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 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.

Several months ago, I blogged about Fred Mercaldo and his team at Scottsdale.com who were launching their City in a Box platform, which they already successfully on sites like Sausalito.com, Chandler.com, Mesa.com, Tempe.com, and others. The sites are lauded for their contemporary look and ease of use, while the team behind the platform handles marketing and development duties.

Yesterday I received word from Fred that his team has launched Palermo.com, a domain name owned by domain investor Steve Kaziyev of NamePursuit.com. I’ve spent some time looking through the site with envy, and I think it looks great. The site has a lot of travel information, and visitors can make hotel reservations and learn about the city sites. Since Italians tend to use the .it ccTLD in their domain names, they are targeting American tourists with this site.

One of the challenges with a site like this will be finding local advertisers in Palermo. Restaurants, hotels, galleries, and other tourist attractions are presumably the target of Fred and his team, and it will be fun to watch the site progress. IMO, this is where the City in a Box platform outshines anything similar.

I am very impressed with the quality of the site, and I am hoping Steve and Fred will share results down the road. I am in talks with Fred and the Scottsdale.com team about developing one of my geodomain names, and I am sure I will share more information if and when something happens.

Congrats to Fred and Steve on this exciting launch.

I wanted to share an email I received from my friend Fred Mercaldo, one of the most respected geodomain developers whose company owns Scottsdale.com. Fred’s company introduced a new offering for other domain investors who own city/regional .com domain names. If I hadn’t developed Burbank.com and Lowell.com on my own already, I would not hesitate to turn to Fred and his expert team. If you have an undeveloped geodomain name – or if you have an underdeveloped geodomain name, you might consider reaching out to Fred about this opportunity.

Scottsdale.com has grown to include 4 additional geodomains in the Arizona market.  In building these sites, we have developed a platform and system that Becky and I realized could be used for other geodomains, and have now formally begun to market the software as “City In A Box”.

We are big believers that geodomains be developed and not parked, and there are still many cities and state names that could benefit from our services.  To see the actual site, visit www.mesa.com and www.sausalito.com.  The package includes a complete, ready to monetize website, with a comprehensive Content Management System, customizable Channel and Directory categories, fully functioning Event Calendar, Stories, Articles, Press releases; easy admin area for all banner ads; ability to have visitors create user accounts, stat tracking ability for all advertisers or anything listed on the site, so reports for advertisers are easy; blogs, and full Optimization Elements.

This is not a typical template system or mini site; this is the result of many years of trial and error in the building and marketing of Scottsdale.com, and if I had the ability to purchase this package years ago, I would have saved literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.  We are presently developing 4 other cities, and have the ability to build out 8-10 more this year.  The total price for everything is $12,500, and for a yearly fee of $2,500 we will provide all upgrades and updates in the future.

Additional information, including a spec sheet can be obtained from Fred@scottsdale.com or Becky@scottsdale.com.