitBrownsville.com
    VisitHiltonHead.net
    VisitLaCruz.com
    VisitWestIreland.com
    VisitorsWorld.com
    VisitHatterasIsland.com

  11. VisitRome.com (for sale)

    so much better than http://www.rome-guide.it/

    —————–

    VisitHongKong.com (parked)

    discoverhongkong.com – official toursim site

    discover is a popular keyword also

    —————–

    anyway these are all available with prices or for HAND REG people so register away if you so desire …. if you sell one and make a buck donate $50 to Elliot’s next charity fundraiser for me

    —————–

    VISIT NAMES for sale on the market with BIN prices

    visitalabama.net $888
    visitamsterdam.net $988
    visitarkansas.net $888
    visitbath.net $988
    visitiowa.net $1,088
    visitkansas.net $988
    visitlouisiana.net $888
    visitmaui.net $1,688
    visitsouthdakota.net $388
    visitfrance.org $1,388
    discoverchina.org $788

    DISCOVER NAMES for sale on the market with BIN prices

    discoverfrankfurt.com $3,188
    discovermanchester.com $2,588
    discoverprague.com $600
    discoverthailand.com $42,000
    discoverlosangeles.net $2,788
    discoverchina.org $788

    VISIT NAMES VAILABLE for HAND REG

    visitalicante.net
    visitaustin.net
    visitlangkawi.net
    visitnottinghill.net
    visitsanjose.net
    visitsantamonica.net
    visitudaipur.net
    visitbotswana.org
    visitbrisbane.org
    visitcebu.org
    visitgoa.org
    visitlangkawi.org
    visitmanhattan.org
    visitmumbai.org
    visitnewark.org
    visitnewdelhi.org
    visitnottinghill.org
    visitphuket.org
    visittaipei.org
    visittelaviv.org
    visitudaipur.org

    —————–

    DISCOVER NAMES available for HAND REG

    discovernottinghill.com
    discoveroxford.com
    discoveralabama.net
    discoveramsterdam.net
    discoverargentina.net
    discoveraruba.net
    discoverbath.net
    discoverberlin.net
    discoverbrisbane.net
    discovercasablanca.net
    discovercharlotte.net
    discoverclearwater.net
    discovercork.net
    discoverdelaware.net
    discoverdoha.net
    discoverfortlauderdale.net
    discovergoa.net
    discoverillinois.net
    discoveriowa.net
    discoverjohannesburg.net
    discoverkansas.net
    discoverkentucky.net
    discoverlangkawi.net
    discoverlouisiana.net
    discoverlouisville.net
    discovermaryland.net
    discovermassachusetts.net
    discovermississippi.net
    discovermissouri.net
    discovernashville.net
    discovernebraska.net
    discovernevada.net
    discovernewhampshire.net
    discovernewjersey.net
    discovernewmexico.net
    discovernewdelhi.net
    discovernewyorkcity.net
    discovernorthdakota.net
    discovernottinghill.net
    discoveroklahoma.net
    discoverpennsylvania.net
    discoverrhodeisland.net
    discoversantamonica.net
    discoversouthcarolina.net
    discoversouthdakota.net
    discovertelaviv.net
    discovertennessee.net
    discoverudaipur.net
    discoverwyoming.net
    discoveradelaide.org
    discoveralicante.org
    discoveramsterdam.org
    discoveranaheim.org
    discoverargentina.org
    discoverarlington.org
    discoveraruba.org
    discoveraspen.org
    discoverathens.org
    discoveraustria.org
    discoverbali.org
    discoverbangalore.org
    discoverbangkok.org
    discoverbarcelona.org
    discoverbath.org
    discoverbeijing.org
    discoverbotswana.org
    discoverbrisbane.org
    discoverbudapest.org
    discoverbuenosaires.org
    discoverbuffalo.org
    discovercancun.org
    discovercapetown.org
    discovercasablanca.org
    discovercebu.org
    discovercincinnati.org
    discoverclearwater.org
    discoverconnecticut.org
    discovercork.org
    discoverdallas.org
    discoverdetroit.org
    discoverdoha.org
    discoverfortlauderdale.org
    discoverfortworth.org
    discoverfrankfurt.org
    discovergeneva.org
    discovergoa.org
    discoverhamburg.org
    discoverhelsinki.org
    discoverhonolulu.org
    discoverhouston.org
    discoveribiza.org
    discoverillinois.org
    discoverindiana.org
    discoverjohannesburg.org
    discoverkansas.org
    discoverlangkawi.org
    discoverlisbon.org
    discoverlongbeach.org
    discovermanchester.org
    discovermanila.org
    discovermassachusetts.org
    discovermemphis.org
    discovermilwaukee.org
    discoverminneapolis.org
    discovermissouri.org
    discovermonaco.org
    discovermontecarlo.org
    discovermontreal.org
    discovermoscow.org
    discovermumbai.org
    discovernewhampshire.org
    discoverneworleans.org
    discovernewark.org
    discovernewdelhi.org
    discovernorthcarolina.org
    discovernorthdakota.org
    discovernottinghill.org
    discovernyc.org
    discoveroxford.org
    discoverpalmbeach.org
    discoverpasadena.org
    discoverpennsylvania.org
    discoverphuket.org
    discoverportugal.org
    discoverrhodeisland.org
    discoversanantonio.org
    discoversanfrancisco.org
    discoversanjose.org
    discoversanfrancisco.org
    discoversantabarbara.org
    discoversantamonica.org
    discovershanghai.org
    discoversicily.org
    discoversouthdakota.org
    discoverstockholm.org
    discoversydney.org
    discovertaipei.org
    discovertampa.org
    discovertelaviv.org
    discovertokyo.org
    discoverudaipur.org
    discovervenice.org
    discovervienna.org
    discoverzurich.org

    Enjoy …

  12. Interesting post Elliot.

    I don’t have many geo domains in my portfolio, as my focus is on development in other areas, but I did get one ‘visit’ domain a while ago:
    visitnz(.net)
    I also got the .co for ‘visitnz’ what it’s worth.

    The dot com (visitnz.com) actually fowards to an nz web design business.

    Luke

  13. Oh, Wow. VisitEquador is for sale at Sedo. Thanks for letting eveyone know, guy. Another sales pitch. Has anyone ever thought about visiting Equador. Sorry Charlie, your sneaky ways make you look like a fool.

    Ah…Beavis, Ahhhhhh…visit Equador is available at Sedo. Ah… Ahh…..Butthead…….that name sucks……ah…hahahahahhahahaha.

  14. “Has anyone ever thought about visiting Equador”

    well, that was the most ignorant quote of the day. A lot of people do. Probably more so than most of America.

  15. Anyone looking to travel to the Galapogos islands would type in Galapogos, not Ecuador.

    Ecuador has a few travel sites, and one is at VisitEcuador.co.uk. I bet the seller has already contacted them and they won’t even pay him a decent amount.

    It is a decent name, but it is still a zero traffic name, and if you are starting a business there is no need to bankrupt yourself by overpaying for it.

    It is zero traffic, because zero people are thinking that term when they want to travel there.

    Now, if you had Visit Galapogos or VisitGalapogosIslands.com, then now we are taking about real value, and the price could really go high, since now you are capturing what is in people’s minds, and you would also arguably have the next best thing to Galapogos.com or GalapogosIslands.com.

    Two different ball-games and if you don’t realize it then that is your problem.

    • @ People

      Well then I guess I be dummy for offering $1,500 for worthless domain name.

      What are some of your successes as a domain investor that others should know to give your opinion any weight?

    • We owned the Visit “GEO” domain for what is known as one of the world’s famous tourist destinations, and that was similarity mention here…!

      The domain name is VisitGalapagosIslands.com

      We would be accepting offers on the domain name from interested parties all around the world.

  16. Elliot – Why ask, you know the answer…

    “I’ve made lots but can’t disclose it since I am under a NDA. In fact, I made so much you are lucky i even have the time between my double shift at McDonalds to even talk to you”

    … have to love this business. Another day, another guy with no experience giving his two cents worth.

    You should get a babysitting award at the next conference.

  17. SimpleViewInc.com specializes in the CVB domain sites; their portfolio lists rather quite a few of their projects. As well, BizTucson.com just did an article on Simple View should anyone want more info about it.

  18. Hi,
    I realised the importance of VisitPlace domains in 2004, so I have dozens….even hundreds… with either .com, .net or .co.uk endings . Some have hyphens, others don’t. Some have web-sites, others don’t.
    Hyphens are far more popular in Europe than in the USA, because there are many hyphenated place-names in Europe. This is not the case in the USA .
    In the UK we have Stratford-upon-Avon ; Stoke-on-Trent ; Bourton-on-the-Water etc etc. Hyphenated surnames like Robin Ponsonby-Smythe denote POSH, high-class familiies, Hyphens are part of EUROPEAN GRAMMAR !

