October is off to a strong start for brandable domain names sales with six reported sales in the five-figure range. DollarCity.com which sold at DomainMarket.com tops the chart with a cool $90,000. It currently forwards to DollarCity.net which is the site of a South American retailer.
Here’s this weeks list:
(more…)The top grossing brandable sale last week goes to Sedo where Mappa.com sold for a whopping $127,400. Almost the entire list
BestMind.com sold for $15,000 and reminds me of two domains that sold trough Efty not long ago for similar prices: SuperMind.com for $12,500 and MindStrong.com for $10,700
Here’s this weeks list:
(more…)One of my favorite thought leaders in the SEO (search engine optimization) space, Rand Fishkin, just published an important article on his blog in which he points out that thanks to some of the tech powerhouses like Facebook and Google we’ve reached an era of a less-connected web, a web that is focused on retaining users rather than sharing content.
That is bad news for websites and what’s bad for websites is often bad for domain names.
Below is an excerpt but I encourage you to read the entire post here.
(more…)There are two domains on this weeks list that jumped out because of the unusual high wholesale price they fetched at GoDaddy’s expired auctions. The first one is TheGroundwork.com, a two-word domain name that was bid up into the five-figure range. Why would any investor pay $10+k for a domain name of this caliber? A Google search shows that the domain belonged to an under-the-radar startup funded by former Google CEO and billionaire Eric Schmidt. The company was a major technology vendor for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and was supposed to help put Hillary in the White House. This obviously didn’t happen and the domain name recently lapsed.
Then there’s a very similar sale. An investor paid more than $9,000 for the expired ButterflyLabs.com domain name. Why? It was once owned by a Bitcoin mining equipment company that was shut down by the FTC and according to this article on The Verge was named “the second-most hated company in Bitcoinland
The question I am asking myself is why an investor would pay such a significant amount for these type of expired domains? Do they hope the backlinks and any remaining traffic on the domain will end up making them a steady parking income? Do they like to own a piece of internet history or they think an end-user that is willing to pay five-figures will come knocking for the domain and doesn’t care about the past usage of the domain?
Here’s this weeks list:
(more…)NewHorizon.com tops the chart of last weeks brandable domain name sales. The expired domain name sold for $14,002 on GoDaddy Auctions. There is a large number of potential end-users for the domain although many companies also brand under the plural, New Horizons. The plural .com domain is a developed website from a global company offering computer training.
Here’s this weeks list:
(more…)Kids are back to school and most business activity springs back to life with a returning workforce during the month of September. Brandable domain name sales are off to a decent start with three of them reaching five-figures in the first week of September. The sale of LabelKing.com for a cool $10,324 is a great flip. It was caught by DropCatch in June this year where it sold for $427.
Here’s this weeks list:
(more…)Opportunity is invisible to most. THAT is why it’s an opportunity to begin with. You have to look for voids and holes in the fabric of society – for the customer – and if you fill that gap, voila! – Rick Schwartz, The Domain King
Like any industry or asset class, booms and busts come and go. I think we are nearing the end of another cycle and while there will be pain for many there will be opportunity for others. The purpose of this article is to let you know that a) there is likely a bust coming b) how it might happen and c) how you could profit from it.
(more…)I spend the majority of August with my family in Germany for our summer vacation. While we were away I enjoyed a bit of a digital detox, spending most of my time away from the screen. Because of that, I did not publish any sales reports for the entire month of August and I am bringing you up to date today with a big list of the 80 biggest reported brandable sales during the entire month.
I hope everyone had a great summer so far and is looking forward to an active and profitiable September!
Here’s the list:
(more…)Not too long ago, dictionary word domains were considered as exact match, category killers for various products and industries. For this reason you’ll find fiber optic products at Fiber.com and air travel services at Fly.com. But things have changed. The rules have been disrupted. Now dictionary words have become a premium vehicle for branding in a wide variety of industries. Sometimes this creative application of a single word domain has been a hit. Other times it’s been a disaster.
Let’s take a look at some examples of companies who have succeeded despite what I consider to be questionable, single word, branding choices.
On the flip side there’s a bunch of one word brands that I really like.
What’s on your list of heroes and zeroes for startup branding? Let us know in the comments below.
Despite the slow summer months, it was a solid week for brandable domain name sales with 3 sales reaching the five-figure range. The most interesting sale last week was that of FantasyLand.com – an expired domain name from 1997 that was dropped by Sony Pictures and auctioned at DropCatch with a winning bid of $3,251 as shared by TheDomains.com in this post. Only to be followed by the news that Sony Pictures will be turning the popular TV series from the 80’s into a feature film. It will be interesting to see if Sony Pictures will be making an effort to get the domain name they let expire back.
Here’s this weeks list: (more…)