Aron Meystedt launches March.com: Q&A
Owner of the world’s oldest .com domain name launches a fresh web site.
[Update: it appears March.com has been shut down.]
Aron Meystedt and his firm domain investment firm XF.com investments just launched a fresh web site builder tool on March.com. You may have heard of XF.com since it owns Symbolics.com, the oldest .com domain name in existence.
I reached out to Aron to get the background on why he launched the site on March.com and what the business plan is.
DNW: When did you acquire the March.com domain name and what were the circumstances?
I bought March.com 5 or 6 years ago. I contacted the original owner and made him an acceptable offer.
DNW: Did you have plans in mind for the domain when you bought it? What were they?
I wanted to name my firm March.com Media. Ultimately I decided on XF.com – since I’m attracted to the short, two-letter .com names. Since then, I’ve held March.com – waiting for a plan to use it.
DNW: Why did you decide to use March.com for a web site creator?
Great question.
With the fresh gTLD’s coming out in the next few years, there may be a substantial increase in modest businesses and individuals looking to build a website. We wanted to create something incredibly easy to use. With March.com, the user could have a website up and running in a matter of minutes, for free. We will host it for free as well. The interface is very intuitive and clean. So, if someone registers Cleveland.lawyer – they can head to March.com and build a nice looking website and be online very quickly, at no cost. Users also receive a free subdomain at March.com.
Additionally, we are aware of domainer frustration with parking solutions. March.com could become a development/parking hybrid in the near future. We wanted to roll out phase 1 of the site – and look to provide additional features that domainers desire.
DNW: The DIY web site creator market is very competitive, with lots of independent offerings as well tools from domain registrars and web hosting firms. What will make March.com stand out?
With any entrepreneurial venture, two questions to ask are:
1. Is the business concept a viable alternative to current substitutes?
2. How well defined are the differences/improvements in our concept over the alternatives?
In short, we can’t compete with the Intuit’s and 1&1’s of the world. We can simply offer an alternative that looks and functions differently and let the users decide if they like it.
March.com offers these features:
-Template customization with backgrounds and images of your choice.
-Free contact forms.
-Location pages that automatically setup Google Maps for you.
-Twitter and Facebook buttons by now integrated.
-The ability to easily track your analytics.
-Individual page templates to show your services, reviews, employees and more.
-SEO optimization for every page which allows you to enter your page titles and meta tags easily.
-The ability to copy/paste a snippet of monetization code (from any provider like Adsense) which will help you monetize your page.
-The ability to point your own domain name to your site or use a free subdomain of ours (example: john.march.com)
-Free hosting. Everything is free. All we ask is that we can email you occasionally and ask your input – and allow us to put a very modest banner ad atop your page (but we may do away with that if the demand is there).
We plan to add additional features soon – we’d like the domainer community’s feedback. We also plan to improve the monetization methods – and partner with a PPC provider – and give you greater control over PPC locations and options.We’d like to improve March.com based on client feedback.
5. Is the tool white labeled or created in house?
We created everything.
We’re looking for feedback from domainers – and suggestions of what you’d like to see added. The solution is by now great for modest businesses and personal websites – but we want domainers to find a value in our offering as well.
We feel March.com has a lot of potential and we’re excited to improve this free service. Sometimes, the goal isn’t to improve the income statement. In this case, we’re excited to provide a solid free service to domainers and to modest businesses.
You can see the fresh site at March.com. Here’s a short tour highlighting the features of March.com
