Wanted: Domain Appraisal London Domains

[woopwoop]

I've a bunch of London domains covering the following areas/Tube Stations below. Trying to brand them under an umbrella of London Plots.

Was wondering what people thought about portfolios like this where some of the sites might be micro communities?

Are news, forum, directory sites for each worth doing?

Anyone care to put a value on a portfolio like this or on individual names?


Acton Town
Beckton Park
Blackhorse Road
Caledonian Road
Canons Partk
Clapham North
Clapham South
Dagenham East
Dagenham Heathway
Elmers End
Essex Road
Euston Square
Fairlop
Finchley Central
Goldhawk Road
Hendon Central
Houghton Street
Hounslow Central
Hounslow East
Kensington Olympia
Kilburn Park
Kings Cross St Pancras
Latimer Road
North Harrow
Pudding Mill Lane
Ravenscourt Park
South Kenton
Stepney Green
Tooting Bec
Totteridge and Whetstone
Tower Gateway
Turnpike Lane
Walthamstow Central
Wandsworth Road
Wembley Central
West Dulwich
West Finchley
West Harrow
West Ruislip
Willesden Junction

Here are the domains (some .com/.co.uk/both)

Also if anyone wants to get involved in developing these, check out my other post here.

 

[woopwoop]

Anyone any thoughts on any value - and direction, scripts etc... ?

 

[namealot]

Did a very similar project with tube area names a few years ago targeted local business bars, estate agents, hotels car rentals, taxis, car parking etc (best profit for us was new developments in the areas) it did bring in an income of around £50 -75 p.w per domain but in the end the amount of work involved it was better for us to do other projects. If you live local to London its worth just travelling around seeing what's in the areas and checking local councils for new business. E.g. planning change of use development, selling them without any kind of web development we didn’t get much interest £20 - £50 in vast majority of the names...

 

[woopwoop]

I can see how it's a lot of work.

Was hoping once a basic format is reached then it would be rolling out the files to each of the websites (changing the config files) then having them up and running with rss feeds at first.

I know it's difficult to get posts going in one forum let alone 40 forums.

But if each site could bring in £50/week, thats £2000/week or £100,000/year.
(Wishful thinking I know but that's not even £10/day adsense on each... easier said than done.)

 

[woopwoop]

Well my other thread (re: partnerships) didn't get any replies

So I'm going it alone...

Have started to develop the layout and navigation for the London Plots.

Appreciate any feedback (good/bad/design/coding/bugs/ideas) if anyone has time to visit Acton Town Online. This is the London suburb I've been working on to get the template right before I create the other 40 London communities online.

Next step is to add the blog and the forums (which will cover most of the navigation at the top). The Acton Town Directory is already up and running, Acton Town recruitment agencies.

 

[woopwoop]

If anyone is following a little my project's moving on - would appreciate and feedback - good or bad.

I've almost finished with the first online community that I've built in this way:

1. Wordpress
2. SMF forums - Classifieds/Events
3. Local Map
4. Gallery
5. Business Directory

Here's the first I've been developing: Acton Town


So far no real content in the blog, forum or directory, but am trying to iron out all the details first.

Ideas on content, seo, design etc appreciated.

 

[retired_member13]

Just a thought, but if the idea came from the Tube map, might it not be worth basing something in the sites on the idea of tube travel around London?

Maybe navigate via a tube map of something similar?

Chances are, with websites that match tube station names, a lot of the people who find your sites are going to have been looking for something tube or travel related - train times, opening hours, local bus routes, closest hotels & pubs etc etc.

Eg, what is someone hunting on Google for "Acton Town" actually looking for? According to G it's house rental, hotels, parking, the tube station, and the location of the town hall, library etc etc.

Also, a lot of people visit London to sightsee etc, so maybe have some local information about that?

I'd be interested to see who your target users are - are they people living locally, people visiting or literally just people browsing the web for example?

 

[woopwoop]

Thanks Ty for your thoughts.

I've a bunch of London related domains and when I looked into using the tube map in the past it wasn't feasible. It's a licenced design and you need to get permission plus in most cases pay fees/royalties.

I like the idea but on the other hand think it's too cliched...

Your questions about the target users are my questions too - when I started buying up these names I thought of local communities (I have a few which are working pretty well - outside London).

Thanks for the info on what people seaching Acton Town are looking for. I have to do more research like this.

I think local community focus, with some tourist traffic is ow it will go. But I know the hard work it takes to sell ads and generate content/discussions on these things. Now I have 40 brand new London communities to deal with!

I'm about to add some rss feeds to Acton Town and so hopefully that will be some local content for G. Also I just replicated the site and published it for Beckton Park (so that's 2/40 done!)

My motivator (which might only last a week, until I get bored and move on to another project) is that if each of these London Plots can make £25/week, that adds up to £1000/week (£52k pa)