Diapers.com – Serious Type-In Traffic

I was a fan of the old sitcom, Cheers.  Every week Norm would walk in and take his seat and the patrons would yell “Norm!”  After that, Woody would sometimes ask, “How’s life treating you Mr. Peterson?”  The reply would differ from week to week, but the only one that sticks in my mind is “Like a baby treats a diaper.”

I’ve changed my fair share of diapers, so I am quite intimate with the topic.  Additionally, there has been some buzz around Diapers.com.  Matt Lindenberg, Associate Director of Marketing at Diapers.com and Yuriy Krivenko SEO Analyst, answered a few questions about Diapers.com.

Founded in Montclair, New Jersey by Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara, Diapers.com is the largest online specialist offering baby care necessities in the United States. As dads themselves, Marc and Vinit understand the world of diapers.

Mike:  Has owning the domain impacted your business?

Diapers.com:  Yes, diapers.com was essential to our record growth. The domain provided a great platform for our customers to find and buy various baby products. It was also instrumental in cutting our expenses and successfully building our brand reputation.

Mike:  What is the volume of traffic that your site receives?

Diapers.com:  We are working hard to grow our on-line presence and visibility. Diapers.com traffic volume closely follows both off-line and on-line marketing campaigns and our overall growth patterns.  The 2010 Internet Retailer 500 listed our monthly traffic at just under 1.6 million monthly visitors, a number that continues to grow.

Mike:  What other online marketing strategies do you follow?   What results have you seen from these?

Word-of-the-Mouth is the best strategy. Happy moms drive our record growth.  Aside from that, we have an extremely strong cross-channel marketing program, and are always testing new things.  We participate in most of the major programs you’d think of – affiliate, display, search, comparison shopping, and more.  We also have some major integration partnerships with sites like Babycenter.com and WhatToExpect.com.  We’ve seen strong results across the board, and are always looking for new and interesting ways to scale our business.

Mike:  Do you have other premium keyword domains?

Diapers.com:  Diapers.com is our primary domain; however, we are working on anther project. More information to come.

What is the main source of traffic to your site?

Diapers.com:  Returning customers are the most often visitors to our site. We get new customers by various marketing campaigns, including alliances with established websites, email campaigns, pay-per-click advertisement, organic traffic from Google and other sources.  We also have a very strong offline marketing program, including direct mail, print, hospital programs, television, and more.

Mike:  What percentage of traffic do you receive from type-in traffic?

Diapers.com:  Roughly half of our customers come from type-in traffic.

Mike:  What type of growth have you seen in traffic to the site, sales, etc.

Diapers.com:  Inc 500 ranked Diapers.com as the fastest growing retail company in the US in 2009. http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2009/company-profile.html?id=200900350.  We’re also #85 on the 2010 Internet Retailer 500.

Mike:  Did you purchase the name from someone else that owned it?  If so, what was the process you went through?  Will you share what you paid for the name?

Diapers.com:  Yes, the domain name was purchased.   Unfortunately, we cannot share the cost.

Mike:  Has the domain been worth the cost for you?
Diapers.com:   Yes, it is at the core of our business.

Mike:  Any advice for start ups, small business, or business of any size for that matter on choosing the right domain name?

Diapers.com:  The domain name should be ideally short, but represent the business well. Having a highly-competitive keyword in the domain URL also helps to conquer most of the search traffic for this keyword.

Mike:  What do your competitors think of your domain?  What do your customers think?

We’re not sure what competitors think of our domain. As for our customers, diapers.com associates well with our business, as the key replenishment item that forms our relationship with our moms. It is also easy to remember and type-in.
Mike:  Do you think you would be willing to sell your domain at any point?

Diapers.com:   The domain name is instrumental to our company and as such would not be sold.

As for the owners Diapers.com, life seems to be treating them well.   A generic domain with 50% type-in traffic probably the best example to be found.  I look forward to the other project in the works and hope to hear from Matt Lindenberg and Yuriy Krivenko again soon.