John Ferber from Domain Holdings on ABC’s Secret Millionaire

Elliot Silver
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One of ABC’s more popular and touching television shows will be back on the air on March 6, 2011. Each week, Secret Millionaire features a millionaire who interacts with others that may be down on their luck, without them knowing about the millionaire’s wealth.

John Ferber, co-founder of the company that sold Advertising.com to Time Warner for $500 million, and one of the founders of Domain Holdings, is one of the millionaires featured on Secret Millionaire this season.  Ferber is a familiar face to those who have attended a domain conference, and it’s likely that you’ve seen or met him if you’ve attended one recently.

According to Ferber, “It was an amazing experience that I will never forget and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to help such wonderful and deserving people who work hard to make their community a better place for everyone, the real stars of the show r the folks doing great things in their community, my role was just a bit part compared to them, the show in my opinion was mis-titled.”

One of Ferber’s big projects is Microgiving.com, a crowd funding website that lets people raise money online to fund a project, cause or entrepreneurial idea, and give a percent of what you raise directly to a charity, cause, individual or family in need. At the moment, Ferber is involved in his MrManuary competition, raising funds to fight prostate cancer. Check it out when you get a chance.

It’s great to see someone as successful as Ferber giving back to his community and the Internet community at large.

* Thanks to Charlie for the tip.

Reuters: FB.com May Have Cost Facebook Up To $8.5 Million

Elliot Silver
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As reported late last year, Facebook was able to acquire the FB.com domain name from the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Farm Bureau now uses FB.org for its website, and Facebook uses FB.com for the company’s internal email system.

At the time of the deal, the price for the domain name was not released by Facebook or the Farm Bureau. According to a report on Reuters, “Facebook paid $8.5 million to acquire the Internet address ‘fb.com.‘” Reuters cites the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting as the source of this information.

The article further stated that the Farm Bureau had sold two domain names that netted the $8.5 million, although they were unable to state which names were sold by them. It is quite likely that FB.com was the bulk of the $8,500,000 in domain sales.

Assuming an $8.5 million sale, it would rank in the top 4 all time domain name only sales behind Sex.com ($13m), Fund.com ($10m) , and Porno.com ($9m).

Goes to show that the combination of a great domain name and a buyer in need with significant cash can lead to a monster domain deal.

Take the DNW Industry Survey

Elliot Silver
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2

Domain Name Wire’s annual survey is now online and ready for you to fill out, and I encourage you to do so in the next few days.

I think it’s the most comprehensive survey that primarily targets  domain investors, and your answers will help give a more accurate picture of the state of affairs in this business.

The survey should take no longer than 10 minutes to fill out, and you can fill yours out confidentially if you’d like. The more people who fill out the survey, the more statistically significant the data.

How Houdini Museum Founders Became Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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2

David Falchek of the Scranton Times Tribune in Scranton, Pennsylvania, had an interesting article this morning about the founders of the Houdini Museum, who became domain investors by chance. The article mirrors the story of so many others who buy domain names out of need and later realize that the domain assets have significant value in their own right.

According to the article, John Bravo and  Dorothy Dietrich wanted to do advertising for the Houdini Museum along with the other attractions in the Poconos. They wanted to advertise with the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, but because the Museum was located just outside of the Bureau’s marketing range, they weren’t able to do so.

As a result, the duo ended up buying Ponoco Mountain related domain names instead, in order to build their own marketing efforts online. This effort has paid off, as they now own some fairly valuable domain names that have increased in value since purchasing them. They also purchased other valuable domain names along the way.

In addition to Museum domain names like Houdini.org, the  founders own domain names like PoconoHotels.com, Scranton.org, Pocono.org, iPony.com, and many others.

It’s always interesting to read about how people and companies began investing in domain names.

2011 Will Be a Big Year for Mike Berkens & WorldWide Media, Inc.

Elliot Silver
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WWMII was checking out Facebook yesterday, and I saw that Mike Berkens had updated his website information on his profile. Now listed on Berkens’ profile is  WWMI.com, the recently launched corporate website for Berkens’ WorldWide Media, Inc.

I had a chance to speak with Mike, and it looks like his company is gearing up for a big year. “WWMI will be part of a new company that will be announced early in January that will specialize in helping those seeking new extensions into making their extension successful.”

With the introduction of gTLD domain names expected in the next couple of years, Berkens will be in a great position to offer his professional advice in this area.

Berkens was able to offer some additional insight into his company’s gTLD consulting business.

“Generally  the new gTLD consulting will be a big story next year as hundreds of millions maybe billions of dollar will pour into the domain channel to obtain, market and sell domains ending in hundreds of different extensions,” said Berkens. “Up to now domains have all been about left of the dot, that is all the keywords that precede the extension.  After the new gTLD process is approved there will be huge money pouring into developing out extensions, brands and concepts all to the right of the dot.” The truly exciting part is much of this activity will come from those that haven’t invested heavily into the domain channel before.  This will credit a lot of new interest in the domain industry in general.”

Corporate domain consulting and domain sales will also play a prominent role in Berkens’ business in 2011. His experience and expertise will certainly be beneficial to clients looking to acquire high value domain names or sell them.  WWMI will “broker third party owned domains and advise companies on domain acquisition and sale strategies,” said Berkens.

WWMI owns close to 80,000 domain names, has sold over ten millions of dollars worth of domain names, and has one of the most popular domain name media outlets in  TheDomains.com. With the launch of WWMI.com, Berkens is positioning his company for some big moves in 2011 and beyond.

Special Thanks to Domain Boardroom

Elliot Silver
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11

A few years back, I was accepted as a member of Rick Schwartz’ private domain forum, and I felt that it was a huge accomplishment. Some of the most highly respected domain investors (who didn’t necessarily prefer to stay under the radar) were members, and it was a great place to learn and share.

After Rick’s Board closed a couple of years ago, a new private domain forum was started by Donna Mahony at DomainBoardroom.com. Today, it’s my favorite place to learn and share with  like minded  people, which includes well-known domain investors, SEOs, web designers, lawyers, marketers, webmasters, and other complementary professionals.

DBR is very lightly moderated, and it’s a place where some of the smartest minds involved with the domain industry meet and talk “shop” as well as socialize.

I am  privileged to be a member at Domain Boardroom, as I have learned a considerable amount from its members and met a number of people with whom I am friends and do business. There’s very little BS that’s often seen on the public forums, and it’s a great venue for learning. I appreciate all that Donna has done and continues to do daily, especially with her busy schedule caring for horses and other animals.

Because of some comments recently on a marketer’s blog about DBR (who is not a member), I wanted to show my appreciation with a public blog post.

I do hesitate to post this if only because I know it will invariably lead to additional membership requests, although I warn you that there is a strict membership policy (need to be trusted, known and vouched for by a few members, and a professional that gets along with the membership – which may be just as important as the other aspects of membership).

I was honored when Rick Schwartz accepted me among his peers on his private forum, and I am proud to be a contributing member of Domain Boardroom, which in my opinion, is the best place to learn and share in a supportive environment.

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