The Value of a Generic Brand
I am usually a fan of creating niche sites that are easy to link at and in profitable categories. In some cases generic sites can do well because they allow you to expand wherever the money is.
- Sites like NexTag can buy mortgage ads on Bankrate because they already have enough volume that it makes it easy for them to quickly build inventory whenever an arbitrage opportunity comes about.
- From an SEO standpoint generic websites are great for creating top 10 lists and other egobait driven publishing strategies which allow you to tap into link equity from established bloggers and other publishers.
- A site about coupons or reviews is heavily focused on a traffic stream of people looking to spend money.
- A site about trivia focuses on a traffic stream of people looking to waste time who will engage in quizes and zip submit offers.
The downside to many generic sites is it is hard to build a loyal following, but as long as SEO is driven by links maybe you don't need a following to make a lot of money.
Published: July 1, 2008 by Aaron Wall in business
Comments
What do you think about using generic branding in domain names but with TLDs that relate it regionally? For example, I recently launched a blog internet-marketing.web.id -- it's pretty obvious what it's about (generic?), but with the .web.id TLD you see it's related to Indonesia.
I only like those if that region is my target market.
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The downside to many generic sites is it is hard to build a loyal following, but as long as SEO is driven by links maybe you don't need a following to make a lot of money.
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Um, is this the man whose blogging taught me about the value of branding time and again, saying that you can get by with SEO as a business model and forget about branding? Aaron, come on man, don't kid yourself.
I saw a site powered by nothing but egobait that fooled some seriously smart people into linking to it. Most people are not SEOs and find self promotional coverage too hard to ignore.
And their "review score 8.x/10" badges?
Also, how long is that going to last before it gets killed? The best idea imho, if you're going to use non-sustainable models like that, is to make reasonable money with short term things like that and reinvest in more stable income streams.
Blogged.com can last a long time IMHO. Decent brand, decent design, decent press coverage, human editorial, and limited monetization. Why would Google want to kill that?
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