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City domain name

by Determinator
9 replies
Hi, a friend of mine owns the .com version of a pretty good sized city . Say a population of around 400,000, maybe a lil less? I am not going list it just in case he somehow has an issue with it being in a forum. But it is the best domain name in the entire city.
He offered to split any profits in half with me.
Long story short, we have been trying to figure out how to monetize it and what actions to take.
The first obvious choice was to make it a blog of events going on around town. So that is what we have decided to do.
There is SO much noise because of instagram food bloggers, fashion bloggers and whatever else bloggers. There is an absolute ton here and they dominate instagram so much that we cannot even compete.
We have thought about renting it out to someone, that is an option, but from what i have found that would only bring in 50-100 dollars a month at best.
Selling it is also another option. He has had several offers, one being of 40,000 dollars.
Any ideas? What would you do say if you owned Seattle.com for example (that isnt the actual domain btw).
I am thinking whatever we do it needs to be viral, and have its own niche to rise above the noise. But then again, we have the domain name, we should be considered the authoritative "go to".
#city #domain
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  • Profile picture of the author Vinh Giang
    If you don't know what to do with it, probably should sell it for $40,000
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  • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
    Take the money and run!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeffery
    One of my clients owns several city domain names for several years. There are may ways to monetize websites with exact match city domain names and the best for his websites, at this time of writing, are real-estate agencies in cities with a large population and a housing crisis .


    Consider that you own the domain name, meaning your friend, and you decide who can advertise on your site as well as who cannot advertise on the site. Consider if the city requires and has plans already funded to upscale the infrastructure such as transportation, education institutes, etc. and prepare to integrate those activities into your business fold.


    It is also advisable to approach the city authorities with a plan that will improve the negative aspects of large populations such as support and donations for homeless shelters, health care, etc. The plan is make the cities small business and large businesses accessible to the entire population such as law enforcement, religious institutes, etc.


    Also important to the success of the website is to employ a spokes person with a staff to handle public relations. That can be done sooner or later depending on other things.


    The above is just a small summary of what we have learned and there can also be legal ramifications bad and good. When you involve the city in your plans (start with the city planner) also involve their legal department so as to start with a legal plan.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Originally Posted by Determinator View Post

    The first obvious choice was to make it a blog of events going on around town. So that is what we have decided to do.
    There is SO much noise because of instagram food bloggers, fashion bloggers and whatever else bloggers. There is an absolute ton here and they dominate instagram so much that we cannot even compete.
    If your goal is to create a local news/events site, then why are you viewing local businesses as competition and not opportunity. You're creating a platform that could promote these businesses and in return be promoted by these businesses.

    Aside from that, anyone can 'compete' on Instagram with the right strategy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Obermair
    You might consider "renting" the domain name to real estate or travel industry firms.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    Lets see ... good websites usually sell for somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 times the annual profit they generate. We'll go somewhere in between and say two times in this case. So, you would need to monetize this blog to the point where it was making more than $20,000 per year profit in order to have it make sense to keep it and do something with it (or a little under $1,700/month)

    That's whole lot of affiliate commissions or banner ads for what amounts to just a local site and who knows how many years it would take to get to that point? For someone who already knows exactly what to do with it and has pieces in place already, it would probably be a great deal at $40,000. Since you really have no clue what to do with it and have no commission/advertisers already lined up, I'm leaning toward "take the money and run!"

    As an example, a website like this one is what you would have to build. Think about the time, manpower and attention a site like this needs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ouroboros
    Sell it to the city for $50K before they decide they might have rights to that name and take you to court...

    They may not win, but neither will you...

    just my humble $0.02 worth after having "been there - done that"
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    • Profile picture of the author OptedIn
      Originally Posted by Ouroboros View Post

      Sell it to the city for $50K before they decide they might have rights to that name and take you to court.
      Ridiculous. I own the domain name to my city and I use it. If they were too lazy or stupid to purchase it when it was available, that's just tough noogies.

      They can't do a thing about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    If you have no idea how to monetize it, why not just take the money and run?
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