Tag: domain auction

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News

Best sales year possible for domains in 2011? Another big gambling domain goes up for sale

tournament

2011 could be the year gambling domain names hit the mega millions jackpot with properties like gambling.com already up for sale, which some expect could fetch as much as $20 million (its previous sale price back in 2005). 

What looked like a good year in 2010 with the sale of Slots.com  for $5.5 Million, could only be getting better in 2011, as online gambling developments take place in the United States with New Jersey being the first state to license and regulate online gambling. 

Billionaire Calvin Ayre, the buyer of Slots.com, still hasn’t commented on whether he’ll bid on gambling.com.

But with more options on the market, Bodog Brand could have its sights set on a number of properties.

Tournament.com up for sale by Mandalay Media Group

Today, Eric Bianchi of Calvin Ayre’s Tablog is reporting that Costa Bingo and Casino Choice (Mandalay Media Group), have put the domain name Tournament.com up for sale.

Tournament.com is the latest name to come on the market, after creators of Costa Bingo and Casino Choice, Mandalay Media Group, put the domain up for sale.

Owners of Mandalay, Richard Skelhorn (pictured) and Alex Holt, said: “The word ‘tournament’ is very descriptive and generates over five million Google searches per month. It could be developed into a very powerful brand in the right hands.”

As far as what it was used for before, the site hosted pay-to-enter video game tournaments for games such as CounterStrike, but Skelhorn and Holt explained that is no longer a viable option.

“We believe that unless a content owner like EA approach it themselves and therefore remove the license fee element we will not see a third party operator again on the scale Tournament.com achieved.”

If you pay a visit to Tournament.com, you’ll be asked to fill out a short form asking for your name, company, email and a message.

Read more about the sale of Tournament.com.

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News Trademarks

Powered by the popularity of Citizen Journalism, YouNews.com sells at Sedo’s GreatDomains for $40,000

younews

It can’t be confirmed until the name transfers to the new registrant, but I’m guessing YouNewsTV a site that lets people share videos, photos and stories has purchased the domain name YouNews.com from Sedo’s GreatDomains.  The name is currently in Sedo’s Transfer Service.

GreatDomains reported the sale of the domain name for $40,000 USD earlier today on its web site.

Broadcast Interactive Media, which owns and operates YouNewsTV, also owns the trademark on “YouNews” for the purpose of: providing customized on-line web pages that allow users to post and view messages, photographs, videos and audio recordings, and that allow users to post and view user profiles and information and to communicate with other users; and creating and maintaining customized web pages for radio and television stations.

YouNewsTV was initially launched in June 2007 in 25 different markets in conjunction with TV station partners.  The site experienced spikes in traffic shortly after its launch when citizen journalists submitted videos of tornados and photos of thunderclouds during severe weather that hit Iowa in July.

Based on a rough traffic estimate provided by Compete, YouNewsTV.com receives well over 100,00 unique visitors per month, and in Dec. 2009 recorded over 250,000 visitors.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism (news reported by everyday people, not professional journalists) has become extremely popular with the rise of social media services and tools like blogs, Twitter, and YouTube.  YouTube itself, has helped domain investors cash in on domain names with the word “You” or “Tube” in the name. 

According to Alexa,  YouTube is the #3 most visited site in the world.   Adult sites have fared very well since YouTube’s rise.  YouPorn, is #74 out of the Top 500 sites in the world.  Of the Top 200 – RedTube is #119, FilesTube is #121, YouJizz is #146. 

“News” Domain Sales

One of the most notable sales of a domain name used for the purpose of citizen journalism, was the sale of iReport.com to CNN by Rick Schwartz for $750,000.  Rick Schwartz who sold Candy.com for $3MM+Equity, originally bought the name iReport.com for “$70 to $100.”   In mid-2010, CNN decided to redirect the URL iReport.com to ireport.cnn.com.

CNET News runs on the domain name news.com.  According to Wikipedia:

CNET owns many domain names, including download.com, upload.com, news.com, search.com, tv.com, mp3.com, chat.com, computers.com, help.com, shopper.com, radio.com, and com.com.  In 1998, CNET was sued by Snap Technologies for its use of the snap.com domain

According to the Sales History database over at DomainTools, there have been a number of “news” domain sales in 2010.  FantasyNews.com sold in Oct. for $8,299.  News.net, the biggest reported “news” sale of 2010, sold for $150,000 in late September.  The site is a directory of news organizations from around the world.

Other noteworthy sales in 2010 include: RacingNews.com for $5,000 which redirects to 123racing.com, and newsbackup.com for $10,000.  For a full listing of “news” sales, refer to DomainTools.com.

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News

WebCorp owner Philip Ferreira selling off domain assets on Flippa, to focus on social gaming site Dork.com

dork

Philip Ferreira the President of WebCorp, which owns and operates online properties like Debate.org and Find.net, is selling off several of his company’s assets in order to focus on DORK.com (a social gaming web site with over 1,000,000 games played). 

Philip has decided to use Flippa, the marketplace for buying and selling websites, to sell off properties including Debate.org, Swap.net, Newcars.org, and Dontvote.org.  Philip writes in the auction descriptions:

For those of you not familiar with my other listing(s) on Flippa right now, I am the owner of WebCorp.com and I am selling my entire portfolio of domains and websites in order to focus on DORK.com

According to Flippa, the auction for Newcars.org ended on November 25, but failed to meet its reserve price.  The auction ended with 4 bids, with the high bid coming in at $20,000.

WebCorp auctions on Flippa

WebCorp currently has some of the most active auctions on Flippa.

The public auction for Debate.org, a growing social network website with 1 million page views per month has met its reserve price and is in extended bidding, with the current bid at $66,000 (as of Dec. 7, 2010).  Each time a higher bid is submitted, the auction is extended another four hours on Flippa.  I’ll be posting updates on the auction and final sales price in the comments.

Dontvote.org, a political election voting site, has reached its reserve price with the bidding at $2,100.  The public auction has just under 2 days left before closing.

The final WebCorp auction is for Swap.net, a Craigslist-like website.  The site was launched this past October and hasn’t generated much revenue (a whopping $4.19 from 2,320 AdSense impressions and 9 clicks, Philip writes), but the auction has received a high bid of $6,100.  However, the auction has yet to meet its reserve price.

UPDATE:  The auction for Debate.org has closed.  The winning bid came in at $130,000.

Categories
News

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.

Categories
News

Premium auction at Sedo’s GreatDomains exceeds half a million dollars with 4 days left

hundred dollar bills

With 4 days left of bidding, the latest GreatDomains auction has drawn in over $500,000 in from buyers.

There are more than 200 domain names up for sale, including several two-letter domain names that hit the auction block.

The two-letter domain name KF.com has already topped $80,000 in bidding, while JF.com has reached $60,000. 

Both names could sell for a lot more.  SZ.com sold for $125,000 earlier this year in a private transaction, followed by the sale of Xi.com in August for $100,930.

Additional highlights of the GreatDomains auction, include Fork.com and LawFirm.com bidding at $25,000 each, while the two-number domain name 06.com has a current high bid of $54,000.

At this rate, the auction which doesn’t end until December 9, could bring in one of the largest auction totals for GreatDomains in 2010. 

Over 100 of the domain names already have bids.