Domaining Intelligence Test: Let's Talk Specifics for a Moment

Do you see the intelligence of the following recent registrations?

[Webwork]

This is a test of my intelligence and yours.

Test of my intelligence? Sure, go ahead and say "What a dope!"

Test of your intelligence? Tell me why any one or all of the followingl domains, hand registered during the last 6 months, were strategically sound choices.

Do you see any patterns or themes in my choices?

What do you think I'm targeting? Why?

What am I missing?

Assume there are no .Biz, .Info or .US gTLDs in the mix. Why? Just not my gig . . and . . the few I have receive zilch or near zilch type-in traffic no matter how robust the .US, .Biz or .Info domain is.

ARIZONATOWNHOUSE.tld
CAINSURANCEAGENTS.tld
CTHOUSEFORSALE.tld
FLHOMEFORSALE.tld
FLTOWNHOMES.tld
GACONTRACTOR.tld
GEORGIAWORKERSCOMPENSATION.tld
ILCRIMINALDEFENSE.tld
ILLINOISELDERLAW.tld
KENTUCKYLAWOFFICE.tld
LOSANGELESSMALLBUSINESS.tld
MARYLANDTOWNHOUSE.tld
MISSISSIPPIATTORNEY.tld
NCOFFICESPACE.tld
NVHOUSES.tld
RICRIMINALDEFENSE.tld
SCLAWYER.tld
TNBUSINESSINSURANCE.tld
VIRGINIATRUCKS.tld
WAACCIDENTLAWYER.tld
WAPERSONALINJURYLAWYER.tld
AZMORTGAGELOAN.tld
IDAHOINSURANCE.tld
ILHOMESFORRENT.tld
IOWAATTORNEY.tld
LACOMMERCIALINSURANCE.tld
NJCONDOMINIUMS.tld
NYCFAMILYLAW.tld
SCVACATIONHOMES.tld
TRANSPORTATION-BROKER(S).tld
VAMALPRACTICELAWYER.tld
VIRGINIATRUCKS.tld
WIDUI.tld
WISCONSINLAWYERS.tld

IF you got 'em, show 'em BUT without the TLD AND show 'em only for the purpose of shedding some useful light on what an experienced domainer may have in his or her cross-hairs when it comes to hand registered domains.

Noobs, you can post up to 5 .TLD ONLY examples IF you want the benefit of some feedback. One of the reasons I'm doing this - tiptoeing around the "no specifics" fules - is that every day I continue to see SO MANY . . err . . not so savvy speculative registrations and I feel like asking the registrants . . WHAT are you thinking?!

Regarding my selections (above) I'm open to fielding intelligent questions about why, how, etc.

[IanTurner]

I see most of those choices, high value niches - good second tier keyword combinations, if I knew the US market better I would have probably picked up some of them myself.

I don't get GEORGIAWORKERSCOMPENSATION.tld or LOSANGELESSMALLBUSINESS.tld - the first is a real mouthful and I don't see a big market for 'workers compensation' and the 'small business' domain I'm at a total loss about, I don't see where it is leading or how it can be sold into a market segment - directory builders are not a market segment with great cash reserves or a large enough size to warrant buying on spec.

[IanTurner]

Some of my last years acquisitions

afrodisiacum.tld
afrodisiakum.tld
jetjewelry.tld
incomerelease.tld
poundsaver.tld
ukfashionoutlet.tld
ukretailoutlet.tld
ukshoppingoutlet.tld
smallphonesystems.tld
virtualtelephonesystems.tld

I too welcome intelligent questions and feedback - you may already have guessed, I'm based in the UK so have a slightly different perspective to many here.

[lexipixel]

a small assortment from my "collection". The first few were registered very recently:

60STUFF.tld
70STUFF.tld
LOGICALWORDS.tld
FLORIDACASKET.tld
HOMEINSPECTORSATLANTA.tld
WHOLESALE-LOT.tld
MPG2U.tld
SOLARROOFPRO.tld
SOLARROOFPROS.tld
THEOILCOOP.tld
COOPOIL.tld
ORLANDOVACATIONFLORIDA.tld
VACATIONRENTALCAR.tld
HOTELDEALLINE.tld
INSTANTONLINEDATING.tld
LAWOFFICENEWS.tld
YIPPIEFISH.tld
YIPPYFISH.tld

[jmccormac]

Just looking at the history of some of the domains and whether they are tuple domains (same term registered across multiple extensions). The data for October is currently being processed so this is based on 01/September/2009 data. The monitored TLDs are com/net/org/biz/info/mobi/asia/ie and partial eu/de/co.uk.

