Month: August 2010

Categories
News

New Service by Domainers Aims to Rent, Not Sell Premium .CO Domains like Candy.co, Pizza.co, Toys.co

"Rent your CO"
According to the website's Business Model, Rent Your Co offers a huge .co domain portfolio with more than 300 exclusive premium .co domains to rent.

I discovered “Rent Your .Co” a brand new service for renting premium .co domain names.  I stumbled upon the website when I typed in Candy.co into my web browser, and the web address re-directed me to RentyourCO.com.

The site’s business model involves re-directing premium .co domains to websites for a fee.  Redireting traffic is one thing when it comes to .COM, but according to several reports by Domainers on Domaining.com who own other premium .co domain names, type-in traffic has been relatively low, despite the similarities to its .COM counterpart.  

Considering .CO availability and awareness is so new to the general public, chances are this model may change over time.  And even though the website states the names are only for RENT, when the right offer comes along, that could certainly change. 

The Rent Your Co Team

The new service aimed at renting premium .CO domains, is made up of a team of Domainers, apparently a small handful based out of Colombia.  But the team of Domainers has assembled an impressive portfolio of category-killing .CO domains that any domain name investor could be envious of.  

The Premium .CO Portfolio, For Rental

The list includes some of the best .CO domains in the world, with more to come as the website promises.

 

baby.co friends.co pizza.co
beer.co fund.co sales.co
bikes.co gambling.co save.co
book.co gifts.co search.co
books.co guns.co shop.co
buy.co gyms.co songs.co
candy.co houses.co stores.co
cd.co invest.co tell.co
cocktails.co jewel.co times.co
coffee.co jewels.co toys.co
creditcard.co job.co traffic.co
db.co lawyers.co vodka.co
diet.co magazine.co webcam.co
diets.co maps.co website.co
divorces.co models.co win.co
download.co motorcycles.co wine.co
dvds.co myvideo.co yes.co
flowers.co online.co  
Categories
News

Dutch Boyd: What Poker Domain Names Does He Own?

"online gambling"
If you’ve been following the news headlines, you’ve probably seen all the news on the possibility of legalizing online gambling in the U.S - which could be a cash windfall for owners of Poker Domains who have patiently waited for the right offer to come along.

Professional Poker Player Dutch Boyd did an interview last week where he shared interesting facts about his involvement in domain names with Mike Sullivan of SullysBlog.com. 

The two-time WSOP bracelet winner, not only plays poker for a living, but he deals in poker domains like HeadupsPoker.com, PocketJacks.com, CheckRaiser.com, and PokerTells.com. 

In total, Dutch Boyd owns about a thousand domain names, including non-Poker domains such as PrisonLife.com and he’s also sold Cured.com for $25,000 and PokerHost.net for $10,000.

Just what poker domains does he own is a big question fans of Dutch Boyd might be asking.  And if you’ve been wondering, Dutch has now shared several of his poker domains on his blog, names he’s trying to sell for $20 a piece.

A Sample of Poker Domains Owned by Dutch Boyd

Here’s a brief look at just a few of the Poker Domain Names, Poker Player Dutch Boyd has acquired over the years – that he’s now trying to sell.

PokerLoop.com
PokerNice.com
PokerPic.com
PokerRead.com
PokerScoops.com
PokerStrikes.com
PokerSums.com
PokerZip.com
PokerStrong.com

He’s already sold many like PokerShortcuts.com and TalkPoker.net, but if you’ve been looking for semi-decent Poker domain names to brand a Poker-related website, there might be something of interest on Dutch’s list.

Online Gambling could change the Poker Domain Landscape

Though we saw virtually nothing of interest, as legalized online gambling in the US gets closer to becoming reality, the value of poker domains could very well increase. 

In 2010, the number of Poker domain sales has been relatively low, but prices have been high, with the most notable sale being Poker.org for $1,000,000 by National A-1.  Other big sales included Poker.ca for $400,000, Europoker.fr for $15,480, BigDogPoker.com for $11,000, and Pokerist.com for $11,000.

