Flipping.co: .CO Worth “4% of .COM”

Elliot Silver
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I went to check on a submission I made at Flipping.CO, and I noticed that the domain names had appraised values next to them. Curious about how these were appraised with barely any sales results, I sent an email to Flipping.CO’s Francois Carrillo to ask how the values were ascertained.

According to Carrillo, the .CO appraisal is “4% of .com.”   It’s an interesting (and somewhat arbitrary) number that was based on Carrillo’s “experience and first sales.”

I don’t know if he’s right or wrong, and only after the auctions are done and secondary market sales are reported will we see how things shake out in terms of valuation. I haven’t sold any .CO names yet, and although I’ve received a couple of offers in the mid $xxx range for a three letter .CO, I have passed, preferring to wait until a solid aftermarket forms.

If you had to guess, what do you think .CO domain names are worth compared to .COM?

Exclusive: The Man Who Nearly Partnered with Alleged Russian Spy Anna Chapman

Elliot Silver
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Texas entrepreneur came close to partnering with alleged Russian spy on NYCRentals.com start up

To this single man from Houston, Texas, Anna Chapman was very attractive and well put together. Although she was not wearing provocative clothing when they first met at a trendy restaurant across from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the red-headed Chapman’s conservative Chanel suit and freshly styled hair was reminiscent of the classic Jackie O look. She looked good, but didn’t oversell her beauty.

During the initial meeting in early 2010, Chapman exuded a confidence the Texas Internet entrepreneur (who wishes to remain anonymous) wasn’t accustomed to seeing in women – “she was like a female with balls,” he shared, illustrating her directness and confident attitude. There wasn’t any indication that Chapman could be anything other than how she had been described, a successful entrepreneur who built a multi-million dollar business in Russia selling real estate online.

These two individuals were introduced out of the blue by the Russian wife of a friend of the Texan, who was acquainted with Chapman and knew she was looking for a New York real estate domain name to go with her business. NYCRentals.com hadn’t yet been fully developed, and it would be the perfect domain name on which Chapman could run her business in the US.

The Texan was intrigued by her beauty, and he was interested in working with someone who had been described as being very successful. He also believed she brought quite a bit to the table, as she had promised to help fund the company with somewhere between $150,000 – $200,000. The cursory details of the partnership sounded good to the Texan, whose other online business ventures and the “complicated Manhattan rental market” precluded him from building the business he first envisioned when he acquired NYCRentals.com for $5,250 in July of 2007.

The would-be partners subsequently met in person three or four more times over the next nine months or so to discuss business. Each meeting was held at a different upscale restaurant in New York City, and on two occasions, Chapman showed up with other men who were not a part of the deal.

For several months, the two would-be business partners frequently chatted on the phone and via text message, exchanging ideas and discussing their business deal. Chapman created a website for NYCRentals.com, and the Texas entrepreneur permitted the site’s launch, despite not having any working agreement. Concurrently, as reported by TechCrunch, Chapman was meeting with financiers and venture capitalists to discuss this business venture.

As the deal process continued to be drawn out, the Texan grew leery of Chapman and the promise of making money with her. There was something about her that he didn’t trust. After reading proposed contracts that contained strange contingencies and legalese, all in the hopes of earning somewhere around 3% gross, the Texan decided that it might be in his company’s best interest to sell the domain name instead of creating this partnership.

The Texan proposed an outright sale of the domain name to Chapman, and he set a price of $50,000 for it. Chapman pleaded with him to sell it for $20,000, and after subsequent discussion, they agreed to a deal at $25,350. The transaction was finalized through domain registrar Moniker, and it was reported in June’s Domain Sales Report in DNJournal, coming in at #11 of the week.

Shortly after finalizing the domain deal, the Texan began hearing about Chapman on the news and her alleged spying for Russia, and he realized just how lucky he was. Not only did he make a profit on the sale of NYCRentals.com in the amount of $20,000, he avoided a partnership that could have ended badly and possibly led to the seizure of his domain name.

Although he hasn’t been contacted by government officials, he is still pretty shocked about the entire turn of events. “I still do not believe it,” he said, “but I have faith in the country to know what they’re doing.”

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Photo: Facebook via NY Daily News

Domain Websites I Visit Daily

Elliot Silver
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21

There are a number of domain-related websites I frequently visit, but I don’t visit every site on a daily basis because I don’t have the time. In thinking about it, there are only really just a handful of sites I visit just about every day of the week.

Here are the domain investing sites I visit every day:

What domain related websites do you visit every day?

Sunday Update – July 4th Edition

Elliot Silver
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Hope my American friends are having a nice Fourth of July holiday weekend and that if you live elsewhere you are also enjoying your weekend. Stay safe and enjoy the weekend!   Here are a few updates from the domain business as well as my company.

