Top Internet Retailer Shares Information On Domains

Christine Wilson contacted me regarding the domain Kegerator.com.  I soon learned that she is an Online Marketing Specialist for Living Direct, working mostly with our SEO and Social Media campaigns. Living Direct is ranked as a Top 500 Internet Retailer that began selling compact and specialty appliances in 1999 as CompactAppliance.com. Since then Living Direct has expanded the products they offer to include kitchen electrics, wine &  beer refrigeration, outdoor patio furniture and other housewares.

Mike:  Can you give a little background on your business at Kegerator.com?  How long you’ve been in business, number of employees, how long you’ve had your site online, etc.

Christine:  Kegerator.com was launched in November 2008 and is the 5th site Living Direct launched. There are between 50 and 60 employees, I believe, including our in-house call center and warehouse.

Mike:  Kegerator.com is part of the Living Direct Network.  Can you tell me more about this?  What other domains do you own?

Christine:  The Living Direct Network is made up of 8 retail sites owned and operated by Living Direct. The first site, CompactAppliance.com, launched in 1999, and it was followed by PortableAirShop.com in 2004. HotWaterSource.com came along in 2007, and LivingDirect.com and Kegerator.com both launched in 2008. More recently, SimplyDehumidifiers.com (2009), WineCoolerDirect.com (2009) and IceMakerDirect.com (2010) have been added to the Living Direct Network. LivingDirect.com and CompactAppliance.com have the largest product offering, while our other stores are specialized around a particular product category.

Mike:  Can you share the volume of traffic that Kegerator.com receives?

Christine:  Kegerator.com receives around 40K visitors a month, growing steadily.

Mike:  Do you have any other online marketing strategies that you follow?

Christine:  Yes, our marketing mix for Kegerator.com includes pay-per-click, display ads, SEO, social media, event sponsorship, and some print advertising.. We have also partnered with other beer related sites for cross-promotional campaigns, like Draft Magazine.

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?

Christine:  I had to ask our President about this since I wasn’t here back then and he says he honestly cannot remember exactly how we acquired the domain name. He knows we purchased it from a seller via a domain auction, but that’s all he could tell me.

Mike:  Any advice for individuals with great domain names looking to develop them?

Christine:  Don’t assume that traffic growth and top search engine rankings will happen just because your domain name is an exact keyword with significant monthly search volume. You need to provide compelling and relevant content/products to stay on top. Also get started early. New or unestablished domain names need time to age and develop a history with the big search engines. At a minimum, create a keyword-rich placeholder homepage for the domain and submit the site to search engines via their webmaster tools. Lastly, there has been talk that the search engines are going to change their algorithms so exact keyword domains don’t automatically appear at the top or on the first page for that search, so if you’re not already applying good SEO tactics to your site you could be hit hard by these changes.

Mike:  Do you think you would be willing to sell your domain at any point?  Have you ever received any unsolicited offers?

Christine:  Yes, our domains including Kegerator.com would be sold for the right price. A good offer would be considered, however, we haven’t received any suitable ones yet.

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