You may be watching TV and see a brand name that you are familar with, but in the TV ad the domain name they use looks a little fishy with an added Number to the domain like Restasis37.com .
Marketing companies use a "different" domain name in the ad, as they want to track the ad and see how it’s doing. Using a specific domain name can help track this.
To me, this is just stupid. Why add a number to the brand name! It makes it look fishy, unprofessional and can confuse the customer more then anything.
When adding a number to a brand name for tracking purposes, the average foke just is not aware WHY this added number is on the domain. This in return, makes people use a search engine like Yahoo or Google and "search the term" if they even consider visiting due to it looking fishy.
If you do search the net with Restasis37 or Restasis 37 or even Restasis37.com, it may even get a bit more fishy!
Since the domain name simply forwards to their main site, the domain name will not rank in search engines. Since part of your search term matches the brand name, it’s likely the company advertises online for the brand term. This not only costs the company More Money, but when the ad says Official Site with a different domain name.. it makes one think that Restasis37.com is NOT an official site of the brand!
Add in the domain name registration costs and the lack of value in the domain name when they are done with it… editing cost for the ad changing the domain name and it =’s FAIL in my book!
IMO, using a Make Sense generic domain name is the right thing to do! Since Restasis® is Eye Drops, why not use EyeDrops.com!
Not only do people Naturally search for Eye Drops on the internet, building a minisite with the domain name will help Rank the site in the search engines for related terms. If the company doesn’t want to spend the money for EyeDrops.com or can not purchase it, use something that Makes Sense to your product or advertising!
Oh wait, Restasis DOES own ChronicDryEye.com but I only have seen them use that domain once in an ad! Go figure, they built a minisite on that domain name and rank #1 on Google for the term chronic dry eye! They rank #4 on Google for the plural term. They got it right Once, so why don’t they keep using that domain in ads? Not sure!
Restasis owns several domain names with Restasis and numbers added to the domain name. They use Network Solutions to register domain names at $34.99 Per domain, per year. Restasis37.com has been registered since 2004. Add in all the "other" number added domains and it all starts adding up!
According to whois, this is not ALL Restasis’ fault, because the domains are registered to an advertising company.. but Restasis hired and continues to work with them.
Advertising is expensive and competitve. Allow your domain names to work for you and for a long time! Restasis should really learn from the ChronicDryEye.com domain they used. It works. Adding "numbers" to the brand name to track TV ads just doesn’t work for a lot of reasons, which I stated above.
Fester
Jaime,
There’s a domain listed at Sedo that has me very, very intrigued — it’s GetRelevant.com. There’s no price listed on this one and I haven’t made an offer yet, but with SEO conversion rates becoming (IMO) more and more critical to penny-pinching companies, I would think this would be a great domain name for a company with a solid SEO plan or program. I’m thinking of grabbing it now (if the price is under $3,000) and holding on for an eventual $100K. What do you think?
Borat
Fester
I hope that is your name that you are trying to pitch to Jamie’s blog visitors using reverse psychology. You’ll get $100k from a bank with an initial $3k investment faster than that name will bring you $100k.
If you don’t own it and you think that could be a $100k name, WTF are you doing with a $3k limit? Don’t be a pansy.
Fester
Borat,
Are you kidding me? Buy low and sell high, my friend. Maybe it wouldn’t ever bring $100K (I just threw that number out there), but I could see it bringing maybe half that (MAYBE; which is why I ALWAYS set limits for my purchases).
And I thought I was the novice at this stuff…
Fester
By the way, BORAT — don’t give me grief for asking Jaime’s advice. This blog is PACKED with more useful (and FREE) information than any other domaining blog I’ve seen. You’d have to be an idiot to ignore Jaime’s opinion on anything domain-related. And the fact that he will sometimes give input on domains you’re watching and thinking about is extremely giving on his part.
Now go back to your cartoons, Borat.
Jamie Zoch
@Fester,
GetRelevant.com is again a domain name that I would not invest in. The chances of buying low and selling high are pretty poor on this domain name. Checkout the YTD domain sales on DnJournal.com and you can get an idea of what domains are selling for what price. You will notice that domain names similar to “GetRelevent.com” would likely not even be listed in the weekly reports.
Fester
Jaime,
Thanks for the DnJournal heads-up. Nice info on that site.
Again, thanks for your advice/input — it’s appreciated.
Fester
BTW, I just tried to make an offer of $100 for getrelevant.com — MINIMUM bid is $10,000!!!! No thanks:(