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.Mobi Meltdown

Elliot Silver
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Jeff at DomainBits has an insightful post on his blog today.

“Here are some other interesting comparisons: mortgage.net sold in 2006 for $149K versus mortgage.mobi for $18K now. Sales.us sold in 2006 for $8K versus sales.mobi for $10.5K – yes, that’s right – .mobi is only doing slightly better than the anemic .us market was doing two years ago. Films.tv sold last year for $8,600 versus films.mobi for 10K now. Boats.org sold two years ago for $50,249 versus boats.mobi for $6K now. Forsale.org sold last year for $12K, forsale.biz sold in 2006 for $3,550, forsale.co.uk sold two years ago for $14,692 versus forsale.mobi for $5K. Show.org recently sold for $13K versus show.mobi for $5K.”

I can’t say that I disagree with him at all. Surely a warning sign to investors in alternative extensions. Personally, I would hate the be the guy who speculated on average or poor names in the $x,xxx to $xx,xxx range, because those are surely suffering in value. Check out the rest of his post when you get a chance.

Exhibitionists.com – Final Price Cut

Elliot Silver
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I have decided to drastically reduce the price of Exhibitionists.com to make a quick sale. This is a great category killer niche domain name, and it does receive traffic. I am not sharing traffic or revenue stats, as I have the keyword set to something other than adult-related.
The original price of Exhibitionists.com was $45,000, but I am now reducing the price to just $24,750 for a quick sale. This is posted in a couple different areas, so the first to respond will get this great category killer domain name for a hell of a price. Names like these don’t come on the market often, and certainly not at a price like this.
To buy it now, either post “sold” in the comment section or drop me a note. We can finalize the payment after the Memorial Day holiday.

Developing Mini Informational Sites

Elliot Silver
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In the past, I discussed developing mini-sites on good domain names to generate revenue using Adsense instead of parking the name. The logic was that the traffic to the mini-website would grow as it begins to rank in search engines, whereas parked domain names won’t typically see an increase in traffic unless it’s related to a specific event or hot trend. Domain owners could quickly develop some of their domain names and increase the revenue generated.
I was reading Morgan’s Blog today, and he gives a great example of why development can exponentially increase the value of a domain name. He registered StimulusChecks.info at the end of April, and he built a relevant website with valuable information. Because he is providing value in the form of good unique content, Google has rewarded the site and it is ranking well for related terms. As a result, the name is making about $10/day in revenue and receiving around 200 visits/day.
Because of the nature of this topic, I would venture that the big traffic spike might flatten out in the next few weeks, but without a doubt, Morgan will make a great profit from this project. If he does this on other decent domain names focusing on relevant topics, he could generate a strong passive revenue stream that will continue to grow as he builds his network of websites and links to all of them.
Another great mini site was set-up by Aaron Kuroiwa, owner of FlipSquare.com, a new domain sales venue. Aaron registered AlcoholTreatmentClinics.com after seeing it in my list of domain registration suggestions for charity. Aaron wrote articles and built a the website that ranks highly in several search terms. The site averages about $3/day in revenue and is growing – not bad from a new registration to a mini-site that probably took a day to build.
These are just two examples of thousands that are out there. I will be rolling a few out in the near future (when I get some free time from developing Lowell.com and Burbank.com). While this certainly isn’t meant for every domain name, it might be a good option for strong keyword domain names that aren’t earning strong revenues. The ability to scale is important, and domain owners can scale with this. One recommendation I can make is that a person should link all of their sites in order to boost each of the sites’ rankings. As they continue to grow individually, the entire network will grow as a result. A final suggestion is to develop sites in which you have an interest. Since writing articles and finding information can be boring, I think it’s important to build sites about things of interest to you.

Moniker Live Auction Recap

Elliot Silver
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I spent this afternoon doing some work while listening to the Moniker Live auction. While I am not surprised at the results ($2.56 million in sales), I am a bit disappointed in them. I was hoping to see somewhere in the ballpark of $4-5 million in sales, assuming Israel.com didn’t sell. I realize there might be more bids in the silent auction that continues for the next several days, but I don’t think the final tally will increase substantially.
Here are a few of my opinions for the auction:

  1. Sellers still have very high expectations for their names and fairly unreasonable reserves. I think domain owners need to understand that in today’s market, buyers aren’t going to spend a ton of money on a domain name simply because it’s a great domain name. Unless a buyer has a plan for the name, chances are good that they won’t pay a premium for it.
  2. Many decent/good one worders that would have sold in the $15-30k range at past auctions didn’t sell today or sold for less today.
  3. From what I heard from a couple people in attendance, the house crowd was smaller during this auction.
  4. Non-.com extensions saw much weaker results than before. I believe names like 20.net, Garden.info, and all the .mobi names would have sold for much more a year ago.
  5. If you have a good name and set a good reserve, bidders will bid it up and set the price – just what happened in the case of PostalCodes.com.

I was expecting a weak auction, and that’s what we saw today.

Anonymity.com is Up for Auction

Elliot Silver
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Anonymity.com is up for auction at Sedo, it was originally registered back in 1996 and the bid is currently at $9,100 and the reserve HAS been met.
Google returns 12.1M results for “Anonymity”, and not that I need to remind everybody, but interest/concern for privacy is on the rise.Anonymous.net sold for $35,000 on March 19th, 2008 — Don’t miss your chance to own Anonymity.com.
You have about 16 hours to bid, until when the auction is over on Saturday, May 24th at 12:58 PM EST. You can bid on the auction here.

Breaking News: CCIN Joins ICANN Business Constituency

Elliot Silver
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Castello Cities Internet Network, owners and operators of geo websites PalmSprings.com, Nashville.com, WestPalmBeach.com, LagunaBeach.com, Daycare.com, Whisky.com and many other great Internet properties, has been accepted into the ICANN Business Constituency. The Business Constituency is made up of Internet leaders such as Microsoft, Yahoo, Walt Disney, Ebay, and several other prominent companies. This is good news for the domain investment and development community, as CCIN has proven to be a leader in this space.
I had the chance to chat with David today:
EJS: As Chief Operating Officer of CCIN, how do you hope to contribute to the Business Constituency, and what does your company bring to the table?
David Castello: “CCIN develops domain names into successful, business entities. One of our priorities is to protect the property rights of professional domainers and developers. The current Bad Faith clause in UDRP arbitration must be maintained and not diluted. If anything, it should be strengthened to put more burden of proof on the Complainant. Over 80% of all UDRP arbitration ends in transferring the domain name. Of course, many of these complaints are totally justified and we are opposed to those who would purposely infringe on another’s trademark. However, we are also opposed to those who may wish to broaden trademark powers to the point where it would infringe on the property rights of generic domain name owners and leave them susceptible to reverse domain name hijacking.”
I believe David and his brother Michael have the knowledge, experience and personality that will allow them to transcend the invisible line that often pits domain investors against others in the Internet community. The Castello Brothers’ strong and rationale voice is a big win for the domain investment and development community, and I think it’s great that they are representing us in the Business Constituency.

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