A quick post to mention several notable industry happenings. Photo.com was purchased via Moniker for $1.25 million. The buyer remains private at this point as their public whois information is currently shielded at Network Solutions. This is a common practice as many big ticket buyers are still acquiring premium domain names and wish to remain anonymous.

Sadly, Bido.com closed its doors effective today. Bido was an online domain name auction platform whose owners focused on a “social auction” model that allowed site users and bidders to vote for domains. The owners did an excellent job of designing a rather sophisticated interface with many features. One of Bido’s strengths and weaknesses was both its site’s diversity and complexity. Bido struggled somewhat in defining its market niche. Its demise seems at least in part a result of trying to sell lower quality domain name inventory on volume. This, in my opinion, moved the company in the wrong direction. 

However, Bido’s owners are very creative, entrepreneurial types who constantly look for new opportunities and who can take a mere idea to final form through discipline and hard work. I have no doubt we’ll hear of other new ventures coming from Sahar Sarid, Jarred Cohen, and Jeff Bhavnanie.

Lastly, SanDiego.com (the complete business, not just the domain name) will be auctioned off on Friday, May 7. SanDiego.com was reported to be generating about $700,000 per year in revenue … which most estimators conclude is a significant underutilization of the site. Geo domains, and most any elite domain name, must be properly optimized. San Diego is a very large, popular American city with enormous potential. SanDiego.com will likely be acquired, and hopefully relaunched, by a media savvy organization. For more on this story, please visit Ron Jackson’s DNJournal.

.COM Domains, Domain Sales domain names sales, Domain Sales

A .TV auction concluded recently at online brokerage house, Sedo. Several notable sales of .tv web addresses included:

• Christmas.tv for $32,000
• Business.tv for $100,999
• Shows.tv for $20,500
• Learn.tv for $41,000
• Vacation.tv $14,000
• Fantasy.tv for $10,600

The .TV domain extension has been limited in its adoption for many years due to its registry not being clear enough with registrants on the exact plan for future renewal fees. The up front cost for acquiring premium .TV domains was relatively high and the renewal fees sometimes in the thousands of dollars per year.

This was largely rectified by Verisign with these newly purchased premium domains now being subject to only a nominal annual registration fee ($20 – $30 per year).

My favorite from the Sedo auction was Business.TV although all of the above keyword domain names qualify as premium choices in any top level domain extension. Business.com became one of the most impressive and interesting sales in domaining history, and inspired legions of domain investors to stake their claim in the new domain name frontier.

Robert DeMartinis (from Philadelphia) acquired the ultra premium domain name, Business.US, some years ago. This is a multi-million dollar internet domain name by any definition, and will one day make a tremendous asset acquisition for a U.S. based corporation.

Similarly, Business.TV has great potential for branding as a business-centric media portal. Currently, the domain’s whois is not yet reflecting the new registrant owner so it’s not possible to determine if the buyer is a private individual, a group of investors, or a single corporate level end-user.

The Sedo .TV auction was successful, and attracted a considerable number of buyers offering them a new opportunity to enter the field of domain name investing and development.

.TV Domain Names, Domain Sales domain investing, enom, verisign

It was recently announced that CreditReport.com purchased the domain name, CreditScore.com, for an undisclosed amount. “Credit Score” is a high dollar, highly searched keyword combination and a topic of much interest to borrowers.

Eligibility for mortgage loans, good interest rates, lines of credit, and even credit cards is tied to an individual’s credit worthiness. This credit worthiness is largely based on a person’s composite credit score which itself is built upon the various debt, payment, and financial management patterns of the consumer.

TheDomains reported that CreditScore.com may have possibly been purchased for just north of $5 million based on a disclosure by a party to the deal. This domain qualifies as super premium since it easily passes the test for clarity, business relevance, generic in nature, and being immune to trademark infringement concerns. A Google search for the phrase “credit score” yields a plethora of advertisers competing for the phrase, and well over 9 million Google indexed pages.

