Congratulations to Ira Zoot on the launch of his TheaterTickets.com. The site looks great and is very intuitive. I know Ira has a nice collection of ticket-related domain names, and I wish him much success with the launch of this great website.
TheaterTickets.com Goes Live
Pharmacy.com – A $50 Million Domain Name?
According to Red Herring, Pharmacy.com is for sale. This is prime real estate just waiting to be developed into a business. According to Joshua Bourne, co-founder of FairWinds Partners (and also the President of the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse), the domain name is worth “way over $50 million.”
While this asking price is fairly unprecedented, a domain name of this caliber could be worth it. I believe sales based on revenue multiples alone are fairly short-sited, and it would appear that the owner’s models take this into consideration. It would be a boon to the industry if they get their asking price, although we probably won’t know the sales price unless it is purchased by a public company such as Wal-mart, who probably has the money to make this happen.
According to the Domaintools Blog, a rumored buyer could be CVS pharmacy, who would consider re-branding the company.
$500,000 Offer for LI.com
Newsday is reporting that the Al Triolo, owner of LI.com has received a $500,000 offer for the name through Sedo.
I would love to have the luxery of passing on a half million dollar offer, but I believe this name is worth more than the offer. Two letter domain names are the rarest .com names availavle (676 total), and on the rare occasion that one comes on the market, it is usually of lesser quality, and those are usually sold for over $100,000.
Most two letter .com names are fully developed and associated with businesses, such as JR.com, BA.com, and NV.com. I think the owner should hold out for an offer that fully values his domain name, and that would probably be over $1 million.
Boston Globe: Virtual Brokers Yield Real Profits
Nice article about domain investing in the Boston Globe today:
Online Domain Name Game Yields Real Profits for Virtual Brokers
It’s always nice to see a positive article in the mainstream media about domain name investments and why companies are paying large sums of money for them. It’s kinda crazy to think about how Beer.com went from being sold for $80,000 to $7,000,000 in less than 4 months. It goes to show you that many generic domain names have considerable value – it’s just a matter of finding the company that values it highest.
Users Prefer Direct Navigation Over Search Engines
Users Prefer Direct Navigation Over Search Engines
It’s nice to see a mainstream media outlet like DM News acknowledging what domain investors have known for years: direct navigation traffic converts better than search engine traffic. People usually know exactly what they want when they type the term into their browser rather than in a search engine, and well-optimized parked pages give users relevant links to what they want. As I said on my website,
“A person who types exactly what they are looking for into their browser is a more valuable prospect than a person using a search engine. This person knows exactly what they want, and if the website can provide the information that this person is seeking, then they benefit, as does the owner of that site. It can be the most cost effective way to generate targeted leads.”
If a large company owned the .com of the keyword(s) being searched, they wouldn’t have to pay for a click, nor would they have to compete against competitors. I think Hotels.com is a perfect example of a company owning a keyword instead of paying handsomely for the same traffic. The purchase of the Hotels.com domain name is the key to their success.