A little over a year ago, I announced that I had reached an agreement with Fred Mercaldo and his team to utilize the City in the Box platform his company created and operates. This would allow me to focus on other areas of my business while Fred and his team managed Burbank.com.

In subsequent posts, I’ve promised to provide an update about working with Fred and his team, and I am happy to do that today.  Burbank.com officially launched on the new platform in June of 2010, so it’s been a little over 7 months so far. Fred provided the comprehensive update below, although I asked him not to use the actual numbers since my business finances are private, and I have no need to share them publicly.

Before getting into that, I want to mention that the site made only a couple hundred dollars per month when I was managing it. I did a good job of growing traffic, but selling advertising has never been an interest of mine, and I didn’t do a great job at it. Also, in addition to any revenue mentioned by Fred below, my company is also making mid $xxx a month on the job board and hotel reservations.

Fred’s Update:

Elliot, I’d like to share with you and your Blog participants about the progress and monetization of Burbank.com.  Last summer, we completely changed the platform over to our City In The Box software solution.  Additional time went into the project, as your existing site was indexed very well, and we did not want to lose any of the optimization that was present.

Marketing Burbank.com became part of our Citiesplanet overall marketing efforts that support close to 60 City.com websites.  Our monetization goals at first mirrored our successful game plan that built Scottsdale.com, including the following:

• Developing exclusive relationships and partnerships within certain verticals, such as Real Estate, Hotels, etc.
• Building a “Premium Listing” strategy allowing business to upgrade their listings on the Directory Pages.
• As an incentive to do business with Burbank.com, offering businesses Feature Story and Feature Interviews on the Home page….which gives them excellent exposure, but also provides much needed unique content for the site.
• Partnering with local media to promote and publicize Burbank.com with trade deals, such as local newspapers, magazines, radio, etc.

We knew that marketing from a central location in Scottsdale, rather than having a strong local presence directly in the Burbank area, would not be as effective, however we would also not have the expenses and overhead necessary in staffing a local office.

We developed custom Media Kits and email presentation templates for use with Call Center personnel, utilizing Exact Target as our email partner, and SalesForce as our CMS software.  While waiting for the Call center to begin, I entered discussions with many potential advertising partners that would benefit from national advertising on our network.  This was new territory for me, as all of our past success was based on LOCAL, however with a good national base of 60 cities, I thought it was a natural and obvious move.

While we were successful in signing some decent contracts, my production fell short of my goals, and the #1 reason was traffic; since most of our sites launched in the past 2-12 months, traffic was in the 250,000-300,000 uniques per month range.

I then began communicating with the many large “local directory….city guides” types of companies in the market, and was successful in forging a relationship with LocalGuides.  During the “getting to know each other” phase with LocalGuides, the Call Center I contracted with started and stopped within 2 weeks.  This had nothing to do with the process or feasibility of marketing the Premium Upgrades from a central Call Center; it is being done successfully every day by many companies; but nevertheless this Call Center failure was a setback.  It turned out to be a poor choice of partners on my part.

Meanwhile, we were slowly but surely increasing revenue each month across the network from various sources.  National network advertising deals were providing $4,000-$6,000 per month in revenue. Recurring advertising contracts made by my sales staff were totaling $17,000 per month across the network…..some of which are split evenly among the 60 sites; some are split via a percentage of monthly traffic, and some are exclusive to a specific site.

We have signed numerous advertising deals for Burbank.com….a few restaurants, some premium directory upgrades, etc.  We have implemented numerous monetization platforms such as YP for the Directory (and we still can sell Premium Upgrades), an Employment partner, an Apartments partner, hotel deals with IHG and Priceline, and take advantage of Google Display advertising.  LocalGuides provided numerous partnerships for us, and we were able to take advantage of their 4 million monthly visitors “buying power” and I’m convinced our deals are the best.

We have finally convinced Universal Studios to give us a serious look, and this relationship looks promising.  A relationship with the local paper also looks promising, and we have been pursuing this since last summer.  We are adding additional deals onto Burbank.com, such as GolfNow for tee times, and others in negotiations right now…all of which will contribute to the monthly revenue.  We have been successful in working with the City of Burbank, as they regularly contribute to articles and our Calendar of Events.

