May 05 2008
The GeoView With Fred Mercaldo Of Scottsdale.com
(Interact with Fred on Geodomainer.com)
This week, we bring you the GeoView with Fred Mercaldo, owner of Scottsdale.com and Tempe.com. Fred is a proven business professional and owner to a variety of businesses. His other companies include Hospitality Tee Times (HTT), Butts In Seats Marketing, LLC which includes their brands LunchClub.com and DineSmart.com, and OutingSource, LLC, a golf and technology company in partnership with PGA Tour player Chris Perry and Desert Golf & Vacation Rentals, a 200 unit luxury property management company in North Scottsdale.(SMO) When did you register your first geo domain and what name was it?
(FM) Although we did a large portion of our golf vacation and tee time business via the internet since the late 90’s, we didn’t enter the geo domain industry until August, 2004. Scottsdale.com was made available to me exclusively from its previous and original owner. He felt that since we were well established in the
(SMO) Why did you decide to pursue the geo domain industry, instead of focusing a 100% of your time acquiring generic domain names?
(FM) I think, like many of us, registering major city.com names was not a priority or obvious opportunity. All of our other businesses had strong dot com names that properly described us…we always strived for a strong web presence, but I must admit, until the opportunity was presented to me, the geo domain industry was not a priority.
(SMO) Last year at the GeoDomain Expo, Scottsdale.com won best small-medium sized geo site. How has Scottsdale.com grown since then?
(FM) Our “to do” list is always growing and changing. We are in the middle of adding many new features designed to bring our visitors back numerous times each month. We are very pleased with the design and ease of maneuverability on our site. Believe it or not, there are 40,000 pages behind Scottsdale.com, yet we are still scratching the surface with our business directory and partnerships we continue to develop.
(SMO) The Super Bowl was in your area this year. How did this impact the traffic and advertising on your sites?
(FM) It was an incredible time for
(SMO) How has development of your geo domains affected traffic and revenue growth over the years?
(FM) Businesses and advertisers are starting to “get it”. First, we had to build it. When we first took over the site, it received 7,000 unique visitors per month…we are now 100,000 PLUS uniques each month. Businesses are actually starting to budget a decent percentage of their advertising budget towards online advertising. We are developing “partnerships” by which a business will sponsor, or “partner” with us in a specific category…we even allow them to sell advertising within their category, and we do a 50-50 revenue share with them. This builds content, brings in new advertisers, and allows our “partners” to offset their costs to us.
(SMO) Since becoming a member of AssociatedCities.com, how has the geo domain industry grown?
(FM) We have been a member for over 2 years now, and I was fortunate enough to be elected to the Board of Directors this past year. With all of the responsibilities in all the ventures we have, Scottsdale.com and the future of Associated Cities is what I’m most fascinated with. I get to interact and work with The Castello Brothers, Dan Pulcrano and his Boulevards group, Josh Metnick of Chicago.com, Skip Hoaglund of Atlanta.com and MyrtleBeach.com fame, Sean Miller of NewYorkCity.com, Barry Hodge who is responsible for the incredible success of Richmond.com, Jessica Bookstaff of Durango.com and PigeonForge.com…these people are among the most talented and brilliant executives in our industry today. They are all visionaries, and they all share a strong work ethic. Their accomplishments are impressive. I am now firmly committed to the Geo Domain industry, and with these and many other “partners”, I predict that this industry is just scratching the surface of where we will be in 5 years time.
(SMO) What added features do you plan on adding to your geo domains in the near future?
(FM) We added Tempe.com last year, and recently purchased FountainHills.com last October, which we are in the process of developing. We continue to add daily editorial content, along with the most complete Event Planning calendar available in our market. We are in a unique position with Scottsdale.com…it is both a major city AND a vacation destination. So besides continuing to build local content, we also must concentrate on our out of state visitors, which make up 50% of our traffic. Along with many interactive services designed to have our visitors more “involved” with us, we may actually launch Scottsdale.com Realty in the coming year…maybe one of the first times a “brick and mortar” business evolves from an actual website rather than the other way around!!!
(SMO) What role do you think geo domains will evolve into as the internet continues to grow and more consumers come online?
(FM) Steven…that’s a great question. I continue to look at declining print advertising revenue at major newspapers, and wonder exactly what our world will be like in 10-15 years from now. Because of the Internet, we have become impatient and spoiled…not willing to wait until the morning paper to find out information…we go directly online. I expect this to continue, and major Geo Domainers have a serious responsibility to accommodate our customers, both advertisers and viewers, in order to maximize our potential.
(SMO) What are some future goals and where would you like to be in 5 years with your geo domains?
(FM) Regarding our geo domains, my goal is to have our Scottsdale.com and Tempe.com brands dominate our market for everything media related. I embrace what David and Michael Castello have told us…that we “own the brand” in each of our cities, and we need to take the responsibility seriously, and develop our sites to the best of our potential.
In the coming 5 years I would like to play a significant role in helping other geo domain businesses attain profitability. LunchClub and DineSmart are 2 brands that we operate locally, and we are in the process of taking nationally. These are businesses that can easily be incorporated into the day to day operations of most city.com sites, and generate much needed income. We can talk about development of our sites all day long, but if resources are lacking, it becomes a difficult task. I would like to make a difference.