    I sold visit-hungary.com recently for 2000 Euros to a middle-man in Austria , who sold it to the Hungarian Tourist Board in Budapest. Visithungary.com was already owned by the top-class Mellow Mood Hotels of Hungary.
    I sold visitcalifornia.co.uk to the Californian Travel and Tourism Authority. They already had Visitcalifornia.com but wanted the .co.uk version to target BRITISH tourists. Visitcalifornia.co.uk became an immensely successful UK TV marketing campaign starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is also on posters all over the London Underground. It has made MILLIONS of dollars for California.
    Flanders in Belgium has visitflanders.com , but ALSO visitflanders.co.uk to target British tourists.
    Do you know that the EUROPEAN TRAVEL COMMISSION has VisitEurope.com ? That shows how important the term is ! Wales has VisitWales.com. Official Welsh tourism calls itself……..”Visit Wales” , with no other name.
    Contact me if anyone wishes to purchase any of these fantastic domains.
    Visitberlin.com was sold for 230,000 US dollars by Mike Berken, was it not? Visitstockholm.com went for 77000 dollars.
    These are seriously good prices for domains……but a destination will get the money BACK within WEEKS , because one decent tourist is worth about 5000 dollars to a venue. Therefore the Visit domains PAY FOR THEMSELVES AND THEN APPRECIATE IN VALUE!
    How can a venue lose out with VisitPlace domains ?
    It is becoming the MOST COMMON tourism format for official sites, as you have recognised . I saw it in 2004, so I bought what I could.
    I am prepared to do BUSINESS .

  19. VisitAbuDhabi.com – official site, points to the .ae

    VisitGuernsey.com – Official site

    VisitBlackpool.com – Official site

    VisitBrighton.com – Official site

    VisitBelgium.com – Official site

    VisitBradford.com – Official site

    VisitPeakDistrict.com – Official site

    VisitOslo.com – Official site

    VisitOrkney.com – Official site

    VisitMontserrat.com – Official site

    VisitEssex.com – Official site

    VisitIsleofMan.com – Official site

    VisitVictoria.com – Official site

    VisitIndy.com – Official site

    VisitRaleigh.com – Official site

  20. More and more of these official visitplace.com sites are being reported by contributors now. I disagree that VisitEcuador.com has little value. Granted that Ecuador mainland is not the most popular of destinations globally, but it is the name of a COUNTRY and also the Spanish word for Equator. Elliott is a very astute man. VisitEcuador.com has to be worth at least $1500 US dollars. The popularity of the country will grow immensely over the years, and the fantastic Galapagos Islands are part of the country ! ONE tourist visiting Ecuador will more than pay for the domain at $1500 dollars , so the Ecuadorian Govt should be SEIZING IT WITH BOTH HANDS , if they had any sense.
    What do you think of hyphenated domains , like Visit-Hollywood.com. There is a resort called Hollywood in Florida, as well as California, where it is MEGA !!
    There is even Hollywood [ the original one] in Northern Ireland !!
    What is more ICONIC than Visit Hollywood ??
    A hyphen makes it easier for internet spiders to distinguish names separately. My visit-dubai.co.uk has got to the top of a “visit dubai” Google UK search even though it has a hyphen.
    Anyone interested in my Visitcotswolds.com; Visitsheffield.com ; visitbratislava.com [ that’s the capital of Slovakia and REALLY growing touristically !!]
    I have very many more , especially with hyphens . I welcome enquiries to info@cardiganisland.com.
    Elliott ! Are you looking for any particular one ?

  21. Have you seen my web-site, which is for sale? it’s Visit-Qatar.com , which is TOP if you put a “visit Qatar” search into Google.com or .co.uk.
    Qatar is hosting the 2022 Football World Cup.

    I bought QatarWorldCup.com long before they were awarded the World Cup.
    Qatar is the RICHEST COUNTRY….per capita…..in the world.
    It is only a small gas and oil rich country on the Arabian Gulf, next to saudi arabia and Abu Dhabi !

  22. Wow, now hyphenated visit names are being pumped. This is great stuff. A bunch of people with lame names adding nothing to the thread.

    Zero traffic hypenated are very very valuable……yeah right. They come out of the woodwork every time a name is listed as being sold that is even remotely related to the one they own.

    Notice they always mention the absolute best possible sales comparison. What idiots. They say…..”this similar name sold in 2007 for 50K”. But what they NEVER say is something like “this similar name sold recently for $50”.

    Major look losers running wild.

  23. Sorry, but there is no need of sarcasm ! You sound to me like an American. The internet really got going in the USA, but has spread widely globally since those days. The hyphen plays a far bigger part in European and Asian grammar than it does in American grammar, so why aren’t hyphenated domains important? Many British people would enter a hyphen between two words because they think it makes logical sense.An American might not think so! The population of the USA is 300 million. The UK has 60 million; Germany 80 million; France 60 million; India [brought up on ENGLISH grammar ] is over 850 million; Spain is 40 million.[ I know a Spanish hotel group that chose a hyphenated domain, when the non-hyphenated version was not registered. They chose the hyphenated through preference !]
    All those countries …….and more , have hyphenated place-names .
    By way ! How do you spell “place-name ” in America? In the Oxford Modern English Dictionary , which I have here, it is “place-name” with a hyphen. I also have it on the cover of a book on place-name origins by A.D Mills, entitled “Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names”. That gives the root derivation of the place-names of the United Kingdom. For example, Dover may be the capital of Delaware , but it takes its name from Dover, England which itself takes its name from the Welsh word “DYFR” [ pronounced DUVRR ] which is the Welsh word for “water”. Early Welsh…or BRITISH… was the language of England for 1000 years before the English arrived from their German homeland 1500 years ago. Welsh was also the language of Scotland before the Scots arrived in Britain from Ireland in the 5th Century. Glasgow in Scotland derives from the Welsh GLAS GAU , meaning “Green hollow”. PERTH in Scotland [ then taken to Australia] is the WELSH word for “hedge or thicket”.
    The word WALES derives from the German word WEALAS , meaning “Romanised foreigners”, so Wealas or Wales….was the GERMAN or ANGLO-SAXON term for the BRITISH.
    Place-name derivation is a very interesting subject. Many British place-names are over 2000 years old. We later gave thousands of them to America only a mere 300 or 400 years ago.
    My house-name in Wales is Llys-yr-ynys , with two hyphens. Hyphenated place-names and house-names are extremely common all over the UK. Remember that the internet was invented by an Englishman called Tim Berners-Lee , itself hyphenated. Then it was the Americans who really developed it. Now it is the World-wide web and the USA only has 300 million of the current 7000 million inhabitants !! Understanding various international cultures and linguistics is important! American parochialism is not a good thing in understanding the world.
    Try putting “visit dubai” into Google and tell me where Visit-dubai.co.uk is located. Do likewise with “Visit Qatar” and tell me where Visit-Qatar.com is located. A hyphen in a domain does not stop it from reaching the TOP ! So, are you telling me those domains are worthless?

  24. It’s notable that a person mocking Visitecuador.com then misspells it as Visitequador .
    Mind you, since Ecuador derives from the Spanish for Equator,many people globally may wrongly spell Ecuador as Equador. So the latter may engender appreciable traffic.

    Then, the person who argued about Galapagos immediately misspelt it as GalapOgos several times in the next sentence, without even noticing ! Rather a Freudian slip !!
    Having said that , many of the world’s citizens , being that they speak a plethora of languages in a variety of alphabets and scripts , will misspell place-names,just as this critic has done.
    So, common misspellings should have value.
    How many misspell Philippines as Phillipines or even Phillippines ? Not only are there millions of poor spellers in English-speaking nations like the UK and USA,but since international tourists may come from any number of non-English-speaking countries, one could not expect everyone searching for a place-name to spell it correctly.
    Of course, English spellings of place-names are not the only ones. Prague is PRAHA to the Czechs ; Vienna is WIEN to the Austrians ; Florence is FIRENZE to the Italians etc etc.
    By the way, I sold Visitcalifornia.co.uk to the Californian Travel and Tourism Authority [ Is that the correct title?], but I still have Visit-California.co.uk . Many must be entering that version by mistake, if they think it should be hyphenated . Remember, that the .co.uk is aimed at British, Irish tourists etc……not Americans.
    Anyone interested ? I hope you Americans on here realise that this internet …..and this blog…is INTERNATIONAL and that tourism, by its very nature , is also international. Therefore , it is no good having parochial prejudices. A global perspective is essential !

  25. No, your names are lame, as are your long-winded diatribes on why hypenated visit names have tremendous value. You seem to miss the ultimate point, and that is one about type-in traffic.

    If nobody ever gets there without finding it in a search engine, then that means that the name is only as good as your business or search engine skills is/are.

    So, often, any name will do, since a no-traffic name brings no visitiors on its own. That does not mean that there aren’t six figure names that get very little or even no traffic at all, but for a name to be worth that, the name will usually make you wish you owned it, and make you sit up in your chair when you see it.

    Your names are mostly weak, and you rationalizations as to their value are even weaker than that. Some people get it. Some do not. You fall into the later category.

    An no, nobody is interested in your names.

  26. Here is an interesting footnote. The most vibrant economy in Europe is that of Germany, which has a population of 80 million. Its Balance of Payments is far healthier than that of the USA…or any other Europan country.
    Yet, one of the top domain web-sites in Germany is http://www.united-domains.de.
    This shows the popularity of the hyphen in the biggest, richest country in Europe , with a very large global travelling population.
    Would the denigrators of hyphenated domains tell the Germans that names like United-Domains.de is useless……….when this very company sells domain endings from all over the world ?
    This company offers every international domain ending in the world, yet its OWN SITE is United-Domains.de.
    I told you that the hyphen is VERY acceptable in other countries! Europe far outnumbers the USA in population.
    Germany 80 million ; UK 61 million; France 60 million ; Italy60 million ; Spain 40 million.
    Those few countries alone equal the 300 million American population. There are MANY more countries than that in Europe…including massive Russia where the internet is booming.

