Some Info on "FastenatingDomains"
It is sometimes funny in life how circumstances present themselves, circle around and then complete the loop to where things finally all make some sense. I know that sounds confusing so let me explain and add in some details.
A few years ago, I decided to start writing a fastener blog. So, I got on a website that could help me set up the blog and one of the first things I had to do was choose a domain name. Not surprisingly, I typed in "FastenerBlog.com" and found out that someone already had secured that domain. So, my next idea was to try FastenerBlog.net and that is of course where Fastener Talk resides. I went online and checked out the site fastenerblog.com and found that it really was an undeveloped site. Whoever owned that site was not really doing much with it, and I was OK with that because I wanted to develop something that, at that time, no one else in the industry was doing. But there was one thing on the site that got my attention and that was a Twitter site by the name of http://Twitter.com/FastenerNews. I checked out that Twitter page and found it to be a very thorough news source for tracking developments in the fastener industry. As a side note, I would encourage anyone in the fastener industry to subscribe to this Twitter page as it really is very good (http://Twitter.com/FastenerNews).
So anyway, as I was reading one of the Tweets one day I clicked on a story and after I read the story I kept clicking until I was finally led to a page that was sponsored by Hudson Fasteners, Inc., a fastener distributor started in Long Island, New York but currently located in Ohio. Somewhere along the line I finally pulled together the whole picture and realized the same person that was running Hudson Fasteners was the same person running the Fastener News Twitter site (http://Twitter.com/FastenerNews) and they were also the same person that owned the site FastenerBlog.com. This was a tech savvy person I was dealing with and I wanted to track this person down.
Well, I did. And the person is actually people. Lisa Kleinhandler and Cris Young are partners in the woman owned and operated fastener distributorship called Hudson Fasteners, Inc.. In addition to that, they own more Fastener Industry Premium Internet Real Estate than anyone I know of in the fastener industry. Let me explain...in addition to fastenerblog.com, they own hundreds of internet domain names...hundreds of them! And why is that important? Because when someone does an internet search on a search engine like Google, they are going to type in certain generic keywords to get started. So..you type in something like plasticanchorkits.com and ...yep, they own that domain. Maybe you try fastenerassortments.com...they've got that one too. aluminumfasteners.com, nylon-fastener.com, grade8bolt.com??? Yep, they own those too. If you produced Gr. 8 cap screws and you wanted people to find your site, wouldn't it be nice to own grade8bolt.com? It might not be that valuable today but more and more and more industries (including ours) are doing more and more commerce over the internet. And searching the internet is growing in importance. You can check out more of the Domain Names at www.FastenatingDomains.com.
When I started Fastener Talk, I was slightly bothered that someone already owned the domain, FastenerBlog.com. Especially someone who was not even using the site. But as I spoke with Lisa and Cris, I found them to be two astute business people who really love the fastener industry. One thing they pointed out was that these domains are like inventory. If you know that the industry is running low on stainless washers you might buy up all you can so that you have enough for your customers...and maybe even a little extra inventory that you can sell to another distributor who will need them. That's considered smart business and companies do that every day. Lisa and Cris see these Domain Names as valuable internet real estate or inventory. And if you don't think these domain names are valuable then Lisa and Cris think you might be shortsighted. Sure, you might own your own website (like ABCfasteners.com) but what if you own several popular sites that all lead people back to your company. You could show up multiple times under certain categories and they would all lead back to your website. Hmmm?? Interesting.
One other thing I want to emphasize about these two women is that they love the fastener industry. Hudson Fasteners is a third generation company that has been around since 1946. Lisa's grandfather started the business as Hudson Nut & Bolt. The Twitter account they maintain is dedicated to bringing the latest news they can to others in the industry. For crying out loud, their phone number is 1-877-4-A-SCREW. I mean these ladies think about fasteners and technology continuously.
We had an enjoyable meeting and plan to meet again. I even found room in my heart to forgive them for scooping me on the name fastenerblog.com. I have to give credit where credit is due, and these ladies are innovative thinkers. And, my feeling is that when people are thinking in an innovative way, it often follows that business success is not far behind.
TS - You are SO right! Just as you went looking for the domain, in the near future so many more will follow. Many B2B companies don't yet understand the internet let alone social media.
