Greatist.com describes themselves as “the trusted health & fitness source for the young, savvy, and social“. They tout just under 2 million unique visitors per month, which is an impressive figure for any site, but even more impressive considering the site is under two years old.
Greatist with an “i” is a typo — greatest with an “e” is the correct spelling of the word.
In a recent Mixergy interview, the CEO commented on building their brand on Greatist.com. You can read relevant sections below, or check out the video at the bottom of this post — start at the 50:10 mark.
Below, Andrew is the interviewer from Mixergy (Andrew Warner) and Derek is the CEO of Greatist (Derek Flanzraich).
Andrew: You mention do it the greatest way. Greatest. The word is not spelled the way your domain is. Right?
Derek: Yeah. So, here’s the idea. Right? The idea, the pitch and the vision, the big vision is that we just want to help people know they don’t have to be the greatest all of the time. But a greatest. Right? So, it’s just about building health and wellness into your life one choice at a time. So a greatist with an ‘ist’ is just someone who makes these healthier choices however they can. And the idea and you know, like I said, the goal is to just help people think of a healthier way. My whole approach to health and wellness and our whole perspective on the blog is very relatable and down to earth. It says, ‘Look. Swap out some of those French fries with vegetables maybe with your burger.’ And enjoy your burger, right? And so, I think that, you know, personally, that is the message that’s important to bring to people is to empower them. To let them know they’re in charge and in control of their.
Andrew: And what about the idea, as far as traffic. Unless I said this, I’m wondering if most people who heard us talk about greatist would go to greatest.com and end up on something called cyber finder which is basically referral click traffic.
Derek: Right. Yeah. I’m sure that that happens. One we never try to reach out and buy est.com because I imagine it would be very expensive. I know who owns it.
Andrew: You do?
Derek: I do. And, one day, I will reach out to them, but I actually like the ist. I think that we want to build a brand. So, one it’s got that idea behind it. Second, it’s got this differentiated brand. I think one of the things that a lot of people struggle with, probably Clicker included, is that by picking a sort of generic brand name with no uniqueness, no differentiation, it’s very hard to build something bigger. So, when you think about Nike or LuLu Lemon, these can be aspirational lifestyle brands because no one really uses that term in that way. So, we want people to think of themselves as greatests and remember that it is a little different than just the word. I would think. I think Good Magazine really struggles with this. Any of these big things that have, and even Look. Men’s Health. Women’s Health. You know, these are about as good as you get in terms of brands that people recognize in this space but they can never be more than what they are and we have. I like to think that our potential is endless in terms of what we can do to make a difference in this space. You know, it’s no accident that greatest gym sounds good or greatest grub. Some of those in the office joke that we’re going to start a theme park and call it Greatist Gardens. But, you know, the idea is that it can travel further.
While I don’t agree with Mr. Flanzraich’s rationale, I nonetheless find it interesting to hear an owner’s perspective.
Greatest.com with an “e” is owned by Tampa-based Reflex Publishing, and they have the domain forwarded to their parked Cyberfinder.com domain.
Reflex owns other domains such as:
- Advertisement.com
- Apply.com
- Baseball.com
- Gamblers.com
- Skiing.com
- Snowmobiles.com
- Toddlers.com
- VA.com
- and thousands more……
I’m sure no one is rooting harder than Reflex for the success of typo/brandable Greatist.com, as it will continue to drive traffic and increase the value of their Greatest.com.
I really don’t understand why the popularity of Greatist.com will increase traffic to Greatest.com.
If i like some site then i simply bookmark it according to the category in my browser or i can simply type the first two letter in the address bar and it will display all the last visited websites.
I even don’t know the last time when i had typed the address of a particular website into the address bar. So according to me the possibility that the traffic will be diverted to Greatest.com from Greatest is minimal unless and until their users are using some ancient browsers.
Thanks
JS
“I even don’t know the last time when i had typed the address of a particular website into the address bar.”
However, there is an entire industry built around the millions of other people that still direct-navigate to websites.
If you’re talking to a buddy about this cool new site, or you see a TV ad or hear a radio ad — unless you spell it out for them, the vast majority of people are going to head first to the correct spelling — greatest.com.
Greatest.com could also be waiting for greatist.com to have an affiliate offer – now that would be very profitable traffic…