Just learned that Movies.XXX will be one of the premium .XXX domain names up for auction at the TRAFFIC show. We’ve heard that Frank Schilling and Mike Berkens have both invested in .XXX domain names in private, so we don’t really have an idea of their values.
What do you think Movies.XXX will sell for at auction? Keep in mind, there will be no online bidding, so bidders will have to place their bids in person or over the phone. I am not sure if there is a reserve price on the auction.
There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today that I think anyone who parks domain names should read. Apparently, it appears that it’s possible for a parking company to send out auto response emails for domain names that are parked, and those emails may contain spammy links in them.
Here’s an excerpt from the article discussing how this was set up:
“An Associated Press reporter accidentally sent a message to a “verizonwireless.co” address instead of the proper “.com” and got this response, ostensibly from his contact “tom”:
“I am out of office right now on a my (sic) dream vacation and will get back to you when I return. If you don’t hear from me, my assistant should contact you shortly. You should check this site to see how I scored the best travel deal for my trip.”
That’s followed by a link to a site that advertises luxury resorts. Presumably, the owner of verizonwireless.co makes money when someone clicks through to any of the resort sites.”
I sent a test email to info @ one of my parked domain names at Parked.com and I did not receive any type of response (no delivery failure notice either), so it appears that this is not something Parked.com is doing. I don’t do much parking elsewhere, so I can’t say if others are or aren’t doing this.
I recommend that you check out the WSJ article when you have a chance.
On Labor Day, I wrote a blog post offering a free domain appraisal for anyone that was interested in getting one. As you might imagine from the number of replies, I was overwhelmed fairly quickly. Of course, my apologies to those who didn’t get a response due to time contraints.
Although I don’t believe domain appraisals are completely worthless, I don’t think they hold much value, other than being more of a guideline. I am a domain investor and I certainly don’t value domain names at the same levels end users might, unless I am going to be the end user. As the saying goes, a domain name is worth what someone will pay for it.
I don’t have experience or expertise in such a wide variety of businesses that I could give accurate insight to niche domain names. The same can likely be said about the companies that sell domain appraisals. They may be able to give an analysis of market conditions and how similar names sold, but with domain names being a unique entity, even comps aren’t all that accurate.
Some people are willing to spend more money on a domain name because a particular name gives them more authority. Others will spend more because they know the domain name will drive more business to them. There are many reasons why people pay more or less for a domain name, and every situation and domain name is different, making it impossible to give a precise valuation.
After I posted my offer, a couple business colleagues told me I shouldn’t have done it because it would be a no win situation. People tend to think their domain names are worth more than they will ever receive for them (count me in that same boat). Realistically though, a domain name is hard to put a value on, unless you are buying it for a reason and can put a value on what the domain name will bring to your business.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Frank Schilling’s 7 figure investment in .XXX domain names as part of the ICM Registry’s Founders Program. I learned that another domain investor has also made a large investment in .XXX domain names, via the Founders Program.
Mike Berkens paid “into the six figures” for three .XXX domain names. His company acquired FreePorn.xxx, BlowJobs.xxx, and AnalSex.xxx. The actual purchase price isn’t being disclosed by Berkens or the ICM Registry.
The people behind the ICM Registry and their plans for the extension are big reasons for Berkens’ investment. According to Berkens:
“I think when you invest in a new extension your investing the registry as well, the people behind it and their vision and plan.
ICM has some very smart, determined people who also have the budget and desire to make a turn .XXX into one of the better known extensions throughout the world to compete with .com for adult material.
I also think their forthcoming micropayment system will have a big impact on the space.
Moreover I don’t think another adult oriented domain will be approved by ICANN in the new gTLD process and therefore I think .XXX will own the adult domain space.”
Websites on these domain names (not safe for work or those under the age of 18) went live this past week. Berkens used the web development services of DDC to launch these three websites.
It’s likely that FreePorn.xxx is one of the ten most valuable .XXX domain names. It’s a risky investment, but it could certainly pay off down the road, assuming .XXX takes off. In fact, Frank Schilling is hoping for a ten bagger when it comes to his investment (watch the video on Danno’s Blog 3:00 mark).
Robin Wauters at TechCrunch is reporting that RealEstate.com was acquired for $8.25 million. I assume the site, which ranks #3 in Google for the term “real estate,” was included in the deal. In my opinion, this is a hell of a deal for the buyer. I don’t entirely trust the accuracy of Compete, but they peg the traffic at 600k+ visitors a month and growing.
RealEstate.com is the category defining domain name and has a bunch of traffic, and I am surprised it sold for under $10 million. Of course I don’t know any financials behind the company so my opinion is simply based on the domain name and traffic.
Based solely on the merits of the domain name, do you think $8,250,000 is a fair deal for RealEstate.com or do you think it’s worth more or less?
I posted an article about Cheesecake.com going on sale, and I wanted to see what companies own other popular food .com domain names and whether each domain name is developed.
For this article, I chose food items that can be shipped / delivered since there are millions of food domain names out there. If you know of other food names that I missed, especially if they are owned by a
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