# Pretty cool investment idea.... **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [July 23, 2007, 11:04am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816 "2007-07-23T11:04:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AFhockey31](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/afhockey31/32/5086_2.png) [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:04am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/1 "2007-07-23T11:04:35Z")
**\> \> [B]NEW YORK (AP)** -- Inside a midtown hotel, Larry Fischer is on his cell phone with a financial backer as his partner Ari Goldberger does quick research on a laptop computer. > ![http://www.cnn.com/.element/img/2.0/mosaic/base_skins/baseplate/corner_wire_BL.gif](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/uploads/speedlife/original/3X/4/d/4daa7ec3a1a090367ef054016d8e8db279fb489c.gif) > They are bidding furiously at this auction of Internet domain names, with hopes of snagging [megayachts.com](http://megayachts.com). The duo won’t be deterred. They want this name. > “$110,000, yes or no? Quick,” Fischer barks at Eli, the investor at the end of the phone. > Someone else makes a bid for $120,000. Fischer and Goldberger up the ante, and then again. > Going once, going twice … sold to Fischer and Goldberger for $150,000. > “You got it,” a smiling Fischer tells Eli. Mazel tovs are exchanged. > These are boom times in an estimated $2 billion industry that involves the buying and selling of domain names. When people type the generic names into their Web browser’s address field, sites that generate pay-per-click advertising revenue appear. Such “direct navigation” bypasses search engines. > “This industry is like the wild, wild West right now and people have no idea how fast it’s growing,” said Jerry Nolte, managing partner of Domainer’s Magazine, a new trade publication devoted to this little-known world. > Some believe the industry’s market value could reach $4 billion by 2010 as people continue to purchase approximately 90,000 names a day and the number of domain registrars swells. > At the end of first quarter 2007, at least 128 million domain names had been registered worldwide, a 31 percent increase over the previous year, according to VeriSign Inc., which runs some of the core domain name directories for the Internet. > “It’s not about words,” said Monte Cahn, founder and CEO of [Moniker.com](http://Moniker.com), a company that specializes in domain asset management and held the Manhattan auction. “It’s like real estate. This industry is only about a decade old. People looked at domain names as a commodity. It’s a piece of real estate on the Web that can’t be replaced. It’s your stake in the ground, your stake in the Internet.” > At the Manhattan auction, Fischer and Goldberger snatched up four names for more than $1.2 million and a fifth for a client, representing only a handful of the names sold for a total of $12.4 million during both the live and silent auction. > The auctions were held during a domain conference in June that attracts some of the biggest players in this niche business. > One name – [creditcheck.com](http://creditcheck.com) – went for $3 million but paled in comparison to the sale of [sex.com](http://sex.com), which sold for $12 million last year, according to Cahn, who knew the site’s buyer and seller. > Fischer, 44, of Brooklyn, New York, and Goldberger, 46, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, figured there was money to be made early. > Goldberger’s entry into the business was unorthodox to say the least. In 1996, the Hearst Corp. sued him, alleging trademark infringement after Goldberger registered [esqwire.com](http://esqwire.com), which resembles one of the company’s magazines. > The two sides eventually settled and Goldberger, a lawyer, was allowed to keep the name. Word got out that Goldberger knew something about the thorny legal issues involving Internet domain names and people began approaching him for advice. > Goldberger’s fascination with the burgeoning industry was sealed. > “I was an entrepreneur strapped into this suit-and-tie job,” Goldberger said. “Kind of a square peg in a round whole and this lawsuit just kind of changed everything for me.” > He eventually left the respected Philadelphia law firm where he worked in 1997 and joined a small startup in Manhattan called [mail.com](http://mail.com), which was buying up domain names. > Goldberger began collaborating with Fischer in 2001, building their portfolio of domain names. Together, they became a formidable yet quirky team (imagine George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld with the pioneering spirit of Lewis and Clark). > Two years later, they created a company called [smartname.com](http://smartname.com), which they sold earlier this year. The company took names and provided content and links for owners, getting a cut of the advertising revenue. At one point, [smartname.com](http://smartname.com) represented 150 owners with about 150,000 domain names, generating 50 million unique visitors a month. > Most the sites are lucrative for their advertising dollars. For example, [megayachts.com](http://megayachts.com) isn’t an actual yachting site, but it contains numerous ads and links for real yacht companies, boats and cruises. The owners of the site get paid each time a viewer clicks on one of those links. > Goldberger and Fischer declined to say how much money they make from pay-per-click advertising. > Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of domain registration company [GoDaddy.com](http://GoDaddy.com), says this type of business is fairly straightforward. > “They make their money in two ways,” Parsons said. “One way is through the traffic they get and the other is the appreciation of the name.” > Parson didn’t think there was anything wrong with the practice as long as those involved weren’t using names trademarked by others. > “Domain names are becoming 21st century real estate,” Parsons said. “Just owning a domain name as an investment, I don’t see a problem with that.” > Anthony Malutta, a lawyer who specializes in trademark law at a San Francisco law firm, sees fewer trademark infringement cases thanks to improved laws. > “Trademark law involving domain laws is much clearer and much easier to understand,” he said. “It’s pretty clear that registering