  27. Sorry ! Couple of typos and grammatical errors in my last posting. I’m always in a hurry !
    No interest in Visit-Hollywood.com ? What is more ICONIC in the USA? Seen my Visit-America.co.uk ? It is only a small web-site, ripe for further development.
    GREAT for attracting UK visitors to the USA after further details are added.

  28. Eliot,
    Thank-you for replying. I have tried to explain that hyphens are far more popular in the rest of the world than in the USA, although there is some degree of popularity in America.
    Actually , I have sold 12 visit-place.co.uk hyphenated domains recently to a British travel agent for £500 Sterling each.
    Meanwhile, the offer of 2000 Euros for Visit-Hungary.com from a firm in Vienna , Austria [ buying on behalf of the Hungarian Govt] , came out of the blue ! I accepted that .
    A Euro is worth far more than a US dollar.
    Germany……the most vibrant economy in Europe …with 80 million well-off [generally] citizens is not averse to hyphens[ which one denigrator on here spells wrongly as HYPENS ] , so we’ll see what Germany and Europe say.
    The American prejudice against hyphens is very strange. It is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE in the country that gave you your language !! Hyphenated surnames and place-names are UPPER CLASS in Great Britain!!
    Plus you can get people entering a hyphen when they are told “Try VisitPlace !” Many will potential tourists automatically put a hyphen between words…because it makes more sense! They do not ALL use search engines !

    What do you think of VisitBratislava.com , by the way?
    That is the capital of Slovakia and catching up with Prague as a tourism HONEY-POT !. I wonder sometimes if all Americans realise the sheer DEPTH of history and architectural beauty and the fantastic variety we have here in Europe ?
    Architecture varies greatly within ONE CITY , let alone between cities even 30 miles apart.
    That is what makes Europe so fantastically stimulating . Variety is the spice of life, they say……and I concur!

    By the way, Wales sent America and New York its most famous architect…….Frank Lloyd Wright . The Lloyds were from Llandysul, 20 miles from here. See my site visitllandysul.com . If you want to see a lovely Welsh tourism town see my visittenby.com.
    Tenby has four very sandy beaches , pastel-coloured Georgian buildings and is 33 miles from here.

    My friend Councillor John Adams Lewis , of Cardigan, Wales, is the same family as two of your prominent early Presidents…….John Adams and John Quincy Adams [ thought I’d slip that in !!!]

    Finally, VisitEcuador.com is not expensive at 1500 US dollars.
    You are pretty shrewd , unlike some parochial contributors.

  29. @ Lynn

    I am sure they are valuable to someone, but I have a difficult enough time communicating in my native language, that I have no interest in trying to communicate to someone in another language about why they should buy a domain name 🙂

    What is your asking price on VisitBratislava.com?

  30. Hi Elliot!
    Don’t worry, the vast majority of Germans…especially in business……have EXCELLENT English .

    The same goes for most of Europe. If not, there are translators and translated web-sites.

    The best tourism web-sites are in as many as TWENTY or THIRTY languages mind, to cater for all the main nationalities.
    I bet they don’t do that in most of America. Even though many speak English globally, people LIKE it if they can read in their first language. Good marketing ploy !

    My asking price for VisitBratislava.com is £3000 Pounds Sterling.

    I have some others that may interest you, too !

  31. @ Lyn

    I think you could possibly get that at some point, but not interested to me. IMO, these names don’t sell often, so it would have to be a great deal for me to want it.

  32. I was offered £2500 Sterling for VisitBratislava.com On Sedo , the German domain sales web-site, about 3 years ago, but turned it down because I wanted £3000 Sterling. Looking back , maybe I should have accepted.
    However , Bratislava is not far from the City of Berlin, and your New York compatriot Mike Berken managed to sell VisitBerlin.com for a massive $230,000 US Dollars to Berlin Tourismus [ Berlin Tourism] not long ago. It now points to their site VisitBerlin.de .
    Stockholm in Sweden is not that far away either, and that went for 77000 US dollars, not long ago.
    So the capital cities of Europe are in demand !! Bratislava is one of them. Demand is sure to increase.
    It only needs a handful of tourists to visit Bratislava
    to pay for the domain, if it were official.

    VisitPlace domains do not HAVE to point to OFFICIAL web-sites. An entrepreneur could use such an ICONIC domain to set up his own tourism site for Bratislava and sell advertising space on it for , say, 100 US dollars per annum per business. If only 200 businesses subscribed in the whole of Bratislava , then an income of 20000 US dollars per year would be made. 100 dollars per year is not even 2 dollars per week. I’m not saying you could do that from New York , Elliot, but a Slovakian businessman could do that.

  33. Elliot,
    I have these for sale on Sedo :-
    visitunitedstates.co.uk ;
    visitunitedkingdom.co.uk ;
    florida-flydrive.com ;
    visitamazon.net ;
    visitbritishisles.com;
    visitcaymanislands.net;
    visitcorralejo.com;
    visitestepona.com;
    visitfunchal.com;
    visitfuengirola.com ;
    visithollywood.net;
    visitgreatbritain.net;
    visitlaspalmas.com;
    visitlosangeles.co.uk;
    visitmaspalomas.com;
    visitmanila.co.uk;
    visitnetherlands.net;
    visitplayablanca.com;
    visitpuertorico.co.uk;
    visitpuertobanus.com

    Some of those are amongst the biggest holiday/vacation resorts in Europe. Puerto Banus is a millionaires’ play-ground in Spain.

  34. “Mike Berken managed to sell VisitBerlin.com for a massive $230,000 US Dollars to Berlin Tourismus [ Berlin Tourism] not long ago. It now points to their site VisitBerlin.de .
    Stockholm in Sweden is not that far away either, and that went for 77000 US dollars, not long ago.”

    @ Lyn

    Yes because companies with deep pockets and a marketing plan that includes those names wanted to buy them and Mike had the ability to pass on all offers up to the one he accepted.

    If you see the great potential in the names, you should build them out. I have a number of projects I am managing and would likely only buy to re-sell at a later point. At $5,000 USD, it’s not worth the risk to me. The other names aren’t of interest to me. I only really buy .com for investments.

  35. Elliot,
    I have some really good domains there.
    In case you don’t know, Spain is the “Florida” of Northern Europe , with the people of the United Kingdom, Ireland,Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden , Norway, Finland, Russia, Germany , Poland and France holidaying in Spain all the time.
    The southern coast, known as the Costa del Sol is the most popular area, because it has more sun and a longer season.
    Fuengirola, Estepona and Puerto Banus are all there, with Puerto Banus being a niche millionaires’ playground near Marbella.
    There are 5 star hotels all around that area, and first class golf courses.
    Puerto Banus is where very rich people hang out, around the Yacht harbour surrounded by designer shops.
    Maspalomas is one of the most popular resorts on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands off the African coast. This is part of Spain with year-round tourism without the twisters !! Millions of Europeans flock to the Canaries.
    Playa Blanca is a popular beach resort on Lanzarote, another popular Canary Island. Puerto Rico is a VERY popular resort on Gran Canaria, apart from an island in the Caribbean.

    Las Palmas is the port and capital of Gran Canaria, where cruise liners call in.
    Corralejo is the biggest resort on Fuerteventura , another very popular Canary Island.
    People go to the Canaries in winter, as well, when it is colder in mainland Europe.

  36. @ Lyn

    I am sure you do have some good ones, but they aren’t of interest to me personally. Some people like filet mignon and some people don’t eat beef. Just because someone doesn’t eat it doesn’t mean there’s a problem with it 🙂

  37. Elliot,
    Would you enlighten me on a few points , please?
    [a] About how many different people do you think read this blog in a week or a year ?
    [b] How many are American “domainers” would you reckon? Approximate, of course?
    [c] How many are British domainers or businessmen?
    [d] How many are from the rest of Europe, Asia and other parts of the world?

    I appreciate that your replies can only be guesstimates, but I would be interested to know, if possible, please.
    i only came across your blog a few days ago, when I put in a Google search for the sales of “Visit ” tourism domains and saw your blog high on the front page. It’s very interesting . Your obviously clued-up in this field. do you sell a lot of domains in a year ? Do you have another business in New York ?

  38. Elliot,
    Just read your last reply AFTER I had written my last one.
    Out of interest, could you please give examples of domains that you have sold in recent months and ,possibly, others that you are TRYING to sell …….especially in the tourism industry?
    I would be interested to know what sort of domains you regard as important.

    Have you bought or sold any VisitPlace.com domains for decent prices?
    You don’t have to divulge the prices if they are confidential, of course.

  39. I think there is a big difference between visitcountry.com and visit-smallishcity.cctld, I would say that the probable value falls to 0.01% or so (imo).
    Its not really the hyphen that kills it but with the other detracting factors I dont rate those names at all.
    In my experience from a few dev experiments, hyphens in a domain dont matter to google really but if the non-hyphen version is developed then you have no chance. If the other related exact match names are developed sites then Id rate one’s chances of a UDRP first higher than getting either a decent sale or top slot in G.

  40. LindaM – are you able to elaborate on this statement of yours please?

    If the other related exact match names are developed sites then Id rate one’s chances of a UDRP first higher than getting either a decent sale or top slot in G.

