It all started with just a few domains and then grew into something much bigger than that. Here we are well into 2009 and those guys now have 600 prime websites and matching toll-free vanity lines in 27 consumer channels. Sounds good right? Of course.. They have all been mass developed and the same backend is used across the entire network. They were able to cut back on a lot of the costs and get the most bang for their buck. Very very smart.
The guys had a great business strategy and executed it pretty well over the years. Only one thing though... They choose to go with all of the wrong domains. Argh :( They went with .US ccTLD domains. Really bad move. I am sure they were sold on all of the hype on this ccTLD back around 2003/2004 and all of that good stuff and they invested heavily in acquiring all of the best keyword domains in .US such as Prestamos.us (loans) Turismo.us (tourism) Salud.us (health) Compras.us (shopping) and so on and so on.
From the Latinos.us website
"US Latinos are now the fastest growing market segment in the United States - both offline and online.
Anticipating this explosion in US Latinos buying power and the major opportunity to first movers, Latinos.us has assembled and developed a unique and unmatchable Intellectual Property vertical. Latinos.us, LLC owns and controls the top 600 prime, generic Spanish Internet addresses under the “.us” top level domain - together with their valuable matching mnemonic Toll-Free vanity numbers.
These powerful combinations create instant brands with high recognition and recall value, and simultaneously converge online and offline marketing and communication channels. Thus, the Latinos.us Network was designed and built strategically for our near and long term goals - to leverage inherit marketing advantages into future market dominance"
Check out the entire list of "channels" on their website at Latinos.us --- they have the best keywords, without a doubt, but .US ccTLD sucks big time and this is why the three very smart guys, after all this years are still searching for answers. If only they had spent the money on some decent .com domains or went after the native ccTLD in mexico or wherever else they wanted to create a presence in...
They would of been VERY successful and rolling in some really nice 6 figure profits monthly because they had great vision early on!!! Coulda.. Shoulda... Woulda. It's better to realize your mistakes tho, than not to realize em at all if you know what I mean... Are you with me??! Are you following?? Ok... ;) From what it looks like, they have been trying to make this network "work" for at least a couple of years now but it doesn't look like they will get anywhere.
All because of the damn domains. It's so freakin important to get that part right. Especially when you are going to mass develop hundreds or thousands of websites. They have a very ambitious "business plan" which is detailed on their website, and the really nice market to target, but with the .US domains.... It's hopeless. I have personally never developed a .US domain in my life... Maybe I have 1 or 2??! I don't remember... Really! LOL :(
Recently one of the principles in their company contacted me and inquire about the new Domain Mass Development services. Unfortunately, we do not produce anything in any other languages but English, so we couldn't help them... But here is what they need to do in order to turn things around. This is free advice for them, and all of you readers, who are in the same position or if you are currently considering developing out lots of ccTLD domain names. Be it .US or .IN or .JP .CN and whatever else. There sure as hell many of them... LOL :)
Forget about the .US domains. Forget about whatever domains you are stuck and/or struggling with to turn in a decent profit. You have the backend. You have the business plan. Take it and run. Run fast... OK? Now, go ahead and apply it somewhere else but this time, make sure to choose the right name. Those things called domains don't usually make or break your biz, but if you are going to get a really shitty and long shot domain, such as .US... You got a lot of obstacles coming your way. You better have millions of dollars to spend on the marketing of the businesses and be ready to work extra extra hard.
So, really.. Why make your life miserable? Just do the required research. Do some due diligence. Pick the domains that will make your life easier. It is the exact match keyword in com/net/org or the ccTLD of the country that you are trying to target. It is that simple. It really is. Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. In the USA, that extension would be .COM and not .US. Duh!! Also read what Rand Fishkin said in an interview I did with him a while back in regards to domain names and businesses development. Heck, read it a few times and be sure to invest in good keyword domains. Those go to work for you right away!
If the exact match keyword domain isn't available to register or simply way too expensive and you don't have the budget, simply add to it an "e" or "i" or just add towards the end "info" or "web" "guide" before the extension. Search on Google.com for any random commercial keyword or phrase. There is usually at least 30% - 50% of the top sites that aren't exact match keyword domains coming up and ranking very well, but they are domains that contain at least one of the keywords being searched. Duh!! SEO 101... Learn all about it!!!
The search engines love keyword domains and they love gTLD extensions that are proven and they will throw extra ranking points your way. Unfortunately .US isn't and you won't even get noticed. It sucks!! Stay away. There is a lot of ccTLD buzz going on this days and this was just a case study to show you folks that the failures are real and those three guys did everything right as far as business development goes and operating it for many years. The domain is what ruined everything or shall I say "holding them back" and you know it!!
Anyways, live and learn. The smart ones are able to catch on to this sooner rather than later, make the changes and accomplish what they set out to do. Sometimes it will take month's. Sometimes a year... But you do eventually have to realize this and face reality, in that things just aren't working out and it's time to make changes or simply move on. Be extra extra careful when you are dealing with country code top level domains. They are very tricky and definitely not for rookies. Much success to all with development... Cheers! :D
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