2Go Media, a Ft. Lauderdale company announced today probably the biggest investment to date in the .travel domain space.
The company, announced today:
“It has acquired the largest real estate domain name portfolio in the world, all within the .travel Top Level Domain. Each domain name is comprised of the top searched real estate keywords for more than 7,500 cities throughout the United States.
“2Go Media developed a location plus keyword domain name strategy based on research that found potential home buyers use location plus keyword-based phrases, not company or realtor names, to search for real estate online.”
“””2Go Media was founded by Michael S. Egan, former Chairman and CEO of Alamo Rent A Car, widely credited with transforming Alamo from a few Florida locations into the industry powerhouse it is today. His expertise in connecting people via the literal highways of yesterday naturally evolved into connecting people via the virtual highways of today. Backed by a team of Internet, technology and travel industry veterans, Mr. Egan has built one of the world’s largest online media portfolios.”””
Its quite an investment and building out an entire network based on .Travel domains is unprecedented.
It will be interesting to see if this strategy pays off but is certainly good news for anyone holding quality .travel domains
It’s not the biggest in terms of traffic. 🙂
He’ll have to earn it/leverage it on those domains.
massive gamble
One of those PR’s that made me scratch my head…. Not a single domain announced in the article and I really question using .Travel domains relating to Real Estate. Travel and Hotels go hand in hand. Travel and restaurants go hand in hand. Travel and entertainment go hand in hand.. but not so much buying real estate (home) and travel.
Jamie
Give them a call.
Just the renewal fees alone make this a six figure investment in .travel
no big deal here i figured this out more than 5 yrs ago,homebuyers are not interested in realtors this is why the nar is a failure. the nar should have informed their flock that location is the search term not some idiot realtor.this is why the domain king stated is there any sign of intelligent life out there?
as for using .travel we can all see that .ws,.pro,is a total failure..us is struggling so is .info and now here comes .travel with an unrelated catagory prior success in any industry does not warrant future sucess. so this escapade will be a failure….
I called and the first person I spoke with was not able to answer the majority of questions…. like
Were the domain names “new registrations” or all purchased from an entity other than the registry.
How was it decided to use the .Travel TLD and not a TLD like .us since you had stated the terms were already registered in .com?
Since the .Travel registry requirements for registration include being in one the 21 sectors of the “travel industry” as stated and Real Estate not being one of the 21, how were you able to get by this requirement and be accepted?
A couple questions that were answered.
Examples of the domain names? OaklandParkRealEstate.travel OaklandParkHomes.travel OaklandParkProperties.travel
When do you plan on having all the domain names devleoped? By the end of the year.
I was then transferred to somebody who could better answer my questions, in which I was put on hold for about 15 minutes and the line was disconnected. 🙂
I sure would of like to hear the answer to the “21 sectors” question and Real Estate not being one of the sectors and how they were approved.
.Travel???
“Backed by a team of Internet, technology and travel industry VETERANS, Mr. Egan has built one of the world’s largest online media portfolios.”
These so called “VETERANS” should be playing with dominos, instead of with domains.
.Travel
puhhhhh, what a way to burn funds
Doesn’t this sound like a newbie mistake who has deep pockets?
Looks like they’ve broken one of the cardinal rule no-no’s for a newbie. DON’T register a bunch of NO TRAFFIC ‘themed’ domains for a ‘network’.
Anyone remember the guy that just recently crashed and burned that tried doing the real estate themed auction? I think the names were CityRealEstateSales.com or something similar. Gutsy move, flawed from the inception. VERY painful to watch unfold, like this one will surely be…..
“but is certainly good news for anyone holding quality .travel domains”
probably better news for anyone holding the .com versions of the .travel names 🙂
Ugh.
They’d do far, far better had they invested the same money in one great city.com name/site . . . and the renewal fee’d only cost ’em $10/yr thereafter.
Wow, I’m completely dumb-founded here. This sounds like a huge rookie mistake.
@Steve M. , you’re exactly right. Could’ve bought several incredible [city]realestate.com’s for that price
It is not my money, so why do I care.
Good for the economy and thanks for injecting cash to the travel economy
Interesting move. Possibly with lots of SEO work it can be turned into something, but not sure if this extension is or was the best choice.
It reminds me of http://www.yourcity.md I wonder how that business is doing? They have some ugly Google ads jammed in above the header which doesn’t look very professional and I wouldn’t think it encourages doctors to list. Most of the cities are a PR1, which is not very good since they have been going since 2004 according to the copyright notice in the footer. However, I think it is a better extension match than real estate+travel.
It could work out for them, depending on the look/feel of their site(s), and whether visitors find real ‘value’ in what they’re offering.
Their focus on the ‘real estate prospectors’ market is going to severely limit their upside potential, though. There’s certainly more money to be made from the travel market (especially with this portfolio) than from house-hunters.
But I’m a big fan of owning thematic portfolios – so I wish them the best of success.
Let .travel die already
Hope it works out for them.
They could have and more then likely should have taken that $600k and invested it into one or a few category killer real estate domains. Oh and it would have cost them all of $7 per domain instead of $90. Furthermore, I can’t even recall the last time I went to a .travel domain or seen one in the SERPS. Im really confused on this one.
I should clarify on my last comment that it would cost them $7 to renew instead of $90. The purchase price would obviously be significantly more.
Isn’t .travel for travel agencies?
Real estate and .travel !!!
My tiny brain has problem connecting them together.
Again, if you have a pile of cash behind you, then you can buy the success!
Hi Everyone,
I’d like to answer some of the questions you’re all asking here about 2Go Media and our position in the .travel domain. First of all, I sincerely apologize to you, Jamie. The press release somehow cut off my extension number and the call unexpectedly came into the call center and (even worse!) was answered by a new employee unfamiliar with how to transfer a call or who to transfer it to. We had a special training session for all call center employees today to make sure this never happens again.
2Go Media is dedicated to creating products and services that help the .travel domain (and by extension, the travel industry) thrive. On that note, we sincerely believe that real estate is a very significant part of the travel industry. Whenever people travel, they look at local real estate and often choose to stay in vacation rentals and time shares. Additionally, every day hundreds of thousands of people are relocating to new cities, states and even countries, and the majority of those relocations include a real estate transaction of some kind.
These are the reasons we chose the .travel domain over other domains suggested here. Our real estate domain portfolio is made up of names purchased directly from the registry as opposed to another entity. The names were chosen based on careful research and comprise the backbone of our Billboard Marketing Platform for real estate agents.
That being said, we are set to launch a number of products and services in the near future being developed to benefit hotels, restaurants, night clubs and many other businesses within the .travel domain. If you’d like to know more about any of them, check out our website at http://www.2GoMedia.travel.
Or feel free to contact me with any other questions you may have.
Thanks,
Tracy Stockwell
Sr. Manager Communications and Marketing
2Go Media
tstockwell@2GoMedia.travel
877.785.7669 x 3430
To clarify the above: our domains are purchased from an approved registrar of the registry, as opposed to another entity.
Hope that clears things up.
Tracy Stockwell