Resident Tourist » Domains http://residenttourist.com Domaining & Life on the Web Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:37:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 One Month and Ten Domains Later… http://residenttourist.com/2009/07/10/one-month-and-ten-domains-later/ http://residenttourist.com/2009/07/10/one-month-and-ten-domains-later/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:25:25 +0000 Jason http://residenttourist.com/?p=890 Despite tracking a zillion (approx.) names in that time over at GoDrops.com, only 10 new names have been added to my domain collection (dare I call it a portfolio?). I’ve been keeping busy developing a real-estate Wordpress-based site and, of course, keeping up with what’s dropping and the bargains at auction.

Here’s a run-down of my latest 10 domains and why I pulled the trigger on them:

GenericOutlet.com (reg fee) - Think “generic drugs” or “generic medications”. Great Google searches and “outlet” makes a strong e-commerce brandable.

AbandonedWarehouses.com – This is where all the bad guys set up shop and, in the end, where Detective Caine rolls in surrounding the place eventually taking the crime boss and his cronies down. Also, this domain could serve a property-search site…

HomeLoams.com (reg fee) - typo of “Home Loans”

ShowbizShop.com (reg fee) – strong e-commerce suffix making a great celebrity/entertainment shopping site

EmeraldMart.com (reg fee) – Can 5 million searches on emerald keywords all targeted to jewelry be wrong? I am a little cool on the “Mart” suffix paired with luxury items, but it’s still a very consumer-friendly domain.

MoneyCompanion.com (reg fee) – A total brandable. “Money” is a great keyword and with “companion” makes a great domain that could host a how-to money-management site.

SUVOutlet.com (reg fee) – Are people still buying SUV’s? I hope so! There are some obvious end-users that come up if you Google this. Again, a nice consumer-friendly “outlet” paired with a big money item.

AltoonaApartments.com (reg fee) – I mentioned that I’ve been working on coding a real-estate site. These kinds of names would be perfect to lay down on top of that code and seek end-users: brokers, realtors, or maybe a self-listing type of site. (I grew up not far from Altoona, PA)

CreteApartments.com ($40 at Snapnames private seller auction) – Ouch! This one hurt the wallet! Great tourist destination (I’ve been there, it’s awesome) and super Google search frequency. “apartments” works in europe and serves a different customer than “hotels”, so there may be some differentiation to work with there…

OrnamentOutlet.com (reg fee) – Another simple product e-commerce site. Christmas ornaments come inexpensive to mildly expensive and, more importantly, they’re easily shippable. A good consumer-friendly domain.

That’s it! My last 10 names. I think I did alright… =)

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]]> http://residenttourist.com/2009/07/10/one-month-and-ten-domains-later/feed/ 3 Finding an Affiliate Program for Travel http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/09/travel-affiliate-program/ http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/09/travel-affiliate-program/#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 17:48:38 +0000 Jason http://residenttourist.com/?p=785 At the GeoDomain Expo a couple weeks ago, I found myself sitting down with a representative from Booking.com over lunch. They’re big in Europe covering all the large hotels and the smaller independent ones (i.e. the long-tail). I’ve got a solid collection of undeveloped travel names now and it’s time I rolled-up my sleeves and get them built. Yesterday, I applied to their affiliate program and hope to be in contact with them early next week.

I’m still looking for Wordpress magazine and news themes for inspiration, but I’m closing in on a couple. One thing I look for in any travel affliate partner is the availablity of content and the ability to do deep linking in their booking engine. Not only do I want a booking widget to paste into my Wordpress theme, but listings as well that appear under my own domain.

Having that content on your own domain, gets you a little further along than being just a thin affiliate and allows you to get traction with Google with a greater variety of keywords. Also, the deep linking into their site would give me the ability to send users to more targeted areas such as individual and geographically targeted hotel listings and that should increase conversions.

I’m off to watch the daily domain drop over on GoDrops.com… Stay tuned here for more development updates!

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]]> http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/09/travel-affiliate-program/feed/ 0 Developing My Most Expensive Domain http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/07/travel-part-1/ http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/07/travel-part-1/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 13:55:42 +0000 Jason http://residenttourist.com/?p=748 This is going to be the start of a series of posts describing how I go about developing my most expensive domain so far for 2009. The name is ExploreHungary.com and it set me back a cool $25.00 at Snapnames recently.

For me, this is as near premium for geo/travel without having the exact city or generic “travel” keyword domain. Early last year I purchased a related name for over $600, but I think this one is better, not because it cost 25x LESS, but because it’s more catchy and feels more active. The other name is HungaryGuide.com, by the way…

So, to get this  site up and running, first you’ll need an HTML template or CMS theme.  Since I do everything in Wordpress, what follows is how I find suitable Wordpress themes.

Choosing a Theme

The way I keep track of new themes is by reading ThemeTracker.com daily. This is a site that I run and it helps me keep on top of the latest theme releases by the most popular Wordpress theme authors.

WebLogToolsCollection.com is another place to get more releases, but these vary in quality wildly from day to day. Another way to find themes of course, is to turn to Google. A search for Wordpress themes reveals these recent lists from WpHacks.com, SoothBrush.com, WpZoom.com, another at Wpzoom.com and RiteTurnOnly.com,

From all these sources, I’ve compiled a short-list of FREE themes that I feel are worth testing out for my new travel site, ExploreHungary.com:

There are, of course, premium themes and they do look better. But, I’m on a very tight budget. For next installment, I’ll have a working theme up and running with some “travel” content.

Stay Tuned!

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]]> http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/07/travel-part-1/feed/ 7 BocceWorld.com – Catch of the Day http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/05/catch-of-the-day/ http://residenttourist.com/2009/05/05/catch-of-the-day/#comments Wed, 06 May 2009 01:45:34 +0000 Jason http://residenttourist.com/?p=764 Today’s Catch of the Day from the daily domain drop was BocceWorld.com. I love playing bocce ball. We used to play on the small green outside the main Budapest metro station between teaching jobs. A friend of mine had a really nice box set he used to carry around in his pack.

“Bocce” gets 165,000 searches at Google and there’s no abiguity about what people are after. Bocce.com is owned by the United States Bocce Federation and the other Bocce generic and brandable domains are owned by NetShops.com and a few other independent merchants.

At BocceWorld.com you’ll find a quick-and-dirty eBay affiliate store I put up in about 5 minutes. I’m improving the template for these stores all the time and will be highlighting more as they go online.

Play Bocce!

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