  41. AH- sure. 1)If someone else is already using the visitgeo.com mark as both a brand tm and functional URL then their lawyers will certainly be interested when you show up with visit-geo.com . Win or lose, its certainly a hassle.
    2)If someone else is already running an established site on visitgeo.com then you will have a mountain to climb to beat them for the ‘visit geo’ kw search string on google. A task made even harder by the fact that the name you are using is suboptimal both in extension and kw density (the hyphen).

    Im no expert, this is just what Ive noticed from a few experiments of my own.
    The flipside is that if the nonhyphen name is undeveloped and is likely to remain so, because its been ‘invested’ in by domainers, then your good to go.

  42. LindaM – thankyou for that.

    Your response now makes me ask:

    Putting hyphens aside, would your thoughts be the same for other extensions – org/net/mobi etc?

    And, was it Elliot, or someone else, who recently noted that geo domains aren’t really able to be trademarked/protected?

    Or have I misunderstood that?

  43. Im not a lawyer and dont give legal advice but my understanding is that exact match geo domains have been shown to be hard to claim as trademark infringing. kw+geo marks and domains have, to my understanding, been shown to be easily trademarked and in some cases probably quite rightly so.
    As for .org/net/mobi I dont know because I have no development experience of those. I work mainly on .com, .co.uk and recently .tv domains. I see no reason why google would treat a hyphen on a .wtvr domain any differently tho.

  44. LindaM – re your statement:

    “kw+geo marks and domains have, to my understanding, been shown to be easily trademarked and in some cases probably quite rightly so.”

    are you able to cite any examples of this?

    And, forgive my ignorance, can you explain what you mean by ‘kw’?

  45. kw = keyword, like ‘visit’ or ‘see’ for example.
    Type the name of your favourite city into the TESS tm search system at uspto.gov and it will obligingly furnish you with more registered trademarks involving that city and various diverse keywords. If your city of choice happens to be outside of USA then the tm office of that place would be a good place to look too.
    As for specific examples, the low-hanging fruit of VISITLASVEGAS.COM ™ would be a fine example.

  46. LindaM,
    Sorry ! But I disagree with you ! How can visitplace domains be trademarked ?
    Individuals don’t OWN those cities or towns and there are often DOZENS of the same place-name across the world !

    For example……Visitnewport.com is Newport , Rhode Island.

    By what sort of ARROGANCE could that millionaires’ play-ground claim that they OWN the phrase Visit Newport , when the name only means a NEW PORT ……… AND THEIR NEW PORT CAME CENTURIES AFTER THERE WERE PORTS IN THE REST OF THE WORLD!

    I live in Wales. We have a city called Newport in Gwent , with 150,000 population [ 3rd biggest in Wales], and a lovely small town called Newport in Pembrokeshire.
    In England, there are Newport , Shropshire and Newport, Isle of Wight….Plus a Newport Pagnell.
    There is a Newport in Scotland , one in Ireland, one in Jamaica , one in Canada and a FURTHER 19 IN THE USA !!

    So “Newport” is far from unique….and Newport , Rhode Island are relatively the “new kids on the block” globally !
    Do you think that their lawyers could sue any other Newport globally, for having Visit-Newport.com. I have had that domain……and hundreds of other hyphenated ones…..since 2004 , and never been challenged ONCE on owning them ; creating web-sites from them or trading them !
    I sold Visit-Hungary.com to a company from Austria who bought it on behalf of the HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT . It now points to the official “Gotohungary” web-site.
    Visithungary.com was the web-site of Mellow Mood Hotels of Budapest for ages before the GOVERNMENT of Hungary acquired mine.
    So is a hotel group going to SUE THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT………OR ARE THEY GOING TO ENJOY THE MASSIVE SPIN-OFF OF HAVING THE SAME DOMAIN AS THEIR GOVERNMENT?????

    Likewise, Newport , Rhode Island achieves MASSIVE publicity and spin-offs from the plethora ….at LEAST 27 …of other Newports in the world …….as travellers enter “VisitNewport.com” in the hope it is THEIR Newport they are going to find!

    Not everyone uses search engines to find web-sites. A proportion of travellers will enter the GLOBAL SYSTEM of VisitPlace domains to find their chosen destination.
    For example…..since there is VisitBritain.com ; VisitWales.com ; VisitLondon.com etc etc…….many people wanting to find Newport, Gwent , in Wales….may ASSUME it is VisitNewport.com.
    Then , when they find the web-site, they read about Newport , Rhode Island and think ” that’s a nice place to visit!” .”I’ll go there when I visit the USA next year!”

    So Newport , Rhode Island GAINS FINANCIALLY FROM THE CONFUSION and the plethora of Newports , by getting extra publicity which it would not otherwise have achieved !

    Can you quote me ONE example where someone with a hyphenated Visit-Place web-site has been sued by the owners of an existing VisitPlace web-site?

    Investigate the ownerships of the Visit-place.com web-sites with the same names as the HUNDREDS of official VisitPlace.com web-sites that have been posted on here.
    Often, the hyphenated version is owned by BIG internet players.
    Have ANY been sued?
    This comes down to the importance of the hyphen in countries other than America. It is often disregarded in America.
    Newport, Rhode Island should have BOUGHT VISIT-NEWPORT.COM when they bought Visitnewport.com.
    It was cheaply available !!
    Anyone interested in it ? Plenty of BILLIONAIRES in Newport, Rhode Island !!
    Would it not make sense for one of them to purchase it for a few thousand dollars……INSTEAD OF POSSIBLY SPENDING 100 TIMES MORE ON PREDATORY LAWYERS ?

    Let’s face it !! Visit-Newport.com would attract THOUSANDS of extra tourists to Newport , Rhode Island [ or to any OTHER Newport globally !!] , so the domain will pay for itself in no time !!

    Similarly , VisitBerlin.com cost $230,000 dollars.

    We have Visit-Berlin.co.uk . There are several towns called Berlin in the USA !
    One of them would gain IMMENSELY from Visit-Berlin.co.uk and Berlin , Germany could NOT TOUCH THEM !!

    The PUBLICITY ALONE would bring thousands of visitors to the American Berlin !!
    One tourist may spend 5000 Dollars in the American Berlin !!
    What’s that domain worth ??
    Think of the PRESS COVERAGE on acquiring it !! Think LATERALLY……..OUTSIDE THE BLINKERED BOX !

  47. LindaM,
    You say you deal in “.co.uk” domains, yet am I correct in thinking you are an American?
    What geo-domains do you have or had , for the UK ?

    Do you always buy the “.co.uk” domain commensurate with the “.com” version?

  48. LindaM,

    You mention visitlasvegas.com as an “untouchable” legally.
    well, it was registered in 2004 by the Las Vgas authority.

    Yet Visit-Lasvegas.com was registered in Jan 1997 by LVCVA of LAS VEGAS , MISSOURI according to the address !!
    Visit-lasvegas.net in 2001 by someone in Long Beach CA .
    There is also a Las Vegas in New Mexico.
    I have had Visit-lasvegas.co.uk since 2003 .
    Any offers ?

    So WHO can sue?
    Las Vegas Missouri or Las Vegas Nevada ?

    NO-ONE in my opinion ! I had mine EIGHT years ago.

    Besides, it brings more gamblers to Nevada with the extra publicity !!

  49. @LJJ – Of course you disagree with me, you are heavily invested in such names.
    “How can visitplace domains be trademarked ?” – I dont know, as I said Im not a lawyer, I think tho it basically involves filling in some forms and paying a fee etc. Basically, whether you like it or not, ‘visit geo’ is eminantly trademarkable. Im not sure about the procedure but if you have a problem with a granted TM I think you need to challenge it properly (rather than just infringingly ignore it).
    Its not about whether X could ‘sue’ Y, its about the perceived potential probability of legal issues hurting a domain valuation. It is true that regularly you can see brazen infringement go unchallenged and cases with spurious merits going to the ‘wrong’ party.
    “You say you deal in “.co.uk” domains, yet am I correct in thinking you are an American?
    What geo-domains do you have or had , for the UK ?” – No, I said I work on .com, .co.uk and .tv domains. I am primarily a website developer. Domaining is secondary to me but important of course. My primary focus in domains on acquiring some awesome names to build my own sites on, raw domain sales are a sideshow and beyond a few NP threads are not actively sought by me.
    “Do you always buy the “.co.uk” domain commensurate with the “.com” version?” – Yes sometimes, my main earning site right now has independently coded and hosted co.uk and .com sites which seems to have been a good idea.
    And no you are incorrect I am not American but I appreciate the compliment 🙂

  50. LindaM,
    You seem “cagey” about your nationality . Are you British ,then? Or is it a secret?
    Are you going to give us some examples of your tourism web-sites , please?
    What do you call your “awesome” names ? Any examples ?
    “Awesome” is an Americanisation which has crept …….or maybe swam…….over to this side of the Atlantic in recent years .
    “Awesome” used to mean a stupendous topographical feature like the Grand Canyon. It has since been grossly devalued in meaning.It can now refer to something very mundane.
    It was your defensive attitude to trademarking concerning “visit” domains that made me think you were American.
    It is not a point of view I have ever heard in the UK with regards to VisitPlace domains, or their hyphenated versions.
    Litigation is much more of a feature in the USA than Europe, it seems.
    Surely , if ” VisitNewport.com” was a trademark, for example, then no-one would be allowed to use the VisitNewport.org or .net etc etc. without legal problems ?
    Yet, different owners have these different Visit Newport domains…..apart from the plethora of actual places ….at least 28….called Newport across the world !

