Why I choose a .co.uk domain for my magazine

My aim is to generate UK traffic, and the below points cover why. In theory, if I put the domain onto a .co.uk I’m telling the search engines that my content is aimed at folks in the UK, so my pages will get listed in the UK search engines such as google.co.uk and yahoo.co.uk

Here’s why I’ve chosen a .co.uk domain over a .com:

More bang for my Baht

Okay, the pound has lost a lot of value to the baht in the last year but it’s still not as bad as the dollar. I also think that the dollar will further decrease in value more than the pound will over the next year. I’m no financial advisor, these are just my gut feelings. By targeting UK visitors, I can charge advertisers in pounds and convert those pounds into baht.

Established UK advertisers

One of the hardest things for a magazine to accomplish is filling ad spaces. I’ve already sold 75% of my ads (yes, even before launching!) to UK companies that I already have relationships with. I could have sold them all, but I wanted to keep a couple for myself to understand the true value of those spots and to see if I can further increase the value of those advertising spaces.

Many on-line magazines and web sites work there rates out based on CPM - Cost per mille - Millie is a Latin word for thousand. This is a basic metric dividing cost of the ad space per page views, which totals the CPM. Most sites charge between $1 to $2 CPM.

Let’s say the site has a few 125 x 125 sized ad spots, you basically fill those positions with creative pointing to various different affiliate programs. Within a day you will know how much that ad is worth, keeping in mind how page views that ad has had, by looking at your stats to see how much revenue that one banner generated. It’s important to test different artwork and different products/services to really work out the true value of the ad as they will all perform differently. Once you have tested and recorded the data, you’ll know how much that ad spot is worth. Once I know what an ad spot is worth, I’ll add an additional 10 to 20% to the rate for direct advertisers.

I know the Market

I’m British, so out of all the countries in the world, I understand British people more than any other people. I can use this to my advantage when deciding what content to publish on the mag. Take for example British humor… it’s unique and it’s different from US humor. These little things can make the difference in the quality of content you can put out onto a magazine.

More choice

Most good .com’s have gone, and unless you have a budget for buying a premium .com domain name, your selection is going to be really small. There are a lot more good .co.uk domains available than .com so it’s kind of easier to get a good one. I was extra lucky that I could, and wanted to, add “mag” at the end.

The downside for putting your site on a .co.uk domain is branding, unless you can get the .com domain extension and re-direct it to to the .co.uk. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get the .com as yet, but I’m working on it

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What are your thoughts about the advantages and disadvantages of using a .co.uk over a .com?