Looking for suggestions

[loudog]

I own the domain real-estate-website .com and am looking for some ideas as to what to do with it. It has some age on it (6 years) and could probably be useful if I actually did something with it.

I considered installing a blog on it but was wondering if anyone had anything more creative. I would be more than willing to use it for mutual benefit if someone can give me a good idea.

[RealEstateCompany.ca]

Hi Lou,

I think this domain would be great to set it up as a real estate website template affiliate site. Here you can see some really professional real estate template examples that you could have as an affiliate:Template Monster

You could also setup a Real Estate Related Site Directory like the one on my sig.

Good luck with it.

David

[webmaster]

Hey Lou,
Age of the domain is of no value to you IF it has had nothing on it and no links, the clock starts as soon as it has content AND links.

Honestly this-hyphen-doman.com's have little to no branding potential, and because keywords don't matter in the domain name in today's Google - I wouldn't spend the time trying to "force" an idea into it.

[loudog]

Morgan - Thanks for the advice. I have had it cash parked for a while, so there was content and links on it but that is probably the same as having nothing at all.

In terms of having keywords in the domain, I have read a lot of stuff lately that is on both sides of the argument. Have you seen stuff straight from Google on it or is it a result of your own testing or both?

David - Thanks for the suggestion, I will check it out and get back to you if I have questions.

[coastal]

Yup, hyphens definitely suck. When telling people the website name it's so much easier to say go to realestatechat . com than real hyphen estate hyphen chat dot com

You can promote any domain name and do well. The real advantage to a good domain name is that REAL PEOPLE will remember it if you come up with something good. Never discount the fact that we build sites both for REAL PEOPLE as well as the search engines.

Google on the other hand could care less if your domain name is rew.com or realestatewebmasters.com if you promote both of them the same the SEO results would be the same.

[loudog]

Yeah I know hyphens suck and I also know it has very little offline branding potential (being a two finger typist, I hate hyphens). That is precisely why I haven't used it for anything. The purpose of the post was to see if there was an out-of-the-box idea that could create some value around it.

[RealEstateCompany.ca]

I don't hyphens are that bad. I like them quite a bit. If you want to buy them for re-sale they are not that great but if you are planning on building a site, hyphen are perfect to market to certain keywords. I'll give you an example:

I have www.dollarlinking.ca, it was number one on google for a long time but now the hyphen is #1 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...nking&aq=f&oq=

I like hyphen because you can get really good quality keyword domain for a much better price, but you do have to develop it.

About

Yup, hyphens definitely suck. When telling people the website name it's so much easier to say go to realestatechat . com than real hyphen estate hyphen chat dot com

I wouldn't rely on word of mouth to be successful online, google is you #1 friend and keywords definitely works.

D

[coastal]

I'm guessing you are not a Realtor. While the internet is a HUGE source of BUYERS, word of mouth and local advertising is where we find our SELLERS!
You can't be a well rounded successful Realtor without a good deal of each.

[loudog]

I think you may have misunderstood what he said. It seemed to me he was speaking specifically about the effectiveness of the domain and not so much the success REALTOR's business.

[coastal]

But this is primarily a Realtor based message board and I'm saying a domain will be more successful if you both promote it on the web and locally. If we were dealing with a product where we never had to meet people in person or talk to them on the phone it would be a somewhat different story.

As to the effectiveness of a domain name in the search engines eyes I could promote the site dogpoo dot com for real estate just as well as myfavoriterealtor dot com

What did the word "google" have to do with searching before google became Google? Nothing! yet google is now synonymous with searching.

You can name a domain anything you want and get it to rank well. If you want to make it easy on humans who want to use your site in the future choose something easy to say, spell, remember and if possible make it eye catching.