A few months ago, I noticed SyracusePhotographers.com was on sale at TNAM.com for $250. My company purchased the domain and launched a directory of Syracuse Photographers. The site has averaged at least one lead for the past couple of months. A lead is defined as a bride who filled our their name, email, phone number, and photography budget – requesting that a local photographer contact them to discuss their need.

Had this domain been purchased by a photographer in Syracuse, these leads would have gone to that business. Many professionals report booking 70-80% of leads generated by users filling out a contact form on their web site. Even assuming a conservative 10% conversion rate, with a average booking rate of $1,500 per event, a photographer could have easily paid for the SyracusePhotographers.com within 12 months timeframe.

A friend of mine, who is a photographer in Western NY has leveraged a network of geo domains to drive new clients for his business. Leveraging a network of 20-25 geo domains, my friend averages 2-3 bookings a months from these sites. At $10 annual cost per domain, his ROI is better than any other advertising medium.

This begs the question, why do many small businesses spend money on AdWords or SEO, while ignoring unregistered geodomains that are pertinent to their profession. The answer is that most small business owners don’t appreciate the SEO benefits and natural direct navigation that can be found on many geodomains. Even if the geodomains gets 3-5 unique a month, provided that one person buys from your business each year – then you geodomains represent a low cost alternative to many advertising solutuions. Geodomains represent an excellent source of new business and pay for themselves (sometimes in spades)