Tag: sedo

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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.

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.

Categories
News

Could Flippa be a better domain name marketplace than SnapNames & Sedo? One auction tells more

flippa

The domain name Offended.com just sold minutes ago for $19,500 at Flippa.  Offended.com sold at SnapNames almost a year ago in January 2010 for $9,075.00  but as sales records show, the name never changed hands.

After checking the registrant record, I noticed the domain name had been put up for auction by Andrei Polgar, a familiar face in the online domain community.  Andrei launched AuctionPus earlier this year, a domain auction site that promised no more crappy domains for sale.  But despite its mission, many could argue that the reason AuctionPus, Bido, and other auction sites haven’t taken off is because of low-quality, overpriced domains. 

Andrei also started DomainDiscussions, an online discussion board for members to discuss domain names.

Andrei (who writes at DomainingTips) might be remembered best among domain bloggers for an auction he ran last January, where he put up several of his names for sale (including offended.com) in a auction hosted by SnapNames that netted him $66,295.   Necklace.net was the best seller in the bunch, selling for $25,000.  Andrei had originally marketed the SnapNames auction in effort to raise six-figures for his domain related projects which included AuctionPus and DomainDiscussions.  

But despite developing and running his own auction site which is still online, Andrei went with a safer bet and put Offended.com up for auction at Flippa (which had nearly $300,000 in sales in the last 7 days alone). 

The domain name, which has been parked and listed for sale at Sedo, one of the world’s largest and most successful marketplaces for domain names, has had 0 offers since its listing.

What pitch did Andrei give buyers on Flippa?

The auction on Flippa had received 30 bids as I was writing this story, and had reached its reserve price with a $13,000 high bid.  But right before publishing the story, the name sold for its Buy-it-Now price of $19,500.  Take a look at the original screen shot below that I was going to use to headline the post.

flippa auction

So what’s the pitch Andrei gave buyers on Flippa?  Because, the formula seems to have worked, although until the transaction completes, it might just be another flop like the listing on SnapNames in January. 

Take a look at the pitch Andrei used over at Flippa:

I follow flippa on a regular basis and this is by far the best domain which has ever been auctioned on this platform:

1) Registered back in 1998

2) Currently parked and receiving thousands of unique type-in visits

3) 5154 uniques in 2010 so far (again, this is type-in traffic, the domain is not even developed)

4) 769 uniques last month (again, this is type-in traffic, the domain is not even developed)

5) The first page has been archived back in 2001 according to the Wayback Machine and this, along with the age of the domain (it has been registered since 1998), will give you a huge SEO edge over the competition

I have attached two traffic screenshots from the parking company, one for 2010 so far and the other one for October. If the winner is an established member of this community, we can handle the sale without an escrow service. If the winner is a member who doesn’t have a lot of history on Flippa, we will use Sedo.com or EscrowDNS.com as an escrow service and the escrow fees will be split.

What sets apart Flippa?

What sets apart the domain listing of Offended.com on Flippa versus SnapNames and Sedo, is more difficult to know, but one auction certainly isn’t an indicator that Flippa will be taking over Sedo or SnapNames as auction sites anytime soon. But for Andrei Polgar, listing the domain over Flippa, could be a nice pay day.  And if the deal closes, it looks like the SnapNames auction that never closed worked in Andrei’s favor.

Have you put up for domain names for auction at Flippa? How did they do?

Categories
News

GreatDomains auction gets underway with some premium names at bargain prices

Great Domains

Have you tuned into the doman name auction in progress over at GreatDomains? 

There are some high-priced names like text.com (reserve: $250,000 – 499,999 USD), but there are also some deals to be found on premium domains. 

Arithmetic.com is for sale with a reserve range of $1,000 – 4,999 USD.  The domain name appraises for $16,000 over at Valuate.com, the free online domain name appraisal service. 

HipHop.net, a name that sold in 2009 via RickLatona.com for $13,000, is listed with a reserve range of only $500 – 999 USD.  In 2007, HipHop.mobi sold at Sedo for $10,000.

The GreatDomains auction, which started today and runs through December 9, has over 200 names listed – and there are plenty of bargains to be had like Honored.com ($1 – 499 USD).

KF.com, which was listed with a reserve of ($25,000 – 49,999 USD) has already landed a $61,000 high bid, with over 6 days left in the auction.

From two-letter .com domains to .net to .tv, there’s something for everyone.

Categories
News

Looks like ‘Daily Deals’ site for college students just bought uscoop.com for $7,000

uscoop

It looks like the privately held marketing business “U Scoop”, which offers students up to 70% off cool new brands and the best things to do, eat, and see in their college towns, has purchased the domain name uscoop.com for $7,000 USD at Sedo’s GreatDomains. 

Obviously, it’s just a guess since the domain name is still in Sedo’s transfer service, but if you visit U Scoop’s web site (theuscoop.com), the company which was founded in 2010 and has 6 employees (according to its LinkedIn profile), is planning to unveil its web site soon.

Maybe all the company was waiting for was the right domain name to launch their web site?

PokerStars

Of course, I could be wrong.  PokerStars.com owns the domain name uscoop.net, but the domain name doesn’t resolve.  Last week, PokerStars kicked off its USCOOP event (as in The United States Championship of Online Poker). 

However, PokerStars refers to the event officially as USA COOP, so my bet is still on U Scoop as the new owner of the name.

With the momentum of group buying in their favor, and college students always looking for bargains, targeting the niche college market seems like a really good idea.

I signed up for the U Scoop newsletter and just received an email.  Here’s what it said:

Each day our team scours campuses nationwide and surfs hundreds of websites to find the coolest products, fads, and services to keep you entertained.
 
But rather than just write about the daily finds, we give you a reason to try them by offering a 24 hour deal at up to 50% off.
 
And if that doesn’t do it for you, hopefully campus fads, pimped out dorm rooms, and pre-game playlists will do the trick.
 
In the mean time, we’ll keep lining up the deals while you start lining up your friends. Sound good?