Televisions.com sold for just $215,000 according to the newest addition of DNJournal.com‘s weekly sales report. This is a great price for the buyer, as I believe this name was worth well over half a million dollars. Recently, Cameras.com sold for well over a million, and I would value this name similarly. My only reasoning for the low price is that people might be searching for TVs rather than Televisions. Although television margins aren’t huge, I think the new owner could open up a tv store without open box inventory. The price paid is much less than what it would cost to open a television business in a typical shopping mall, and the reach is far greater with Televisions.com.
Televisions.com – A Steal at $215k
NBA Team Buys Bobcats.com for $50k
Basketball Bobcats get shorter name from wildlife breeder
Barbara Roe, bobcat breeder and owner of Bitterroot Bobcat and Lynx, of Stevensville, MT., sold the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats her Bobcats.com domain name. The team had been inquiring about it since 2004, but she rejected their offer of just a couple thousand dollars.
Realizing how much traffic they were losing by using BobcatsBasketball.com for the past few years, the team and Roe reached an agreement to sell the name for $50,000 – a bargain price, in my opinion. Although the owner couldn’t have monetized the domain name for basketball or tickets without infringing on the rights of the NBA Bobcats, the name was probably worth much more to the Charlotte Bobcats than to Bitterroot Bobcat and Lynx. This is a good deal for the buyer.
Industry Wide Price Increase
I just received an email from Moniker notifying me of the price increase on domain names. On October 15, 2007, the price of registering .com and .net domain names is increasing by $.50. While this 7.2% price increase may not seem too bad, it can add up depending on the size of a person’s portfolio. I haven’t received an email like this from other registrars, but I imagine everyone will be in the same boat.
“INDUSTRY WIDE PRICE INCREASE – OCTOBER 2007
As you may (or may not) have heard, there will be an industry wide price increase on October 15th 2007. .com and .net prices are going up approximately $.50 each. If you own domains that you’re looking to hold onto for long term, save money by renewing and/or registering today!” — Source: Email from Moniker
Ignorance is no Excuse
I’ve been seeing quite a few articles about politicians buying the domain names of their opponents, but I haven’t seen something as blatant as what the lady in the aforementioned article has been doing. The lady apparently believes that she can buy the domain names of realtors, doctors and other professionals in the hopes of selling to them for a profit. I think this is a case of ignorance more than anything else, but it certainly isn’t right. This is straight-up cybersquatting.
As domain investing becomes more mainstream, educating new investors is going to be important. I believe it is the job of the registrars’ to educate their buyers. Companies like Godaddy have gone mainstream, but I believe they are failing to educate their consumers. You wouldn’t leave out seatbelts in a Ferrari, so registrars should educate their buyers on the laws of cybersquatting and the penalties they could bring. As I said in this post, consumers should have “to check off a box acknowledging that they are aware of the Lanham Act and its penalties before every registration.”
Someone needs to give this “domain reseller” a clue.
Introducing Hulu
A few months after announcing they were planning a video sharing website as a possible rival to Google.
PPC Impact of LowerMyBills Lowering Its Ad Bill
People have been speculating about what impact the struggling mortgage market will have on PPC advertising, a source of revenue for many domain owners. New York Times blogger Brad Stone blogs about how Experian’sLowerMyBills.com has reduced its web advertising in light of the recent mortgage crunch.
While LowerMyBills.com is a big internet advertiser, I don’t believe there will be a major impact on PPC revenue. While the mortgage market is under pressure due to subprime mortgage borrowers defaulting on their loans, other types of mortgages are still in high demand. I believe other advertisers will fill the void, competing for the lower risk (and higher value) mortgages in the form of keyword bidding. I don’t own many high performance mortgage domain names, but it would be interesting to see if there has been an impact on revenue.