I believe their on-line commodity will "Give them away" Your on-line personality must be real, you must engage people, most companies and unfortunately many people want to know "What's in it for me?" Not "How can I help you?" which ALWAYS works better, it may not be quite as fast... but you will always yield more than you put in, eventually. I will guess that you may never have hunted out Hudson without this on-line interchange, and, if they are genuine you will probably have a life-long relationship. On-line or off!
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Hi TS,
What an interesting post !
Regarding the news, Cris and Lisa are doing a tremendous job, day by day.
We just start now to create a dedicated category for their twitter account in our Worldwide Fastener Weekly News(http://industry.bazibaza.com/news/">http://industry.bazibaza.com/news/), to give them the credit when we re-publish a news thanks to them, as we have for you TS (51 entries
On Twitter, they publish quite as nearly as much as the different accounts from Anixter consolidated. Just search the "#fasteners" threads and you will understand what I am talking about !
And they republish directly on the Fastener Industry Group on Linkedin !
Don't forget. Twitter entries are now indexed in real time in the US by Bing and Google !
This is where you see why twitter is a professional Social Media TOOL.
For the domain name fastenerblog.com I remember last year in Las Vegas you told me about your kind of frustation when you first find out that it was taken.
You have learnt now the how, what and why and that's normal
Regarding the Domain Name Park they own, it is one of the best asset in our industry in that regard.
Remember my comment about Jay-Cee last week and their different rich keywords domain names ? (www.rivetsinstock.com and the others)
Google Search Engine, and Bazibaza, give a strong avantage to :
- domain name including rich keywords
- domain name age.
Therefore it is easy to understand why Cris and Lisa own such an asset after all these years.
There are plenty of market places where you can buy and sell domain names, one the world leader being sedo.com.
Certainly, in their emarketing strategy, many companies will ask them to buy some of those domain-names. In their case, you just have to call.
What we advice to our customers in SEO (Search engine optimization) is this :
- use rich keywords domain name without the name of the company, as driving traffic sources, just with a URL rewritting to send back the traffic to the official website, or use it to give useful datas about the product itself contained in the keywords and put links to drive back to your "money site"
- use your company names and add whenever you can 1 or 2 rich keywords in it, and this in each language you publish.
But there is a natural limitation to that, as the keyword will be very general and not so specific. And in case you expand, you see the problem...
We have just done that with one of our customer : http://sadev-inox.com and http://sadev-stainless-steel.com
Another interesting example is given on this website : http://www.screwsandbolts.net/
go down the page, check on the right column and you will find the tenth of websites they own in the different languages !
Cris and Lisa are doing a really great job, and I am happy to congratulate you openly on the blog of TS.
Daniel
Daniel Rivalin
Worlwide Fastener Search Engine http://industry.bazibaza.com
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Mr. T.Salesman,
We do the same thing. It helps us get more product specific. To name a few: # www.blindrivet.net
# www.semitubularrivets.com
# www.rivetnuttools.com
# www.rivetnuts.com
I'm not surprised to hear Hudson Fasteners being internet savvy. I don't sell much to them, but over the years I have dealt with Lisa. Besides Lisa and Cris being true leaderers in the industry, they both are a pleasure to do business with. Keep up the great work...and I hope Mr.T. Salesman gets over his grudge.
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It is interesting to me -- I have gotten private notes from individuals in the industry telling me they too own several fastener domains. Not everyone who reads this blog chooses to post their thoughts or ideas so sometimes I will get private notes. But I have to acknowledge that the people who own these domains are some of the more forward thinking people I know. Some day there are going to be a load of people who wished they had bought domain names back when they were available.
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I have found that if you can start not only the site but add induvidual marketing a brochures for it, this makes a very vaulable resource. People assume that you must really know what your talking about when you have specific sites for what you do.
ie: transferfinger.com
ie: gotfeedrollers.com
This blog site is great. Thanks.
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can anyone go over the "barriers to entry" into the fastener distribution scene? it doesnt seem like you see too many newer fastener distributors out there. they all seem to say they started 20-30 years ago. why arent there more startups?
