Industrial domain names. Why they are largely ignored?

[expertc]

Hi people,

I mostly do B2B consulting and therefore my interest is based on the serious industrial names. For one of my new Projects I needed two domains (.co.uk) and never thought they are available still there and never registered.

So I got them straight away:

Alums/co/uk
Isomers/co/uk

Generic, plural (which in this case is preferable in the industrial names) , etc.

The question is: B2B is a strong of a market as B2C but being completely ignored. What is the reason? Please give your thoughts.

 

[retired_member6]

knowledge....

 

[rush]

Yep, I guess you need the inside knowledge of the specific b2b market to recognise value in niche domains like these, unless you have worked in any particular industry it's difficult to recognise what keywords are the ones to aim for.

Certainly shows there is potentially some nice domains available for you to reg, with the industry knowledge you have, but what is the resale potential for domains like those, do major firms in the industry run websites on generics & show interest in them?

You're obviously one of the only people in the domainer world with industrial chemistry knowledge

 

[retired_member6]

You're obviously one of the only people in the domainer world with industrial chemistry knowledge

Which aint a bad position to be in, keep knowledge to yourself and reg them if you see worth in them, some on here order the science mags and try to buy up whats left after others who already have the knowledge years before didn't reg them, as these science mags aint exactly full of the latest stuff as papers on inventions come out years before.

 

[websaway]

EngineeringCompany.co.uk

I have got EngineeringCompany.co.uk you would think engineers would be falling over themselves to own it, especially with the customer acquisition costs they could save. I think engineering is behind the curve. You are on the right trail, good stuff.

 

[expertc]

Thanks, people

You should be in the industry, science magazines are no good, unfortunately. Otherwise person, who long ago took isomer/co/uk, would have known that it is worth much less for any industrial work than isomers/co/uk. The only problem I see here is completely different approach in sales and valuations. You can’t work on “exact searches”, etc. Exact search in many cases shows a potential customer. But in industry just one potential customer is precious. I think I am going to write an article on industrial domain pricing.

About knowledge – you know, I learn something here and if I can give something in return then it is fair.

 

[Edwin]

I have been regging quite a few of those recently, like specific industrial/laboratory equipment. But without the search volumes it's much harder to decide which to take and which to leave - there are countless thousand available, and quite often you're talking about low hundreds (or less) monthly searches.

If I had to start from scratch today I would probably do it in b2b but then invest the extra time/money to learn how to pitch to those types of company...

 

[retired_member12]

I have been regging quite a few of those recently, like specific industrial/laboratory equipment. But without the search volumes it's much harder to decide which to take and which to leave - there are countless thousand available, and quite often you're talking about low hundreds (or less) monthly searches.

If I had to start from scratch today I would probably do it in b2b but then invest the extra time/money to learn how to pitch to those types of company...

B2C must appeal to you though Edwin, noticed b2csales .co.uk has a home in your stable!

 

[expertc]

I have been regging quite a few of those recently, like specific industrial/laboratory equipment. But without the search volumes it's much harder to decide which to take and which to leave - there are countless thousand available, and quite often you're talking about low hundreds (or less) monthly searches.

If I had to start from scratch today I would probably do it in b2b but then invest the extra time/money to learn how to pitch to those types of company...

With B2B it’s not the number of searches that count, but the market trends and how industry conducts the searches. Development of B2B is different, you don’t find many ads or similar things there, it’s all SEO and SERP. Relevancy is the key.

 

[crabfoot]

It is a matter of being immediately able to use those generic names which apply to retail, for affiliate sales or ads.

A well selected retail name is paying for itself immediately, whereas (as Edwin points out) you have to learn how to pitch names to B2B customers, during which time they are making naff all.

If you are already making money in the conventional sense, running a domain costs nothing - it is an expense which can be offset against tax.
If you are domaining, undeveloped unsold domains can drain your resources.

 

[Skinner]

I used to register alot of industrial names but selling them is near impossible, because most places that use them use their company name and are known in the industry so they don't really want to attract new trade of sorts.

Isomers for example arn't really anything other than a type of something, in simpler terms no different than say mountain or stunt is to bike all essentially the same but put together differently, so hard to move as its not something or anything really.

I can think of 2 off the top of my head which have pages FULL of adwords when I google it, but have very low search volume and prove near impossible to sell, despite 70% of the advertisers including the service name in their adverts. I recon they would make more money off the .co.uk than their ads cost them for the search term but can't tell them that. I recon there maybe alot of XX-Low-XXX sales there but nothing huge.