ARIZONATOWNHOUSE.tld

First regged February 2003. Some transfers and dropped in March 2009. No other TLDs Only seen in .com TLD.

CAINSURANCEAGENTS.tld

Another single TLD domain (.com only). Regged initially in May 2005. Bounced between parking nameservers and dropped/reregged this year.

CTHOUSEFORSALE.tld

Single TLD domain. Regged 2005. Bounced around on a parking DNS before being dropped and reregged this year.

FLHOMEFORSALE.tld

History in com/net/info. The .net was domain tasted but the .info is still registered. Another 2009 drop and catch.

FLTOWNHOMES.tld

History in com and info. A 2009 drop and catch.

GACONTRACTOR.tld

Single TLD domain (com only). Multiple drops and reregs since 2000. Parking DNSes in history.

GEORGIAWORKERSCOMPENSATION.tld

History in com/net/org. The .org is still active. The .net was deleted.

The most immediately apparent pattern is a keyword based approach based on buy to park rather than buy to develop. The second pattern is that they are mainly domains with an element of legal involvement in that they focus on legal practice, property/real estate, employment law, business development.

Are they all buy to park domains? Were they spur of the moment registrations rather than planned?

As for the strategy, it seems to be based on the influence of economic conditions in that some of these terms could be more searched for than they have been.

Regards...jmcc

[edited by: jmccormac at 1:55 am (utc) on Oct. 5, 2009]

[lexipixel]

AZMORTGAGELOAN.tld
IDAHOINSURANCE.tld
ILHOMESFORRENT.tld
IOWAATTORNEY.tld

-Webwork

I do a lot of (US) "state" sites too, and will throw in the comment that while for some states it's very common to use the two-letter US Postal abbreviation, (e.g.- MA = Massachusetts, CA = California, etc), you need to know how locals search for things within their local market.

A typical example is someone from Massachusetts will use "MA", (or may use "Mass" if they are older than 35 or so). Someone from Florida may use "FL", (or again, older folks might use "FLA").

Aside from local custom, the length of the geographic place-name is another key factor.

There is little reason for someone from Iowa, Utah or even Maine to use abbreviations -- but for North or South Carolina you can count on many more "NC" and "SC" searches than the long version because (we) people are lazy. (It appears Webwork knows this since he has "IOWAATTORNEY.tld" and not "IAATTORNEY.tld").

[Webwork]

Wow. Lots to digest already . . but it's a bit late on Sunday, so I'm going to get a good night's sleep before commenting . . except to note that there's quite a few very bright/capable folks who post here. ;)

Ian - I like the "outlets". Lexi - I like the 60sStuff, but I don't do many "brandable" domains. JMCC - Insightful as always.

I don't buy to park but park pending. I always look for type-in potential, enduser market potential, PPC value and "fun" development potential. I also stick to certain groups since knowledge, development systems/methods, marketing, etc. are, to some degree, transferable/common within geo-markets. In other words, I don't have to reinvent the wheel AND I don't plan mirror sites.

P.S. Psssstt . . The higher value of a converted lead to an enduser/consumer of a domain's built-in traffic . . err, I mean . . Plastics.

[inbound]

Here are a few domains I've picked up in the last couple of years, there are a lot of good names still out there if you are the end user (all of these were straight registrations - plus there are 400 others that I cannot mention as they are in 2 sets that are hush hush at the moment) - we just need to find the time to do something with them ;):

PayPerContact.tld

ManagedAdvertising.cctld
AdTargeting.cctld

DatabaseAcceleration.tld
ServerAcceleration.cctld
StorageAcceleration.cctld
HighPerformanceIO.tld
SolidStateDatabase.tld

Webmaster-Search.tld
WebmasterSearch.cctld
StatisticalSearch.tld
StandardTaxonomy.tld

EditorialCopywriting.tld

WaveWaves.tld
FestivalWaves.tld
FestivalWave.tld
WebmasterWaves.tld
WebmasterWave.tld

MarineEnergy.tld
TidalPower.tld

[inbound]

My feedback:

Webwork - it's interesting that you chose singular versions for many of the domains, suggesting that the domains will not be developed into directories with many such businesses on each (although you could do that).