PremiumDomains.US acquired CreditScore.biz several years ago and are certainly happy to see the growing viability of this phrase in the larger consumer and financial markets. The recent sale of the .com version will significantly enhance the buyer’s long-term market position.

Domain Sales credit score, creditscore.biz

Escrow.com is our preferred domain escrow company of choice. They are reliable, have a well-designed interface, and possess brand integrity. Andrew Allemann (DomainNameWire.com) made an interesting post recently about Escrow.com offering extended payment arrangements for the purchase of domain names.

Premium domain names are valuable assets for companies who are looking to create or enhance their online brand in a particular market, or with a select group of products or services. Premium domain names are obviously expensive and are typically purchased by select corporate end users or dedicated buyers. PremiumDomains.US have sold domain names both in traditional instant buyout arrangements and through “payment plan” arrangements.

In Andrew’s blog post, he writes that in the Escrow.com payment plan, Escrow.com take control of the domain while collecting monthly payments from the buyer. Upon final payment, the domain name is then transferred to the new owner and funds are disbursed to the seller. This option allows smaller companies to acquire a high level premium domain while conserving capital for daily operations as the company scales up operations.

Andrew writes that Escrow.com use GoDaddy.com (the world’s largest and highest quality registrar) to safely hold the domain while payments are made over time. Presently, Escrow.com’s payment plan for domain purchases range from 8 months to 5 years.

Thanks to DomainNameWire.com for covering this important industry development.

Domain Sales escrow, escrow.com, GoDaddy, premium domains

Domain name sales have always driven widespread interest in the domain name industry. No one knows when the first domain sale occurred, but it foreshadowed a vibrant market that was to emerge in the years ahead.

Novices should be informed that there is not one, singular market that represents all domain transactions. Most people are aware of Sedo and Afternic sales as well as those documented in Ron Jackson’s DNJournal. However, many sales are undisclosed and never become publicly known due to privacy & non disclosure agreements.

There are reasons why domain sales privacy is fundamental to good business. A buyer does not want others in the marketplace to know what he has paid, or can pay, for future acquisitions. And a seller does not want others to know the level of proceeds received from a sale because that seller often reinvests those proceeds into more purchases.

Publicly disclosed sales information can weaken future negotiations for both buyers and sellers. So “smart money” typically operate outside the public’s radar and prefer to keep quiet their most strategic moves and acquisitions.

This phenomenon greatly impacts public perception of domain sales and creates the somewhat false impression that all aftermarket sales are known. They are not.

Many people try to extrapolate domain trends from known sales data, but they are always operating somewhat in the dark since so many total domain name sales are never made public.

Domain Sales, Internet Domains Domain Sales, nda, non disclosure

Ad.com sold at the recent TRAFFIC conference auction for $1.4 million dollars. It was purchased, after some competitive bidding, by a young man named Divyank Turakhia. He is the founder & CEO of Skenzo and the co-founder of Directi.

There is no questioning the quality of the domain name. It’s perfect for advertising. The ad industry is a multi-billion dollar enterprise … year after year.  A phenomenal amount of wealth is channeled into advertising. This will never change.

Ron Jackson of DN Journal wrote a very informative, inspirational piece about Mr. Turakhia in September 2008. In this profile, Ron outlines the evolution of Divyank Turakhia’s success as an entrepreneur. At just 27 years old, Mr. Turakhia’s companies are worth an estimated $300 million. This is no ordinary person.

Last week, he decided to buy Ad.com. Blogs and opinions immediately went live with many pundits offering their particular view as to whether the domain name was a prudent investment. As is typically the case, some speculated that it went for too much while others saw the beginnings of something great on the horizon. I am in that last camp.

There are several reasons why I think good things will come from Divyank’s acquisition … 

First –> The person. Divyank appears, from all indications, to be a doer, not a talker. Ron Jackson’s article depicts a highly intelligent and focused individual with the ability to take most anything to which he aspires to great heights. At 27, chances are that we will see more impressive things to come from Divyank Turakhia.

