Category: News

There’s a very real opportunity for Dotcom Mogul Kevin Ham to take home the Gold with his hometown geodomain Vancouver.com that he acquired in recent years.

His Media Company has been focusing efforts on development of the website, and with the Olympics just around the corner, Vancouver.com could take home the Gold with the right platform in place.  

Vancouver.com sits on the first page of Google Search Results, but Vancouver2010.com owns the top spot.

Vancouver2010.com which also owns the top spot in Google for “Vancouver Olympics” and gets over 76,000 visitors per month – is owned by the Vancouver Organizing Committe for the 2010 Olympics.

In an interview by Ron Jackson, Kevin Ham discussed Vancouver.com:

Ham is also moving into the Geodomain space and has acquired the ultimate destination for his hometown – Vancouver.com. “Vancouver.com is a very special domain for many reasons. Many would say that Vancouver is the domain capital of the world. The city is consistently voted as one of the top three livable cities in the world. And of course, the 2010 Winter Olympics will bring the eyes of the whole world to Vancouver,” Ham said.

We are building a new advertising and retail platform through Vancouver.com. The ambition and initiative is huge and if we can make it work for our city, then we can build it for the rest of the world. Geo domains are asset rich but cash flow poor. So if we can change that paradigm into one that is cash flow rich, then we will raise the level for all geo domains.

We also own Washington.com, Melbourne.com, Brisbane.com, Perth.com, Wichita.com and many other geo related domain names. While these geo domains are words, they need to be combined with the right business models to realize their value. We are confident that our efforts and the plans we have for our geo domains will change the way people interact and do business.”

Looks like Kevin Ham is finally working on some big plans for his array of category-killer religious names including Religion.com, Satan.com, God.com, Heaven.com and nearly 20 other names.

Although in it’s early stages of development, Reinvent will be launching the Gospel Media Network. Most of the domain names have the Gospel Media Network splash page on the landing page.

The network includes some big names, with some serious traffic that will probably huge BUZZ once the network goes live. Oddly, Reinvent owns TheGospelMediaNetwork.com (which looks to be the future brand of all the names combined), but they don’t own GospelMediaNetwork.com. That domain name appears to have been registered back in 2003 by a different company.

From the About Us page of Heaven.com:

The Gospel Media Network (GMN) was conceived in 2000. It had a vision to acquire a handful of very important domain names, such as God.com, Religion.com, Heaven.com and thousands of other related domain names. A handful of dedicated, passionate people who share this vision of using the Internet to share the message of the Pure Gospel have now in 2008 started the work of developing out the sites in a progressive and integrated manner.

First Beat Media (www.FirstBeatMedia.com) has a lot of success developing domain names into websites.  One of their most successful projects was Soaps.com which they sold to Women United Online.  They also own top-performing names like CelebrityGossip.com, CountryMusicPerformers.com, Unsigned.com and more. 

But instead of letting their names sit around parked, they develop them – even their Niche names which at first glance don’t sound like Category-Killers – names like FitnessDates.com, BBWRomance.com, JSingles.com, SingleMomsandDads.com and many more – but what they lack in name, they make up in development. 

They’re all dating websites.  They all run on a similar platform.  They all send traffic to another, directly or indirectly, through their Dating Affiliate Program SinglesCash.com. 

Everyone talks about the need for developing your names – but First Beat Media is an interetsing case study of great Development execution, even with niche names that might otherwise not even get a second-look.

Their list of dating sites includes a network of niche names, and the stats are pretty impressive.

DateAMillionaire.com – over 50,000 visitors per month.

BikerPlanet.com – over 50,000 visitors per month.

BBwRomance.com – over 30,000 visitors per month.

InterracialRomance.com – over 30,000 visitors per month.

You can see a full list of their niche dating sites here.

All of their dating sites are built on the same foundation, but each target a different niche.  They’ve built it once, then re-branded it over and over – then tied it all together through SinglesCash.com.

We wrote about First Beat Media earlier in the week, and it’s been fun to learn more about them, check out their projects, and see all the great strides they’re making in domaining and development.

Each domain sale by Rick Schwartz is always exciting and always big.  Last week Rick announced the upcoming sale of the domain PunchBowl.com – which re-directs to MyPunchbowl – a website that helps you plan a party that your guests will always remember by bringing your party to life with ideas, invitations, favors, gift registries, photo/video sharing, and more. What a great transaction.  For Rick and for MyPunchBowl.

According to Rick’s blog post that discusses the sale:

“In the not too distant future I will be announcing my 12th domain sale is PunchBowl.com. Another multiple 6 figure deal plus other considerations. There should be a press release forthcoming and the buyer will decide how much of this to go public with as there will be a confidentially clause .”

No official press release has been published yet, but with the name already re-directing looks like just a matter of time. They also have a blog, but haven’t announced news of the Domain Name.

Rick has made a number of landmark sales over the years, and it’s been an interesting domain ride to follow his story. His trackrecord and success with Domaining and more importantly, his insights on his blog are a wonderful source of information. Hopefully, the media and end-users take more notice on these landmark deals. The sale of Candy.com which was huge in terms of a domain name, didn’t seem to get that much press in the media, but with more and more notable sales by Rick and other domainers, more people will take notice.

Some of Rick’s notable domain sales include:

236.com to IAC

Property.com (Undisclosed)

Candy.com $3M+++

Men.com $1.3M

iReport.com to CNN for $750K