NEW YORK, July 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Answers Corporation (NASDAQ: ANSW - News), creator of Answers.com(TM), announced today that it has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire Lexico Publishing Group, LLC, owner of the popular Web properties Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com, for $100 million in cash. The transaction is subject to financing and customary closing conditions and is scheduled to be completed by fall of this year.
Elegant solutions have value, don't they? Get a generic domain, Dictionary.com, build a website that delivers what the generic domain promises - a "dictionary" (what woulda thunk?) - and feel the love.
I, like many, actually type in Dictionary.com when I'm stuck for a word's spelling. It actually gets the job done when Google can't quite figure out what I'm asking.
Well done. Score one for elegant solutions with value.
But my question is, how do you monetize the site well? Especially after forking over all that money for it? I can't say that I have every clicked on an ad there that interested me (although I may have clicked on or more to help support the site). And I am so cheap that I doubt I would continue to use it if I had to pay for it (at least not more than a couple of dollars/month max.).
It's not like other type-in traffic where you go there and find relevant ads to click. You go to dictionary.com to lookup a word. You find it, you're done, you close the browser window.
You find it, you're done, you close the browser window.
Ah, but I don't think that is the case most of the time. I've found myself following other links within the dictionary results, not frequently, but I have. I don't recall if it was an ad or not.
Now, if they do what everyone else appears to be doing, they'll rearrange the definitions a bit and blend in some paid ads that look identical. So, they'll capture some of that "damn, that's not what I wanted" clicks. ;)
You do bring up a good point, how the heck do you capitalize on a reference site? I guess first and foremost would be the authoritative status of the domain portfolio.
PR7 - [reference.com...]
PR7 - [dictionary.reference.com...]
PR7 - [thesaurus.reference.com...]
PR7 - [answers.com...]
Hmmm, how long have they been redirecting to a sub-domain on reference.com? I would think their PR would be a little bit higher considering the authoritative nature of those domains.
Hmmm, how long have they been redirecting to a sub-domain on reference.com?
Ah yes, I forgot about CPM ads. I keep forgetting there is more to life than just PPC. :)
I read an article on "how to make it in 2007" back in January and one of the pointers, in fact, the main point, was the K.I.S.S. strategy (Keep It Simple, Sir / Stupid). Simplicity is the best considering most people don't want to type in extremelylongdomainnameexamplebecauseicouldntthinkofanythingelse.com is a little time consuming, but the above domains are short, definite, and to the point.
Honestly, I'm suprised that there aren't a lot more of these.
