Hi all, I recently bought a domain from a member here with the idea that i am going to use it to become an affiliate of a large (and i mean large) cruise company. The domain is an exact match for the 246,000 searches for the company globally per month and so the traffic to the site once i develop it should be massive. I have looked into the affiliate rules that they have set out and there is nothing about domains not been allowed to contain their name and so i will be pushing the site hard to get to the top of what seems to be an easy niche to crack. The earnings on the site will be via commissions that are paid by 3rd party companies for visitors making bookings through the site at a rate of 3% of the final booking fee. As you can imagine, a cruise can vary in price from a couple of thousand up to $xx,xxx and more. Any thoughts on the worth of: www.norwegiancruiselines.net The .com is a redirect to the main company website. Should also note that the trademark held by the company is for NCL as a brand. Thanks P.S Please ignore the site that is sat on the domain at the moment, this was placed so that there was something that the SE's could pick up while i have my custom design created. P.S.S I feel that i should mention that i have worked within the travel industry and more specifically worked for Thomas Cook as the cruise team manager so i have dealt with the cruises that the company offer and the biggest i saw was for £75,000 GBP.
NCL? I've been on one of their cruises, it was a massive ship (99,000 tonnes I believe). Best one I've ever been on, they had a bowling alley, around 14 restaurants, swimming pools etc etc etc! Good luck Ps: My dad owns a travel agency and I think this domain has some great value!
I did a quick US trademark check and found that "norwegian cruise line" was, indeed, trademarked. Note the singular, not the plural. I'm not an expert on trademarks but I'd say this doesn't bode well for you. Wouldn't it be easier for you to contact the trademark owner and get written permission from them first? It'd be easier and less costly for you to do it that way than have them take it from you and sue for lost income and damages. Let them know you worked in the travel industry and your .net website would only add to, not take away from, their .com website. Also, figure that of the 246k global searches done each month, about 10% would go to their site via direct navigation. But those direct navigators would use the .com extension, not the .net. What percentage of direct navigators would use the .net extension? A small percentage but I imagine you'd still have a good number of visitors. But long story short, because of possible TM issues, I don't know what to make of value.
I have approached the company and requested their permission to be able to use the site to improve the companies online presence. Hopefully the information that i have provided to the company will show them that i am serious about creating a website that will turn a profit from the amount that i paid for the domain and so will increase their bookings further. Fingers crossed that the request to speak to the person in charge of media online and their promotions team, i will be able to create a deal with the company that will exclude the fact i have to use the Thomas Cook affiliate scheme as they don't have one that is directly linked with them.
Thanks i will do, i have also told them that if they want me not to use the domain then they could make me an offer for the domain. I have no issue with passing the domain over to them as long as the offer is acceptable in my eyes.