    I’d like to see someone try to trademark THAT Visit domain !

    You have not answered my point about Las Vegas either . What is this “LasVegas, Missouri” under “who is” when one checks the ownership of Visit-lasvegas.com and why was it registered in 1997 , several years BEFORE Visitlasvegas.com, according to the dates on Who is ? Do you know?
    How CAN place-names be a BRAND when they are broadly “generic”?

    Elliot,
    What is your opinion , please, of the trademarking of VisitPlace domains ? Can it be done?

  51. Im not cagey about my nationality at all. I live in London today & carry a British passport, I have a home in USA and am lucky enough to have travelled many places. I dont tend to put down roots, its not tax efficient.
    Like Elliot, I am not a lawyer and will not be drawn into speculation on your business plans – why on earth you think I can give a valid response is beyond me.
    I do not play in the ‘visit geo’ world, as I already said my area of focus tends to be prodservs so asking me for examples of my tourism sites is a bit of a waste of time too.
    Im not saying its right or wrong that ‘visit geo’ marks or domain names can or should be trademarked I am merely commenting that it would appear from the USPTO that they can and actively have been.

  52. Elliot,
    Please don’t think I’m being rude in what I say next. Please take this as CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
    I am a very DIRECT person. I speak my mind. I have no time for false platitudes.

    I accept that you ar a “top man” in this internet domaining business , but I HONESTLY fail to see how all of your list of generic domains can be regarded as “top notch” domains.
    Some of them look to be pretty mundane. Is there GOOD DEMAND for all of those on your list ? What would you say is the value of the CHEAPEST one on your list and which one is it, out of curiosity?
    Granted, you have some very good ones there, but I fail to see the commercial attraction of several of them.

    I know that I lean towards Visit domains, and VisitSaoPaulo.com should have great potential, being that Sao Paulo is the biggest city in a booming Brazil and that both the Olympics and FIFA world Cup are headed there soon..
    I know you are not interested in “.co.uk” domains, but I fail to see how my VisitUnitedStates.co.uk or VisitUnitedKingdom.co.uk or VisitLosAngeles.co.uk are less interesting or less valuable than some of the more mundane names on your list . My three will market three immensely important locations……..UNITED STATES, UNITED KINGDOM and LOS ANGELES to the 60 MILLION residents of the UK …plus more widely on the internet…to the people of other countries.
    As I say, Elliot, please don’t be offended , but who would want some of the generic terms you have there? Do you reckon there is a good market for them all?
    Are some of them already sold ? Not had time to check any of them out.
    Which one is your JEWEL, would you say ? Which one has made you most money ? [ Or am I being too nosey?]
    I know I should not “teach my grandmother how to suck eggs” [ a very British saying , meaning don’t try to teach your elders their old well-practised skills!], but I am trying to see what really SELLS in this internet game.

    The best I have heard of in tourism domaining , is the FIVE MILLION DOLLARS that the New Zealand Government paid, some years ago , for NewZealand.com , when they bought it from Virtual Countries.
    Of course, it only needed an extra 2 jumbo jets of visitors to an isolated country like New Zealand to pay for the domain.
    1000 tourists spending $5000 US dollars each would feed $5 million US dollars into the NZ economy.
    NZ could have got their $5 million back in less than a year. Tourism is a HUGE industry !

  53. Elliot,
    Thanks for the reply……fair enough.

    LindaM,
    I only asked because I thought you were pretty sure of yourself regarding trademarking of Visit names.
    I don’t see why ANYONE should have that right.

    They are global locations , not brand names like Coca Cola , so why should anyone be able to trademark such terms?

    The former Wales Tourist Board [WTB] is now calling itself “Visit Wales” since 2004 , when the Govt got rid of the QUANGO [ stands for Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation …which ran Wales Tourist Board ].

    So the Govt body now has VisitWales.com and VisitWales.co.uk

    I have had the domain Visit-Wales.co.uk since before they dropped the WTB. I have had a small web-site http://www.visit-wales.co.uk for a few years. I would like to see the Welsh Assembly Government [ WAG] CHALLENGE THE LEGITIMACY OF THAT !!

    WE HAVE TOO MANY TAX-PAYER PAID BUREAUCRATS IN WALES WORKING ONLY A SHORT 40 HOURS A WEEK AND SLURPING OUT OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR TROUGH, AS IT IS !!!

    WE ARE PAYING THEIR WAGES …..WHILST WE WORK SEVEN DAYS A WEEK , RUNNING A FARM, A TOURIST ATTRACTION http://www.cardiganisland.com, AND 1100 DOMAINS [ plus 150 small web-sites] AT 64 YEARS OF
    AGE !!
    I’d like to see them challenge Visit-Wales.co.uk !! They would not DREAM of it !

    By the way , the Swedish Govt registered Visit-Sweden.com as their official web-site FIRST in 1998. They did not add VisitSweden.com until 2000!!
    They were/are not averse to hyphens in Sweden !!!
    Lyn

    P.S At 64, I sleep only 5 hours a day and have NEVER WORN A PAIR OF GLASSES FOR ANYTHING YET !!
    I AM OFTEN ON THIS BOX UNTIL 3 AM !!

    NOT BAD !!!

    THEY WERE BUILT TO LAST IN 1947 !!!

  54. Who can fathom the logic behind what can and cannot be trademarked, its probably a good idea to get legal advice from someone who is qualified to give it.
    It might interest you to know that there have been many unlikely UDRP outcomes – including octupus.com. One of the strangest that comes to mind is our very own Channel 4 Corporation, UK, winning the name c4.tv . If you thought someone being able to demonstrably ‘own’ a keyword+place string as a tm, how about them staking claim (and winning) a simple letter/number.
    In my experience what one might consider as ‘common sense’ has very little bearing on legal reality.

  55. LindaM,
    When you say about dispute outcomes “including octupus.com ” , do you mean that it involved the misspelling of the word OCTOPUS , or was the dispute involving octopus.com with the correct spelling?

    As for Channel 4 Corp winning the name c4.tv, the logical answer is that it has a .tv ending, so TV companies should have priority. Why on Earth was that domain-ending ever invented , otherwise?
    It is illogical to me that .tv should be available at all for everyone to use. What is the LOGIC ?
    It is ridiculous that so many new domain-endings are being created. Before anyone criticises my logic in pushing , for example VisitUnitedStates.co.uk , or VisitLosAngeles.co.uk the logic of those names make complete sense because they they suit BRITISH COMPANIES or INDIVIDUALS wanting to send UK citizens to the United States or Los Angeles , as destinations. Tourism to the USA involves millions of UK citizens. Los Angeles or the United States do not have to be WITHIN the United Kingdom to justify the logic of “.co.uk ” domain endings for American destinations. The TOURISM INDUSTRY…….in which I am involved ,anyway, with my Cardigan Island Coastal Farm Park and visittheworld.co.uk web-site , justifies “.co.uk” endings for American destinations.
    This LOGIC OF ATTRACTING BRITS was the reason why the California Travel and Tourism Authority , who already had VisitCalifornia.com SURREPTITIOUSLY bought VisitCalifornia.co.uk from me. They wanted to TARGET UK citizens and attract them to California so they wanted the “.co.uk” domain ending to target 61 MILLION Britons. They slyly used a private individual’s name to purchase my domain through Sedo , to keep the price down. They concealed the name of the TRUE buyer……THE CALIFORNIA STATE AUTHORITY . I did not know who had bought the cracking[ that means TOP] domain for a mere £1500 Sterling until I saw the UK TV adverts on ITV a year later. VisitCalifornia.co.uk has been a fantastically successful TV and poster marketing campaign for them which has included Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, since he has been involved in personal scandal , and is no longer the governor, he was excluded from the Visit California.co.uk advert that appeared on UK TV last week.
    When I realised that the California Travel and Tourism Authority London office had purchased VisitCalifornia.co.uk using the LONDON MANAGER’S PRIVATE NAME , I phoned them up at the London office and offered to sell them Visit-California.co.uk AS WELL.
    They DECLINED to buy it, but did not say I could not use it or sell it. They would NOT DARE INTERFERE WITH ME OR THE HYPHENATED DOMAIN because I owned both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions BEFORE
    THEM !!
    THEY declined to buy the hyphenated version after SLYLY AND DEVIOUSLY obtaining the non-hyphenated version by DUBIOUS means. So how would ENGLISH LAW [ not American law with .co.uk domains !!] favour that sly, devious lot?
    They DECLINED to buy the visit-california.co.uk because an AMERICAN STATE CONTAINING HUGE CITIES AND ICONIC DESTINATIONS LIKE LOS ANGELES , SAN FRANCISCO , HOLLYWOOD , SAN DIEGO ET AL …….AND PROPERTY WORTH TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS ….. IS TOO TIGHT-FISTED AND PENNY-PINCHING TO PAY A DECENT PRICE TO MARKET THAT STATE IN THE UK !! What they did to obtain the domain dirt-cheap verged on CROOKERY !! It was certainly unethical !!
    SO THEY WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO LEGALLY CHALLENGE ME OR THE EVENTUAL OWNERS OF VISIT-CALIFORNIA.CO.UK WITHOUT SHOWING THEMSELVES UP AS DEVIOUS PENNY-PINCHING ROGUES !!!

