While doing some general research, I came across the RootOrange.com web site. Their business is built on the technology to share a single domain across multiple businesses in multiple cities, stating that you can increase Click-Thrus by 45-105% with a Generic Domain. I reached out to RootOrange.com for some additional information and here is what Camilo Acosta, a company representative, had to say.
Mike: Can you give a little background on your RootOrange.com? How long you’ve been in business, number of employees, how long you’ve had your business online, etc.
RootOrange: We’ve been in business for just over a year and currently have six employees. We went live with our website at SXSW on March 15th. We were finalists at the SXSW Accelerator competition that week.
Note: The 2010 Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator showcased 32 of the hottest startups in a heated competition for most innovative in four categories: Entertainment, Innovative Web Technology, Personal Social Media, and Business Social Media.
Mike: What is it that RootOrange does for domain owners. Your approach to making domains load different business websites based on geographic location is unique.
RootOrange: Though we own domains of our own, the vast majority of names in our system are owned by domain owners large and small. Many have been struggling to monetize their domains since the demise of parking over the last few years. We currently do not work with geo-domains because of the limited sales scope they offer. Our focus, for the time being, is strictly on keyword domains.
Mike: Do you have any competition? Your site mentions patented technology.
RootOrange: Nope!
Mike: How many domains are operating under this approach at the moment? What are some of those domain names?
RootOrange: We have several thousands of domains under management. Our top tier includes names such as Attorney.com, DivorceLawyer.com, and YogaClasses.com
Mike: What appears if a particular region does not have someone leasing the domain space?
RootOrange: At the moment you get a Root Orange splash page in those regions. That will hopefully be changing soon – stay tuned!
Mike: What have your customers had to say about the service?
RootOrange: Customers love it and are using it in creative ways we hadn’t thought of before. One of our enterprising customers pointed the domain he got from us to his business’s Facebook page! Check out our Customer of the Month profiles on our home page for some success storie! There are also several testimonials on our website as well.
Mike: What struggles have you faced?
RootOrange: One struggle is educating the public that we’ve shattered the old paradigm of ‘one domain, one website.’ Now many websites can use the exact same domain.
Mike: Is there any additional technology or services in the works that we’ll see soon from RootOrange?
RootOrange: Our goal is to further refine our location targeting so we can get down to the zip code level and beyond.
