There are some very good domain names up for auction in Sedo’s GreatDomains featured auction, which ends in under an hour. Many of the domain names have met reserve prices and will sell.
My favorites include the following (with current bids as of posting):
It seems that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization have their eyes set on re-developing and re-opening the famous Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park, which closed back on new years day 2010.
The company appears to have gone so far as to secure the domain name TrumpTavernOnTheGreen.com, in the event the city awards him the right to re-build the shuttered restaurant. The domain name was registered in February of 2009, and it’s registered at Go Daddy to the Trump Organization.
A New York Post article this morning reports that Trump has apparently reached a deal with a labor union that represents former employees, and that is a key component to anyone opening the restaurant.
Although Mr. Trump mentioned that he doesn’t intend to add “Trump” to the name of the restaurant, the domain name that was secured by his company appears to indicate otherwise (or at least it’s a defensive registration).
It is a bit surprising that the domain name was originally registered by the company back in 2009 though, since development rights had been awarded to Dean Poll, operator of another well-known Central Park restaurant, The Boathouse.
Incidentally, the Trump Organization also appears to own the domain name, TrumpOnTheGreen.com, although I can’t imagine the restaurant being know as “Trump on the Green.”
I have a buyer that is interested in acquiring 3 letter com domain names priced at $10,000 or below. If you have domain names that meet his requirements below, please submit them as comments.
Please keep in mind that domain names must meet ALL requirements (ie He won’t care if you have a great 3 letter .net or 3 letter word .org):
Shares of Demand Media traded on the New York Stock Exchange today for the first time.
In addition to its domain name assets (like Enom and NameJet), DMD generates revenue with Adsense and advertising on its eHow.com website. The company has a proprietary algorithm that can figure out what people are searching for on Google, and it then sources out articles on those topics to its huge team of independent writers. There are either hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of articles.
Pundits have opined that some of the content is bad, while others have speculated that Demand could be impacted if Google changes it’s algorithm to push down the allegedly “spammy” articles. I don’t own stock in DMD and most of the eHow articles aren’t really that competitive to my sites, so that stuff doesn’t really interest me much.
However, I do think there’s a way that domain investors / web developers can tap into Demand Media’s vast knowledge about the wants and needs of Google searches. If we search eHow for articles related to our own topical websites, we can learn what Demand thinks people are looking for, and we can then write better articles or source out better articles.
Here’s an example for you.
I own a dog walking service directory, and in addition to the paid directory listings, I also have a lot of articles that might interest dog walkers or people looking to hire dog walkers. By searching eHow, I can make the assumption that its related articles are things that people are searching for, and my exact match domain name may have more authority if I write more in depth and/or interesting articles. It’s important that you write articles differently than the eHow articles and that they are completely custom.
For instance, it looks like these topics should be covered on my site (in addition to many others):
Mind you, I already have a number of these articles covered on my site in various forms, but the information provided by eHow can be beneficial to website owners. Maybe you should take a look at eHow and see what information you can glean for your own website.
I am writing much more about .CO domain names than I ever did about .MOBI or .EU or any other new domain extension. I want to make a few things very clear about my feelings on .CO, and you can take it for what its worth knowing the .CO Registry is an advertiser and that I own less than 10 .CO domain names.
With Google’s consideration that .CO is an international domain extension rather than another ccTLD (despite the fact that it is actually Colombia’s ccTLD), I believe .CO domain names have the ability to perform well as websites in any country. I believe that this will mean businesses will be able to successfully build on .CO domain names.
I can only assume that companies like Go Daddy and the .CO Registry will continue to market .CO domain names, targeting consumers and small businesses alike. To my knowledge, this type of mass awareness campaign has not been done before for other extensions, and I think consumer awareness is key to .CO domain values.
I believe that because Google announced it will index these domain names like other extensions combined with the awareness campaign undertaken by the world’s largest domain registrar, .CO will become a widely used domain extension… in the future. In addition, with gTLDs expected to be released in the future, consumers will slowly adjust to extensions other than .com. It may not be quick, but I do think it will happen.
Personally, I do not believe .CO domain investments are a wise short term play. If you buy a name to flip it this week, month, or year, you could be out of luck.
My domain investment business model primarily revolves around quickly flipping domain names. It’s a cash flow business for me. As a result, I am not investing a whole lot in .CO domain names right now. Simply put, I don’t have $xxx,xxx in liquid capital that I would use to invest in .CO domain names (to put on the sideline) for a long term investment of potentially several years. There may end up being some great buys in the big Sedo ,CO auction, but we probably won’t know for some time.
If you do make .CO domain name investments, you should do your due diligence. I don’t see a big aftermarket for them amongst domain investors right now, although that could conceivably change after the Super Bowl. Without that, there is limited liquidity. For instance, if I pay $25,000 for a city .com name, I am generally fairly positive I could sell it at wholesale for $20,000+, and that can’t be said about .CO at the moment.
I think it’s actually a good thing that we aren’t seeing huge sales that would encourage others to spend more than they should. It doesn’t appear that there is a bubble forming, which is a very good thing, because bubbles in the domain space aren’t good for the majority of us. When they burst, values plunge as the liquidity is not there to support the valuation.
Some of the comments I hear is that Go Daddy and the .CO Registry are simply hyping this extension and it’s going to end up costing domain investors a lot of money. The irony of this is that every business needs to do marketing for consumer awareness, and it’s the consumer awareness that will help make .CO domain names valuable. Without it, consumers and businesses wouldn’t buy the names, and without that, domain investors wouldn’t make much money unless they developed them.
The bottom line from my perspective is that .CO domain names may turn out to be a fantastic investment in the future. For now, I think it’s great to see the Registry and its registrar partners focusing on a gigantic awareness campaign. I am happy with my current investments, and if I see good names at good prices, I will invest for the longterm.
A college friend emailed me on Sunday to see if we could get a group of us to hit up Mardi Gras this year, and I realized that I hadn’t received any emails or heard anything about Domainer Mardi Gras this year.
I assumed it might have been cancelled or postponed in light of the heavy load of conferences in the beginning of the year, so I reached out to Michael Ward, Director of Marketing for Parked.com. Sure enough, Domainer Mardi Gras is on hiatus for 2011.
According to Michael, due to the Domain Roundtable conference “in the Bahamas, along with ICANN SF taking place also in March, we decided to not host DMG this year.” This is a bummer. Last year, I was scheduled to go but got snowed in, and the prior year I also had a conflict.
IMO, it’s a smart move to postpone it though, rather than compete with the other conferences. Michael hinted that the show or a meet up of some sort could happen next year, and it’s possible that it might take place during Jazz Fest, another fun annual event in New Orleans. I love Mardi Gras, but Jazz Fest would be just as fun.