    LET THEM TRY TO TACKLE ME !! THEY WILL HAVE SO MUCH BAD PUBLICITY ON THE UK MEDIA THAT IT WILL COST THEM MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN LOST TOURISM !!!
    British people do not like SHARKS and the California Tourism people are cheap-jack penny-pinching SHARKS !
    If they had BUSINESS ETHICS , they would have declared who was buying , or at least have used the TRUE BUYER’s TITLE .
    Or is California a State full of “cheap-jacks” ?

    Finally , you said :-
    2)If someone else is already running an established site on visitgeo.com then you will have a mountain to climb to beat them for the ‘visit geo’ kw search string on google. A task made even harder by the fact that the name you are using is suboptimal both in extension and kw density (the hyphen).

    Can you elaborate on what you mean by that ,please?

  56. To “Shut Up”. How RUDE!!
    If you don’t want to enter the debate……..you don’t have to…..so why interfere? Why should you tell OTHER PEOPLE to “shut up” when you don’t even need to be involved? How can it be “white noise” if it is nothing to do with you ?
    Besides, the printed word has NEVER created any noise , whether it be in CAPITAL letters or not. That is a simple fact of physics !
    It beats me why you want to interfere in a debate that OTHERS are having.

    All you have to do is keep away from the debate and not read the postings. Is that a problem?

    99 per cent of the TV channels I see are of no interest to me……..so I just flick channels !! Why don’t you do likewise ?

    There are important points being debated here regarding

    the value and legality of hyphenated domains and different attitudes in various countries. The internet is not JUST about America. America only represents 300 million of the world’s 7000 million population and GLOBAL DOMAINS involve the WHOLE WORLD ….not just American destinations and American lawyers.

    Economically, it is China, India and Germany that are steaming ahead. The internet is exploding in those countries, as well.
    When have their lawyers EVER been involved in British……..or American [come to that] legal disputes regarding Visit-Place domains?

    These are important points involving the BIGGEST INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD………world tourism !!

    When a country or city gains ONE reasonably well-off tourist for a week, that destination probably gains 3000 to 5000 US dollars [or equivalent ] from that one tourist.
    Therefore , visitplace domains, both hyphenated and otherwise are grossly undervalued in my opinion.
    OK , some of them don’t get the big traffic or Google searches NOW, but the way in which HUNDREDS …if not THOUSANDS of global destinations are adopting this nomenclature for official sites should be PROOF that VisitPlace or Visit-Place is the BEST global tourism system.
    It is in every continent !
    There are FAR MORE OFFICIAL VisitPlace destinations than contributors have mentioned.
    Anyone mentioned :-
    VisitCornwall.com ; VisitDevon.com; VisitShrewsbury.com; VisitWiltshire.com …all in England ?

    Or VisitNewEngland.com in the USA?

  57. If one simply puts the word “visit” into GOOGLE UK [ not global Google.com] it gives 3,420,000,000 results.

    These are on the top FIVE pages……in order.
    [1] Visitbritain.com; official
    [2]visitscotland.com ; official
    visitlondon.com ; Official
    Visitwales.co.uk OFFICIAL
    Visitwales.com OFFICIAL
    visitbristol.co.uk official;
    visitbrighton.com official ;
    visit-croatia.co.uk good site….not official ;
    visitmanchester.com official;
    visitbath.co.uk official;
    visitlincolnshire.com official;
    visitbirmingham.com official;
    visitliverpool.com official;
    visiteastbourne.com official;
    visithebrides.com official; Hebrides are Scottish islands.Looks like THE BRIDES due to lack of hyphens!
    visitengland.com; official;
    visit-stockholm.com official;
    visitnorthumberland.com official;
    visitbuxton.co.uk ;official;
    visitnorfolk.co.uk official
    visitwinchester.co.uk official;
    visitcambridge.org official;
    visitderbyshire.co.uk official

    When I say official, i mean most are tourist board sites.
    ALL these places are in are in Britain apart from CROATIA [ eastern Europe] and STOCKHOLM [ Swedish capital] .None are American.
    That is the first FIVE pages of results on Google UK. Non visit prefix domains that are on the pages ,have been omitted.
    The word entered was ONLY “visit”; no destination.

  58. Elliot,
    Are all of the generic domains that you sent on your list actually sold ?
    Well done if they are . There are several on there that one would think would be pretty obscure terms ,in all honesty.
    They are not terms that one would think would be in any sort of demand. I’m being honest here, so please don’t be offended.
    You have some very good ones. However, I still think that GOOD Visitplace.com domains are amongst the best terms.
    Your VisitSaoPaulo.com comes into that category.
    Sao Paulo is the economic hub of Brazil as its largest city.
    It has more population than many a COUNTRY. So it is better than many a “small country” domain.
    Is that one sold? Not checked to see if there’s a web-site yet . I’ll do that later.

  59. One of the points that emerges from my Google UK list of names when “visit” is entered, is that two of them are hyphenated, and both of those represent countries/cities in mainland Europe , whilst one is on Google UK.

    Visit-croatia.co.uk is there with a .co.uk ending, whilst visit-stockholm is a .com.
    No American destination appears in the top 23.
    Of course, it can be argued that “visit” on its own is not an important search , and that no-one would enter this word on its own.
    The destination name is far more important, as a search, than the word “visit”.
    However, it’s interesting that these are the top 23 when one enters the single word “visit”. Any logical explanations why none of your many American ones appear?
    After all, it is Google UK that American destinations should be striving to appear on, to attract some of the UK’s large 60 million population.

  60. If one goes to Google Germany and enters the single word “visit” , results are also very interesting. This is the biggest market in Europe …and also the richest….with 80 million population that is forging ahead , based on exporting top quality engineered goods like Mercedes, BMW , Volkswagen, Audi cars ; Grimme farm macinery; Deutz tractors etc, all over the world.
    Germans generally do not buy their own houses. They rent them.
    So Germans have the spare money to travel widely.
    These are the top visit pre-fixed results encountered on Google Germany.
    Visitberlin.de [ “de” is Deutschland , the domain ending for Germany. This is Berlin Tourismus, the tourist body that paid 230,000 dollars for visitberlin.com, which points to visitberlin.de] ;
    Visit-X-net.com [ takes one to Visit-X.net a sex site. Note a hyphen in a popular German web-site title.]
    visitdenmark.com;
    visitengland.de;
    visit-hotel.de [ another much-ridiculed hyphen !!];
    visitbritain.com;
    visitsweden.com;
    visit-duisburg.de [ another hyphenated German domain];
    visitscotland.com/de ;
    visit-world.com [ another hyphen];
    visit-azoren.de [ The Azores in the middle of the Atlantic ;very popular with Germans….and a HYPHEN again !];
    visitwales.de [ Well done Wales for using a German domain ending and translating into German];
    visitnorway.com/de ;
    visitlondon.com/de;
    visitcalifornia.de [ Hooray ! First American site ! On page 4]
    visitcopenhagen.de.

    California Tourism is the most clued-up internationally in the USA. Here they have a specific site IN GERMAN with a “.de” ending.
    The same people bought VisitCalifornia.co.uk from me [ too cheaply, using dubious means].
    California is CATERING MORE for its targeted European market than other American destinations who merely stick up a Visitplace.com web-site. Tourism is ABOUT INTERNATIONAL TRADE !!
    HYPHENS are also VERY popular in German domains !!
    What do you think of the suffix system , like visitlondon.com/de or visitscotland.com/de rather than visitlondon.de or visitscotland.de ?

  61. Re TRADEMARKS in UK

    *
    o
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    + Applying for a TM
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    * Patents
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    Reviewed 15 April 2011

    * IPO Home>
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    * Acceptable and unacceptable trade marks

    Acceptable and unacceptable trade marks
    Information on acceptable trademarks. The trade mark example is in the first column. Read across a row to find out what makes it acceptable.
    Trade mark Why is it acceptable
    FARNOOZ This is an invented word, arguably the most distinctive of all trade marks
    emarno WINDOWS This trade mark includes the invented word “emarno”. Although the word “windows” is totally descriptive og goods and services relating to windows the word “emarno” is totally distinctive and this results in an acceptable trade mark
    Danryvol Another invented word
    Herringbone Finance Although this mark consists of two well known words the word “Herringbone” is acceptable for financial services. However, the word “Herringbone” would not be acceptable for e.g. textiles because it is a type of pattern.
    Information on unacceptable trademarks. The trade mark example is in the first column. Read across a row to find out what makes it unacceptable.
    Trade mark
    Why is it unacceptable
    7 days a week
    These days many traders advertise that their goods or services are available seven days a week
    Tasty food
    If you are trading in food, these two words simply describe a quality of your goods. Joining the two words together does not make the mark as a whole acceptable
    TOYS direct The word “direct” describes goods or services sold directly to the public and it is widely used by traders.
    The one for you
    Slogans such as this are often used in trade and are not distinctive

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  62. Elliot,
    I must say that, having viewed some of Mike Berkens sales of generic domains , and their sales prices, that it is VERY surprising as to what can sell as a generic term. I would have regarded several of them to be pretty obscure terms. However, he has sold for good money !!
    Therefore, some of your generic terms do not look so obscure.
    Have you had any luck in selling more of them?

