Comments on: Dragon’s Den: iFoods.tv - were the Dragons right to say “I’m out”? http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:16:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Kev http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-250 Kev Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:29:04 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-250 Hi Robert, I am actually doing a project for college on website analysis and I have been given ifoods.tv. This information is very useful. I may reference your site and be sure to give an honourable mention! Hi Robert,

I am actually doing a project for college on website analysis and I have been given ifoods.tv. This information is very useful. I may reference your site and be sure to give an honourable mention!

]]> By: Ed http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-68 Ed Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:19:06 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-68 I remember a college lecturer of mine explaining why so many theatres in Elizabethan London were in the same area. To illustrate the point he advised anyone starting a restaurant to open up next door to another restaurant. I know nothing about web addresses or domain names but I wonder if the same rules apply. Ed I remember a college lecturer of mine explaining why so many theatres in Elizabethan London were in the same area. To illustrate the point he advised anyone starting a restaurant to open up next door to another restaurant.

I know nothing about web addresses or domain names but I wonder if the same rules apply.

Ed

]]> By: Robert Haastrup-Timmi http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-18 Robert Haastrup-Timmi Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:45:26 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-18 Hi Robert! Very interesting prognosis on iFoods.TV . I've been working with the Domain/Web industry for the last 12 years since my days at Macromedia in San Francisco and I can say a lot of web entreprenuers consistently make very costly mistakes unknowingly. iFood.TV is a good brand name, however I will bet right now, it will end up being very expensive in the long run to make that domain a ubiquitous brand without substantial VC. I'm talking way in excess of $1M upwards. What small start ups can do, is look for good everyday "keyword" domain names to brand and I have sent some info to iFoods.TV for them to consider. When you own the natural keyword terms, e.g food.tv or food.com, you are going to get very high page rankings naturally, as long as you have the content. Therefore you save big time over the long term. Secondly, the keyword term is what people are naturally searching for on google, yahoo, msn etc, therefore if "food" has 500,000 organic searches a month on google alone, the owner of that site can pretty much predict their growth rate, $$ conversion ratios and will be seen as a natural industry leader. Unless you have serious VC backing willing to spend a lot of money for even ifood.TV, any generic keyword domain site offering the same type of content will trounce ifood.tv or ifoods.tv ultimately! The truth is, so many companies are wasting so much money on SEO and PPC advertising which are intangible strategies over the long run. Internet companies who think like Mcdonalds and Starbucks will win big online...its all about location, location, location! Here's our recent press release on this subject: http://www.prlog.org/10105377-brand-narcissism-seo-by-stealth-or-simply-purchase-domain-keywords.html Cheers Robert Haastrup-Timmi Hi Robert! Very interesting prognosis on iFoods.TV . I’ve been working with the Domain/Web industry for the last 12 years since my days at Macromedia in San Francisco and I can say a lot of web entreprenuers consistently make very costly mistakes unknowingly.

iFood.TV is a good brand name, however I will bet right now, it will end up being very expensive in the long run to make that domain a ubiquitous brand without substantial VC. I’m talking way in excess of $1M upwards.

What small start ups can do, is look for good everyday “keyword” domain names to brand and I have sent some info to iFoods.TV for them to consider. When you own the natural keyword terms, e.g food.tv or food.com, you are going to get very high page rankings naturally, as long as you have the content. Therefore you save big time over the long term.

Secondly, the keyword term is what people are naturally searching for on google, yahoo, msn etc, therefore if “food” has 500,000 organic searches a month on google alone, the owner of that site can pretty much predict their growth rate, $$ conversion ratios and will be seen as a natural industry leader. Unless you have serious VC backing willing to spend a lot of money for even ifood.TV, any generic keyword domain site offering the same type of content will trounce ifood.tv or ifoods.tv ultimately! The truth is, so many companies are wasting so much money on SEO and PPC advertising which are intangible strategies over the long run. Internet companies who think like Mcdonalds and Starbucks will win big online…its all about location, location, location!