  • Does anyone else find it amusing when someone inquires about a domain name you own and then proceeds to tell you how “bad” the analytics are when you start discussing price? Just had it happen again, so I told the lady she should find a better name. Does anyone have a good reply to inquiries like this?
  • I am very excited that Burbank.com has been relaunched with the help of the Scottsdale.com team, using the City in the Box platform. The team (led by company Executive Director, Becky Kelley) took the articles and content I had previously created, added many more articles and events, and also added many more features to their platform. Not only does it look great (in my opinion) but there have been over 50 registrations on site so far in the last few days. In fact, about 5 minutes ago another company added a listing and asked for a paid upgrade.
  • The sales staff has already begun closing local deals, one of which is directly with the city to help promote their summer concert series. Not only is this something I couldn’t do before, but the signed deals are for greater revenue than what I was able to previously do with the site.   This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they are soon going to start contacting the 100+/- companies who asked for advertising information in the past year. To say Burbank.com is off to a strong start is an understatement.
  • One more Burbank-related bit, but also something that can be helpful to you, is that in the last year, over 5,600 have become fans of Burbank on Facebook. This has been a great tool in getting people to help with the site, including photos for the headers, articles, events…etc. It was nice to get a lot “Likes” after asking people what they think of the site, and we also received some suggestions. Having an engaged and interactive audience is important to me, and I think it’s one reason why this blog is so enjoyable to me.
  • I am excited to announce the relaunch of Newburyport.com this past week, a domain name I bought a couple of years ago, which now resembles Lowell.com. If I can get this new site to earn as much as Lowell.com, the ROI will be less than 2 years. My team will be managing the sales, and I will be spending next weekend in Newburyport, a great summer vacation spot on the Massachusetts North Shore.
  • One quick update that you’ve probably seen but is important to say nonetheless. Frank Schilling is blogging again.
  • Finally, Alan Dunn has an article you should read on his blog when you have an opportunity. You don’t hear a whole lot from Alan, but he’s the real deal and offers some sound advice.

Verisign Price Increase Takes Effect Tomorrow, July 1, 2010

Elliot Silver
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I want to give you a friendly reminder that the Verisign price increase of 7% for .com domain names and 10% for .net domain names will go into effect tomorrow, July 1, 2010. I’ve known about it for a while but haven’t started taking any action until the last couple of days.

As a result of Verisign increasing the prices of domain registrations, commercial domain registrars will also have to increase the prices consumers pay for domains. I emailed several domain registrars to ask what the new prices will be and most were reluctant to provide those numbers, so unfortunately, I can’t give you more information on this, but you can figure it will be around 7% for .com domain names.

I’ve heard that one factor that plays a part in Google’s algorithm is the amount of time remaining on a domain name’s registration. Apparently, a website with a domain name that is registered for a longer period of time may rank higher than another similar website, with all things being equal. With the price increase about to happen, I’ve been extending the registration for several years on some of my key websites. Sure, it’s only a few dollars that I am saving, but I am going to have to pay the fee at some point, so why not now.

Some companies like Name.com are offering specials for domain transfers (the company is currently offering $6.99 domain transfers).   Additionally, the company is also offering $5.99 .COM & .NET registrations for today only when you purchase a domain name using the promo code “NEVERAGAIN.”

If you know of other special offers feel free to post them to let others know.

Compete Traffic Numbers & Fusible Report – LOL

Elliot Silver
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According to a post on the anonymously written* Fusible blog, “Elliot’s Blog experienced a big drop in traffic, going from over 46,000 unique visitors in March to under 21,000 visitors in April. Other blogs experienced significant falls in traffic – with Mike Berken’s popular TheDomains.com blog showing a difference of 20,000 visitors.”

As I was writing a reply in the comment section of the Fusible blog , my blog’s hosting/server manager wrote me an email:

“Here are the server stats if you want to dispute Fusible’s incorrect post saying you’ve gone down in your traffic:

April Total Visits To Your Blog – 64,684″

I also added that for my blog at least, Compete is way off… I checked in Google Analytics and Stat Counter, and the # of visitors in April was up a grand total of 226 visitors (according to Google) and up 951 visitors (according to Stat Counter), which is virtually identical and a negligible difference.

As you can see from the aforementioned traffic numbers directly from my server, Fusible is incorrect in stating that “the results aren’t that far off.” Likewise, Mike Berkens’ commented about the traffic report as well. In any case, I am just writing this to clarify my blog’s traffic stats, and as my advertisers know, I am happy to share my traffic numbers with them.

*BTW, I only say “anonymously written” because there is little information about the writers on the website (other than the fact that it’s a husband and wife team), and the blog’s domain name is privately registered.

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