Next month, CitiesPlanet is launching a Syndicated Featured Columnists section that will appear across over 120 city and state.com brands, along with the entire LocalGuides network of over 4 million viewers per month.  There will be 16-20 weekly articles on features such as ARTS, FASHION, GREEN LIVING, HEALTHY LIVING, TECHNOLOGY, etc. and our list of participating partners, writers and sponsors are impressive.  Since this is about Burbank, I will only say that this feature will generate Burbank.com $500 to $1,000 per month in the 2nd quarter, with the potential to be much more as the year progresses.

We have another Call center we are in discussions with, and we will see how this goes.  We continue to search for the right Real Estate partner for Burbank.com, and I am disappointed that we have not been successful on this category.  Overall, things have taken longer than expected, however the progress is real.

Between local advertising, YP, Employment, Paid Content, national advertising, Apartments, Hotel, Google display ads, and other various initiatives, we are generating $x,xxx per month….on our way to $xx,xxx per month (numbers omitted per Elliot).  We also plan on hiring a direct salesperson full time to service and build from the base we have created…hopefully by the 3rd quarter.  I know many people have been asking, and I’m glad to share this update.

I just received word that geodomain owner, Jess Bookstaff Doppelt, has added Sausalito.com to her portfolio, which already includes PigeonForge.com, Durango.com, and TheVirginIslands.com.

The domain name was purchased from Fred Mercaldo and of Scottsdale.com and Red Apple Domains of Scottsdale, Arizona. Although the purchase price was not disclosed, it had been previously on the market for $150,000 in 2008, prior to the site’s launch on Mercaldo’s City in the Box platform.

According to Jess, “2010 has been an incredible year for me. Acquiring Sausalito.com is the perfect ending. I’m looking forward to what 2011 has to bring.”

This certainly has been a great year for Jess. As you can tell from the addition in her name, Jess was married earlier in the year to a dermatologist from Knoxville, where they currently reside with their two children.

Congratulations to Jess on these big acquisitions!

Press Release Below:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. –December 9, 2010 –Knoxville, Tennessee based PigeonForge.com, Durango.com and TheVirginIslands.com, leading online advertising websites for premier vacation destinations, added Sausalito.com to their portfolio.

“I’m thrilled to bring Sausalito.com our expertise in promoting this unique and popular vacation destination online,” says Jessica Bookstaff Doppelt, president. “Our success with PigeonForge.com, Durango.com and TheVirginIslands.com again shows an overwhelming and resounding interest in Geo Domains as superior online resources for vacation planning as well as a valuable domain asset. Sausalito.com has the name recognition that is a natural choice for information about Sausalito, CA and the surrounding bay area.”

Doppelt purchased the domain from Fred Mercaldo of Scottsdale.com and Red Apple Domains of Scottsdale, Arizona. “Our CitiesPlanet project of developing 65 City.com brands has taken all of my time and attention, not allowing me to properly focus on one of my favorite cities in the country, Sausalito. Since Jessica has been both a friend and business associate of mine for years, knowing that it is now under her control and ownership makes me happy. Her expertise in developing these boutique destination geo portals is proven, and Sausalito.com fits into her network perfectly. I tend to get emotionally attached to our City.com projects, but knowing that I can still stay somewhat involved with Sausalito.com through working with Jessica makes it much easier.

Doppelt plans to build on the strengths of Sausalito.com by adding the features most popular with other destination domains. The focus will be on providing original and updated content to bring new visitors to the site and keep them coming back for more. “Blogs, social media, eNewsletters, and local events are the most popular features in addition to the directory of local businesses that help visitors plan their vacation.” Doppelt says.

Doppelt, owner of PigeonForge.com, Durango.com and TheVirginIslands.com, has been active in the Internet industry since 1998, managing marketing and public relations initiatives. She is an early leader in promoting vacation destinations through effective site design, social media and content management with the goal to increase overall revenue, visitor retention and satisfaction. Sausalito.com is her fourth Geo Domain acquisition. She is actively involved as a board member of CASA of East Tennessee (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a mentor with knoxAchieves and an instructor with Operation Boot Camp. She resides in Knoxville, TN with her husband and two children.

After posting an article highlighting some news Fred Mercaldo shared with me, there were a number of questions from readers asking about Burbank.com and Lowell.com, two of my websites built on different platforms. I want to address some of those questions, which may be helpful in your geodomain development endeavors.

