I’ve written about Andrew Hazen’s successful business ventures a few times before. I’ve met Andrew a few times at domain industry events, and I’ve been following him on Twitter. He is an attorney and a successful Internet entrepreneur.
This morning, Newday, a Long Island publication, reported on another one of Andrew’s startup companies, AllBobbleheads.com. According to the article, the “Hicksville firm’s bobblehead sales near $10M.” This is pretty substantial revenue and growth, especially considering how the company started.
There are at least two domain investors who have grown strong businesses in the bobblehead business. Warren Royal founded Bobbleheads.com after acquiring the domain name via auction, and he has also done quite well with his company. I don’t have any idea what his sales numbers are, but every time I speak with him, it seems like his business is growing.
I guess a good lesson to learn is that while an exact match domain name can be extraordinarily beneficial to an entrepreneur with a good business plan, an experienced entrepreneur with a good business plan can use a non-EMD and find considerable success, too.
That is impossible!!!
How could he possibly do that without an exact match domain name? Doesn’t he know how many people type that domain into their browsers – it’s like free shoppers walking into his store!! Day after day – it’s like owning a whole block on main street!!!
I kid. Good for him, and it goes to show that you don’t have to have the best domain to run a great business (and to be honest, a pure focus on the domain can slow you down…)
Good way to get some free PR hmmm
“I guess a good lesson to learn is that while an exact match domain name can be extraordinarily beneficial to an entrepreneur with a good business plan, an experienced entrepreneur with a good business plan can use a non-EMD and find considerable success, too.”
This doesn’t do much for EMD values. Very surprising post.
Just telling it like it is (as I see it).
I obviously would prefer to have a EMD, but that’s me.
Looks like CustomBobbleHeads.com is owned by BobbleHeads.com as well
I find that SUPER hard to believe especially when it comes to Celebrity endorsements and licensing of images. I would suppose this is where a large amount of orders and ROI would come in and their products don’t have the same quality of appearance and manufacturing as Bobbleheads.com (Royal Bobbles)
IF they have accrued that much in profits, that is wonderful!
Ill stick with Bobbleheads.com as I prefer their customer service and quality of product.
The article mentioned revenue and not profit 😉
That is true… I didn’t catch that.. my mistake thank you for correcting me..
Bazzurt Bazzurt Smells fishy.
@Elliot,
I really do appreciate your candor. I was stunned to read the post coming from you.
It’s not that you don’t invest in other types of domains, because you, but you have been pretty hostile to non-EMD names for over 2 years now, and we’ve had heated debates about that.
So, I guess we should take it in, and then debate the consequences later. I just don’t want you to state that “I guess a good lesson to learn is that while an exact match domain name can be extraordinarily beneficial to an entrepreneur with a good business plan, an experienced entrepreneur with a good business plan can use a non-EMD and find considerable success, too”, and then leave it at that. We need to explore it. Don’t get agitated…
I sure wouldn’t invest in non-EMDs as a domain investor, but an entrepreneur with a good business plan can turn one into a successful business.
So….
If you would try to sell me AllSoccerBalls.com, I would have absolutely zero interest in buying the domain name. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t build a business on it. I would personally have no interest in investing in a domain name like that.
There is a big difference between investing in domain names and building a business. You don’t need an exceptional domain name to build a money making business. A great EMD can help a business, for sure.
I agree in part, and disagree in part.
Your personal taste is of no consequence; I am more interested in what the market dictates.
If a good EMD is as successful as a non-EMD, that is a useful data, as you reported above; whether you like allsoccerballs.com or not, that is non of my business.
Now, I agree that there’s a difference between investing in domain names, and building a business, but with the following caveat:
It is wise for one to build a business in the field that they are knowledgeable in, whereas they can invest in any domain, novice or pro.
We also agree that you don’t need an exceptional domain name to build a money making business, I mean look at Godaddy.com for crying out loud.
DomainClature, not sure what you don’t get the people going after brandable, or non emd type domains, have options. When you own an exact match domain, you have a larger audience, and when you dabble in a few dozen of these type of domains it is easier to manage, and solicit this type of portfolio. These names do not come cheap by any means, but the dollar amounts of profit that can be achieved far outweigh owning 1000 non-emd and wishing for a end user to come along, and give you 4 figures on a weekly basis. Sometimes it takes a little more money, to make a bit more money. Other cases there are guys like you who are vaccums and suck up the the 2, and 3 rd tier type names in hopes of making a buck. EMD’s are a more calculated investment, NON-EMD’s are more like gambling.
@Ron,
Three points:
1. I believe it is a false choice between EMDs and Non-EMDs, you should, if you could, invest in both types of domain names, it should depend on a myriad of factors, perhaps some personal, but mostly market activities; one cannot arbitrarily condemn one section, and at the same time scream “don’t believe your lying eyes”. We see many successful businesses with non-EMDs that dominate their field: Godaddy, Google, ebay, yahoo, amazon, and so on. It is also okay to invest in EMD alone without bad-mouthing the non-EMDs.
2. An investor does not have to make tens of thousands of dollars in profit at a time to be successful; again, it’s a false choice. You can do just fine being profitable at any rate. Like Wrigley Spearmint founder said, “I make my money a penny at a time”.
3. Your last statement is full of conjecture, and doesn’t warrant a response. We both see one letter, or two letter domains sell for millions, and they are not EMDs.
2/3L .com’s are in a league of their own… no doubt… you are the guy registering bobbleheadsnow.com, and hoping for $488 on godaddy from some newbie end user… good luck, I have no idea what domainclature means or who made your homemade logo, but if I was an end user, I would think it was a 12 year old kid, not professional, not dissing you, but telling you for your own good.
It’s hard to take your criticism seriously because nobody can visit your own site and take a look at your domain names, website, or logo.
If you are confident, show us your own.
A few words that go a long way in this business… Audited Financials!
The big difference between allbobbleheads.com and bobbleheads.com is you are going to get more free advertising (or free eyeballs, or free visitors) from people who type in bobbleheads.com.
And that’s a big advantage. You do nothing and receive at least a few visitors interested in your product. And your competitors must buy keywords or spam the search engines, or otherwise “work” for the traffic.
I am suspicious as hell.
Like the casinos, you only need a slight advantage and in the long haul, you will eat the other guy’s lunch.
For sure the exact search term domains have more than a slight advantage, and over time should prevail.
That said, the content, product and service must be equal or better.
(you can polish a turd, but it’s still shit)
It’s like someone saying my father smoked 100 times a day and lived to 105. Ya right!
The statstics will easily prove he was one in a million! And likely broke and sick for 50 years.
Sorry if I got off topic……regards.
Again, keep in mind that I believe the reported number is top line revenue and not profit. I have no idea if the company is profitable or how profitable.
Just to illustrate this point, I can spend $1 million on advertising for DogWalker.com to get it to earn $750k. That would be unwise of course, but it would get me $750k and everyone would tell me that is impossible!
statistics….my mistake.
I’m an artist use to work for http://www.bobbleheads.com. their sales was growing but not paying me as much as http://www.bobbles.com.au does. Haha
Is http://www.bobbles.com.au also owned by bobbleheads.com?
There is a new interesting player in this market. Again no EMD: http://www.amazingbobbleheads.com. They seeem to have the better looking website.
I absolutely love the bobblehead that I received! It is absolutely perfect and the customer service was amazing! I highly recommend this company to anybody looking at getting one done! They kept in contact with me through every step of the process and I could not be happier!
It seems that most people prefer EMD, but I think domains like https://www.facebok.com, google.com are more likely to get big success.