Million dollar sales of domain names are the stuff of legends in the Internet world – the only system where a few lucky, opportunistic and smart individuals can turn a $10 (or even $100) domain purchase into tens of thousands, hundreds od thousands, and even millions of dollars.

The multi million domain name phenomenon continued last week at a domain name action hosted by Moniker.com – held at no less than the Grand Hyatt hotel in New York. The auction was invitation only! And the domain name auction participants ultimately bid on 218 Web domain names that all together sold for $10.8 million. Right, a HUGE WOW!

So which domain names fetched the most money? Read on…

• Creditcheck.com fetched $3 million
• Seniors.com nabbed $1.8 million

Growth in online advertising and the shrinking pool of available names are pushing URL price tags to new heights. Three of the top five deals in history happened in the last two years. “You’re seeing a perfect storm created by converging factors that are resulting in an increase in domain values,” says Bentley.

Sex.com broke the eight-figured barrier in 2005 by nabbing $12 million, according to DN Journal, which tracks the domain name industry. Porn.com came in next, at $9.5 million last month, followed by Business.com ($7.5 million in 1999), Diamond.com ($7.5 million in 2006) and Beer.com (a reported $7 million in 1999).

During the tech boom, top-selling domains were based on brand appeal. Now it’s all about searchable keywords that are both generic and descriptive. Forbes story link

But, selling domains via auction or direct sale is not the only way to make money off of domain names – there’s a new profession called “DOMAINING” – but we’ll chat about domaining later – it’s worthy of a separate post. ;)

The domain name business is easy to join – just purchase a domain name you like that you think is HOT or will be in HUGE DEMAND – and then wait it out. LOL. Domain names are EASY to purchase and kinda affordable, too ($7 a pop) – however, there are no guarantees that your domains will sell, or that you will be able to get the desired price for your domains.

Here at TrapikMedia, our strategy for monetizing our treasure chest of domain names is quite simple; first, acquire as generic as possible domain names (fantastic for online marketing efforts based on search engine optimization); second, assemble content; third, monetize content via Adsense and other direct advertisements and fourth – wait for a purchase offer. Apart from dotcoms, we have also included country level domain names in our inventory – such as .co.UK, .JP and even our beloved .PH!

tag: domain names

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Domain names, SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.