ETF.com Sold for $12.6 Million

Elliot Silver
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etf-com-logoAccording to a Securities & Exchange Commission quarterly report filing (10-Q), the ETF.com domain name and website were sold earlier this year for $12.6 million. The deal was originally announced in a press release in March, although the price was not revealed until this recent filing. As you probably know, ETF is an acronym for “exchange traded fund,” and ETF.com has been an active website.

The buyer of the domain name and website is Bats Global Markets, a publicly traded company. According to the about us page on ETF.com, Bats Global Markets is “a leading global operator of exchanges and services for financial markets and the world’s No. 1 market for ETF trading.”

Here’s what the SEC filing had to say about the ETF.com domain name and website:

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Jessica Alba Talks About Buying Honest.com

Elliot Silver
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Jessica Alba’s company is called The Honest Company, and as you might expect from a company with a billion dollar valuation, they own the exceptional Honest.com domain name. In a Late Show with Stephen Colbert video shared today, Jessica Alba and Steven Colbert discuss the Honest.com domain name and how Alba’s company acquired the domain name.

I did a bit of research using DomainTools Historical Whois Tool to see who owned the domain name prior to the acquisition. In 2011, Honest.com was owned by Anything.com, a company that owns and has owned some of the most valuable domain names.

I have communicated with people associated with Anything.com, and the company does not share sales information. I am quite sure this was a very high value deal (my guess is high 6 or 7 figures), and I am also quite sure we won’t ever learn the price of the domain name unless Jessica Alba or someone else from The Honest Company reveals that information.

Here’s the video (skip to 3:30 to see the part about Honest.com)

 

Thanks to Matt Worth for sharing this video.

Ocean.com Appears to Have Sold

Elliot Silver
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In my daily DomainTools registrant alert email, I noticed that Ocean.com appears to have changed hands. The domain name was privately registered and it is now registered to DNStination Inc., the privacy proxy registration details for MarkMonitor clients.

I reached out to Richard Lau, whose company owned Ocean.com, to ask him if the domain name sold. Unfortunately, Richard could not comment. He did tell me, “I can say I’m happy. And that I think Mark Monitor is a great, very professional organization to work with.” My guess is that it sold (likely for high 6 or quite possibly 7 figures), but I presume this is a deal that will never hit the DNJournal sale report.

Ocean.com was acquired by Richard’s company for

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Domain for Sale Landing Page Discussion

Elliot Silver
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Domain for sale landing page design is a popular topic. Most parking service providers offer their own purchase/inquiry/offer landing pages, some with customizations and others without them. There are templates to use and companies like Efty that offer landing pages for users to sell their domain names.

Some people prefer to use their own landing page design. I have been using my own inquiry/offer landing page, and I have made tweaks to it over the last couple of years. I’ve tried quite a few things to generate more offers and sales, including the following tactics:

  • BIN pages with the price front and center and a link to go into escrow
  • Offer pages with minimalist design
  • Information about domain names on offer pages
  • References and recommendations to give assurance to prospective buyers

I’ve always thought less is better when it comes to these types of landing pages. My thought is that a prospect that has either clicked a link to inquire about a domain name or someone who landed on a domain name to see if it was being used does not need to be convinced that buying the domain name is a good idea. Similarly, someone who only knows that domain names cost  $10 at GoDaddy will not likely spend 4, 5, or 6 figures on a domain name, even with compelling copy.

Truth be told, the majority of

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I Like to Close Deals Quickly

Elliot Silver
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After coming to terms on a deal, I like to close as quickly as possible. I’ve experienced enough times where a buyer or seller changes his or her mind, and I know that the more quickly a deal closes, the better.

People outside of the domain business often have questions about the closing process, and I provide them with in-depth details about the transaction. I try to give as much information as possible, while making it clear that the process is not complicated or difficult. I don’t want the other party, who may be busy with other day-to-day tasks, to feel that the process is cumbersome or going to take too much time to complete.

I am very responsive to

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Election Domains: ClintonKaine.com vs. TrumpPence.com

Elliot Silver
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According to a blog post on NameBio, the TrumpPence.com domain name has sold on Flippa for $18,734. The TrumpPence.com domain name originally went up for sale back in July, and the owner decided to list it for sale on Flippa. I think the sale price was fair, and it remains to be seen who bought the domain name. I don’t know if the deal closed yet, and the registration information is private.

In August, the ClintonKaine.com domain name was sold for $15,000. Like the TrumpPence.com domain name, ClintonKaine.com was sold via Flippa. The registrant information for ClintonKaine.com is now private, but before the privacy registration was enabled, the registrant did not appear to be associated with the Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Presidential campaign.

For both the TrumpPence.com domain name and ClintonKaine.com domain name,

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