  63. Elliot,
    Well done !! You’ve done remarkably well there.

    Having said that , BikeTour.com and BikeTours.com have a pretty good ring to them, and one can see the commercial possibilities.
    My point is that it is difficult to see the commercial attractions of SOME of your generic domains. Having said that, the same is true of some of Mike Berkens domains ……yet THEY SELL !……..or at least some of them do !!

    Five figures in dollars for Bike Tours domains is VERY good money. Mind you, one wonders if there was another expression they could have used !
    They probably plumped for Bike Tours because both words are short ; the term is clear , succinct and unambiguous ….and it is “catchy!”

    How long had you owned those two domains? Did the buyers approach you…or did you have to hawk them around various potential buyers ?

  64. Elliot,
    That is VERY good business then !!

    Did you buy them as existing domains from others, knowing they had far more value than you were paying?

    Or did you think up the phrase BikeTours from scratch?

    Common sense would tell me that someone must have dreamt up the phrase “Bike Tours ” way before 6 months ago.

    If that’s the case, someone must be cursing for not spotting the full potential of the phrase .

    More than likely though……people like you and Mike Berkens have the CONTACTS through which to make sales at good prices.

    Most of us don’t have those contacts .

    Am I right?

  65. I bought them from 2 different people who were underutilizing them.

    I didn’t sell them to existing contacts.

    I bought great names at good prices and was able to sell them for a very good price. It’s having an intuition about what names are worth, buying them for less, and selling them for a profit.

  66. Well done Elliot !! That’s TRADING !!

    I bet the previous owners are cursing …….or will be when they find out !!

    I bet you got them cheap !!

    Good luck to you !!

    Did you write to obvious Bike Tour users to obtain sales, or did they search you out?

    Or did they merely see the domains listed on your blog?

    It shows though, that such domains can virtually lie DORMANT for years , until someone likes you gets hold of them and publicises them.

    There must be quite a few of that sort of domain about.

    BikeTours.com was registered WAY BACK in 1998 !!

  67. my friend owns some gems in this visitGEO.com category.
    visitMacau.com visitTaiwan.com visitAthens.com visitNewJersey.com

    Macau is the top gaming destination in the world, its revenue dwarf Las vegas. Athens is one of the the top toursism city.

    anybody interested may contact me.

    manuel

  68. Manuel,
    Those are four excellent VisitPlace.com or VisitGeo.com
    that your friend has there.They would be out of my bracket.

    Has your friend had any solid offers for any of them?

    The old Portugese Colony of Macau , opposite once British Colony of Hong Kong[ It was British before we handed it back to the Chinese Government a few years ago ], is certainly a big gambling centre…..and the Chinese are gambling mad ! I’ve been in casinos at the same time as Chinese gamblers many a time. They’ll often bet on about half the numbers on a roulette wheel at the same time. Whilst others place a handful of chips down, i’ve seen Chinese gamblers plaster the wheel in dozens of chips.
    Whatever casino I’ve been in across the world , Chinese gamblers have always been present and bet on roulette in this way.
    As you say, Macau was built on gambling and free trade . Whilst communism held its iron grip over China , Hong Kong and Macau showed the true nature of Chinese people. They are very hard-working, very entrepreneurial and LOVE to gamble…especially on numbers……because numbers are very significant in Chinese culture.
    Some are deemed VERY LUCKY !
    Hong Kong has more sky-scrapers than New York, by the way .
    Has your friend tried offering VisitMacau.com to the Macau authorities or casinos?
    Greece is in big financial trouble , but there is no bigger tourism city in the world than Athens. It ranks alongside London, Paris and Rome.
    Whether the Athens official tourism people could afford a good price for VisitAthens.com whilst their Government is being bailed out, is very questionable, but a large travel company or hotel group may make an offer.
    What sort of figures is your friend anticipating individually for those domains?

    Of course, New Jersey has Atlantic City , another gambling resort, although nothing like Macau.

    Taiwan was FREE China . It was non-communist for decades whilst China was strongly communist. The founders of “free China” fled to the island of Taiwan to declare “Free China” in 1948 to get away from Mao Tse Tung’s communism in mainland China.

  69. Manuel,
    I note that you have emailed me personally , with high prices for the 4 VisitGeo domains you mention.
    Why don’t you mention those prices on this blog? Elliott won’t mind, surely ?
    I won’t be paying thousands of dollars for any domain. You need national Governments , Casinos , Hotel Chains or wealthy travel companies to splash out the sort of five and six figure sums you have quoted me.
    Mike Berkens seems to be unique in obtaining mega-prices for Visitgeo domains. I’d like to know what others…..apart from his VisitBerlin.com ; VisitStockholm.com
    ……and the Canadian company’s VisitCuba.com , have been traded for 5 or 6 figures ..
    Does anyone know of any others that have made over $20000 ?
    My Visit-hungary.com [ with a hyphen, was sold for 2000 Euros ].

    Manuel…..Your 4 VisitGeo prices are very ambitious. Why not post them on here for discussion ?

  70. Lyn James Jenkins,
    I forgot that you are domainer like most other domainers only willing to buy domain names at wholesale price and to resell them to end users with multi-fold ROI.
    Nevermind, I am not going to post any quotes for my friends’ domain names below. but if anybody is interested, please feel to make any offers and I will forward them to my friend who has granted me the rights to sell on his behalf.
    my email address is manueljposada@yahoo.com

    domain names for sales –
    —————————
    visitAthens.com
    visitNewJersey.com
    visitNewJersey.org
    visitTaiwan.com
    visitMacau.com

    Thank you

    Manuel

  71. Manuel,
    Strange that you are selling them for a “friend”.
    Are you sure you don’t have more of a personal interest?

    No ordinary person could AFFORD the sky-high prices you have quoted. VisitTaiwan.com is a SIX figure sum in dollars. Only a Taiwan company, Casino or Government could get close to paying such a price.
    Have you tried contacting Taiwan and Macau governments?

    As for Athens, it is in severe fiscal trouble.

    In fact, after yesterday’s fiscal melt-down of Stock Markets ….with a 515 point drop in the Dow Jones….I doubt whether any official body will pay ANY large amount of money for anything of this nature.
    Expensive domain names will be well down the list of expenditure.
    In this financial climate, even as astute a person as Mike Berkens is dreaming if he thinks that the Turkish Govt will pay $250,000 for VisitTurkey.com.

    Of course, in reality, Turkey would STILL GAIN for their economy if they did pay such a figure, because it only needs an EXTRA 250 tourists to spend a mere $1000 US dollars each within the Turkish economy, for Turkey to recoup $250,000.
    Of course, the Turkish Government…….like all Governments……..are too tight-fisted to see it this way…..hence they want their domain names almost for nothing…….no matter how good they are !!
    Berlin Tourismus or Berlin Tourism, are pretty rare in paying $230,000 for VisitBerlin.com. However, they must agree with the kind of logic I put forward. THEY……BERLIN TOURISM …are the people who will soon GAIN from paying $230,000 because most tourists to Berlin, staying in a decent hotel for a week, are going to spend about $2000 US dollars [ or equivalent in other currencies] within Berlin, so the city’s economy cannot lose.
    115 tourists will return the money to Berlin.
    It is a FALSE ECONOMY to have a poor domain or the wrong domain.
    VisitPlace.com has become THE accepted format……but to get official bodies to PAY high prices for the format is almost impossible. Very few will do so.

  72. Manuel,
    OK, I have now checked the “who Is” on your four domains ……as every domainer would do, of course!

    The owner is Chukeong Yee of Houston , Texas on two domain addresses and Flushing, New York on another.

    [Why is that, I wonder? Has he moved ?]

    Now, Chukeong Yee is obviously a Chinese name. This suggests to me that he will have already tried to sell VisitMacau.com and VisitTaiwan.com to the Chinese-speaking tourism administrators in those locations….and failed to get decent sales !
    If he, a Chinese speaker, has not approached them, then he would have to be pretty “slow”. I doubt if Mr Yee is that !!
    As you have said, Macau , the former Portugese Territory which reverted back to China in 1997 , is one of THE big gambling centres [ even centers !!] of the world.
    Have you contacted the big Casino owners of Macau?
    If Chukeong Yee has any sense, he will have already done so in his own language. The casino owners would recoup a big return by utilising VisitMacau.com on the internet , to feed into other sites……..and bring thousands more visitors to their very lucrative casinos.

  73. Why no response to this, Manuel?
    I would be interested to hear your response. Anyone can check “WHO IS? ” regards a domain owner.

    Macau and Taiwan would do well to do deals on these domains. I don’t think they would pay anything like your prices, though!

  74. It is a good domain in one sense,but it is NOT in another sense. Why? Because CENTRAL EUROPE is not a MARKETING ENTITY. No-one refers to Central Europe as a SPECIFIC destination.
    Logically, one wouuld say that Central Europe refers to Germany, Switzerland, Austria and maybe Czech Republic….although some refer to the latter as Eastern Europe !

    That is the problem ! Eastern Europe and Western Europe are referred to more often than “Central Europe”.
    Who would therefore want to market the latter?
    And…..who would SEARCH for the term on Google?

  75. @lyn,

    Thank you for your thoughts, there is a marketing entity that encompasses all of the countries you mentioned , they happen to use GoToCentralEruope.com as their URL. Broad match for central Europe is 246,000 and exact match is 6600.. So with your points being well taken , still kinda of curious as a value , I have a few prospects but I don’t want to overprice and miss the deal , but also don’t want to under value it.

