Sub-domains are they viable?

by donnan

Posted: 13 years ago 9 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have been wracking my brains to come up with a way to monetize some very good domains I have.

One is a very prominent travel hotel related domain name, ranked on google's first page in #6 position.

I am wondering what members thoughts and opinions are about sub-domains. There is not alot of discussion about them and I am sure there are lots of users out there that have got some great domain names that could sell sub-domains from them.

This is my thinking. I was thinking about selling sub-domains and retaining the main domain name.

What is the general feelings about sub-domains and their value on the internet?

#subdomains #viable

Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by donnan

I was thinking about selling sub-domains and retaining the main domain name.

I suggest you put yourself in the customer's position for a moment, then, and ask yourself if there are any circumstances under which you'd actually pay money to someone for that, and have no effective control at all over the continued availability or even existence of your own business's url?!

Do you think that would be well advised? :confused:

Not quite the same situation as using a subdomain of Weebly or Blinkweb or Blogspot or Squidoo or HubPages, is it? And many people who know what they're doing won't even use those as "money sites" because they don't own and control them ...
- [ 1 ] Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3270132].message }}
donnan 13 years ago

Good point,

but I think you may be looking at it from a slightly narrow view point. Why would they want to control the main domain when it has time on it's side and has a proven track record of dominating the search engines for very valuable keywords.

My idea is to let them use a sub domain for a yearly fee. If it doesn't perform for them after each year they can just not renew it.

If someone said to you, I have this great domain name that is on the first page of google and will guarantee so many users will see your pages, would you be interested?

Maybe I am not seeing quite clearly from your point of view and I didn't mean to be rude saying I thought you might be seeing it from a narrow view point, but I am thinking you may not be understanding the advantages.

Please tell me I am wrong.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3270146].message }}
cashcow 13 years ago

Yeah, that's not a very good deal for the buyer, actually I doubt you would be able to find anyone who would bite on those.

- sorry, posted this while you were posting your reply to Alexa. .... So you are talking more about renting then. I actually saw someone else doing that somewhere... not sure where so I can't point you to it.

I think that's better, but I still don't know if you would get too many takers because it is a bit risky for the renter not owning the top level domain.

Lee
- [ 1 ] Thanks
Signature

Gone Fishing
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3270153].message }}
paulie888 13 years ago

Well, I'd suggest that you look around and see if anyone is renting/buying subdomains. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't seen anyone do it, as it just wouldn't make any sense to do this. Ask yourself this question - how exactly would they benefit from utilizing a subdomain of yours?

It has been proven that there's very little SEO benefit to be derived from having a subdomain on a keyword rich domain that ranks for certain terms, and even if there was some, why would the subdomain renter/buyer want to risk competing with your main domain for ranking of a particular keyword?

Furthermore, they have absolutely no control over the primary domain, and there could be a conflict of interest in terms of content between you and the renter/buyer. I'm afraid this just isn't going to work out, and this is precisely why you really don't see anyone discussing this issue here, or anywhere else.
- [ 1 ] Thanks
Signature

[WSO] Secrets To Making $100/Day In 21 Days Or Less - Starting From Scratch!
>>> Features Jason Fladlien, John S. Rhodes, Justin Brooke, Sean I. Mitchell, Reed Floren and Brad Gosse! <<<
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3270167].message }}
donnan 13 years ago

Oh...maybe a little clarification is called for here.

I don't want these hotels to compete against me and they won't be. My site will actually help them.

My site is australia-hotels.net

The idea I have is to rent sub-domains to any hotel in australia. Lets say Hilton Sydney.

So, I could rent them a sub-domain hilton.australia-hotels.net or hiltonsydney.australia-hotels.net or even sydney.hilton.australia-hotels.net

Then placed in the Sydney part of my site have a really nice link with an image that points to that sub-domain so part of the package would be they get a free ad from the city of my main site which points to their sub domain.

They could either upload their full website to the sub-domain or just a page, or perhaps even I could just do a redirect straight to their own domain.

I hope I made this clearer.

Now would it work?

Maybe someone else has a better idea.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3272408].message }}
- Alexa Smith Banned 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by donnan
  
  The idea I have is to rent sub-domains to any hotel in australia.
  
  The question is (I think): why might they be interested in renting a sub-domain rather than registering their own domain (if they needed more than they already have, that is)?
  
  Do you not think they'd feel pretty insecure about doing that? Would their first question, perhaps, be "What's this company we're leasing a sub-domain from and how sure are we that they'll still be here 5 years later?". If they register or buy a domain in the normal way, they don't have to worry about any of those things, do they?
  
  Originally Posted by donnan
  
  Lets say Hilton Sydney.
  
  Do you think Hilton Sydney does its own internet promotion, or might it all be taken care of by Hilton's international professional website team? (I don't know the answer - am not trying to imply I do, but it's obviously a highly relevant question, isn't it, even if only for knowing whom to approach there about it ...?).
  
  Originally Posted by donnan
  
  Now would it work?
  
  With apologies, I just can't see it, myself. I certainly wouldn't do it, and my guess is that they won't, either. Sorry.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3272436].message }}
Brian Alaway 13 years ago

Maybe I'm missing something but why not just rent ad space on your domain?
- Thanks
Signature
How to Configure Secure FTP
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3272492].message }}
stma 13 years ago

I think you are just going to have a hard time reaching the folks at the hotel who would be making this decision - then making them understand sub domains.

Here is a litmus test.

1.) Figure out 1 of the hotels seo firm. Is it inhouse or outsourced?

Contact them.

Good luck - and god bless you if you decide to market to the tourism industry. The clients who've contacted me ALL cause me stress.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3272550].message }}
- halmo 13 years ago
  
  In addition to all the other comments, Google views subdomains as separate domains, and the main domain doesn't pass on any ranking or credibility to a sub-domain.
  
  This is only one source that says this How does Google treat Sub-Domains SEO wise - SitePoint Forums (read the post by "Canonical"), and there are many others, even more credible sources, such as Wikipedia (where I read about this at the first time, but can't seem to find that page right now).
  
  I don't see either why a hotel would upload its whole or partial website to a subdomain that's under a different main domain than their own (I am guessing that those hotels have their own sites, and I am guessing that their own sites have been around for a while, and have established some ranking).
  
  One more thing: the main domain owner could make changes to a sub-domain any time (even delete it, or change the content, which, as others said, would leave the hotels with no control at all, and even the possibility of someone else (the main domain owner) could damage their reputation by changing the content. I am not saying you would do this, but could be easily done, and any business (especially established large businesses) have plenty of people taking care of their reputation and its protection.
  
  My two cents.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3273280].message }}