Categories
News

.CO web registrations fast approaching the 400,000 mark

.CO on Facebook
The .CO community on Facebook, established in 2009, has over 350 members and keeps supporters up-to-date on .CO news as well as promos and discounts.

Sitting at 383,122 .CO web addresses registered to date, .CO is fast becoming a popular domain for speculators who have been gobbling up the web addresses since late July. 

The record pace of registrations for a country code top level domain, that soon will be global thanks to Google, is grabbing the imagination of Domain Investors looking to put their investment properties up for sale and make a quick profit on websites like Flipping.co. 

On the other end of the spectrum, some domain investors have argued the .CO will go the way of the .BIZ (a failed domain that never took off), but that argument could become harder to defend as a number of well-established companies like Twitter (www.t.co) market the domain and the number of registrations begins nearing the number of .BIZ and .US registrations, two domains that have been open to the public for years.

A closer look at .CO auctions

How are sales of .CO going on the aftermarket?  The domain is holding its own already, putting a challenge to other secondary domains.

Flipping.co, the first established aftermarket website dedicated to .CO domains, has several active auctions at any given time.  Right now there are over half a dozen including:

HomeInsuranceQuotes.co
Fighting.co
Carcinoma.co
Laid.co
ManagedCare.co
Rmt.co
Fishfinder.co

At Sedo, sugarcane.co, pkv.co, and bidrivals.co all have bids.

Join the .CO Community on Facebook

There is even a .CO community on Facebook, that has partnered up with Francois Carrillo’s Flipping.co.  The communty has quickly grown to over 350 supporters, and offers promo codes for registering discounted domain names.

Categories
News

Reels.com: Quarter of a million dollar domain name expires

"reels"
A website that showcased industrial products for Molex throughout the 2000s, Reels.com has officially expired.

The domain name Reels.com expired on July 27, 2010, and it’s currently pending renewal or deletion.  The domain name registered at Network Solutions, is valued at $249,000 according to Valuate.com, a reputed website that offers free domain name appraisals. 

Not your ordinary Domain

Reels.com is not your ordinary domain name, it’s a category-killing one.  When it comes to fishing enthusiasts, the keywords “fishing reels” are searched over 300,000 times per month globally.  “Reels” is searched approximately 165,000 times per month according to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Who owns the name?

Oddly enough, Reels.com used to resolve to a web site that had a store front for Aero-motive and Daniel Woodhead industrial reels, not fishing reels.   Both Aero-motive and Daniel Woodhead are trademarks of Molex, a company that supplies over 100,000 products, including everything from electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnects to switches and application tooling.

The company which operates at (www.Molex.com), owns a number of domain names that match its trademarks such as Woodhead.com, but surprisingly, when it comes to its products, it allowed Reels.com to expire.

The domain Reels.com is listed over at NameJet with a current bid of just $70, and if it somehow isn’t renewed by the owner by the backorder due date, it could very well go to Private auction on September 1, 2010.

Categories
News

Incubator Model: Reinvent Takes a Different Approach, Developing its Existing Network of Domains

Domains
Reinvent owns or operates nearly 600,000 domains that generate revenue through pay per click advertising

Kevin Ham’s company, Reinvent, updated their company website again this week – this time the “Our Lab” page received a makeover. 

The page describes Reinvent’s “Incubator Model” approach, that aims to take a domain name from a simple web address into a prototype within six weeks or less.

The Reinvent Difference

No word on which domain names are in the line up for rapid prototyping by Reinvent’s Development and Product Management teams, but the company has been churning out quality website businesses over the past year including:  BlackFriday.com and Vancouver.com.

The company has been showing off its latest venture into Group Buying (a popular online consumer trend)  called GoodNews.com, which was recently launched.

What’s the difference between Reinvent’s approach to the Incubator Model versus the standard practice?

According to Reinvent:

Most incubators work by supporting an entrepreneur through venture funding and administrative support (facilities, IT, HR, finance, etc).  We think that’s a great model, except our focus will be on developing our existing network of domains.  We look for interesting business models, trends in consumer behaviour, opportunities to create efficiencies or uniquely solve problems and then use a collaborative, small team process to quickly produce prototypes.