I personally prefer names that can be built into nationwide sites; or built as a brand that can be franchised. I know that you have some really good ones of those ;)

Just having a quick look I can see that domains such as StatewideLawyer.tld & StatewideLawyers.tld are available and many other huge local services are available too with that prefix. I suspect that they'd be a really good set of names because Statewide applies to all states in the US and is a term that is understood - it's used 4 million times in government sites (although I'm guessing someone is going to tell me why the prefix is not good - otherwise why would those names be available).

If it wasn't for the fact that we're building a load of sites in the UK I'd grab some of those.

There are also other prefixes that make sense for national sites that can appear local too - but I'll leave that to you all to think about now I've given you a hint...

Ian - PoundSaver is very apt and certainly worth a few quid.

LexiPixel - interesting mix of conflicting/hedged domains there, some about holidays (big use of oil) and others about oil use mitigation / cost reduction. I believe oil scarcity is likely to be a problem within a decade - could be difficult to monetise though!

[lexipixel]

some about holidays

-inbound

I looking at my list and thinking, "Is Yippy Fish Day a holiday somewhere?"...

Then I realized your reply was coloured by your locale, and that you must be in (Old) England, whereas I am in New England. My point: dudes here "take a vacation" and blokes over there "go on holiday".

So lets add:

LOCAL
...LOCALE
........LOCALIZE

to the "specifics"... always think about how the local people talk, spell, etc.. do they say "color" or "colour"?

(big use of oil) and others about oil use mitigation / cost reduction. I believe oil scarcity is likely to be a problem within a decade - could be difficult to monetise though!
-inbound

re:
THEOILCOOP.tld
COOPOIL.tld

(The solar domain names are energy sector also, but not really part of my heating oil strategy).

Ok, here's the oil story: The two listed above are generic for (national) use when and if I outgrow the regional oil domains I own.

About 18 months ago, when home heating oil hit $5.00/gallon, I also purchased the domains:

HEATINGOILCT.tld
HEATINGOILMA.tld
HEATINGOILNH.tld
HEATINGOILME.tld
HEATINGOILVT.tld
HEATINGOILRI.tld
HEATING-OIL-MA.tld
HEATING-OIL-ME.tld
HEATING-OIL-CT.tld
HEATING-OIL-NH.tld
HEATING-OIL-NY.tld
HEATING-OIL-RI.tld
HEATING-OIL-VT.tld
OIL-HEAT-MA.tld
OILHEATMA.tld

Only the first (3) are in use, the rest are to protect the area I want to work, and because I like hyphen version for read-ability.

I try to build "sets", and try to keep focused when I do regional "local content" sites.

My first domain (over 15 years ago), was the name of my hometown. When I registered it, the guy who showed me how to file an email template and send it to "DOMREG" suggested I get the name of my region, and even my state name. At the time I said, "There is so much information for just one town, how could I ever manage a site for a region or state?"...

On that note: here's another "set" which is niche market and geo-specific, down to using the names of major cities and towns.

This is a "concept purchase". The concept is that there are 351 cities/towns in "MA" it wouldn't be feasible for me to pay registration fees on 351 names for "an idea" -- so I bought the most important ("valuable") ones.

LAWOFFICEMA.tld
LAWOFFICEBOSTON.tld
LAWOFFICEBROCKTON.tld
LAWOFFICECAPECOD.tld
LAWOFFICECAMBRIDGE.tld
LAWOFFICECONCORD.tld
LAWOFFICEDEDHAM.tld
LAWOFFICEFALLRIVER.tld
LAWOFFICEFRAMINGHAM.tld
LAWOFFICELOWELL.tld
LAWOFFICELYNN.tld
LAWOFFICEMETROWEST.tld
LAWOFFICEMILFORD.tld
LAWOFFICEPLYMOUTH.tld
LAWOFFICEQUINCY.tld
LAWOFFICESPRINGFIELD.tld
LAWOFFICEWOBURN.tld
LAWOFFICEWORCESTER.tld

This one is just a kicker -- it could be used to publish press releases, news articles, etc about "Law Offices"

LAWOFFICENEWS.tld

(Webwork's original post looked like a chunk of my portfolio)..

[jmccormac]

I really should write some historical trends mapping SQL. I've got the domain data for com/net/org/biz/info/mobi/asia and some ccTLDs by month back to 2000. What is interesting from some of the domains I've checked is how they've dropped and are reregged a few months later.

Regards...jmcc

[lexipixel]

A few times I've let a name go, then regretted it and bought it back.

Another part of my strategy is I buy mostly names that I own at least one live site with content for that niche and forward the spec names to that site until I am ready to use them for something specific.