Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Domain
Owners Who Have Gone Down the Development Path Report
Continuing Expansion of Their Enterprises
More
and more domain ownersare
taking the plunge into website development, a
path that offers a chance to end dependence on Google
and Yahoo (for PPC revenue) and gain
control of their own financial destinies. Development
(like any other business strategy) certainly comes with
no guarantee of success, but with a good domain name,
hard work and the right niche, it is possible to earn a return that dwarfs any other monetization
option currently available to domain owners.
A
number of domain portfolio owners have been on the
development path for some time now and it is encouraging
to get reports back from them as their websites gain
traction and make major advances. For example, Warren
Royal (who was the subject of our December
2008 Cover Story) just scored a major coup for
RoyalBobbles.com
(an offshoot of his flagship development - Bobbleheads.com)
that focuses on manufacturing premium bobblehead dolls
that are sold through dealers, museums, gift shops, and
online web stores.
The
estate of Dr. Martin Luther King has given Royal
Bobbles LLC the right to produce and sell an
officially licensed Bobblehead commemorating the late
civil rights leader. Royal said this oversized,
limited-edition model will be of the highest possible
quality and will be sold at the King Center in
Atlanta, as well as in museums, gift shops, and
through online web stores, like Bobbleheads.com. The
target date for release is Dr. King's next birthday - January
18, 2010.
Warren
Royal Bobbleheads.com
The
licensing agreement also provides Royal Bobbles with
permission to use copyrighted material owned by the
estate, such as images, speeches, and
recordings, in the packaging, promotion, and advertising
of the product.
Bruce
Marler is another domain portfolio
owner who is continuing to expand his development
efforts. After making a splash with his statewide
network at Missouri.me,
Marler will officially launch Oklahoma.me
this week. The new site will follow the successful
strategy Marler has employed with Missouri.me (see
our July
30 Lowdown post for more on
that).
A lot of domain
owners focus their development efforts on websites
that serve the domain industry. Mike Cohen
just debuted a new service over the weekend at DomainStryker.com
that
falls into that
category. The site says "There are millions
of domains expiring each month, however only a
tiny fraction of them are valuable and worth
re-registering. We monitor tens of thousands of
those auctioned off domains daily, analyzing 60+
variables for each and every domain and then
re-publish an exclusive filtered list."
The site, currently in beta, adds that lists from SnapNames,
NameJet and GoDaddy will be
available free until DomainStryker competes
beta testing and moves to a membership model.
Of
course the biggest conundrum that owners of large
scale portfolios face is how to economically
develop hundreds or even thousands of domains at
once. A successful method for
doing that remains
something of a "holy grail" for the
industry and many companies are actively involved
in finding a solution. The CEO of a major
industry conglomerate told me they will be
announcing a new service aimed at filling that
need at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
New York conference next week.
Rob Monster's Epik.com
is another company that believes it could be on
the verge of solving the puzzle. Monster has made
several acquisitions in the process of building
his model - the most recent being drop catching
service JustDropped.com.
Over the weekend, Monster published a very
interesting post on his blog
describing how JustDropped fits into Epik's
strategy. He went on to detail how the company is
going about the task of making capital-efficient
domain development a reality at a time when the
general economy is struggling to escape a
debilitating recession.
Rob
Monster
Epik.com
On other note
today, Luxembourg-based Domain
Invest (DI SA) announced that it has
successfully closed a €10.2 million financing
round. BIP Investment Partners and Société
Nationale de Crédit et d’Investissement (SNCI)
participated for an amount of €2.5 million each.
Businessmen from the European media and finance industries
also significantly contributed to the financing of the
company, investing another €5.2 million. Markus
Schnermann, Co-Managing Director of Domain
Invest said “Thanks to this fundraising, we are becoming
the major European player in domain name monetization and
our main priority is to keep expanding and offering our
services on a larger scale."
The business model
for the company chaired by Xavier Buck is
based on the acquisition, monetization and resale
of domain names. Co-Managing Director Frederick
Schiwek said, “In
less than one year of
operativity, we have acquired great portfolios
already performing an EBITDA more than 30%
the net revenues; we are expecting to increase
this result significantly in the coming
years."
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