With the interest in hyper local, the internet community has recognized the value in domains that may get only 10-100 unique visitors each month. For a local professional, owning a hyper local domain is a low cost alternative to advertising on vertical directories. If 1 out of every 10 visitors converts to a lead (by filling out the contact us form) and 1 out of every 3 leads converts to a paying customer, a domain with 30 unique a month would mean 12 new customers each year. Not bad for a domain name with an annual cost of $10-$20.

In the past week, my company has gotten leads on the following domains:

BaltimoreReception.com
SyracusePhotographers.com
CincinnatiVideographer.com
ProvidenceDJs.com
OaklandDJs.com
AtlantaOfficiants.com
DenverOfficiants.com
CharlotteOfficiants.com

All these domains were available for registration by local photographers, videographers, djs, and wedding officiants. We regged the domains to generate leads for our local advertisers. They could have easily been regged by local professionals looking for new customers via direct navigation traffic. All these domains, except SyracusePhotographers.com, were available until last summer. There are still many other hyper local domains available for registration. Each day, internet users type hyper local addresses into their browser, only to be disappointed when it does not bring up a local businesses’ web site.

Spend 15 minutes of go daddy and see what hyper local domains in your specialty are available for registration. If you are an lawyer, you can procure new customers without owning Lawyers.com

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)

One thing I have noticed is that most small business owners keep tabs on their competitors. Even in large cities, the number of companies offering a similar service is manageable. Potential clients are a great source of Intel about competitors because most clients touch base with a handful of competitors, before making a final purchase decision. During a meeting with a prospective client, you might overhear a comment that one of your competitors is not accepting new clients because they are going retire.

If one of your competitors is going out of business, I would try to buy their domain name. While contacting a competitor and inquiring about a domain name can be awkward, there is a way of discretely procuring domains without picking up the phone. If a domain isn’t renewed, chances are that it will show up on sites like Snapnames.com and Namejet.com. These sites allow people to catch domains before they drop off the active roles and expire. Normally, you can pay between $50 and $100 and pick up your former competitor’s domain name.

Why it is important to acquire domains from former competitors? Well, there is a good chance that your competitor has spent significant resources trying to drive traffic to their site. If you own the domain, you can take advantage of their hard word. As long as an active site is maintained, the old back links will continue, providing a continual stream of traffic to your business.

Another advantage is that you can take advantage of their SEO placement. If the competitor has a higher rank on Google, Yahoo, or Bing for preferred hyper local keywords – then you can take over their position in the results by building a landing page that links users to your primary website. You can also use a request more information form to convert users into leads – enabling you to call the prospective client and introduce your product or service.

So next time you hear that a competitor is going out of business, check the expiration date on their domain names. After their domain expires, perform periodic searches on Snapnames.com and Namejet.com to see if you can get your hands on this valuable asset before it is lost forever in the vastness of cyberspace.