Nothing says online chess better than Chess.com!

This is a perfect example of a truly premium domain and how it should be used.
I remember seeing chess.com for years having a one page site with some affiliate links to chess software and sets. As a true chess fan I’ve inquired on the price a couple years ago and it seemed high to me back then. Now I don’t remember what number they quoted, but seeing how chess.com got developed it sure was a fair amount to pay. Chess.com now has an alexa ranking of 12K indicating a very high traffic and most likely the biggest chess site online.

The new Chess.com site features:

• Chess Clubs with information about over 100 clubs around the world. As the site grows and they add new information you can expect this section to list thousands of clubs around the world. An excellent example of how a truly generic domain can go local big time.
• Chess Forums a nice forum platform is used and integrated into the site. A healthy forum is a must for any community.
• Chess Articles A large collection of articles about chess openings and middle game. As well as endings.
• Play Chess of course what is a chess community without an option to play online. Chess.com allows you to play with a computer, or against a variety of human opponents. They also organize online tournaments for chess fans.
• Members section allowing members to have personal blogs within the site and socialize with other members, join groups etc. They also offer various membership plan, which is traditionally the main source of income for community oriented sites, along with ads of course. Memberships start from $5 per month, or $30 per year to a $500 lifetime fee. Chess.com has 133,784 members from 222 countries!
• Chess Events listing the recent chess events and tourneys.
• Chess Shop where you can buy chess software, sets and other products. A shop is obviously another excellent revenue source for a community site
• Free Downloads always help get more traffic as people will share and pass on the links to freebies.
• Other items, such as chess news, fun stuff,
• FaceBook application that capitalizes on the huge potential and the viral nature of facebook. Chess.com is the largest chess app on FB with thousands of users and it’s extremely easy to use so any chess players can install it and play a game of chess online.

For more info and reviews of the site check the posts on Mashable, killerstartups and TechCrunch

The owner of chess.com, Erik Allebest, Stanford GSB graduate and an experienced online entrepreneur

To sum this up Chess.com is a perfect example of how a premium generic domain should be used. Developed into a community, with a large user base and offering various free services, social features and discussion boards. With a facebook application to get a high boost of traffic and paid memberships plans as a method to encourage community growth and different additional revenue streams.

If you, like other domainers, are pondering the possibility of developing your premium domains this is how it should be done!