Burbank.com and Lowell.com were both originally built on the same static html platform by my developer. The original articles were written by copywriters I hired, and I either took the photos or hired a photographer for them, I did all the SEO work on both websites and managed the advertising sales (poorly). Because the sites I had built were static html, I needed to update 5 or 6 pages on each site whenever I needed to add a content page. This was a pain in the ass, and I sought out a different solution.

After learning about the City in The Box platform, I decided to move forward with Burbank.com. The site receives 20,000 +/- unique visits a month, and I wanted to leverage Fred’s development and advertising sales experience. His team put all the content I created on its platform, and they have continued to add articles and events. I am also able to add events as well. Essentially, I can be as involved or uninvolved as I would like. The team has also been responsive to my development requests. In fact, someone posted a comment on my blog about a small error they noticed, and it was fixed within minutes.

On Lowell.com, my developer (Mike McAlister) used a bunch of design elements I wanted and built it on WordPress. People can sign up for an account and post articles and events on the site. This is also great because it makes the site more interactive for visitors and local organizations. It also helps build traffic while engaging local businesses. The downside to this is that I still manage everything, and it’s not easy to get people to add content for some reason. It’s a work in progress.

One downside to City in The Box that I found was that SEO wasn’t as good as I hoped, and Fred and I discussed that aspect of the site. Burbank.com hasn’t suffered in rankings, but I was worried about that aspect. A piece of very good news that was announced is a deal with a SEO company that will make changes and updates across the platform to improve SEO.  With Lowell.com, I am able to oversee the basic on-site SEO, and I use the All in One SEO plugin, which has been helpful.

Fred Mercaldo and his team are responsible for bringing on advertisers on Burbank.com.  This should have started yesterday, and it’s the most exciting aspect of working with the Scottsdale.com team.  Including hotel revenue and ad sales, I made under $1k/month.  I think they will ramp this up tremendously.  I am responsible for ad sales on Lowell.com, and although I have a number of advertisers now, revenue isn’t strong (under $500/month).

The primary reason I moved forward with City in The Box is because they have experience building a profitable group of websites in Scottsdale.com and other local sites. I wanted to reduce my role in day to day management of Burbank.com due to my time constraints, and I wanted to have access to their advertising sales team.

With the smooth transition I’ve had so far, I am confident that this will be a profitable endeavor. I have never been afraid to significantly invest in domain assets, and I think it’s important to invest in those domain assets in order to create additional revenue streams.

I’ve always been wanting to take initiative and do things myself, but there’s a point where I realized I can’t do everything on my own successfully. I reached out to the best of breed, and I am confident this will be successful. As promised before, I will be happy to provide updates on the sales process in a few months.

As I continue to reiterate, I am not making any money on affiliate deals for sign ups or getting any kick backs for discussing this. I want to be open and transparent with my business.

I just received some news and updates from Fred Mercaldo about his company’s “City in the Box” software platform, and I want to share it with you. If you’ve been thinking about working with the company, now is the time to seriously consider it. (This is not a paid advertisement nor am I being compensated in any way for writing this or if you sign up.)

My website, Burbank.com, has been on the platform for a couple of months now, and traffic continues to be solid and advertisers keep asking for information and creating business listings. The sales process is set to begin in about two weeks, and I am very excited about the prospects.

The company has three big announcements today:

• They have added Laramie.com and SanMateo.com to their upcoming development projects, bringing the number of City.com properties using their software platform to 55.
• Scottsdale.com has entered into an exclusive partnership with ZogMedia to provide SEO supervision for all of their partner sites.  They have also added FaceBook and Twitter applications/features to City In The Box.
• There will be a price increase, effective November 1st or once an additional 25 City.com properties contract with them for development, whichever comes first, from $12,500 to $16,500.

According to Fred Mercaldo,

“With all of the features City In The Box delivers, and with a decided trend towards developing rather than parking, it has never been a better time to take advantage of our services. We are arguably not only the best priced software solution available today, but also the most reliable and widely used, and it is a system built for monetization.

You get a complete business directory for your City, and by selling Premium Upgraded Listings, along with Category Partnerships, combined with our easy to use Content Management System, you are ready to go to market on Day One. Tons of unique content, Calendar of Events section, custom logo and color schemes, professional SEO, and much more are included. And in cases where after launch you need Advertising and Marketing services, we will do this for you thru our CitiesPlanet program!”

