TreatmentCenters.com - $100k Domain to $1Million Website
Advice, Generic Domain Names, Buying Domain Names January 29th, 2008
TreatmentCenters.com is a great example of a company buying the domain name they needed and building it into a million dollar website. TreatmentCenters.com was sold for $100,000 by Afternic/BuyDomains as reported in DNJournal. This domain name informs visitors about exactly what they will find when they type it in to their browser, and it doesn’t disappoint upon arrival. For this business model, there probably aren’t any better domain names out there.
Using a directory model, TreatmentCenters.com provides paid and unpaid listings for various health and mental treatment centers and counselors throughout the country. Visitors can search by condition, by state or by provider name to find what they need. When a website like this is able to provide names, addresses, contact information, and data on the topic of interest to the searcher, it builds stickiness, and the searcher will probably return. This provides a positive experience for the visitor, and it also provides an ROI for the advertiser.
Kudos to the people behind TreatmentCenters.com! This is an aesthetically pleasing, well-functioning website, and it looks like a million bucks! I hope to emulate it with some of my entries down the road - including Lowell.com.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
In all reality the true measurement of their work is in execution, sales. That is not something you judge by look and a domain.
Sorry, but I don’t share the excitement. IF anything, I wish them the very best of luck executing on one of the toughest business pitches out there, signing up to an online directory.
Sahar
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
Yes, I agree that execution is key. If their site returned the wrong results or took a long time to give results, it wouldn’t matter. However, I think the name adds tremendous value and authority to their product. They could have saved money by coming out with a web 2.0 type of name, but then they would have had to pay for branding in addition to SEO, development, data…etc
I think it will be easier to sign people up for a directory with the key domain name. On my calls for Lowell.com (not sales calls yet), people call me and email me back because they hear its Lowell.com. If I was marketing LowellIsGreat.com, people would probably pay less attention and not be as interested. Likewise with FuneralHomes.com, you guys are the funeral home authority since you developed the site. You have become experts, produced a top quality product and own the industry domain name. You could have done it without owning the name, but I think it would have been more difficult.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Elliot:
You are 100% correct. TreatmentCenters.com is an excellent example of the perfect marriage of a great domain name with a solid site. When you combine these two ingredients it is an unbeatable revenue generating combination.
David
January 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I must admit, I do share Sahar’s view point. I’m not so sure a typical listing directory model serves this great domain. I’m pretty sure 90% of those listings on treatmentcenters.com are free as we speak. To extract optimum value, they should allow all treatment centers to list for free and then take a percentage of sign up revenue or visits to the centers.
Incidentally, I own HairCareTreatment.com and I’ve always thought the ultimate way to monetize this domain, is to take a percentage of “signups” for hair loss treatment as you will call it in the states or hair care treatment as we call it in europe. The average treatment costs £2000 upwards I believe and 5 to 10% commission would be very attractive to both sides. Either way, its potentially lucrative and makes more business sense, rather than trying to get people to pay for listings in a web 2.0 environment, when you can get that on google or superpages.com.
TreatmentCenters.com should very quickly re-evaluate their business model with this great domain and go for the kill!
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
Maybe I am a bit biased because my fiancee is working at an alcohol treatment center while in graduate school for psych, but I disagree. I think a directory site is perfect for this name since there are so many (very profitable) mental health treatment centers.
Whether $100k was the right price for this name, I am not sure, but only a person with a business plan can determine the value the name has to a particular business venture.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’m with Elliot (though i don’t love the site design - WAY too busy).
Once they SEO the site and get rankings - they will have people calling them to be listed. Those fancy LA treatment centers run $25k for a month. They pay big money for SEO and marketing - the phones will start ringing once they get some rankings.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Robert,
It is against current American Federal law to refer someone to a drug and alcohol treatment center and receive a commission. Upwards of 50% of our traffic is type-in traffic. Direct navigation on the web is rising every month. We not only want to act as a directory, but as an information site with forums and support groups etc.. Watch for things to come.
Thank you for the input, always appreciated!
As for your stated Superpages, their enhanced listing for the space is approx. $200.00 a month.
I wish we had 15 other Generics.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
It’s a clean site although as you scroll down it does get rather busy. How old is the site?
January 30th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
TreatmentCenters.com launched November, 2007
January 30th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
We do very well with Daycare.com. Over 12,000 PAID listings.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Fairplay Patrick! sounds like you guy’s have done your homework and I wish you all the best! Lovely design. Cheers.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Daycare.com - $5/mo @ 12,000 operators = a GREAT business! David, thanks for bringing this to attention. It makes it easy to see why $10 million for daycare.com is realistically undervalued with the underlying business applied. Undeveloped, the name is around $1 million at auction or so. Just great business!
To carry on more…brilliant site. Fairly basic database powered info submitted by the $5/mo provider. Add some content, and yes you have a great business. BUT, at daycaretoday.com or daycaredirectory.com you do not have the business at least to this scale.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Thank you, Greg.
In all fairness, Daycare.com has been up for a while, but we’ve just started building out our Manicure.com (last night) and I invite all to watch the site as it progresses. Starting Monday, we will open Manicure.com up to all manicurists, salons, day spas, etc to list their businesses for free.
We originally did this with Daycare.com and, like Daycare.com, Manicure.com does a hefty amount of Direct Navigation traffic of people looking for - you guessed it - manicures. After Manicure.com reaches critical mass (overall traffic, SEO etc), we will begin charging for listings, but at a very inexpensive rate. And, yes, those “pennies” add up quickly.
I’ll say again for the umpteenth time - the name matters.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:28 pm
David, you don’t think SuperBestDaycare.biz would have done the trick??