Domain name 'squatter' is it smart ?

[thehypnotist]

In Australian history, 'squatter' referred to those who occupied large tracts of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first.


I would like to know your thoughts about buying 50 dot com names at a cost of $500 my ideas is to dominate the towns domain two word name combinations so that when people search for the towns name they will see 50 of mysites,each site will be a mini blog and some will be just video ect.

or would you just use $500 on one site.


what would you do

[steveweber]

I'm confused by what you mean by "the town's domain two word name" ??

[thehypnotist]

like londoncity,londontown,londonpubs.londonfootball, ect

[Killer Joe]

Originally Posted by thehypnotist

like londoncity,londontown,londonpubs.londonfootball, ect

I've done this in my area. A buddy of mine and I captured as many names as we could, almost 100 for current and future use.

The only drag I've found is that when the renewal time comes around so does a large bill to keep some of the names that haven't panned out if you register them in bulk. Yes, you can change the renewal dates, but the money costs are still there.

If you can monitze the sites I say go for it. You can always sell them if you want.

KJ

[thehypnotist]

Originally Posted by Killer Joe

I've done this in my area. A buddy of mine and I captured as many names as we could, almost 100 for current and future use.

The only drag I've found is that when the renewal time comes around so does a large bill to keep some of the names that haven't panned out if you register them in bulk. Yes, you can change the renewal dates, but the money costs are still there.

If you can monitze the sites I say go for it. You can always sell them if you want.

KJ

did you keep all the domains on one server or did you set up unique acounts,how did you manage 100 domain names

[Gene Pimentel]

Just to clarify...

Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price. (Cybersquatting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Non-trademarked names are fair-play, as anyone can openly and freely register them.

[Killer Joe]

Originally Posted by thehypnotist

did you keep all the domains on one server or did you set up unique acounts,how did you manage 100 domain names

They are across serveral servers. He has his domains, and I have mine. We develope them as needed and leave the rest parked.

Our area is experiencing significant growth. The domain names we have chosen will become more valuable over time. Consider it a virtual land grab.

You can get hosting where you can put a boatload of domains on the same hosting for less than $10 a month. So if your bandwith is not outrageous you can do this on the cheap very easily.

Like I said, the only downside I have experienced is when renewal time comes around and I have a lot of domains that are lagging or parked to renew. But being as they are an investment, I also invest in real estate, it's well worth the trouble.

Keep in mind that domains used to cost around $75 when I first started doing this. I bought very few back then. At $7.49 it's a piece of cake these days.

I'm sure I could even get them for less if I wanted to trade my time for pennies.

KJ

[thehypnotist]

so if i say newyorkfacebook as a domain then thats ilegal, I think people should be registering search terms like newyorkfacebook

[Killer Joe]

Originally Posted by thehypnotist

so if i say newyorkfacebook as a domain then thats ilegal

Don't play around with Trademarks. There are so many prefixes and suffixes you can add to domain names that you can really build up quite a portfolio without stepping on anybody's toes.

I registared one with the term Realtor in it once and got shut down by the local real estate board heavies. And fast.

Just take the name of your city or town and add words that you think have potential down the road. That potential will be different for different folks.

If you want to create sites that local merchants could advertise on use keywords to reflect that potential. Same with other niches.

Be creative, stay out of trouble, and have fun. You'll never be at a loss for something to work on.

KJ

[michaelmacro]

Just go with one site and one town, make sure it's got a pretty good population and a good number of businesses and a competitive business environment.

The reason is that you can quickly start to drive traffic to the site and then go an offer businesses the opportunity to brand themselves with a local business profile.

And make the profiles exclusive, i.e. your site will only list one dentist, that's it, this will further their business's brand and because of the exclusivity you can charge a lot more.

With decent traffic, charge $500 per month, then just get 10 businesses signed up, how's that sound?

This isn't complicated you just have to go and do it.