For further information, visit CityInTheBox.com and CitiesPlanet.com. A brief PDF overview can be downloaded on the City in the Box website. You can also send Fred an email at fred@scottsdale.com.

I’ve known about these plans for several weeks, and I am happy to share the press release from Fred Mercaldo and his team at Scottsdale.com, who have been working hard to make this a reality. This puts Fred and his company at the forefront of the geodomain industry, as they will have more pure city .com domain names under their management than just about any other company.

My company’s Burbank.com will be one of the first websites released under this marketing and development deal, and I am excited to be a part of it. I am confident Fred and his team will be able to drive considerably more revenue with Burbank.com.

Fred will be speaking at the Geodomain Expo in New Orleans at the end of the month, and he will be available to answer any questions city .com domain owners may have.

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GeoDomain Development Ventures, LLC announces development of over 40 Pure City.com Sites in Major Development/Marketing Deal

Scottsdale.com’s “City In The Box” Software to power sites; CitiesPlanet.com formed to Manage Advertising and Marketing Duties.

Scottsdale, AZ — April 21, 2010 — Fred Mercaldo, Managing Partner of Scottsdale.com, LLC and newly formed GeoDomain Development Ventures, LLC announced today a major software development and marketing deal that includes over 40 City.com sites.  “Our proven software platform (www.CityInTheBox.com) will power the sites; once they are launched, CitiesPlanet will perform all marketing and advertising functions, and will procure local partnerships and contracts that will monetize the sites.  We look forward to a successful launch, and our goal is to grow to 150 pure City.com properties under management within 24 months”

Based in Scottsdale, CitiesPlanet (www.CitiesPlanet.com) has worked with numerous creative technology and digital marketing specialists to develop a marketing platform that will successfully reach out to local business in each City.com area.  Combined with a robust CRM system, each business will receive a custom media kit with their specific company featured, giving business owners numerous advertising and partnering options with their local, official City.com branded site.  “Our success rate so far has been 15% to 30% response rate, depending on which Directory category is being marketed, which is incredible”, says Mercaldo.  “In addition, our system features a “nurture” campaign in the event a business has not responded to our first offer, and will automatically continue to send the opportunity to the business owner 3 additional times”.

The majority of the initial City.com sites are owned by State Ventures, LLC.  “Fred Mercaldo has the vision to foresee the future of local Internet advertising and the marketing talent to accelerate the shift of local advertising to city portals,” says Nat Cohen, President of State Ventures, LLC. “Fred is one of the stand-up guys in the Geo Domain industry.  We are very pleased to be partnering with Fred in helping him realize this vision for the industry.”

The City.com properties included in the initial launch feature a very diverse group of demographics and economies.  “Everything from Kalamazoo.com to Burbank.com to Sausalito.com to GreatFalls.com; each City will have its own distinct characteristics and opportunities.  We look forward to the challenge to make each City.com property a household name in each community” says Mercaldo.

CitiesPlanet will also handle all of the marketing and advertising responsibilities for Scottsdale.com, Chandler.com, Mesa.com, FountainHills.com, Tempe.com, and ApacheJunction.com, all of which have been launched and are connected within the Arizona market.  Mercaldo recruited former Travelocity and RazorGator executive Mark Wilson to head CitiesPlanet.  “Mark brings a successful track record of accomplishment to the table, combining both marketing expertise and technology capabilities, which is exactly what this project requires”, says Mercaldo.  The remaining City.com’s will begin launching the first week of May, and will continue to roll out through July until all 40 are established and successfully monetized.  Mercaldo states, “Our entire staff, led by Becky Kelley, has worked tirelessly this past 5 months to get all of these sites ready to go.  We are very pleased to be able to finally announce these partnerships, as it has been on the drawing board for quite some time.  We are ready to go!”

For more information on GeoDomain Development Ventures, LLC, contact:

Fred Mercaldo, 602-859-3786, fred@scottsdale.com

For more information on Scottsdale.com, LLC and “City In The Box” software, contact:

Becky Kelley, 480-343-3654, Becky@scottsdale.com

For more information on CitiesPlanet, contact:

Mark Wilson, 602-363-3345, Mark@CitiesPlanet.com

State Ventures LLC owns and develops many geographic domain names and web properties, including Maryland.com, OceanCity.com, Annapolis.com, Pennsylvania.com, Virginia.com, NorthCarolina.com, Missouri.com, and Minnesota.com.