(SMO) Any advice you can give to new Geopreneurs entering the geo domain industry?
(FM) Yes. It is important to have the right people. Everyone needs to go find a “Becky Kelley” in their city. Becky has been an incredible asset in our growth and progress. Also, our technology group includes some of the best talent in the country. Michael Goldfarb and Mike McCallister worked tirelessly over the years to build our sites. Our sales managers, Brett Mitnick and Jennifer Shaw, are also very special and dedicated people.
You need to develop the site properly. Each city has their own specific identity and personality; you must identify exactly what these characteristics are, and build the site accordingly. You must be well financed, dedicated, and patient. Other than that, it’s easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Excellent interview and information. Many thanks! Great people working hard to make things happen. How can one help but be excited about the geodomain industry.
Thanks Steve for a great interview!
A question for Fred/Steve:
Fred/Steve, major non geo .com sites have taken the initiative to becoming more media centric by introducing a channel or sister site of there .com, something like having there own video/tv station on the web, what are your feelings on this type of move and do you feel that same principle can be applied to geo .coms? Is there a way to fuse business and entertainment without having to reconstruct a working model?
I want to disclose that I am a very strong .TV geo owner and that I see a lot of possible synergies in the future between .com and .tv geos and would like to hear your take on “Media.”
Great interview! That last paragraph nails it. Fred has true excitement and passion about this industry. His energy is infectious.
An answer for Sanchay….Sanchay, I see you are scottsdale.tv and are also part of a major dot.tv network….I kind of compare the .tv to the .mobi…in that I don’t need to own the .tv to have video on my site, nor do I need to have the .mobi to have a mobile phone version of my site available to phone users. I have no idea where this entire industry will be in 10 years, but I do know the dot.com versions, with the emphasis on “com”, are the ones the viewers are flocking to, rather than .net, etc. If you look at the prices major city.com’s are selling for…this will show you that you have much pioneering to do in the future with the .tv platform. This is not meant to discourage you, it is just my observation. I know the challenges we (scottsdale.com, tempe.com, etc) face in the marketplace every day as we fight for content and the advertising dollar as “.com’s”…anyway, I thank you for your question, and would welcome any ideas from you as to how we can improve both our models by working together….Fred.
Fred,
Nice interview. It’s great to see what you have built with scottsdale.com in such a short period of time.
Fred some great points and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. You have accomplished a great deal and it is nice when people of your stature take the time to give back. I too am a .tv geo owner (mcb.tv) and agree 100% that you do not need .TV to post video. The way I see this thing shaking out is as follows. Use the traditional media networks to see my analogy. For online media .com will have a massive advantage to start as it does now and be the number one “Network” online for the city. Call it “CBS”. .TV will have a huge advantage as well from a brand perspective over all the other TLD’s because of what it means to people worldwide and will need to get traffic via development and promotion and meet the expectation of online TV. In this case .TV is much like Fox was in its early days. Every city will have multiple online affiliates much the same way in the real word all the cities have and ABC CBS NBC…ect. Once up and running the channel with the best content will get the best ratings long term. We have already started to see this happen, where even thought Tulsa.tv does not get the same type in traffic, it is getting more traffic then Tulsa.com http://siteanalytics.compete.com/tulsa.com+tulsa.tv/?metric=uv
My point is BOTH will do well and yes .TV has a much bigger hurdle to cross, but we already see it happening and see evidence that major billion dollar media companies are embracing .tv outside of geos and within the geosphere Landmark Communications is using and branding HamptonRoads.tv for online video when the also use HamptonRoads.com for non video related info much the same way MLB.TV and NHL.tv do (many others do this too)
Macon.tv and nebraska.tv are owned and operated by ABC affiliates, not to mention many other key generic geo .tv sites that are popping up and being branded in the users minds, like Boston.tv OceanCity.tv AtlanticCity.tv HiltonHead.tv ect Along with the fact that Veags .com just purchased Las.tv
So that said, my only disagreement with your statement is when you compared .TV to .mobi. Yes you do not need .tv to use video and you do not need .mobi for mobile content, but “TV” has been branded for decades worldwide to mean “Video” and is now being accepted by major media companies to mean ‘TV” on the Internet. The proof is in the pudding in terms of how its already being used and developed and what it means to people who see it.
.mobi is a made up brand with no real world track record. It does not mean something to people who have no clue what it stands for. it does not have 50-60 of real world branding behind it as TV does.
i just wanted to clarify this as I think there is a huge difference between what “.TV” means to people and how it is being embraced my mainstream media companies and what .mobi is.
Fred, Thanks again for sharing and I wish you continued success with all your business ventures.
***SMO***
Brian thanks for adding your point of view. However, you have contributed some great content to the .tv extension in past post. It is not necessary to consistently defend the extension, embrace your passion regardless of what others think.
You will never be able to force your opinion on other people in the end. People either like or dislike things in life. There are great things ahead for all geo domain owners who have a solid game plan. The last thing we want to do is take value away from different perspectives.
