I some how landed on a site called SwagBucks.com (OK, I was using Alexa Hot Trends) and on that site I saw a nice big looking ad that really jumped out at me!
It jumped out at me because the domain, in what appeared to be an ad made a lot of sense! Packs of pencils and Pencils.com . I know it sounds crazy, but how do companies not understand the power of generic domain names!
We all know that #2 pencils that we used in school are pretty cheap but there are a lot more kinds of pencils then just the yellow #2′s!
Artist are pretty picky when it comes to the pencils they use and some of those are pretty pricey. If you are looking for pencils, what makes more sense then visiting Pencils.com!
The company that owns Pencils.com name is California Cedar Products. What if they tried to market Pencils using CaliforniaCedarProducts.com? Would that easily explain what they offer if somebody simply were to see the domain name? How many people do you think "naturally" go to a search engine and search for California Cedar Products? Not as many people that naturally search for Pencils! How many people would naturally type CaliforniaCedarProducts.com into the address bar? About 0!
The California Cedar Products Company get’s two big thumbs up from me for understanding the power of generic domain names and using Pencils.com as their online brand!
Pencils.com was first registered in 1996 @ Network Solutions. Pencils.com ranks # 1 and # 2 on Google for the search term Pencils! The company uses CalCedar.com for it’s company site and they would be like many other companies if they only owned that domain. Pencils.com set’s them clearly ahead of any pencil company in the world!
TeenDomainer
A great use of a great domain I love that they have the #1 and #2 spot in Google!
Jamie Zoch
Pencils.net also ranks in the top 10 on Page 1 of Google, but I didn’t want it to take away all the thunder from the king .com . That is out of over 11 Million results as well.
Jason
This makes a great deal of sense. Glad to see that they had the gusto to register or acquire such a domain name. Generic domains are here to stay!
george
Very good application of generic domain names.Everyone should take note!