Wales.info

[thisweek]

I'm new to 'domaining' too but five years ago I secured Wales.info under a ten year rental Agreement with an option to purchase for a tourism project I'm involved with in Wales at Holiday Accommodation in Wales : Wales UK Holidays

The result after several years of development is Tourism Wales UK at Tourism Wales UK - Wales.info and the idea now is to use this as a template for other Wales.info subdomains using location-based search powered by Google Maps.

I'm now looking at the various options available to do this - subdomain sales, rentals, franchising or any other partnership ideas that might come forward - but I know little about this and am looking for guidance. I've also contemplated selling the domain but have little idea of its current value.

Terry

 

[woopwoop]

It's a big project and I'm interested to see how it all works out. Wales.info is a great name and is one which is crying out for devlopment (haven't looked yet - I'm on my blackberry).
Who did you arrange the lease with? -'m being nosey but what was the buy out deal?

Good luck.

 

[jasman]

I'd be surprised if you could sell a subdomain. I certainly wouldn't buy one when you can buy your own domain cheaply.

As for leasing, the only reason I can imagine someone would lease a domain is if it came with a load of traffic which you could monetise from Day 1. Otherwise it's a mug's game - you've got to put all the effort in, building up the site, marketing, increasing traffic levels and the owner could turn around at the end of the lease and say "Cheers, I'll take over from now..."

At least if you do have a guaranteed option to buy it, that's something, as long as it stands up legally.

 

[aZooZa]

I'd be surprised if you could sell a subdomain. I certainly wouldn't buy one when you can buy your own domain cheaply.

As for leasing, the only reason I can imagine someone would lease a domain is if it came with a load of traffic which you could monetise from Day 1. Otherwise it's a mug's game - you've got to put all the effort in, building up the site, marketing, increasing traffic levels and the owner could turn around at the end of the lease and say "Cheers, I'll take over from now..."

At least if you do have a guaranteed option to buy it, that's something, as long as it stands up legally.

I agree. That's why I would never even 'buy' a uk.com.

 

[thisweek]

Hi woopwoop, thanks for your response. I arranged the lease with the original registrant five years ago. The rental is based on a fixed purchase price option which I can exercise any time over the 10-year period.

 

[thisweek]

Hi jasman, thanks for responding and I have no argument with what you say. Wales doesn't have its own distinctive top level domain so we've had to innovate with wales.com, wales.org, wales.info etc

I leased the latter because it's nice and neutral and suited my original project i.e. Tourism Wales UK - Wales.info so there's a niche value there somewhere I think. Remains to be seen.

And, yes, the lease is legal and binding.

Terry

 

[thisweek]

I'd be surprised if you could sell a subdomain. I certainly wouldn't buy one when you can buy your own domain cheaply.

As for leasing, the only reason I can imagine someone would lease a domain is if it came with a load of traffic which you could monetise from Day 1. Otherwise it's a mug's game - you've got to put all the effort in, building up the site, marketing, increasing traffic levels and the owner could turn around at the end of the lease and say "Cheers, I'll take over from now..."

At least if you do have a guaranteed option to buy it, that's something, as long as it stands up legally.

I agree. That's why I would never even 'buy' a uk.com.

Hi AZooZa, me either...uk.com sounds pretty meaningless to me as I'm sure it must to most people but maybe I'm wrong. In times of devolution though Wales.info does have some cache.

Terry

 

[grantw]

Hi woopwoop, thanks for your response. I arranged the lease with the original registrant five years ago. The rental is based on a fixed purchase price option which I can exercise any time over the 10-year period.

If it's a good price I'd be buying this sooner than later, good domain.

Grant

 

[Rob_F]

A few years back I offered Chris £5000 for it but he said he couldn't sell it because of this rental agreement he has with you. Not sure he would have taken my 5k offer anyway, don't think I would if it were mine. This is defo a great name. Perfect fit for the extension too.

For an example of an .info geo domain that is done exceptionally well see spain.info. I see that site advertised in national papers on a fairly regular basis. It's obvious a ton of money and effort has gone in to making that site what it is. It also ranks incredibly well in the search engines.

For a smaller but still well developed site see Cotswolds.info. Obviously developed and maintained on a smaller budget but still a fairly comprehensive website with a decent amount of advertisers.

There are many examples of other geo .info sites, these are just a couple that come to mind.

As much as I like .co.uk, the nice thing about .info is that it’s geo-neutral so perhaps more intuitive to visitors from outside the UK.

Welcome to Acorn and good luck with the site

- Rob

 

[crabfoot]

Pardon me for stating what will be obvious to many here - be careful not to include any "duplicate content" - if you have the exact and same material on two sites, Google has a tendency to de-index both, with consequent loss of traffic and income.

Kipper my smoke, I'm not chewing it!