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Dirt.com owner who put domain up for sale for $3MM on Flippa, unveils web site

Dirt.com

In a previous blog post, I reported about the auction of Dirt.com on Flippa for $3MM.   The listing seemed to be fueled by the owner’s desire to travel and focus on charity work, after reportedly selling his company. 

According to the listing description by the seller Yessman: “I recently sold my Company and have decided to take a hiatus for thirty-six months to travel and focus on Foundation and Charity Work. The recent interest in Dirt.com from buyers throughout the world has peaked my interest in selling the domain versus building the business I had planned for it.”

Dirt.com site unveiled

The Dirt.com site was recently a “Coming Soon” page that hinted at a celebrity gossip web site, similar to TheDirty.com (a popular celebrity gossip blog with visitors in the hundreds of thousands).  

In the last few days though since the listing on Flippa and my story here, the owner has unveiled a web site on Dirt.com (screen shot above).  The site looks, and sounds somewhat similar to CelebrityGossip.com (a property owned by domain development company: First Beat Media).  Only instead of dirt being dished every 5 minutes as it is on CelebrityGossip.com, it’ll be served up every 15 minutes on the Dirt site.

Unrealistic Sales Expectations?

The domain Dirt.com was purchased for $100,000 at GoDaddy auctions in September, and the owner is trying to flip it with a buy-it-now price of $5,000,000.

I’m not sure if the owner has unrealistic expectations with the multi million dollar price tag, but according to the discussion thread on Flippa, he even argues that Dirt.com is more valuable than Loans.com (a domain name that sold in 2000 for $3 million)

Whether the owner is creating buzz for the pre-launch of Dirt.com or whether he truly is headed off to do charity and fundraising, from the angle of a domain investor, it would definitely be amazing to see the name sell for anything in the high six figure or low 7-figure range.

The auction for Dirt.com ends in three months.

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ePark.com expires, expect this domain to be hard-fought at auction

parked domain

The domain name ePark.com expired on November 13 and is pending renewal or deletion.

With an overwhelming amount of domain investors looking for the next best parking solution for undeveloped properties, and companies looking to win their business, ePark.com could be a great brand name for building the next parking solution.

Pre-bidding closes on December 18, then the name heads to private auction at NameJet.  At the time of this story, the listing has 62 bids with a high bid of $78.

By the time the name hits private auction, I would fully expect to see a lot of heavy bidding, not just from regular domain buyers, but from “domain parking” companies looking to create or strengthen their existing “domain parking” brand with a great domain name.

Parking companies trying to win business

Domain parking companies have been trying to maintain and win business as pay-per-click earnings continue to dry up, prompting some customers to switch providers and try out different models. 

Companies try to win business by promising to deliver higher pay-outs, more control over layout and content and many other services.

It is a competitive market, not only for “domain parking” solutions but for names with “park” in the domain. 

In 2008, webpark.com sold for $15,817 at SnapNames.  The domain name is currently parked using Google’s own domain parking service.

Many domains with “park” in the name, deal with domains.  Here’s a look at a handful of domain names with the keyword “park”.

WhyPark.com  WhyPark is a domain development platform, that pitches itself as a better alternative to traditional parking solutions: “Unlike traditional parking services, WhyPark’s content helps establish a domain’s brand until it matures by promoting legitimate indexed websites that offer relevant information for visitors. WhyPark’s suite of premium services is also available for the highest level of content development and SEO for the more advanced domain investor.”

Parked.com  Parked.com is “a domain parking solutions company, leverages technology for dynamic domain name optimization providing leading edge relevant parked pages for internet users and targeted traffic for advertisers.”

Park.com  Epik’s Rob Monster is co-chairman of Park.com, but the site (which hasn’t officially launched), will actually be a service for parking “real” cars, not domains.  However, if you’re interested in parking your domain names, a message on the home page says: “Visit Epik.com to learn about next-generation domain parking solutions.”

iPark.com  iPark is a domain merger & acquisition broker.

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Will the sale of Gambling.com even come close to $20MM (its previous sale price)?

online gambling

Fusible.com was the first blog in the Domain industry to report about the auction of Gambling.com, shortly after reading a tweet sent through Calvin Ayre’s web site announcing Media Corp had retained Sedo to sell Gambling.com

Hours earlier, Media Corp had issued a press release through BusinessWire: ‘Whilst the Group has received a number of very significant indicative offers for www.gambling.com, the Board believes that a formal auction process with the World’s leading domain name broker will achieve the best possible outcome and valuation as Sedo is uniquely positioned to present the domain to global gambling brands and other qualified buyers.’

