In a story that reminds me a lot of the family business that acquired Candy.com, a family business that has been in operation for 82 years and since 1999 was operating online under the domain name NutsOnline.com acquired the category killer domain name Nuts.com.
It looks like they got the domain mid last year and it is currently registered to Newark Nut Store, Inc of Cranford, New Jersey.
We reached out to the company for comment but did not receive any additional information.
Here is the story as they told it on their blog:
“”In 1929, my grandfather, Poppy Sol, started The Newark Nut Company in Newark, NJ. My dad and uncle grew up in the business in the 1950s and 1960s, and my cousin David and I grew up in the business in the 1980s and 1990s. We survived the Great Depression, Poppy Sol going off to WWII, our warehouse burning down, and our store being bulldozed twice. Otherwise, it was business as usual!
Until 1999… . The Internet was really taking off and, as I was sitting in my freshman dorm, I wondered if people would actually be willing to buy nuts online. I figured it was worth a shot! But what should I name the site? NewarkNutCompany.com was just too long to type in. I put together a list (including names like eNuts.com and NutsDirect.com), but unfortunately all of them were taken. Hmmm… . I used America Online back then, so I got the idea for Nuts Online. Voila! NutsOnline.com was available.
By 2005, it turned out that, yes, people were buying lots of nuts online! And dried fruit, and seeds, and coffees, and chocolates, and lots of other stuff. Yay! And, by 2011, NutsOnline had become pretty well known across the country for great quality and service across a growing product offering. Our slogan, “We’re more than just nuts,” continues to ring true.
That being said, I can’t tell you the number of times I would make new friends and, before saying goodbye, they would say, “I am excited to check you guys out. Nuts.com, right?” No, NutsOnline!
There was even a time when we spent hours wrapping hundreds of Jordan almonds in tulle circles for The Rachael Ray Show, and she said, “Thanks to Nuts.com for providing the favors.” Noooo!
For more than three years, I had been looking into getting the Nuts.com domain name and the opportunity finally arose this summer. But I continued to debate the transition to Nuts.com for days on end with my wife, my relatives, my friends…NutsOnline.com is my baby and our customers love us. While Nuts.com is definitely easier to remember and easier to type, I wanted to make sure that our loyal customers knew that nothing would change except for our name.
In early October, we decided to stop debating and officially change our name and URL to
Nuts.com in January 2012. The important thing to remember is that we are and will continue to be the same – the same family, the same values, the same quality, and the same level of care. Over time, we will replace the logo and develop new packaging, but we promise that your experience will only continue to improve.
Poppy Sol built the foundations for our reputation more than 82 years ago, and we are committed to upholding this tradition to our fourth generation and beyond.
~ Jeffrey and The Nutty Family””
Hat Tip: Peter from DudeRanch.com
I think this name sold in the wide range of $250K-400K
I inquired when Ryan was with Sedo and had the listing.
Great name and easy online business.
A family-run business with a younger person who is helping revive it (the NYT article in 06 is pretty telling . . . it was inevitable he’d end up with this domain http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/businessspecial2/21growth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=1c876b314e4786c5&ex=1298178000 )
Congrats to Jeffrey and his family. The guy is NUTS !
That’s great that they bought the name. Whenever I hear the word “nuts,” I think of The Battle of The Bulge in World War II when the American response to the Nazi surrender demand at Bastogne was “nuts.” I’ve been watching and reading too much WW II history. 🙂
in the future… people won’t have to buy and eat nuts.
they will just think about how tasty nuts are and become happy.
Amazing insight from the owner about how they must have been losing traffic to Nuts.com before they bought the domain. They’d been around for years under one name and still changed their branding to the simpler, better domain. This story really shows the power of a great, intuitive .com domain name.
And what would have happened to NutsOnline if a different online nut supplier purchased the domain and aggressively marketed the website?
NutsOnline made the smart move.
Found this online today, they are not thrilled with how Google has handled the switch over within the index, this is also worth noting for companies who contemplate a similar move.
http://searchengineland.com/you-don%E2%80%99t-have-to-be-nuts-to-worry-about-changing-your-domain-111957
It apparently wasn’t all a smooth transition:
Unfortunately, 2 weeks after the transition, overall Google organic traffic for nuts.com was down over 70% . . .