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There are start-ups and have been start-ups. Most of them don't last very long because they are scared to turn away business.They sell there products dirt cheap, feeling that they need ever sale possible. In the end...this seals their fate. Bottom line...any company should be in this to make money.You won't survive on a 10% mark up.
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we'll i am currently on the road to starting up a distributorship, are there any last words of advice from the veterans?
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I was gone last week and not on my computer as much as usual so sorry I have not responded. Actually, I am surprised there were not more responses to your post. First, I have a question for you. Are you already involved in the fastener industry? My guess is that you have been working in the industry already or else I'm not sure what would draw you into this crazy business. So, let's assume you worked for someone else. Are you planning to take exisiting customers with you? Do you have any commitments from people that they will give you business?
Next, do you have any credit? Companies like to open up new customers but a lot of companies will not extend you any credit coming right out of the gate. Especially with the way the economy behaved last year. So, if you have a line of credit available, that is another important factor to getting you business moving forward.
I'll write more after you get back on those couple issues.
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Well, I am now 25 years in that business, as former distributor, manufacturer and now have built a Search Engine for the Fastener Industry, one advice : if you want to distinguish yourself from the big ones, be agressive on internet : create right from the start an e-store, with your inventory and prices online - create order templates for your customer to duplicate each and every month, bring new services and so on...
For existing companies, it is not so easy to do so, because they have to adapt their processes, invest heavily in multiple software solutions from backoffice to a web front office, change the mentalities and so on.
That's the reason, we are going to offer very soon this kind of service to our advertisers, for them to test the market on a couple of familly of products, before they launch ev. their own solution...
Good luck, even if in the end, luck is only a small % of the final success !
Daniel
http://industry.bazibaza.com/industry-fr/
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Yes...Buy all your rivets from Jay-Cee Sales. If you need any catalogs or come across customers that need samples please let us know. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to call.
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When I was manufacturing, my former company's name was : "Cold heading and Rivet Company"
but that was in Europe, so yes, buy your rivets from Jay-Cee Sales
Daniel
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Hehe, I ran into the URL squatting prowess of Lisa and Cris when I was searching for my domain name (fastenfinder.com). They had gobbled up a few names I was mildly interested in. All part of the game 8)
Glad I found this blog today!
-- Jay (jay@fastenfinder.com)
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I too am glad you found it. Don't be a stranger.
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By the way, just want to clarify that I meant no foul play re: URL squatting. In fact, I squatted domains for a couple years as a source of supplemental income. Nothing wrong with it. Aside from that, Lisa (and Cris) are absolute professionals and hat's off to them for being ahead of the internet game in the fastener world. I'm so happy there are pioneers out there revitalizing this industry!
-- Jay (jay@fastenfinder.com)
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Hello Traveling Salesman and all those that added to the post about FastenatingDomains.com,
I am very pleased at the response we have had as a result of the FastenerBlog.net story. We are very grateful to the “Traveling Salesman” for reaching out to us, and for the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the Fastener Industry.
We are encouraged to see our industry responding in such a positive manner. We consider ourselves pioneers, when we started investing in internet real estate many fastener companies, hadn’t ventured to the “new frontier” the internet. Most small distributors, including Hudson Fasteners, were wondering how we could fit in if all the “big guys” had already staked out their turf. We have been awaiting this moment for over 10 years! I’m starting to believe our industry is finally on the way, after all the world is held together by “Nuts and Bolts”. It is all of our duties to make our industry the best it can be. Join the next industrial revolution at www.FastenatingDomains.com and stake your claim.
While doing some reading this morning I came across this quote:
"In a nutshell, the web revolves around domain names and more and more businesses are coming to realize that success starts with the right address. A domain serves the same function on the web that real estate does in the real world. It is the piece of land that a website is built on and just like in the real world, good land is in great demand".- DNJournal-July 2010
Again, many thanks to the Traveling Salesman!
We can be reached @ 1-800-FASTENERS
Stay in touch with the fastener industry worldwide @ Twitter.com/FastenerNews
Lisa J. Kleinhandler Cris A. Young
FastenatingDomains.com
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A story well told and an important issue raised ! Fasteners industry is poised for better growth in the coming times.
This article might be of your interest on fasteners here
http://exporters-suppliers-manufacturers.blogspot.com/2010/07/fasteners-suppliers-quality-scores-over.html
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