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GoodNews.com Could Mean Great News for Kevin Ham’s Wallet in the Billion Dollar Group Buying Business

GoodNews.com, appears to be Kevin Ham’s latest venture to kick off 2010. The web site is Coming Soon but it works on the premise of Group Buying. Group Buying is a strategy where people connected over the internet get a better deal on pricing, when the entire group purchases the same product.

CNN.com writes, “That’s the idea behind a new breed of “group buying” Web sites — at least one of which may be valued at more than $1 billion.”

GoodNews.comGroup Buying grabbed the attention of many domain investors when HomeRun.com sold for $131,200 Moniker and the owners launched a group buying site using the domain. As we reported back in February, the concept of group buying power has been back for awhile. Site’s like GroupOn have gone from about 1,000 visitors per month in June 2009 to nearly 3 million visitors per month in March 2010. HomeRun.com which has only been online a few short months hit almost 60,000 visitors in March.

Kevin Ham and Group Buying

Kevin Ham owns millions of domain names and like BlackFriday.com which he launched in 2009, he looks to take advantage of all the type in traffic by advertising GoodNews.com among his network of category-killer domains like Pajamas.com.

Elliot Silver of ElliotsBlog wrote, “A promotion like this, which will surely be seen by millions of people, would have cost another company millions of dollars to pull off. Of course, the company will certainly loose PPC revenue from people clicking away immediately rather than clicking through on the parking page links, but the sign ups they receive and revenue derived from those people will probably outweigh any lost revenue.”

Group Buying in the News

Earlier this week, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about Group buying startup LivingSocial raising $14 million in Series C funding. The announcement came just six weeks after the company closed on a series B round worth $25 million.

With group buying sites surging, Kevin Ham has picked a business that’s going to be great for his wallet.

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@GoodNewsVan Twitter followers get sneak peek at Kevin Ham’s newest group buying venture

GoodNews.com

If you’ve logged on to Twitter recently, @GoodNewsVan (the Twitter account for Kevin Ham’s Group Buying venture GoodNews.com) announced that followers would get to take a sneak peek at the new web site. 

True to their word, since July 5th, there have been a limited number of Tweet messages sharing deals that give GoodNews.com members bargains in Vancouver.

Today’s Deal:  $5 for 1/2 a Dozen Bonchaz at Bonchaz (Value: $10.50).

In recent weeks, GoodNews.com has undergone quite a number of changes, featuring a more Web 2.0 look and feel.  There have been only 2 deals offered so far on the Beta web site that is currently online.  And the focus of the site right now appears to be on one city: Vancouver. 

As I pointed out earlier, coupling geo websites with group buying services is a fantastic idea to get things moving and scare the competition.

Just in case you’re wondering, Kevin Ham might be the king of Internet domains, but when it comes to Twitter vanity domains, he missed the landrush. 

Kevin Ham had to use @GoodNewsVan instead of @GoodNews (which has been Suspended by Twitter.)  For his website BlackFriday.com, Kevin Ham went with @BlackFridayweb.  While it may not seem like a big deal — like Domain Names — chances are fans and users of his websites are typing in twitter.com/blackfriday only to find themselves on someone else’s Twitter page.

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Items.com the $50,000 domain name sold in 2010, launches “Optimized Social Shopping” website

items.comItems.com which sold in January on Sedo for $50,000 recently launched a shopping site.  Items listed on the website range from “At Home” items to Beauty, Clothing, Computers, Electronics and more. 

The Items.com web site appears very new as the Facebook, blog and twitter entries associated with the site went online about a week ago. 

Traffic to the domain name items.com which had been previously parked was just over 2,000 unique visitors per month in March, but with items.com developed, and getting ready for summer shoppers looking to purchase swimwear and other items, it’ll be interesting to track the progress of this site’s traffic.

Items.com is currently the #50 top domain sale in 2010, and while many other names remain parked in the DNJournal YTD chart, the owners of Items.com strategy is development to make the best use of its investment.

According to the website:

items.com is a hot new way for consumers to find and compare all the best online deals out there. Get a better shopping experience by utilizing all of our fun and functional features. At items.com we utilize intuitive search to help customize your shopping experience, while cutting down search time. Our lively shopping community consists of consumers just like you. Join our community and voice your opinion on popular products and offer your expertise by talking about experiences you have had. Walk away from our site with a better idea of what deals are available, and what products provide the best bang for your buck. Become a better shopper at items.com.

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Beta site of Kevin Ham’s newest venture is available (it’s DEFINITELY run by Kevin Ham, see it here)

GoodNews.com Beta
To see the beta site, go to: http://beta.goodnews.com/deals-homepage/

Goodnews.com isn’t limited to a Coming Soon page, the website is in beta as well, and you can access the beta website and learn about Kevin Ham’s newest plans for an online business powered by group buying.

You can probably expect the full version of the website to be unveiled soon to the general public, but during the beta period you can visit the site and check out today’s deal, recent deals and a whole lot more.

And this venture is definitely run by Kevin Ham. According to the Beta website’s about page under the Who We are section:

We admit it, we’re deal lovers ourselves. That’s why our entrepreneurial team, based out of beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia (see our office Webcams), isn’t happy unless everyone shares the good news.

Our parent company, Reinvent, Inc. is a private online media and advertising company, as well as a leader in the business of direct navigation on the Internet. Working with our portfolio of over 400,000 premium domain names and the extended Reinvent Network, we receive over 30 million unique visitors every month.

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Rookie Mistake as Rookie.com Expires, once owned by the National Rookie League (NRL)

RookieThe domain name Rookie.com expired on April 20, 2010 and goes to auction on May 25.  It already has 59 bids with a high pre-bid of $2,301 on NameJet. 

The domain name was once owned by the National Rookie League which had a website online in the early 2000s before being disbanded.

According to Wikipedia:

The National Rookie League (NRL) was an American unaffiliated minor league for the National Basketball Association that completed its inaugural season in August, 2000.

The NRL was exclusive to players under the age of 24 and was designed to help prepare the nation’s most talented young athletes for a professional basketball career.

It consisted of just four teams, located on the eastern side of the country: Baltimore Blaze, Washington Justice, Philadelphia Force and the Delaware Destroyers.

The National Rookie League was disbanded in 2002.