  76. The Visit brand is flawed. one main reason is. if you type in the word Visit in every European language, its not called Visit.

    Most tourist places use visit country name or town name our local tourist board use term seeglasgow.com just love that whats actually saying is See “Glasgow.com” lol its funny lets not tell them how they are driving the traffic to main city.com site. Glasgow.com

  77. Tommy,
    [1] How can the “VisitPlace” brand be flawed when so many locations across the world use it for official tourism sites?
    [2] You say that “visit” is not the word used in every European language.
    True! But it is an English word , derived from the French word “visite”, which is itself derived from Latin.So that makes it international.
    The idea is to attract FOREIGN visitors to each country/state/region/town globally. Since English is the MAIN international language and the word is also French, then VISIT is the best international tourism prefix.
    [3] Your argument is not logical, because Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Holland, Finland, Malta, Singapore, Berlin , Flanders….even Europe…..ALL USE “VISIT” , whilst English is not THEIR language.
    I sold visit-hungary.com to someone in Austria. It is now used by the HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT…yet their language is Magyar…… a language deriving from Asia originally !!
    [4] World Wide Media [ Mike Berkens] sold visitberlin.com to Berlin Tourism for $133,000 and visitstockholm.com for $77,000 to Stockholm Tourism. Neither city has English as its language……but they BOTH want English-speaking [ or French] tourists !!
    Berkens is VERY astute! Do you want to argue with those successes ? I have visit-berlin.co.uk for sale and Germans LOVE HYPHENS !! Heard of Mercedes-Benz [ with a HYPHEN !] ??
    [4] You knock “visit” and then praise “SEE”, as a prefix !! SINCE WHEN IS “SEE” A WORD IN THE LANGUAGES OF EUROPE ,WITH THAT SAME ENGLISH MEANING? “SEE ” MEANS “LAKE” or “SEA” in GERMAN AND DUTCH !
    See you Jimmy !!!

  78. Good to revive this interesting blog. Have there any more VisitPlace domains been sold for good money over the past year to anyone’s knowledge?
    I sold several last year for reasonable money ,involving the Americas. Most had “.co.uk” endings.
    Mind you ! JUST ONE TOURIST to each location would pay for each domain EASILY, since tourism is so lucrative.
    I am a “baby boomer” born in 1947. I probably represent one of the most fortunate generations ever. We missed the 2nd World War ; grew up in the 60s and 70s when there were plenty of jobs; bought appreciating houses when they were reasonably priced……..and those of my generation in the public sector retired at 55 or 60 on good index-linked pensions. We were lucky in many ways!
    We are now in our Mid -Sixties and it is TRAVEL AND TOURISM that interests most of us whilst we have our health. We don’t want to collect bric-a-brac for our homes at our age!! We want to VISIT THE WORLD !!
    A baby boomer can EASILY spend £3000 or £5000 on a holiday….and take 3 or 4 holidays per annum , so my domains listed on my visittheworld.co.uk should be very cheap!
    If a web-site owner attracts only TEN people spending £3000 each with a “visit” domain, the domain has earned £30,000. What can that domain earn in five years?
    Could be MILLIONS on a good site !!
    This is what Berlin recognised when they spent $133,000 with Mike Berkens on visitberlin.com. So did Stockholm !
    If anyone wants to do business, then talk to me. I have hundreds of “visit” domains……some with web-sites.
    I am TOP with visit-qatar.com and visit-dubai.co.uk when one enters Visit Qatar and Visit Dubai into Google.
    I also give 20 pc commission to anyone who gets me a customer for a domain at a satisfactory price, resulting in a sale . I stick to my word !

    • “Have there any more VisitPlace domains been sold for good money over the past year to anyone’s knowledge?”

      @ Lyn

      VisitSouthAfrica.com sold for $3,523 at auction very recently: https://www.domaininvesting.com/namejet-bidding-reminder-7385

      ” A baby boomer can EASILY spend £3000 or £5000 on a holiday….and take 3 or 4 holidays per annum , so my domains listed on my visittheworld.co.uk should be very cheap!
      If a web-site owner attracts only TEN people spending £3000 each with a “visit” domain, the domain has earned £30,000. What can that domain earn in five years?
      Could be MILLIONS on a good site !!”

      @ Lyn

      Same can be said for a TravelGeo.org or some other domain name. I have two large city visit names for sale still (VisitSaoPaulo.com and VisitBogota.com) and I also own WorldTours.com, but I know it takes more than just a domain name to make that kind of money.

  79. Elliot ,
    It’s good ,in one way, that visitsouthafrica.com made $3523 in an auction,because it is further recognition of the value of visit domains.
    However, that price for a country as important as S Africa makes it quite cheap.One or two tourists would pay that back.
    About $7000 would have been more like it.
    Your Sao Paulo domain is a good one, but it is still not as good as one for a big country like S Africa.
    We could do with more people bidding big bucks, like VisitStockholm.com and VisitBerlin.com engendered.

    Any other visit domains sold?

    The visit-place.co.uk hyphenated ones I sold last year were for around £500 sterling.

  80. We own the visit “geo” domain of one of the world’s famous tourist destinations the Galapagos Islands…!

    We would say the domain has extraordinary development potential and would be accepting offers..!

    VisitGalapagosIslands.com

  81. Hi Christopher,
    Galapagos Islands is certainly a very interesting location. I’d love to go there myself.
    Have you had any decent offers for the domain? [I’m not after it !]
    Mind you VisitGalapagos.com is the best domain term for those islands.

  82. I have several domains visit … formula 1 circuit, I yield to use in exchange for a job. Example:
    visitsepang.com
    visitspa-francorchamps.com
    visitsuzuka.com
    visitsilverstone.com
    visitmontmelo.com
    and more

  83. visit-pisa.info
    visitalhambra
    visitborabora
    visitcostarica.info
    visitgalapagos.net
    visitmacau.biz
    visitpisa.info
    visitsanantonio.info
    visitvanuatu.info

  84. I have VisitQuanzhou.com on sale at Sedo..

    Quanzhou is the 12th largest Chinese extended metropolitan area with a population of 8,128,530 (as of 2010)..

    Quanzhou has a very rich history and is referred to as “the Shanghai of China … 1,000 years ago” [ref: http://travel.cnn.com/quanzhou-chinas-forgotten-historic-port-258149%5D

    For more info on Quanzhou visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanzhou

    If you are interested in this name you can goto the following sedo offer page and bid. All reasonable bids will be considered.
    https://sedo.com/search/details.php4?domain=visitquanzhou.com

  85. Mega ‘Visit’ Clearance Sale.

    VisitQuanzhou.com $200 (old price $2000 obo)
    VisitEiffelTower.com $200 (old price $500)

    You won’t find quality Visit domains at these prices. As mentioned in the article, and you can do your own research, quality ‘Visit’ domains have fetched $10,000 – $50,000 in the last 3 yr sales. And average sales have been at $2,000 – $4,000.

    Have relisted all at GoDaddy as selling at these prices via Sedo doesn’t make sense (their min commission is about $70)

    GoDaddy direct links:

    VisitQuanzhou.com [https://in.auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?&miid=136522509]
    VisitEiffelTower.com [https://in.auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?&miid=136522510]

    Also have the following ‘Visit’ domains but not on sale

    VisitNewTaipei.com $2000 obo
    [Rechristened as New Taipei on December 2010, it is the biggest city in Taiwan by population]
    [https://in.auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?&miid=136522511]

    VisitTaipeiCity.com $2000 obo
    [Taipei City, as its officially known, is the capital of Taiwan with a population of about 2.7 million]
    [https://in.auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?&miid=136620241]

    Regards,
    Saurabh

  86. I have just sold VisitBratislava.com to the Bratislava Government in Slovakia.
    A couple of months ago, I sold VisitWindsor.co.uk to a person wanting to market the tourism honey-pot of Windsor , near London, UK.
    I have several other Visit names for sale on Sedo.

    About 3 years ago , I sold Visit-Argentina.co.uk , Visit-Patagonia.co.uk, Visit-Brazil.co.uk , Visit-Chile.co.uk, Visit-Cuba.co.uk, Visit-Peru.co.uk and Visit-Antarctica.co.uk to one buyer for reasonable money.

    Hyphenated domains are becoming more popular in Europe, because of their clarity. After all, one of the biggest brand names in the WORLD , has a hyphen………Mercedes-Benz!!

    Hyphens are common-place in European place-names, as well ! UK, France, Germany, Russia, Spain etc are FULL of hyphenated place-names…….and their collective population is greater than the 300 million of the USA !

    • Hi Kuku,
      Can’t really divulge the VisitBratislava.com price myself at the moment. It was not as much as I had initially hoped,but it was still a decent price.

      I sold through Sedo.com who take commission,of course.
      I have several other “visit” names for sale on Sedo if anyone fancies making offers.

    • Hi Lyn,

      I hope you sold it at least for $50,000 as such domains is very rare and cost a lot of money! My opinion is to keep such names and not sell cheap as real investor can pay for domain whatever you want. As much you harry with sale, so much you loose in final sale price.

  87. Hi Kuku,
    I received nowhere near $50,000 dollars for VisitBratislava.com .It is extremely difficult to get anyone to pay such money.
    If you think so, I can sell you several Visitplace.com type domains for $5000 dollars each. Then maybe you can really profit by selling on for $50000 each.
    That offer is open to anyone !!

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