Month: December 2010

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News

Hillcrest Media has plenty to be happy about with their purchase of Fiction.com domain for $90K

fiction

With Patrick Ruddell poised to take the sci-fi world by storm with the soft launch of ScienceFiction.com, there’s a lesser-known group in the domain development world getting ready to do the same in 2011 with fiction:  Hillcrest Media Group, the owners of several media properties including Published.com and Fiction.com. 

Earlier today, TechCrunch broke the news to their readers that Patrick Ruddell, domain investor and blogger (better known as Chef Patrick), dropped $175,000 for the domain ScienceFiction.com in order to launch the “TechCrunch of Sci-Fi”.   TechCrunch writes, “The domain name had been held back by a finance company called Domain Capital due to a defaulted loan, and Ruddell contacted two sci-fi geek friends to turn it into a business.  Fast forward to today, and ScienceFiction.com has launched as a way for fans to access information about all things science fiction, ranging from movies, TV shows, games, books, comic books and technology.”

If Hillcrest Media Group has been following the news, they have to be delighted to see the price of ScienceFiction.com selling for $175,000.

Why?

Back in July, Hillcrest Media Group acquired the domain name Fiction.com for a mere $90,000 in a private sale brokered by Moniker. 

As we wrote about in July, the company even boasted of the domain name acquisition. 

2011 looks to be an exciting year for online sci-fi and fiction enthusiasts. 

And it’s defintely exciting times for domain investors, young and old.  Patrick Ruddell only entered the domain industry in 2008 and as Ron Jackson writes, “Now here he is, less than two years later, at the helm of ScienceFiction.com.”

Patrick Ruddell also managed to secure the matching vanity URL @sciencefiction on Twitter and on Facebook (facebook.com/sciencefiction) – something many big companies have been unable to do as they expanded their reach into social media.

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News

Christian Riley’s sites might not be pretty, but they’re on some of the best domains like SantaClaus.com

Santa Claus

Kids everywhere are online searching for Santa, and there’s one site in particular that hasn’t changed much since the nineties – SantaClaus.com which is owned by Christian Riley who has been buying and developing domain names since the early nineties. 

Christian writes a blog about domain names, politics, the internet and more on ChristianRiley.com.  Though the site is not regularly updated, it’s an interesting read.  Christian shared a story about SantaClaus.com and Bruce Waldak, a friend of his who passed in 2007 on his blog back in 2008:

I met Bruce in 1993.    We did business together in initially the software field – statistics and tracking software for CSG/digitalNation (dn.net) when it was running FirstClass.  And then we became friends over time.  Back in early 1994, we were talking one day and I said, “Hey Bruce, if you want to write to Santa Claus on the internet, you’ll be hitting santaclaus.com on our servers.”  He said something along the lines of, “No way!  You are kidding me!  You can do that?”  (It may have been more along the lines of “No shit!  Your f-ing with me!”).  So we spent the next hour talking about names and cool things to do with them and found a lot of great ideas on the topic. He was always looking for a great idea and there were always great conversations with wild ideas to be had.

The look and feel of the SantaClaus web site hasn’t changed much over the years, but regardless of how your site looks or whether it has the best content, thanks to a great domain like SantaClaus.com people still visit. 

That’s pretty much been the way it is for premium .com names.  Last December, SantaClaus.com had over 100,000 visitors. 

Of course, Christian Riley could do a lot more with SantaClaus.com, but he is a one-man show as I wrote about in late September in a story titled: Halloween.com, Phonebook.com, SantaClaus.com is really just one person, no big companies here

There are a lot of similarities between his online properties.  Visit pancreas.com, phonebook.com, hurricane.com or any of his sites and you’ll notice the distinct touch Christian gives to his network.  And despite the lack of a Web 2.0 look, there is no sign that traffic to any of his sites is slowing down.  

Halloween.com had over 500,000 visitors this past October.

Phonebook.com gets as many as 100,000 visitors per month.

What’s up next for Christian Riley, who has a number of fantastic seasonal domains?

Looks like EasterBunny.com.  He owns that, too.

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News

For $70,000, buyer picks up WHReviews.com at GreatDomains for “Web Hosting Reviews” site

web hosting

web hosting

Sedo is reporting that the domain name WHReviews.com has sold for $70,000 USD, from its premium domain auction website GreatDomains.

The domain WHreviews.com is now host to a Web Hosting Reviews web site that was created to help people find independent, credible web hosting reviews and comments, so they could pick the right hosting company.

The new owner of the web site explains why visitors should use WHReviews.com on the home page: “There are all sorts of hosting reviews websites that talk about or collect web hosting reviews, sites posting all kinds of ratings, or top 10 web hosting companies lists. If you spend a bit of time comparing those lists, you’ll see that most recommend a part of the same group of companies.  You might think: “That’s normal. It means those are really the best!”. Unfortunately, no. The reason that the same companies always make it to the “top” is that those companies, one way or another, pay to be listed there.”

There’s not that long road ahead for WHReviews.com. 

Though webhostingreviews.com and webhostingreviewz.com are both established web sites and rank ahead of WHReviews.com in Google search, WHReviews.com is on page 1 for the phrase “web hosting reviews” – and visitor traffic isn’t far behind its closest competitors.

