What Does $14 Million Worth of PageRank Look Like?

[companyone]

Hi,

June 11, 2009

Lots of links in this article...access them at end of post by clicking on "SOURCE Of Article"

What Does $14 Million Worth of PageRank Look Like?

CircuitCity .com is back after Systemax purchased the brand and domain at bankruptcy auction for $14 million. Systemax also owns TigerDirect .com and acquired CompUSA last year. CircuitCity .com was quickly relaunched last week to capitalize on the remaining brand strength and traffic to the website.

Not to mention the link equity, eh?

Not a bad strategy there Systemax. That traffic is cheaper than AdWords, will pay for itself in less than a year, and since they are a corporation the Google rankings + traffic will stick. This is probably even a better buy than CompUSA was.

If you are ever worried about creating a second site focused on a high margin portion of your business, just remember that this company owns at least 3 electronics retail brands targeting the exact same keywords. And Google loves it.

This sort of domain name + brands + links transaction highlights multiple fallacies in Google's broken view of the web...

* Google tries to scare you about buying a link or two in the dark corners of the web (and even takes away your ability to funnel the link equity you earned), and here are these brands being bought and sold (with link collections) like true commodities.
* If they don't like unnecessary duplication then should 1 company run 3 parallel competing websites with the exact same business model in the exact same niche targeting the exact same keywords? It is viewed as legitimate because they are a corporation, but since when have corporations been on a higher moral ground than individuals?
* Brands don't make the web less of a cesspool. They often create the cesspool. They simply find something that works, wrap it in brand, and look for ways to scale it. They love.com to scale and automate. Any intelligent SEO that has many Fortune 500 clients will tell you that some of their clients are far spammier than they could be on their own websites, largely because of brand.
* As corporations grow more web savvy, they will create more of the same "nasty" no-value-add duplication that Google complains about when passing judgement against the affiliate industry.

Which reminds me...I really should create a fake perceived large corporation (founded by lawyers, perhaps) to buy assets, which would mitigate Google engineer interference and profiling as we try to grow our humble web business. From: Hitwise: SOURCE Of This Article

________
Peace!
Dan

[exponent]

The rewards are great for those who can afford the price of admission.

[loudbeats.com]

definitely worth a read, and was great post IMHO!

Thanks Dan!

[companyone]

Hi,

Thanks Jay... I thought it was quite interesting.

IRS & bankruptcy liquidations go on in every city and state...every day.

Might not be a bad place to start looking to purchase the brand and/or domain(s) from company's that have gone out of business.... has to be a huge amount in the last 1-2 years...do to the economy.

On a "smaller" scale no doubt...but I would bet there are some real "gems" to be found....that would be affordable and with in reason...for us "smaller" players.

Best,
Dan

[loudbeats.com]

Dan, sooo very true, however I had something else going on in mind after reading your post!! lol a brand building idea for specific geo location

Will let you know once done wit setting up things, have already taken initial few steps for it

Thanks once again!

[copper]

As usual, nice read Dan

[bd77]

Very Interesting post. I'm not sure that the'll recover their investment in a year but will see.

[loudbeats.com]

Originally Posted by bd77

Very Interesting post. I'm not sure that the'll recover their investment in a year but will see.

Seasoned player in the online retail industry, and domain with Alexa ranking of under 10k and you think they wont be able to recover their investment?

On the contrary I think they'll bring it up as a MASSIVE brand over the course of "next few years"

[bd77]

Originally Posted by loudbeats.com

Seasoned player in the online retail industry, and domain with Alexa ranking of under 10k and you think they wont be able to recover their investment?

On the contrary I think they'll bring it up as a MASSIVE brand over the course of "next few years"

I could be wrong dude. I hope they do since they paid a lot of money for it but I feel it will take a little longer than a year to get their investment back since most people know that Circuit City went out of business. Yes I know they have a great Alexa ranking. The brand itself has to be built back up and that takes time I don't care what ranking they have. The stigma of Bankruptcy is a massive hurdle they have to overcome.

Do you think they will net 14 million over a years time?

[mediawizard]

Originally Posted by companyone

What Does $14 Million Worth of PageRank Look Like?

I would assume there would be other assets and not just the website. 14 million buys a pr 8-9 in any case :p And I would assume they paid for the current traffic, PR doesn't add anything to the bottomline.

Originally Posted by exponent

The rewards are great for those who can afford the price of admission.

Yeah and shut the door when you come in - its simple business philosophy - raise the entry bar to reduce competition.

Originally Posted by bd77

I could be wrong dude. I hope they do since they paid a lot of money for it but I feel it will take a little longer than a year to get their investment back

It would take much more than a year, maybe even 5 years, to clear 14 million dollars in profit.

[bd77]

Originally Posted by mediawizard

It would take much more than a year, maybe even 5 years, to clear 14 million dollars in profit, nett has no meaning.

When I say net I mean net profit. I agree with you that it will take longer than a year so lets say its a long term investment for Systemax.

[loudbeats.com]

Originally Posted by bd77

I could be wrong dude. I hope they do since they paid a lot of money for it but I feel it will take a little longer than a year to get their investment back since most people know that Circuit City went out of business. Yes I know they have a great Alexa ranking. The brand itself has to be built back up and that takes time I don't care what ranking they have. The stigma of Bankruptcy is a massive hurdle they have to overcome.

Do you think they will net 14 million over a years time?

dude I'd re-iterate "over the course of next few years", and I believe new ownership has hardly anything to do to get outta the bankruptcy stigma, cuz they wernt the ones who went bankrupt. They already are well into the depth of this business and all I think would need is a revamped online branded site (which has gone live) cuz they already have massive user base waiting for better services and few exceptionally well chalked out marketing campaigns to get the ball rolling back into their favor for CircuitCity.

If you've seen their stock price, they have been fairing decently on the NYSE with positive growth.. Looks like they are doing something right with their business brands like: TigerDirect, CompUSA, Misco, GlobalComputer etc.. that CircuitCity operators wernt doing right to have gone bankrupt!!


As per Systemax site, the 2008 Sales exceed $3 billion (for all the brands) so almost anything is possible for them to achieve as revenue..

[myst woman]

I got an email from them and the prices were not too spiffy.
Reheating the brand on low. IMOHO.

[zurc.net]

What its like to have a big bankroll to invest... I think 14 million was a steal and they will easily cover the price tag within a year...

TigerDirect has become such a power house