Here’s our recent press release on this subject:
http://www.prlog.org/10105377-brand-narcissism-seo-by-stealth-or-simply-purchase-domain-keywords.html

Cheers
Robert Haastrup-Timmi

]]> By: Derek Edmond http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-17 Derek Edmond Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:33:58 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-17 Robert - thanks very much for the reference! All search engine link checks have their own limitations, so be wary of taking the values from any of them as an end-all-be-all for each site's link profile. That being said, you can get a lot of good data without investing anything but time. I can see one other (hopefully) quick SEO hit that IFoods.tv should be doing that IFood.tv is doing. Hopefully their SEO team is on it though. Robert - thanks very much for the reference! All search engine link checks have their own limitations, so be wary of taking the values from any of them as an end-all-be-all for each site’s link profile. That being said, you can get a lot of good data without investing anything but time.

I can see one other (hopefully) quick SEO hit that IFoods.tv should be doing that IFood.tv is doing. Hopefully their SEO team is on it though.

]]> By: iFoods and the Dragons’ Den effect online | SmallBizPod - small business blog http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-16 iFoods and the Dragons’ Den effect online | SmallBizPod - small business blog Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:16:15 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-16 [...] post for all those out there interested in evaluating the relative popularity of web sites, Robert Gowans suggests that the entrepreneur investors probably made the right decision to keep their money to [...] [...] post for all those out there interested in evaluating the relative popularity of web sites, Robert Gowans suggests that the entrepreneur investors probably made the right decision to keep their money to [...]

]]> By: brainjog http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-15 brainjog Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:00:56 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-15 Im not sure if the website name was just a case of error or a well thought decision. Cause on the face of it there seem to be a lot of similarities in the layout of ifoods.tv and ifood.tv and considering that the latter was launched earlier..its more of a case of plagiarism. well all said and done now may the best man win !!! cheers brainjog Im not sure if the website name was just a case of error or a well thought decision. Cause on the face of it there seem to be a lot of similarities in the layout of ifoods.tv and ifood.tv and considering that the latter was launched earlier..its more of a case of plagiarism.

well all said and done now may the best man win !!!

cheers
brainjog

]]> By: Jason http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-14 Jason Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:15:53 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-14 Hi Robert: Great comparison and analysis of the two sites. It will be interesting to see what each one does going forward. For a common user like yours truly, ifood.tv appears to be a more robust food site where as ifoods.tv seems more like a work in progress. ifood also seems to have received much better media coverage when comparing the media pages of the two sites. Looking at the traffic spike for ifood, Sean and Co. should get a piece of the pie from ifood (thats if they are cooking any :) ). Good Luck to Both. A very hungry J Hi Robert:

Great comparison and analysis of the two sites. It will be interesting to see what each one does going forward.

For a common user like yours truly, ifood.tv appears to be a more robust food site where as ifoods.tv seems more like a work in progress. ifood also seems to have received much better media coverage when comparing the media pages of the two sites.

Looking at the traffic spike for ifood, Sean and Co. should get a piece of the pie from ifood (thats if they are cooking any :) ).

Good Luck to Both.

A very hungry J

]]> By: Sean http://www.robertgowans.com/archives/17/comment-page-1#comment-12 Sean Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:44:00 +0000 http://www.robertgowans.com/?p=17#comment-12 Hi Robert, Thanks for that post, we were destroyed in your analysis! We've actually just finished a big SEO project so hopefully those stats will get better and in 2 months we'll come out on top. The name of the website was both unlucky and an error on our part. We're still considering our options at the moment and the feedback since the dragons den has been great and lots of good ideas coming in. Cheers, Sean Hi Robert,

Thanks for that post, we were destroyed in your analysis!

We’ve actually just finished a big SEO project so hopefully those stats will get better and in 2 months we’ll come out on top. The name of the website was both unlucky and an error on our part.

We’re still considering our options at the moment and the feedback since the dragons den has been great and lots of good ideas coming in.

Cheers,

Sean

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