 Compete

According to Archive.org, WHReviews.com was a web hosting review web site as far back as the early 2000s.

How popular are web hosting domains?

To give you a clue, webhostingreviews.net sold in 2008 on Sedo for $392.  Two years later, the domain sold again for $7,800.

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News

TechCrunch writes about domains, but how much do they know? Here’s one they should own, but isn’t even registered

The Crunchies awards

If you regularly visit TechCrunch, like I do, you’ll see breaking stories about startups and technology companies and even the occasional domain name.  However, the fact is as savvy as Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch is when it comes to the internet, the technology blog doesn’t know everything about domain names, at least, that’s the case with one particular domain name having to do with one of the biggest events TechCrunch organizes and hosts every year: The Crunchies Awards.

If you’re not familiar with them, The Crunchies is an annual competition and award ceremony to recognize and celebrate the most compelling startups, internet and technology innovations of the year.

And at the time of this story, thecrunchies.com domain name is not registered, despite receiving several hundred type ins each year according to a report provided by Compete.

thecrunchies

Back in 2008, when the name was registered, it was a website that celebrated the most tasty cereals of the year.  Celebrating the most tasty cereals looks to be a good idea, but the fact the owner let the domain name expire indicates it never took off.

Now I’m not saying TechCrunch needs to have the domain name thecrunchies.com, or that the name is even worth spending $10 to register, but you would think that with all of TechCrunch’s technology experience, the company would spend a few bucks to register the name and at least re-direct it to their annual competition.  Or who knows, maybe even set up a website that has information about past years’ events that makes it easy for people to dig up information all in one place.

The Crunchies 2010 are in full swing.  And in case you didn’t know, there’s even an in person awards ceremony.

The Crunchies will be held on January 21, 2011 at a new venue, the landmark Palace of Fine Arts Complex. The awards ceremony will be begin at 7:30 pm at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater with the After Party to follow at the Exploratorium until 11:30 pm. Tickets will be released in batches starting December 15. Keep an eye on TechCrunch as they sell out quickly.

I certainly won’t be registering the domain, but you can bet it will only be a matter of time before someone else purchases the name and sets up some type of online competition, maybe once again for tastiest cereals.

UPDATE:  Within seconds (not minutes) of my story running, a reader registered the domain name (Whois).

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News

Calvin Ayre coined the term “Tablog”, now it’s up for Best iGaming Community

tablog

While you’ve probably visited CalvinAyre.com, you may not have realized it before, but the web site is also referred to as Tablog.com.  The term was coined by Calvin Ayre in 2009 in order to describe a new breed of blog –  a tablog – “tabloid” + “blog”.   Typing in the web address tablog.com will also take you to CalvinAyre.com.

While the search volume for the term “tablog” isn’t big, Calvin Ayre has managed to get it listed in Wikipedia.

“Tablog”‘ is a neologism (a portmanteau word conjoining “tabloid” and “blog”) and refers to a specific form of blog, usually maintained by an individual or organization, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, graphics, video, and with links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The element that distinguishes a tablog from other forms of blogs is the selection of material or means of presentation, which tends to sensationalize, emphasize or exaggerate for effect, and which often focuses on scandalous information relating to the personal lives of celebrities or of members of their target industry.

In addition to Wikipedia, Calvin Ayre’s tablog as he calls it, which launched in the fall of 2009, is up for an award. 

Jamie Hinks, a writer for CalvinAyre.com, announced the blog is up for Best iGaming Community.  The competition includes BingoPort, CasinoMeister, CasinoAffiliatePrograms, Coinflip, EquipoAzartia, Global Gaming Events, GPWA, PokerStrategy, and SportyTrader.

Though being the first to register a popular term is rewarding, imagine coining your own term.  In August 2009, Calvin Ayre did an interview with CasinoCity where he talked about the launch of his tablog and the term.  The interview was re-published by GPWA. 

When asked what his plans are for CalvinAyre.com, he replies, laughing: “Well, as you know, I’m not a big fan of a ‘me too’ approach to anything. CalvinAyre.com will be something new, something entirely fresh in the online gaming space. I’ve coined the term “tablog” for the site – a “tabloid blog” – because it will be a site focused on developments in the online gaming world globally, and my perspectives on it, but done in a completely fresh and entertaining way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. People will agree or disagree with me and they may love it or hate it, but I can guarantee it won’t be boring and it’ll be entertaining.”

Calvin is no stranger to fame, respect, and envy, but he also knows how to handle inevitable criticism from those who read about him virtually. This is a great talent to have mastered in executive blogging world as one of the keys to executive blog success is being able to make fun of yourself and admit to your mistakes. Another key to executive blog success is providing a doorway into the personal life, hobbies, and opinions of the executive, also something that Calvin has mastered and is happy to share. Combine this vision with online gambling industry news and gossip, cool videos, exotic girls, conference and event reporting, and additional “famous” recurring characters and you’ve got yourself an online gambling industry…tablog.

Though Calvin Ayre gets credit for coining the term, he wasn’t the first to register the domain.  The first owner (dating back to 2000), had a blog online long before blogs became mainstream.