The domain name DesignContest.com has sold at Sedo’s GreatDomains for $40,000 USD.
The DesignContest web site, which is already online but has unfinished business in terms of development and content, plans to run logo, web and other graphic design contests. The site has a feel of 99designs.com, a popular ‘design contest’ web site that has nearly 60,000 projects completed to date and last month alone paid out almost $1 million to designers ($742,096, to be exact).
In April, 99designs, had nearly half a million people visit its site, according to Compete.
Interestingly enough, DesignContest.net, runs a similar web site and currently owns the #1 spot in Google for the search term: design contest. In 2010 DesignContest claims to have awarded $42,238 in prizes.
DesignContest.com, which still appears to be in Beta, has a number of test contests online. But based on the track record of 99designs and other clone sites, the $40,000 investment for the domain name seems like a smart investment.
Last year, Contests.com was acquired by National A-1 from Yahoo! for $380,000. The Contests site is online, but still under construction. While not much is known about the plans for Contests.com other than the WordPress site that is online, launching a ‘design contest’ web site might not be such a bad idea.
UPDATE: DesignContest.net purchased the domain DesignContest.com. DesignContest.net left a comment on this story: “DesignContest.com has been acquired by DesignContest.net. The new version (V2) of DesignContest.net will be launched on .com in early 2011 to bring new unique functionality and services to it’s customers that look for top results in graphic design.”