Tag: featured

Categories
News

The .CO Domain King: Mike Mann of DomainMarket sells Auctions.co for $15,000

domainmarket

According to the “Recently Sold” section on GreatDomains, Mike Mann of DomainMarket who has sold premium .co domain names earlier in the year such as Cruise.co for $25,000, has sold another .co premium name, this time, Auctions.co for $15,000.

There’s a reason I like to call Mike Mann the .CO Domain King. 

He has one of the best .CO portfolios on the planet, if not the best, as Mike Berkens wrote in August.

Money.co, Advertising.co, Business.co, Movies.co, Bank.co, and the list goes on and on.  

If you’re looking to buy one of these domain names, don’t expect to get them for $15,000 though.  

Most of the .co domains listed on the DomainMarket web site are listed in the five-figure and six-figure range. 

Take a look for yourself.

Categories
News

HugeDomains.com overtakes BuyDomains.com for entire 2010 according to Compete

Huge Domains

Maybe you’ve typed in a web address into your browser and landed on a BuyDomains.com “For Sale” page.  Or maybe in the past year you’ve typed in a domain name and landed on a HugeDomains.com “For Sale” page. 

Well, according to a rough estimate by Compete, more people are landing on HugeDomains’ “For Sale” pages than they are on “For Sale” pages on the BuyDomains.com web directory.

Last month alone, HugeDomains drew 44,000 more visitors than its competitor.  The marketplace that allows buyers to shop from over 200,000 domain names attracted 132,813 unique visitors while BuyDomains barely broke 88,000 visitors, despite the site featuring over 1.5 million names.

But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. 

As you can see by typing in a HugeDomains.com domain like MechanizedWarfare.com, you’ll be re-directed to the sales page on the HugeDomains web site.  BuyDomains on the other hand, doesn’t re-direct domains, but rather features a prominent, text banner at the top of each landing page that reads something like: “The domain junglewarfare.com is for sale. To purchase, call BuyDomains.com at 781-839-7903 or 866-866-2700. Click here for more details.”

So while HugeDomains web site traffic has trumped BuyDomains for the entire 2010 year, you can bet the network traffic across 1.5 million domain names is significantly greater.  Still, the story of HugeDomains.com is still notable.

HugeDomains.com

Back in May of this year, Mike Cohen wrote a story titled HugeDomains.com = the next BuyDomains.com, which for some including myself, was the first time hearing of HugeDomains.

Mike Cohen has some background on the site’s founder, Andrew Reberry.

Andrew Reberry’s company, TurnCommerce.com got accredited as an ICANN registrar a little while ago as NameBright.com which is currently one of the top 60 largest registrars in the world. Now of course all of the domains registered there are their own… But that just goes to show you that this man is on a mission. Anybody who is running a huge operation like that should have his own registrar, plus it makes sense because you can save some nice cash. Guys like Kevin Ham and Frank Schilling have their own registrars as well.

According to the TurnCommerce website: “TurnCommerce is located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains of Denver, Colorado. The business was incorporated in August of 2003 and we have experienced triple digit growth numbers nearly every quarter since launch.”

In addition to running HugeDomains, the company also owns and operates a number of killer properties ranging from Margin.com to Enough.com.

While it’s hard to find a lot of information on Andrew and his company, there’s likely a reason as Mike pointed out: “he [Andrew] is registering thousands of domains and making improvements. I tried to get the lowdown but the man kindly refused when asked for an interview. I guess he’s just not done yet and ready for the spotlight but really, the man has accomplished a lot in a very short period of time and should be recognized for that… It’s impressive for a thirty something year old self made businessman / entrepreneur. He’s now part of a very elite group of domainers.”

Categories
News

$100MM Dollar Man, Rick Schwartz: Nine-figure domain name deal in the works

candy

Rick Schwartz has inked some lucrative domain name sales, but as he wrote earlier today on his blog: “In the days ahead I will post about the seeds of my first NINE FIGURE deal.   Even 50% of the choir won’t see it or believe it. But at least they know not to laugh.”

Though it can’t be confirmed until the transaction is completed, Rick Schwartz has a reputation of being a straight shooter, and when he says something will happen, people and critics should listen. 

Technology blogs like TechCrunch haven’t picked up the story, but you can bet they’ll be all over the sale when it happens.

Rick Schwartz, who sold Men.com for $1.3 million, Candy.com for $3M+Equity, and iReport.com for $750,000, also shared insight regarding the negotations behind his past dealings (which include just 15 domain name sales).

iReport.com was one of my best sales.  It took about 6 months to complete. Their opening offer was $10,000. I said no to CNN many times on the way to a $750,000 cash sale. The biggest sticking point, making it public. They did not want to be laughed at for spending so much for a domain name. I assured them that would not be the case.