Purely a Domain Sale?

Gambling.com, if you recall, sold for nearly $20 million in 2005.  However, the sale wasn’t purely a domain sale. 

According to Sedo back in 2005: ‘The sale of Gambling.com turned heads when it hit the multi-million dollar mark and sold for 20 million dollars.  Also included in the sale were benefits of a direct mail database and affiliate program connections.’

In 2010, will Gambling.com even close to its multi-million dollar sales price from 2005? 

Back in 2005, Casinomeister wrote about the sale.

“Gambling.com is the number 1 listing on google.com for “Gambling” search and has over 500 other internet and affiliate sites linking to Gambling.com globally. It also has extensive expertise in direct mailing and has built a double opt-in database of over 200,000 members.”

Times have changed.  Gambling.com is no longer the number 1 listing.  Though type in traffic is always a nice perk, long term businesses want to own the search engines.

What are people saying?

Over at Gambling Portal Webmasters Association, the site that was originally tapped to auction Slots.com, members are a bit skeptical that Gambling.com will get anywhere near that $20 million price tag.  Here’s a look at some of the comments:

Christoff says, “Superb domain but will never get $20m for it”
 
Brean78 says, “For what its worth, I think Gambling.com has suffered from a bit of an identity crisis for a while now. It appears to be heavily focused on sport (for traffic I presume), but I don’t know too many people that associate gambling with sports betting.”
 
Graham says, “20 million?? I just don’t see this as good of a domain as something like onlinecasinos.com, sportsbetting.com, casinos.com, etc. where the people are coming to the site knowing exactly what they want to do. Gambling is too broad and I don’t think would convert that great, nor have the player value that some other terms might carry.”
 
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.ME Personal Name Auction Starts Apr. 5, Hundreds of First Names and Surnames (James.me, Paul.me, MORE)

social networking

The Personal Name auction starts April 5th and ends between April 12th and April 16th exclusively at NameJet.  The minimun bid price is $150 and all the domains are previously unreleased.

Potential buyers have already been placing their bids.  There are some great first names up for sale like Paul.me, Brian.me, Jason.me, James,.me, Amy.me and hundreds more.  Depending on your interest in .me domains, your wallet and your involvement in social networking, this could be your chance to own your first name in a  top level domain. 

You can participate here and get a glimpse of the personal names being auctioned.

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Never-Before Released .ME Domains at Auction: Wipe.me, Defy.me, Readto.me, Preview.me (more)

show.me

The .ME registry held back several premium .ME names and every once in awhile, dozens of the premium names go up for auction.  .ME domains are not for everyone, but they definitely have social appeal and make easy domain hacks since the character extensions can be used to create a phrase like: DontLeave.me.  Domainers like Bruce Marler run businesses on .ME.  Even major brands such as WordPress (WP.me) and Facebook (FB.me) use the extensions to promote their products. 

While every extension has its backers, there certainly seems to be interest in .ME.  Previous sales include Date.me ($70,000), Cloud.me ($22,500), Teach.me ($20,100), Buy.me ($17,500), Marry.me ($12,000) and Show.me ($10,000). 

While many of those sales sit parked, Show.me actually launched a website which is currently in Private Beta called Show.me – Real Estate Gone Social.  The sales pitch for the site is:

Show.Me is taking online real estate to the next level! Since we are all different, it’s only natural that we would have different real estate needs. Show.Mm is the first online real estate platform that personalizes your user experience and brings you the answers, connections and tools you need. Even if you are not Internet savvy, Show.Me provides you a step by step guide to taking full control of your real estate activities easily.

Unreleased .ME Domains at Auction
 
NameJet is holding a .ME auction for domain names that have never been released.  The auction starts February 19th, but you can start bidding now.  Here’s a sample of the names going for auction:

Wipe.me
Layout.me
Cart.me
Defy.me
Kitchens.me
Probate.me
Aqua.me
Clothe.me
Eatwith.me
Farmers.me
Portrait.me
Readto.me
Tobacco.me
August.me
Authentic.me
Bluray.me
companies.me
Dane.me
Dontleave.me
Doyoulike.me
Giftfor.me
Investin.me
Preview.me
Solution.me
YouFind.me
Woody.me