An example would be strainsensor/s.co.uk (not one of the above 2), full of adverts when you google it, but very small search volume. There are 100s of Engineering related ones, probably thousands of chemical ones.

 

[aZooZa]

Tell me about it. I've been messing around with e n g i n e e rs .net and never made a brass farthing out of any of its incarnations. Paid a pretty penny for it too

 

[expertc]

Now, people, allow me to disagree with you about industrials. Yes, some companies do have their domains, like BASF. So people just type basf/com and voila. But chemical market has shifted tremendously towards the Far East manufacturing. Their names are not being typed-in, but they are desperate to be found. Just to give you a firsthand info – I did a consulting job for a trading company, choose a correct (!) product domain and put them on a first line of SERP. Do you know what the turnover on their microsite is these days? Any affiliate would only dream on it! Now they had an offer for the name from a BIG company, the sum is not disclosed to me but it is substantial. Just “isomers” is nothing, but what could be done with isomers/co/uk – this is where the potential sits. The main mistake is – non-industry people find it difficult to judge industrial domains but industry people have yet to learn the basics.

Simple example, if I don’t know the industry and optimize my domain and site for “Liquid Crystal Display Television Sets” then make it number one and sit and wait for customers to come in thousands for the LCD TVs. Industrials work exactly the same way.

 

[Skinner]

I totally agree with you on the industry still being many years behind, but thats mechanical vs technology argument again. I guess if you can see it go for it, but I tried this when I finished working for MAN BW, 100s of available names but zero interest at this point. What was frustrating is many of them advertised adwords and paid 1000s every month but they couldnt' see the value in the names so I gave up.

 

[expertc]

I totally agree with you on the industry still being many years behind, but thats mechanical vs technology argument again. I guess if you can see it go for it, but I tried this when I finished working for MAN BW, 100s of available names but zero interest at this point. What was frustrating is many of them advertised adwords and paid 1000s every month but they couldnt' see the value in the names so I gave up.

I know the feeling! Industry often is after “vanity names”, but this perception might change one day. At least I, personally, need these changes to get more B2B clients :wink:

 

[crabfoot]

After reading this post, I thought I would check out some chemical industry generic names in a particular field, picked "off the top of my head".

I came up with fourteen, which I checked on the Google adwords tool.

A dozen have global unique between about 500 - 1500 searches per month. The ,co,uk is free to register in all 12 cases.

In all cases, the .com is taken. Five are parked. The top search volume term is owned by an Indian company who also own the .net.

The third volume term (900 spm) is owned by a US company with interests in 5 other "generic name" terms, but they have not bought other TLDs.
Three sites are owned by Chinese companies.
The last .com in my list (ranked number 8, 590 spm) redirects to ... BASF.

So at least one major European firm is becoming aware of generic power. And strangely, although the term is English, the redirect is to the German version of the site.

 

[expertc]

...

.....
The last .com in my list (ranked number 8, 590 spm) redirects to ... BASF.

So at least one major European firm is becoming aware of generic power. And strangely, although the term is English, the redirect is to the German version of the site.

BASF is not yet a "major player" in chem domains. The most active is Solvay. They snatched a pre-registration .eu domain from me by using the full strength of their legal team to make a statement that the name is “essential for their business”. Because it’s a complex industry, the registrar accepted it, meanwhile it was similar to tradmarking words like “mineral water”. I haven’t got dozens of lawyers working for me – so I gave up. It might be childish, but I was so angry with them that decided to keep my co.uk with same words one line above them in SERPs. And I do it up to now. They tried to change their site ten times but still… just below mine.

 

[suzi]

It might be childish, but I was so angry with them that decided to keep my co.uk with same words one line above them in SERPs

Not at all childish.

 

[Skinner]

I devoted alot of my time to beating a client who never paid his invoice and blantantly just ripped off the basic design I did and did a p#ss poor job himself. It was ultimately a wise descision as one of their rivals bought the name, but now I realise it was pointless. If this happened again, I'd sell my services half price so their nearest competitor and at least get paid for my vengence

 

[expertc]

I devoted alot of my time to beating a client who never paid his invoice and blantantly just ripped off the basic design I did and did a p#ss poor job himself. It was ultimately a wise descision as one of their rivals bought the name, but now I realise it was pointless. If this happened again, I'd sell my services half price so their nearest competitor and at least get paid for my vengence

I got paid... I have a "developed by" link in the footer and got a client that came form the site.