A few weeks back, I picked up bells.org on the drop. I grabbed it because it’s a short keyword domain name with a decent exact global monthly search volume of 27,000 and cpc of .49 cents, depending on where you look. I haven’t owned, developed or sold any .org names in the past, but I couldn’t resist this one after seeing it on Shane’s drop list. Now that I’ve had it and tossed around a few ideas, I’d like to ask you what your thoughts are. Here are a few things I am thinking of, but open to suggestions.
1. Flip it
Initially, I was thinking I should just sell the name. There are plenty of companies by the name of “Bell” or “Bells,” not to mention family surnames. It could make a cool short email address if nothing else. I think it’s worth more than I paid for it.
2. Develop it
I’ve been interested in setting up an e-commerce / drop ship site and this might be a good one to start with. There are a couple of options here. First, there are those huge bells you see in parks and churches. I’m sure those suckers are pretty expensive (and tough to ship). Another option could be smaller bells, hand bells, collectible bells, and electric bells. I haven’t done any drop shipping before, so finding a good partner may be difficult. Another challenge here is that .org has historically been used for not-for-profit organizations. This is changing and there is a push from Public Interest Registry, the official manager of .ORG, to raise brand awareness as I reported back in July. Another favorable fact is the success Morgan Linton has had with kayaking.org (although I don’t know the specific figures).
3. Hang on to it
There’s always the option of just hanging on to the name for future use. Be it for investment or for future development. Seems like a safe option, but not too much fun.
4. Build a mini site on it
I have also though about just developing a few pages of content and working on some pay-per-click ads. I need to experiment more with this type of monetization and I’d expect this domain to rank fairly well.
What would you do if you had this domain? One of the options above or something else? Let’s assume dropping it is not one of the options I’m looking for here. I’m look forward to your comments on this one. Whichever direction I go, I’ll blog about it along the way.
8 comments
I’ll be curious to see what you end up doing. I picked up epoxy.org in a GoDaddy auction close to a year ago for a nice price and have a WordPress blog up on the site now. In addition to the CPC ads, I also sold one link on the site and have just about made back what I paid for the domain at this point. Now I’m considering either building it out further (might give epik a try), or attempting to flip to an end user… just have yet to make up my mind. I think that bells.org is a very similar name, quality-wise, and that you’d do well by throwing up a blog and adding a few relevant articles to add value while you determine your plan of action. Best of luck.
@Epoxy. That’s good to hear. Encouraging.
Mike, I chose all 4 options for you. It’s a great pickup. I’m not too much into .ORG’s and .NETS. However, I did pick up S65.ORG. Needless to say that Valuate gives it a healthy sum; do you mind telling me how much you paid for it?
Domain
Appraisal
Freq. Searches Traffic Comp. CPC com/net/org Sell It
Bells.org $13,000 37,300,000 91,020 0 high $0.83 All Taken
S65.org $4,800 22,600,000 2,000 0 high $0.67 All Taken
@Uzoma, I originally posted what I paid for it but I took it down because if I decide to sell it, I don’t want to make it so easy to fin :). If interested, email me. At some point I’ll re-reveal the purchase price or send it out to newsletter subscribers.
I have been having some good luck in selling .orgs lately. I mostly look for service/activity names with the extension, though. With this one, I would first try to flip it by targeting services with the name “Bell’s.”
An ecommerce site could work with this one, but it would rely on search engine rankings, and I could be wrong, but I think climate at Google is becoming less favorable for small ecommerce sites. Also, I like .org, but I really don’t think ecommerce fits the extension that well.
Bells.org is a nice name, though. Good luck!
I have been wondering what to do myself with Compacts.org I picked up a little ways back. I never moved a .org yet myself either and thought to take a gamble on it. Best wishes and keep us posted.
I would sell it. I think most people nowadays expect a non profit when they go to a .org site so I try and avoid setting up for profit sites on .orgs.
@Gino, thanks for the comment. I’m thinking about selling but I also think I could rank well, so no final decision is made yet 🙂