I just did some searching on Snapnames, and I updated my Top Snapnames Drops page. I don’t usually buy .org domain names, but there are a couple of nice ones that will be dropping.
Tucows Sells Million Dollar Portfolio
According to an 8-K Form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late yesterday, Tucows entered into an agreement to sell a small portfolio of 2,553 domain names for an aggregate price of $1,000,000. Payment will be made in all cash, with $900,000 being paid at the close of the sale, $50,000 in August and the final $50,000 being paid in one year.
An interesting note in the filing, states “The agreement further provides that the purchaser will be entitled to purchase up to an additional $1.8 million of domain names from Tucows.com Co. between today and June 2010 on terms similar to the Agreement.”
It would be interesting to know what terms are included in this agreement, and whether the names were sold because of their intrinsic domain value, or if they were sold based on a revenue multiple. If it was the later, I would be curious about how much of a revenue multiple it is.
Congratulations to Tucows!
Also, I want to note that I was “tipped off” to this great sale after following Tucows GM Bill Sweetman on Twitter. You can also follow DomainInvesting.com too!
I Love Canada!
I never thought I would say (write) that, but it’s true. I LOVE Canada. Well, maybe not Canada or Canadians per se. I don’t have anything against Canadians of course, but that’s not really the point.
Ok, so what IS the point? Well, after some diligent analytics and analysis, I noticed that Elliot’s Blog is the #1 result of 29 MILLION+ results for the term domain blog. Now I am not that full of myself to think that I have the BEST domain blog, but at least in Canada, for today, I am #1!
Lots of (Good) Hand Registrations Still Available
With domain tasting nearly dead, there seems to be a lot of opportunities today to register some decent new domain names as the tasters aren’t keeping everything. In the past several months, this hasn’t really been the case. I’d find decent names, but not really at the volume as I am now. Perhaps this has to do with people trimming down their portfolios and not renewing domain names, but whatever the case is, there seems to be more good unregistered names than before.
When you search for domain names to register by hand, always keep in mind two questions:
How can this be used commercially?
Would a person or a company legitimately spend hundreds or thousands of dollars building a website on this domain name?
If the answer to either one of these questions is “no” I recommend not registering it. I will use two recent registrations I made as examples:
1) Fireproofers.com – Although this isn’t a commonly used term, there are a considerable number of companies in the fireproofing business. They are paid to make sure newly constructed buildings are built with fireproof materials. It’s not a huge industry, but it is lucrative. Individually, each company/person is a fireproofers, and collectively they are fireproofers. This could be used as an industry site.
CigarEnthusiasts.com. I could easily see a cigar lover buying this name and building a cigar directory site. I wouldn’t sell it for thousands of dollars because nobody would pay that, but for a few hundred dollars, a person could buy a meaning full name that has cache.
There are tons of names like these out there available to register for under $10/each that can be flipped for a tidy profit. In a difficult market, it’s tough to acquire $5,000 domain names and hope to flip them. It’s much easier to buy a $7 name and sell it for $30 – $500 though.
You Can Disagree, But Be Respectful
I read a thread on a domain forum this evening that really pissed me off. Two people were highly critical of my friend Ron Jackson, and they were downright rude in their criticism. I think that people have the right to be critical of others (and I encourage it sometimes), but the rudeness that was shown was unprofessional and undeserved. Ron was one of the first (if not the first) domain journalists in the business, and he continues to publish news and articles that help the domain industry reach new audiences.
Ron spends hours upon hours each week writing articles, compiling reports, and interviewing industry professionals. Ron and his wife Diana attend nearly every domain conference, and one or both of them seem to attend every single panel and event, writing notes and taking photographs. All of this is used to produce the most respected, and the most widely quoted domain publication.
Whether you agree with what Ron says or with what any of the industry professionals profiled in DNJournal say, Ron is deserving of all of our respect and appreciation for his hard work. I don’t know how much Ron is compensated for his work via advertising sales, but I guarantee it doesn’t come close to compensating him for the time it takes to produce his publication.