a domain name that corresponds to somebody’s trademark is actionable. As to generics, they’re just hoping to capture traffic. You’re just counting on people typing in generic names instead of using a search engine like Google.” > Malutta said domainers like Goldberger and Fischer are not “gaming the system” which in his opinion would mean registering domain names and then cybersquatting – driving revenue off somebody else’s trademarked name like Coca-Cola. > Over the years, Goldberger and Fischer have sharpened their formula for acquiring domain names and developing the sites using a fairly simple template, relying on research, savvy and plenty of instinct. > “You either know it or don’t by hearing the name,” Fischer says. > They look for names that hit the “sweet spot” – short words that describe a high-value product or services related to it. Words that allow them to own a category such as [bald.com](http://bald.com) and [cardiology.com](http://cardiology.com), two of the domain names they bought at the auction. > To help figure out a word’s potential value, they see how many hits it will produce using Google. They also troll lists of names with domain registrations set to expire, enabling them to get a jump on buying it. > They don’t bother with dot-nets or the others. > “Dot-com is king,” Goldberger said. “Dot-net is worthless.” > But there’s a big divide between thinking of a good name and getting it. There’s usually a chase, with Fischer trying to persuade owners to sell the names after he locates the owners unless it’s up for auction. > “He’s kind of like a rhinoceros,” Goldberger says about Fischer. “He chases them up a tree and waits them out. He has patience and determination. You got to be aggressive. It’s a tough game now. It’s like the gold rush. The first guys did really well then it became more difficult.” > And expensive. Five years ago, the duo could get a good name for $10,000. Now the minimum is more like $100,000 – as the auction proved. The cheapest name they bought at the auction was [blogging.com](http://blogging.com) for $135,000. Other names sold for considerably less like [irishwhiskey.com](http://irishwhiskey.com) ($8,000) and [Jewishdeli.com](http://Jewishdeli.com) ($9,000). > At the moment, Fischer, Goldberger and Eli are sitting on their names. They’ve recently turned down million-dollar offers for [stocks.com](http://stocks.com) and [home.com](http://home.com). > But as white-hot as this business has been, it might not continue to mint millionaires. > “How long will this model last?” Malutta asked. “It’s definitely a temporal piece of real estate. As technology evolves, maybe direct navigation will fall off the charts and there goes your property.” [E-mail to a friend](http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/07/23/domain.name.dealing.ap/index.html#) > Copyright 2007 The [Associated Press](http://www.cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#AP). All rights reserved.This material granted a lot of domain names are taken up… but im sure theres ways to make some cash [/B] ---
**Author:** ![djdstar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/djdstar/32/7617_2.png) [@djdstar](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/djdstar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/2 "2007-07-23T11:12:01Z")
allthatshitbyyou.jpg cliff notes? ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:12am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/3 "2007-07-23T11:12:31Z")
old news ---
**Author:** ![Joe](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/joe/32/7219_2.png) [@Joe](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Joe)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/4 "2007-07-23T11:13:49Z")
haha, Ari Goldberger ---
**Author:** ![AFhockey31](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/afhockey31/32/5086_2.png) [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:13am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/5 "2007-07-23T11:13:49Z")
[quote=“BuickGN,post:3,topic:32816"”] old news [/quote] yes… but theyre getting A LOT more money than they were before… ---
**Author:** ![JayS](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/jays/32/15375_2.png) [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:15am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/6 "2007-07-23T11:15:17Z")
When the idiot French company Prosodie bought the old place I worked for they started making all these announcements that they were going to call their US operation Prosodie Interactive. What they didn’t do was register [www.prosodieinteractive.com](http://www.prosodieinteractive.com) first. The first employee to figure this out (which I hate to admit wasn’t me) had his wife’s brother register it (different last name), and Prosodie ended up having to pay 10k for the name. :lol: idiots. 10k is not a bad return on investment of $10, even when you have to split it with a brother in law. ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:17am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/7 "2007-07-23T11:17:48Z")
[quote=“AFhockey31,post:5,topic:32816"”] yes… but theyre getting A LOT more money than they were before… [/quote] lol i meant this was in the paper last week…lol ---
**Author:** ![AFhockey31](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/afhockey31/32/5086_2.png) [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:19am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/8 "2007-07-23T11:19:42Z")
[quote=“BuickGN,post:7,topic:32816"”] lol i meant this was in the paper last week…lol [/quote] damn you people and your… your… ability to read the newspaper ☹ oh… and its new news on [cnn.com](http://cnn.com) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dozr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@dozr](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/dozr)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/9 "2007-07-23T11:33:12Z")
Man I need to start selling some of my domains. ---
**Author:** ![Fry](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/fry/32/7284_2.png) [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pretty-cool-investment-idea/32816/10 "2007-07-23T13:40:46Z")
Digital real estate. Buy an empty field, wait till someone or several people really want to build on that spot, sell it for a profit.