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Ideas for domain development

Discussion in 'Business Discussions' started by wonder_lander, Oct 27, 2015.

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  1. wonder_lander United Kingdom

    wonder_lander Well-Known Member

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    I've got the following domain name pier\co\uk which used to belong to an online and bricks and mortar homewares company that went bust. (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/dec/04/high-street-retailers-the-pier and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ture-store-collapses-into-administration.html)

    I've had 2 firm offers on the domain, £2500 via email and £5500 from Sedo so someone sees some value in it.

    The parent company that owned the domain still operate in Iceland under Pier.is have shown an interest but never made an offer.

    I've tried marketing the domain to end users but nobody is interested so I'm looking to utilise the domain to potential drive some revenue.

    There's a decent number of backlinks still sending traffic over from "home" type websites.

    There are however some trademarks to be careful from the parent company so I can't just pop up the same content that was on there previously.

    Any ideas on the best course of action? I've had a holding page up there capturing email addresses for a mailing list. I've had 1 adsense block it's made about £15 - £20 per month with no content on the 1 landing page.

    I've now got the .UK registered, I overpaid for the .org.uk when it looked like .org.uk might get .UK rights and I've registered the .wales and .cymru extensions just for fun!

    Any thoughts and ideas on how I can create a site that avoids the trademarks but is still relevant to the traffic that's coming in?
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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  3. RobM

    RobM Retired Member

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    Personally I'd sell it. Being such a generic name any content related to what it was previously, in the same market, would cause me to worry that I'd lose it or worse :) Of course developing it for a different market is an option but then does it really have any inherent value from current traffic?
     
  4. wonder_lander United Kingdom

    wonder_lander Well-Known Member

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    Cheers for the feedback Rob.

    Offers have dried up on the domain name and marketing hasn't been fruitful but selling is still an option.

    With regards to alternative content my main school of thoughts are around "Home" products that aren't homewares. Utilities (Phone, TV, Mobile, Gas, Electric), finance, Insurance, home improvements (conservatories, garden rooms etc)
     
  5. dazc United Kingdom

    dazc Active Member

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    You have an offer of 5K. Starting a new site from scratch is going to take a lot of time and investment to yield a return of 5K?
     
  6. AssetDomains

    AssetDomains Well-Known Member

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    You could try setting a BIN on sedo I think they contact previous interested parties automatically. Alternatively you could ask sedo to reach out to them
     
  7. wonder_lander United Kingdom

    wonder_lander Well-Known Member

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    That's exactly what I did, I set a BIN based on the highest offer but not a sniff so far!
     
  8. accelerator United Kingdom

    accelerator Well-Known Member

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    I would definitely wait for the right offer to come in for the domain name. If you don't want to wait, then market as a "short and memorable potential brand name", as the old company will only have a trademark is certain classes, e.g. selling furniture, so this could be a brand name in other areas, e.g. telecoms.

    It's a good name.

    Re developing a site, you might have some traffic but I doubt it's that significant. Is it really worth the development just because you have the domain?

    Really the strength of this domain is that it's short and brandable. So, look for the sale.
     
  9. wonder_lander United Kingdom

    wonder_lander Well-Known Member

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    I've contacted Sedo who have alleged that they can't contact the person but hopefully the person has it on their watchlist!
     
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