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Image
from Bigstock
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"NorthDakota.com
came onto my radar for
three reasons,"
Colascione said. "#1 -
it was being sold by domain
broker Mark Thomas of
VIP
Brokerage who
has become a good friend
through the years of
attending domain name
events. We always manage to
have a good time at the
events we attend together,
especially NamesCon
and sometimes get together
outside of domaining
circles. Mark was
representing the seller and
has other premium GEO domain
names for sale."
"#2 - the
price; although I do not
want to release the exact
number the domain was
purchased for, it was
relatively |
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inexpensive
- under six figures,
and represents a geographic
area of the country which is
growing rapidly with
jobs due to its agriculture
and oil riches. My ownership
interest will be assigned
when the business has earned
back its initial purchase
price that was provided by
an investor that I have
already done several
successful projects with. At
that point I’ll
immediately acquire a third
of the business."
"#3
- after exiting
LongIsland.com and moving
off of Long Island, I wanted
to remain in the geo
domain business since I
have so much experience in
it and this time, I found
interest in doing an entire
State, instead of a
region, city or town,"
John said.
Colascione
wasted no time getting a new
site online. We asked him
about what is there now and
what he has planned for it
in the year ahead?
"I
trashed the old site which
was built on a platform was
old and I was unfamiliar
with, transitioning the site
to Wordpress, which
is very easy to use,"
John noted. "While I do
love Wordpress, I’m not
sure how it will work for a
geo domain, but I chose it
to control cost and
installed a Wordpress plugin
for a business directory.
I then obtained a CSV file
of all of the businesses
located in North Dakota and
stuffed that data into the
database immediately
creating over 100,000
listings which creates 100,000
pages of the site.
Search engines will index
these pages and the site can
then receive search engine
traffic for these listings
and will likely lead to
increased interest in adding
additional listings which
can be purchased and
upgraded. As far as the
future, I’m not completely
sold on the logo, or the
theme/design, so those may
change as time allows and I
may look to implementing
features and functions for
both real estate and
travel which is appropriate
for a geo domain."
Screenshot
from the new NorthDakota.com
Regarding
the distance between his
location and the subject of
the site, we had to ask how
difficult is it developing a
geo site that is not in
one's immediate locale
compared to doing it with
something closer to home as
LongIsland.com was for him?
"I
anticipate it will be much
more difficult as I will
not have the same
familiarity with the area
and will lead to more of a
learning curve in developing
its content and core
purpose," Colascione
allowed. "I’ll have
to see how it goes for now
but I would like to find a
local person to act as a
single sales person for the
entire site much like
LongIsland.com had in the
beginning, and they can then
reach out to local business
owners to find a happy
medium between cost and ROI
for advertising on the site
which is will be very
inexpensive as the site
needs to grow and mature
with time."
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Adding
to the challenge is
the fact that Colascione
also has other
businesses to run.
"
For the most part
what I do is consult
clients on the
development,
improvement,
maintenance and
marketing of their
sites for a retainer
fee through my
consultancy company,
Searchen
Networks.
However, I also
develop internet
properties for
myself and for
clients to increase
and boost lead
generation and/or to
earn revenue which
generates growth and
income to the
business so
that it makes
sense for them to
pay for my
consulting services
and development
time."
"When
I work on a project
it is either as a
consultant for a
client or a project
of my own; it’s
quite ambiguous and
that’s the way I
like it. All
projects are
designed to generate
revenue so that
I can maintain
the |
John
Colascione
(right) with Go
Daddy
Founder Bob
Parsons at the
2011 Wild West
Domains Reseller
Conference in
Arizona |
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servers,
marketing programs,
computer programming
talent, and revenue
to make a living
while creating
spin-off businesses
and endeavors which
I sometimes sell off
to someone else.
I’ve gone through
three or four
acquisitions and
mergers over the
years to keep
afloat. In a
nutshell, I help
guide businesses
with their SEO,
sponsored search
positioning, server
management,
outsourcing of their
web team (to save
money rather than
having an employee)
and build web
businesses which are
profitable. Most
everything I do is
geared towards
website monetization
and search engine
positioning."
That
may seem like a lot
of balls to juggle
at one time but
Colascione has been
doing it for almost
two decades now - so
if anyone can
successfully pull
off this unusual
coupling of a New
Yorker and North
Dakota - John is
probably just the
guy to pull that
rabbit out of his
hat. |
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