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A rush of group buying sites have hit the web in the past year using domain names like WowWhatSavings.com and TownHog.com. This might surprise some of you, but a lot of the group buying sites aren’t using category killer domains or even purchasing names on the aftermarket – they’re hand registering the domains.

Though category killer names have not lost their allure, online startups focusing on budget are setting up their websites with domain names available to any one. While some of the domain names might sound puzzling – like GetGrouby.com just registered in March – the startup entrepreneurs are showing .com is still what they’re focusing on.

Group Buying Online Startups, and their Domain names

While it can be a struggle for startups to pick and buy a great domain, many of the websites using hand registered domains, have been quite succesful at group buying – others not so much, but the group buying craze is still early, and players getting into the game now even with so-so names, could see it paying dividends later.

TownHog.com was registered in October 2009. In April, the website had nearly 20,000 visitors according to Compete.

CrowdSavings.com registered in July 2009 recently hit 12,000 visitors per month.

There are plenty of group buying websites who plucked their hand registered domain names in the past year, here are just a few.

LocalGroupDeals.com was registered in october 2009.

GetGrouby.com was created in March 2010.

Youvegottagetit.com registered in April 2009.

The news of Bodog’s Founder Calvin Ayre purchasing Slots.com for $5.8 million USD was revealed at the beginning of this month. The landmark sale is one more for the record books for gaming-related domain names in 2010 as Poker.org sold in February for a whopping $1,000,000 USD.

And the purchase of the category-killing name, will likely be one more for the Bodog record books — as Calvin Ayre has built a Billion-dollar empire starting with just $10,000 in cash, so imagine the possibilities when Bodog gets to work on Slots.com.

Were you tempted to guess at the mystery buyer of Slots.com in mid May?

Well, if you were already a regular reader of Calvin’s website (Calvin Ayre) on May 15th, you may have picked up on the hints that staff writer Peter Amsel wrote about in a story titled “Slots.com domain sold for $5.5M, buyer still a mystery“…

The online gaming industry is abuzz with the news that Slots.com, the second most valuable generic gaming domain (after Casino.com), has been sold at auction for U.S. $5.5M. Industry analysts say that Slots.com is even more valuable than Poker.com since the market for slots is a lot bigger than poker. No other generic gaming brand would even come close.

Bodog Poker Network CEO Patrik Selin reports that the Poker.com domain recently sold for $10M US, making the $5.5M purchase of Slots.com one of the most astute purchases in the history of the online gaming industry. It’s clear that the domain’s current traffic numbers (est. 15,000 unique visitors per day) are not nearly where they could be in the hands of a team that knows how to optimize for the consistently large ’slots’ searches. When details emerge on the identity of the purchaser and their plans for the domain, you’ll find all the info right here on CalvinAyre.com….”

The message may have been hard to deduce in May, as many in the gaming industry were celebrating the sale on a number of news outlets — but on the other hand, the writing in the message seems a lot more clear now.

This is going to be one fun domain to watch as development gets underway.

In a story posted today on CalvinAyre.com, Dan Taylor a staff writer for the website acknowleged the domain industry and a recent Fusible.com story that appeared online which discussed how Calvin Ayre, the founder of the Bodog Brand and buyer of Slots.com for $5.8 million USD, now has the best of both worlds when it comes to dominating the online gaming industry.

Namely, deep branding expertise and a category-killing name: Slots.com.

The story titled “Slots.com set to blow away the competition“, reaffirmed what many in the domain industry already know, but Calvin’s competition may not:

…that Bodog is going to wreak serious havoc on its competition with its category killing name Slots.com.

It’s nice to be noticed for news stories which Calvin even commented on, and it’s great to see the Billionaire founder of Bodog taking his talents with building and branding into the Slots.com domain.

Slots.com is going to be an unstoppable brand.

Although most kids may have no idea about the financial and marketing power of domain names – other than knowing the web address of their favorite sites online – they can help create new ideas for registering available domain names and for spotting undervalued domain names.

Not only are kids very creative, they often know about trends within their own age groups that people outside their age group haven’t connected with.

While it’s easy to stick with “what you know” when it comes to buying/selling domains — “what you don’t know” could present a lot of opportunities once you are connected.

Kids expect to find info, online

For instance, kid’s come home with schoolwork that covers a variety of subjects about math, science, vocabulary and a range of topics studied in the classroom all over the country. Having a kid research a subject such as whales and the ocean, the internet becomes one of the first stops for getting the information.

Did you know there were mammals called Bottle Nose Whales? There are two species that closely resemble the bottlenose dolphin, but are far greater in size. After searching online for more information, only to find wikipedia to have the most useful information – and to find the URL bottlenosedolphins.com didn’t resolve – we registered BottleNoseWhales.com.

Sure, it’s not a product domain and doesn’t have a significant search volume, but there are people searching on the term. And this is just scratching the surface.

Kids’ trends are always changing, but anyone with kids can tell you they can be a great source of ideas, particularly with domain names. And when it comes to schoolwork, the subjects aren’t trends that will be going away anytime soon.