It is noteworthy, however, that the week just before the migration (January 1, 2012 to January 7, 2012) represented the single best week for Google organic traffic in the history of the company . . .
As a consequence of changing their domain, The Newark Nut Company is losing thousands of dollars in revenue every day.
– You Don’t Have To Be Nuts To Worry About Changing Your Domain
http://searchengineland.com/you-don%E2%80%99t-have-to-be-nuts-to-worry-about-changing-your-domain-111957
Very bold disclosure by Jonah Stein of ItsTheROI.com that reminds me of the recent theDomains post about allowing your old domain to expire. I don’t understand the move of Nutsoline to Nuts.com, why they both couldn’t have pointed to the same content, the way, books.com points to Barnes & Noble! 😀
Good thing ex-Prez Jimmy Carter did’nt beat em’ to the punch…..just say’in – 🙂
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2006404_2006095_2006026,00.html
…..remember he was a Peanut farmer
From the article::: “The domain nuts.com was used previously and the Webmaster had acquired a spam penalty. My client purchased the domain in October of 2011, registered it with Google Webmaster Tools and submitted a reconsideration request that detailed the history…”
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I’ve been screaming about this for years.
You take that six figure domain and slander it with some shitty “minisite” or “Domainer Development” regime, you may be gravely harming it’s future development potential.
But Bravo to them for acquiring this domain. They shouldn’t have any trouble working out these growing pains and in the long run, Nuts.com will put some wind at the back of their marketing strategy.
Sometimes, it’s the SME’s that “get it” on domains much better than the biggies.
I theorize this is because the executive decision-makers at small businesses are much more involved with the daily operations, whereas the decision-makers of huge operations are much more compartmentalized away from the different departments.
old “news”.
@ anon said: “I’ve been screaming about this for years . . . You take that six figure domain and slander it with some . . . “minisite” or “Domainer Development” regime, you may be gravely harming it’s future development potential.”
That’s my perception. That is why I send my domains to a website I built with robots txt that forbids crawling, and do not have ads on them. My hand regs remain unsullied. Even the developed ones are properly coded and SEO, so there are no blemishes on their reputations.
So, I don’t make $$, but the online rep is in tact. I think it’s better.
@ Louise & Anon
Is this really the case?
I recently purchased a dropping domain which had been delisted by google for whatever reason.
It took me a couple of hours to register with webmastertools, add some new content and send a reconsideration request. Within a couple of weeks it was being listed in Google SERP’s.
Is having a minisite on your domains such a big deal?
Even if they remove a total deindexing penalty, you still have no idea what more subtle penalties may remain. In a hyper-competitive keyword space, yes. It could be a very big deal.
When a business moves or
companies merge or
when a store does a drastic remodeling,
there is a slight disruption to business.
What is/was the chance of the average consumer to accidentally type in ‘NutsOnline’?
Now, what is the chance of the average consumer looking for Nuts to
type in ‘Nuts .com’?
What is the chance of my wife remembering a website addresss she looked
at last week like NutsOnline?
However, if she liked the website, I’m sure she would remember ‘Nuts .com’.
Does any business really want to totally depend on G (or B/Y) for their traffic?
For the next 10 yrs, I would rather depend on some natural type-in traffic than
99% traffic from the search engines.
It ‘was’ one step back (in SEO) for Nuts .com for 3 steps forward in the future.
Great purchase for this biz – in time, in will pay huge dividends.
@ Meyer said: “Now, what is the chance of the average consumer looking for Nuts to type in ‘Nuts .com’?”
We’re not disputing it. He should have bought, Nuts. SEO is some billion dollar industry, and I’m a little person with no $$, and in good conscience, I wouldn’t have done what those hired people did. Shameless.
The conclusion is: upgrade to a better domain – own it! – and don’t squander the goodwill (backlinks, reputation, articles, posts, comments, rank, bookmarks) of the current brand.
I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your blog. It’s a very easy on
the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come here and visit more often.
Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Outstanding work!