We're Fusible

TechCrunch and others have asked the same question over the years – is Tsavo Media the next Demand Media? 

Tsavo media who own and operate a wide variety of domain names and web sites from Manolith.com to WealthyGeek.com and PlusPets.com to RealTVAddict.com.  While literally none of their web sites run on category-killer domain names, that certainly hasn’t stopped Tsavo media from month in and month out, getting over 30 million users to visit the company’s network of sites. 

You might argue that Tsavo Media is nothing like Demand Media, but their model of building up sites with content and monetizing them through traffic and advertising is much the same.  And they’re doing it with less than killer names.

Sites like ThinkFashion.com have as many as 226,000 visitors per month.  Guide2CreditCards.com might only get about 3,000 visitors per month, but imagine the payouts.

You’ve probably noticed that Tsavo Media looks a lot like MoxyMedia, who we’ve written about in the past. And there’s a reason – Tsavo Media acquired select assets from MoxyMedia back in 2008. Both companies are backed by American Capital and as you navigate both company’s sites and domains you’ll see a lot of overlap.

Whether Tsavo becomes the next Demand Media, you have to be impressed at what they’ve achieved and it’s inspiring to any Domain Name fan given the names they’re using to run some of their most popular sites.

Sure, they have capital backing them up, but instead of using all their cash to buy a few good names, they’ve built something much bigger.

A Sample of Tsavo Media’s 300+ Websites and Blogs

Lumagardening.com
PlusPets.com
Twithority.com
Occassions365.com
theFlowersCatalog.com
thebeBddingcatalog.com
theGlasswareCatalog.com
DpDigest.com
DiscoverFame.com
HomescapeKitchens.com
Kidglue.com
StatusClean.com
Manolith.com
ThinkFashion.com
TechSerious.com
WealthyGeek.com
BirdfeedersDirect.com
BarbecuesandGrills.com
Daymix.com
theProductDepot.net
OneHealthyLifestyle.com
RealTVAddict.com
Texty.com
Guide2Creditcards.com
LumaPoolsandHottubs.com
Triolix.com
Travel-wise.com
MoneyPowercenter.com
Infodingo.com

About Tsavo Media

The consumer sites, informational properties and social media blogs in the Tsavo portfolio focus on highly searched categories including technology, finance, education, home & garden and lifestyles. Our websites offer helpful facts and guidance, news, commentary and professional services to the millions of people who visit our network. We deliver highly rewarding experiences to today’s digital consumers through innovative relevancy initiatives and quality content.

Through careful planning and aggressive talent acquisition, we’ve assembled one of the top teams of Web professionals in the world. By prioritizing creativity and a strong sense of community, we’ve created a dynamic atmosphere and a thriving company culture that facilitates the success of our cutting-edge projects.

Whether you watch reality shows or not, you’ve probably heard something about Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.  Snooki (often incorrectly spelled Snookie, is the self proclaimed “guidette” from Marlboro, New York. 

She made big headlines in the NEWS when a man punched her in her face during a bar confrontation that was aired on MTV’s Jersey Shore.  She got the name “Snooki” in middle school.  According to Wikipedia, “her friends called her “Snooki” after the character “Snooki the cootchie crook” from the film Save the Last Dance because she was the first of her friends to make out with a boy.”

While we don’t own Snooki.com or Snookie.com, catchy names like this have been the interest of many domainers for years and year.  Take a look at Mocus.com – the brand names nursey, and you’ll find dozens of catchy names listed for sale.  The prices range from $2,000 all the way up to $60,000 for loli.com. 

The keyword snookie had 246,000 Exact Local Searches in December.  Snooki had just under 15,000, while Snooki only had 260 [Globally].  If you take a look at Compete, site traffic for the domain name snookie.com has gone from zero in March 2009 to well over 1,000 unique vistors per month as of December 2009.

While Snookie.com has been enjoying an increase in type in traffic, it remains parked but listed for sale.  Snooki.com is a broken page.  If you take a look at the website a few years ago, it was a full fledged web site for a cartoon cat character and the site offered downloads and other merchandise, but it’s no longer online.

What’s the Point of this story?

The reason we bring this up, is that you just never know what’s going to happen with certain domain names you own.  While it can become costly to hold onto domain names that others turn away, events and people could change things.  Your next domain name, even a hand registered one, might be that catchy name or phrase that some upcoming individual or company really wants.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance purchased the domain name NationwideSeries.com for $6,000 at Sedo’s GreatDomains.  Nationwide Insurance has been the title sponsor for the NASCAR Nationwide Series events since 2008. 

The events are NASCAR’s second most popular racing series, supported by more than 75 million fans, including 2.7 million who annually attend NASCAR Nationwide Series races — according to information taken from Nationwide’s web site.

Owning the domain name gives Nationwide the chance to build an online presence to promote their partnership with NASCAR and create a community for fans to go that is completely focused on the racing.  With a separate media platform, Nationwide can build in social media, fan pages, statistics and much more to draw in thousands of visitors.

Related Nationwide Series Domain Tidbits

Nationwide Insurance also purchased NASCARNationwideSeries.com on Jan. 15th, 2010.

Nearly every other TLD of the phrase NationwideSeries is available for hand-registration.  Looks like Nationwide is only focused on owning the dotCOMs in a number of variations.

TheHotLap.com, a separate website focusing on news, photos and features about the Nationwide Series, gets as many as 9,000 visitors per month.

Other Notable Sales Recently at Sedo

implant.eu 5,010 Euro
podium.com   7,900 £
crystalblue.com   11,300 $US
usagardener.com   8,250 $US
betin.com   10,000 Euro
burj-al-arab.ru   7,000 $US
fastnacht.de   5,950 Euro
annonce.net   8,000 Euro
jordanien.de   17,850 Euro
daviderossi.com   9,350 $US
photobox.dk   7,000 Euro
musik-total.de   9,520 Euro

About the NASCAR Nationwide Series

The NASCAR Nationwide Series is a stock car racing series owned and operated by the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. It is promoted as NASCAR’s “minor league” circuit (often compared to Triple-A baseball), and is a proving ground for drivers who wish to step up to the organization’s “big league” circuit, the Sprint Cup. Nationwide Series races are frequently held in the same venue as, and a day prior to, the Sprint Cup race scheduled for that weekend, encouraging fans to attend both events.

The series was previously called the NASCAR Busch Series and the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series. In December 2006, NASCAR officials confirmed that Anheuser-Busch, parent company for Busch Beer, would not renew its sponsorship of NASCAR’s No. 2 series after the end of the 2007 Season.