Second –> The industry. Advertising is an incredible industry. Internet, television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, shopping carts, you name it. It’s all around us 24 hours per day.

Third –> The domain. Short, highly descriptive, and category defining.

When one considers the potential benefit of launching an ad network with something like Ad.com, then the purchase price becomes only an interesting anecdote. The story is in the branding potential of Ad.com. And that chapter has not even been written … yet.

Good luck Divyank! May your entrepreneurial spirit lift you high.

.COM Domains, Domain Sales entrepreneur

Everyone knows about Results.com going for $500,000 via Sedo. But there continue to be interesting sales at all price levels. Some recent four figure + sales include …

• CountryMusic.biz – $2800 at Sedo
• Agua.info (water is Spanish) - $8300 at Afternic
• Trading.info – $10,476 at Sedo
• Sport.US – $5101 at Sedo auction
• VegasSlotCasino.info – $6022 at Sedo
• OnlinePokerGames.US – $5715 at Sedo
• MMS.US – $2750 at Sedo
• DE.TV – $14,957 at Sedo
• FilmMakers.TV – $10,000 private sale reported DNJournal
• UV.TV – $13,650 at Sedo
• Newcastle.TV – $3495 at Sedo
• VIP.mobi – $10,099 at Sedo
• MovieTickets.mobi – $3600 at Sedo
• Shoes.mobi – $4600 at Sedo
• FurnitureDepot.com – $5275 at Afternic
• SinglesBars.com – $3401 at Sedo/Great Domains
• GovernmentGrant.net – $3000 at Sedo
• Trips.net – $4600 at Sedo Auction
• InternetPoker.org – $6000 at Sedo Acution
• GolfShops.org – $3100 at AfternicDLS
• CTP.biz – $1950 at Sedo

An interesting experiment is to recheck a domain two months post-sale to see how the domain name is being utilized. I find a pretty equal distribution between being parked for advertiser revenue, in some stage of content development (sometimes a fully completed website), possibly redirected to another existing website, or occasionally not resolving at all or resolving to a domain name for sale page.

Side note: It appears that domain registrations continue to rise in a majority of domain name spaces. In just a little over a month, total registrations have gone from …

• .BIZ (2,008,779 to 2,044,714)
• .US (1,385,171 to 1,611,327)
• .COM (79,243,372 to 80,382,080)

Domain Sales, Internet Domains

You are holding a rather nice domain name. It has appeal. It is pure enough to serve a certain market, special interest, or location. Offers trickle in. Some are anonymous. But you’re not interested, and politely decline. Other offers come from straight up businesses who are commited to buying. The source of offers is diverse. The wheel turns.

The key:  Possess prime internet real estate that is the ”Park Place” of cyberspace, i.e. a perfect web address that suits an end user’s need.

End-user buyers are all around the world … looking for opportunities, and weighing their alternatives. There is no guarantee that a domain name will sell at a certain time, or for a certain price. But, if it is nice quality, the odds are in your favor.

Ideal internet real estate, gets the second look, and a third. And it gets people to thinking, and wishing. This leads to the inevitable dreaming (what if … ?), and then the creative/strategic planning as the acquisition goal comes into focus. Human motivation is driven by desire, and by need, be it a lone individual or an international conglomerate. To improve and move forward … is the natural human instinct. The competitive drive pushes one to find the best opportunity available.

Just look at the internet. And the unbelievable abundance of usable content and functionality that has been constructed in so short a time. Literally, millions of driven people are logged on right this moment. And multiplying day after day after day. High quality domain names are the wide open doors that serve these millions.

Where does the money come from? From everywhere. The internet is gigantic, and the world … even larger. You may be holding a domain name right now that the future buyer hasn’t even considered. Yet.

Domain Sales, Internet Domains buyers, negotiation