After a few meetings, they gave in as I would not sell without that single concession. It was worth another $750k to me in publicity and to build future sales on. This domain was the epitome of the Internet. A soapbox like no other.  Today, iReport.com is in every country in the world and is one of the most recognized citizen journalist sites ever. The sale that keeps on giving to me and everyone else in the industry.

To put things in perspective, a nine-figure deal means a minimum of $100 million.  Is Rick Schwartz planning to sell one domain, part of his portfolio, or his entire portfolio?  Is he crafting something entirely different? 

There is more to this amazing story and the past sales of Rick Schwartz, so keep reading over at Rick’s Blog as the story develops.

Categories
News Video Games

Cityville at 6MM daily users in 8 days: It’s the kind of thing that makes some domain sellers kick themselves

cityville

You may remember the story I wrote back in November about Zynga ready to break ground with its biggest social game yet: Cityville. 

Well, today TechCrunch is reporting that Cityville, Zynga’s newest game is already at 6,000,000 daily users in just 8 days.

In early November when I wrote about Ville-domains, Cityville.com was parked.   The domain name had been purchased at Moniker in June for $38,225.

Less than a week later after the story ran, Zynga revealed it had plans for another Facebook game and an “Under Construction” page went online. 

Now, just 8 days into its launch, the domain name Cityville.com which now re-directs to its application page on Facebook, is the fastest-growing game in Zynga’s history.

 Do domain name sellers (like the seller of Cityville.com) kick themselves when they see this type of success?

Probably not, considering the seller got a $38,000 pay day for a name that probably only cost registration.  But you have to believe there is some level of regret, wondering if they had just held out a little longer what could’ve been.

In the last few weeks since my story on Ville domains ran, there have been a couple notable sales.

Dreamville.com sold at Sedo for $5,000 on Nov. 15 and SongVille.com sold for $550 a week later.

Neither name is registered to IP Cybercrime LLC, the company who is the registrant of Cityville.com.  IPCybercrime LLC’s slogan is “Your Guys for Undercover Buys”.

Categories
News Video Games

Bill Kara’s Hallpass Media soft-launches casual gaming crown jewel: Dressup.com

dressup

Hallpass Media has soft-launched its “crown jewel” Dressup.com, a casual gaming website loaded with dress-up games.  The categories of games available range from world tour to celebrity, to careers and fashion, to family and makeover, along with a section that highlights the newest and most popular dressup games.

The launch of Dressup.com, is undeniably one of Hallpass Media’s most anticipated website launches.  

As I wrote earlier this week, Bill Kara’s Hallpass Media entertainment network is one of the largest in the U.S., and the launch of dressup – will certainly improve its ranking.  Parked, Dressup.com received nearly 60,000 unique visitors per month, according to a rough estimate provided by Compete.

Developed, the site stands to quickly increase its traffic as users immerse themselves in gameplay.

Casual gaming is a huge market and dress up games are one of the most popular types. 

Want to dress up one of your favorite celebrities like Justin Bieber or Ashley Tisdale?  You’re in luck.  Dressup’s celebrity section lets you catch up on all the Bieber fever and more.  You can get Justin Bieber to sing, dance, act all on Dressup.com.  Here’s a look at another megastar that you can dress up: Ashley Tisdale.

dressup ashley tisdale

According to Dressup.com:

With hundreds of unique Dressup games, this is the best place to get creative and design your own great styles! We offer almost every type of Dressup game you can think of and add more every week.

We have so many different Dressup games, there are so many things to do! Discover cultures and styles from all over the globe as you take our World Tour! Do you wish you could be a stylist for the stars? Get your favourite VIP ready for the red carpet with our Celebrity Games! Browse around our Job Fair and find your perfect career or just relax with the family in our Kids section.

FPS Networks

If you’re wondering how Bill Kara gets it all done, he is also the CEO of FPS Networks, a full service design and programming studio with over a decade of experience in Internet consulting.

FPS Networks owns and operates a network of websites reaching over 4 million unique viewers monthly. As an owner of multiple website properties and a vast portfolio of domain names, we are constantly evolving and learning. We bring this industry experience to our clients and as a result are able to provide solutions which are cost effective and efficient. Our office is located in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and we employee 23 full time programmers, designers, and engineers enabling us to provide a one-stop shop for all our clients needs.

Expect Dressup.com to gain top internet search ranking, like many of Hallpass Media’s launches in 2010.  CookingGames.com for example, ranks # 1 in Google for the search term: cooking games.  VirtualPets.com, another casual game site launched in 2010, has also landed on the first page of Google search results for the keywords: virtual pets. 

Hallpass Media is building a best-in-class network with all of its properties, so check out Dressup.com during its “soft launch”.

You can also follow Dressup on Facebook, to get the latest updates on the web site and games.