Your portfolio may be diversified with just a handful of stocks, but don't go telling that to Marchex (Nasdaq: MCHX). The company has a domain name portfolio of more than 200,000 Web addresses -- good ones like debts.com, resorts.org, cuisine.com, and locksmiths.com -- and it knows that it can monetize them a little better.
To that end, Marchex is relaunching half of its domains as what it hopes will be stickier destinations. Most of the makeover entails the roughly 75,000 five-digit domains -- like 90210.com -- that gives the company ZIP Code coverage through 96% of the country.
The company is utilizing its Open List local content publishing engine to populate its sites with more than 15 million business listings, coupled with user-generated and third-party editorial reviews.
Marchex's websites already attract more than 30 million visitors a month. Creating more useful sites can only help. When your domain bag is this heavy, you obviously don't expect them all to be click magnets. Thankfully, they don't have to be. A few new winners can go a long way for a misunderstood power broker in dot-com realty.
I have felt that way for some time. I singled out Marchex in our Stocks 2007 publication that was released several months ago. The stock has climbed better than 20% since then.
The fact that you have probably never visited many -- if any -- of its valuable domains like delis.com, videocameras.com, or city-specific names like DallasDoctors.com, speaks to the upside potential of Marchex. It made a big splash in the Spanish domain market last month, teaming up with News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox in Latin America to help build websites around Marchex's amazing collection of Spanish generic domains. With names like Universidad.com (university), Ventas.com (sales), and Mujer.com (woman), it will be interesting to see what a third-party monetizing force can accomplish.
Generic domains aren't always easy to brand. CNET (Nasdaq: CNET) owns Search.com, even though most search-hungry users turn to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) instead. The company also owns Community.com, but it's no MySpace; anCNET owns Kids.com, but it's got nothing on Webkinz or Disney (NYSE: DIS).
Generic domains will get type-in traffic, but sites need to bring something new to the table to stand out and be bookmarked by the masses. That rumble you heard earlier this week? 100,000 tiny voices strong? That's Marchex making a move to be heard. And bookmarked.
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz can't imagine trying to remember 200,000 names at a family reunion. He does own shares in Disney. Rick is also part of the
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