Thanks again.
I have noticed a trend recently at simplygeo.com.
.tv = thread hijacker
***SMO***
It happens everywhere on a variety of extensions. Will police it up some.
Thanks.
Brian…great response, and you made some very valid points, especially with the comparison of .tv versus .mobi. I just last week purchased tempe.mobi for $1600 because, as I stated in a prior post, I do not have all the answers for what will happen in the coming 5-10 years, and I felt I needed to protect the brand. It will be interesting how all of this evolves in the coming years, and I see the major GeoDomains of the world having all the bells and whistles and video streams that any .tv would have; where the public goes to is the key that will drive the advertising dollar….obviously.
Fred,
Thanks for the response.
Guys like you and Michael Castello get it more than most and understand the value of “protecting the brand”.
To the guy who claims the thread is being hijacked, what a joke.
Fred’s response to me validated my comments. Look at the additional valuable information he gave us in response to my comments.
Steve, Yes I agree the same thing should not be said over and over but what I said here was specifically related to what your guest speaker had to say. I have never seen someone compare .tv to .mobi before on this thread. Yes, I have mentioned similar ideas in the past, but not when addressing the comparison of .tv to .mobi and to the issue of where this is all heading. How am I supposed to know what Fred is or is not aware of in the .TV space. I responded to Fred directly, who in turn responded:
Thanks.”Brian…great response, and you made some very valid points, especially with the comparison of .tv versus .mobi”
How is this hijacking when the featured subject of the entire thread, Fred said himself he found my comments valid?
Anyone else see the ridiculousness of that?
Fred knows I am having nothing more then a thought provoking discussion.
Steve, I greatly admire what you have done here opening up channels across all TLD’s for Geo owners to communicate, but I must admit I am disappointed in your comments.
“It is not necessary to consistently defend the extension, embrace your passion regardless of what others think.”
I smell external forces at work here. I know you are a man of honor Steve so I know you will defend my valid rights to add content to this forum. I did not bring up .tv in this thread and had nothing to do with it. I only responded to your guest’s comments who in tern appreciated what I had to say.
My comments are threatening to guys like “Anonymous Coward” but not to guys like Michael Castello and Fred Mercaldo who welcome intelligent thought provoking conversation on where this stuff is headed. I put you in that category too Steve.
Steve, you also say “The last thing we want to do is take value away from different perspectives.”
How am I doing that by challenging someone with hard data and facts in a respectful way? This comment disappoints me most coming from you Steve. Isn’t the exchange of thought provoking ideas the very value our great country is founded on? That is what high level forums are about, open debate and discussion. Fred found value in my comments.
Then Steve you respond to this person “Anonymous Coward” by saying:
“It happens everywhere on a variety of extensions. Will police it up some.
Thanks.”
Steve your comments are giving validity to this unprofessional comment in effect to me saying some sort of hijacking is going on. If you feel this is the case address the issue head on and provide examples and an explanation. These are serious charges IMO. Steve, you know better than this. Give me some credit. I spend a great deal of my time contributing here with the notion we can all work together. I support the ICA just as others do becasue we all need to protect our rights. Hijacking threads is when someone does not engage in a professional thought provoking debate, and is unprofessional much as “Anonymous Coward” has done here. I and other .TV posters have been nothing but professional.
I agree .TV does not need to be mentioned in all forums, just like .com does not either. However, when things relate to online media .tv is just as valid as .com to discuss and guess what online media is the future of ALL geos. Therefore .TV will relate to many posts you make in the future and should freely be discussed when a new idea view is brought to the table. That is what happened in this post. Just because some of the same data is used to express views across various ideas does not mean that the data should never be brought up again when it relates to some new exchange of ideas.
**SMO**
Understand your point of view Brian and respect it as well. I have to play moderator on a variety of fronts. I agree you did answer effectively, but most was repeated several of times by many in different forms and by you a couple of times, however not in the .mobi comparison. I have to keep everyone’s best interest at heart Brian and keep conversations targeted. I am not taking away from what you have done and helped educate others with on .tv. You do a great job at this and I thank you for doing it.
Please do not take offense to my statement as I have to stay a moderator to discussions. I do not want it to turn into a .tv thread is all I am saying. I encourage sharing views and different perspectives, please do not blur the lines with your comment. Thanks for your continued support.
Thanks for the kind words Steve. I know your job is not easy and many factors are at play. I will keep this in mind regarding future threads.
You are doing an outstanding job. Once it again it is worth noting you are doing something many including myself doubted was possible.
It takes a special person to do what you are doing and a man of true integrity.
Keep up the great work!
Fred,
When planning to build Scottsdale.com in the initial stages what verticals did you feel the need to concentrate on in terms of revenue stream?
Also, from your prospectus now, where would your concentration be? Content, real estate, directory etc…
JB
JB….the three areas we concentrated on were travel, golf, and real estate. Now, it is local content, editorial, partnerships, building out the directory, and adding features such as user reviews, classifieds, etc. Real estate continues to be important to us, yet golf has been by far the best revenue stream for us.
thanks to both for the interview…I would love more details on the Scottsdale.com Realty idea…