The Financier writes:
“”I am neither here nor there with my opinion on NAME as an investment. This is really one that you would have to base on the quality of all of their domain assets (they’ve sold a ton of the good stuff and a lot of the remainder is priced at “wish we didn’t sell the good stuff before” prices). Other than that, you have 50$ of their revenues coming from the other ancillary business units (Smartname, et al). It’s so hard to forecast something like that because Smartname customer could easily jump ship in a heartbeat based on something Yahoo! did down the pipe.
I think what this comes down to is belief in the management team. Can they excute on a growth strategy, which seems to focused on the premium site development. I don’t know them well enough and don’t know their history to make any assumptions here.
Personally, I don’t think the debt is an issue. The IPO should be okay and they’ll turn the debt into equity on the balance sheet. They’ll save a ton of cash flow because they won’t be making interest payments anymore and they won’t make any dividend payments so you can see all of the debt wiped off the books and expenses that used to be interested-related ($10m or so) will move right to the bottom line.”"
http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=618
Sahar talks about Elliot’s interview with Rick Schwartz, and subsequently talks about how development of funeralhomes.com has changed what was once a 10 cent click on a parked page, to a $10,000 sale of funeral services. From the bottom of Sahar’s post:
Quote: “We see that every single day with FuneralHomes.com. A click that used to be valued at 10 cents now converts to a funeral of USD10K revenue and for the funeral home, potential life-value of a consumer of much more.”
***FS*** Rick and Sahar show us where the rubber meets the road in this business.
Both Danno and Josh send this one .. I’m sure you’ve all seen it already, but here is how “not” to be a domainer :
German job-seeker holds Google domains hostage
http://valleywag.com/tech/careers/german-job+seeker-holds-google-domains-hostage-317158.php
http://valleywag.com/tech/plentyoffish/how-much-is-a-one+man-dating-site-worth-316950.php
Quote: “”But what would he need VC money for? Being cash-flow positive means never having to say you’re sorry. There’s a simple reason why Plentyoffish hasn’t garnered more attention: Silicon Valley is only interested in stories it can grab a piece of.”"
***FS*** If there’s a downside about the Valley it’s just that … The best companies, domain portfolios, software whatever, doesn’t “need the money” and don’t want to give away a piece of the action, so there is nothing to talk about. As a result many of the second rate shows rise to the top, becoming the first rate shows as people, backers etc are incentivised by the opportunity to enrich themselves. Marcus will get bought eventually because running a site is a lot of work. He will have to find liquidity one day, or leave the site to his kids. The big risk with a one man site like Plenty of Fish is that if Marcus gets hit by a bus, the value (perceived/real) evaporates. Not so much with name portfolios which run on autopilot if managed well.
Danno sends three little vignettes:
1. NameMedia Announces Strategic Marketing Partnership with Network Solutions
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071030006018&newsLang=en
***FS*** Strategic reliances make for great press.. But this one could be juicy for NameMedia. Story intimates that they get some kind of back-end passthrough to offer Name Media’s names to front door customers looking for new domain registrations at NetworkSolutions.com .. It’s a great time to own large portfolios of domain names.
2. IP Community Critical Of Proposals On ICANN Agenda
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=804&res=&res=1024_ff&print=0
***FS*** A little compromise would go a long way. “Can’t we all just get along?”
3. After losing Facebook Bid, Google Unveils Secret Weapon: Maka-Maka
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/29/googles-response-to-facebook-maka-maka
***FS*** makamaka, hukupookooo, comeoniwannalayya.. Hawaiian words are heaps of fun… I say habeas secret. Hoping this is more than dodgeball.com on steroids.
Josh writes: “”Elliot Silver writes about how data from parked domains can reveal important information to the current domain owner. Potentially useful if the current owner is planning to develop or to a future buyer that might develop on that domain.”"
http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/10/26/direct-marketing-via-parked-domain-name/
***FS*** There’s a relevant dynamic here for keyword marketing or arbitrage as well.. The best type-in domains often make the best arb sites as well. No matter which angle you approach from, the map to success online typically begins with a good keyword name.
And why not.. They auction new airwaves and radio frequencies.. Why not coveted domain names?
http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/10/single-letter-domain-auctions/
Google running with G.cn in China today, illistrates the allure of single character names.
Karl Auerbach posts that 1/4 to a 1/3 or all the ICANN meetings this week are closed to the public.
http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000328.html
***FS*** ICANN in a nutshell: those who don’t add anything or don’t “get it”, are permitted to participate.. those who could make a difference don’t get to participate or are so beaten down by the process that they don’t want to.
Whizzbang/Michael further expands on his call for transparency by the parking companies.
http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/306/86/
Josh says: “”Michael gets it big time and digs into some of the nuts and bolts. He and many others, including myself, have said repeatedly that whichchever parking company goes the extra mile or 7 miles for domain holders, that parking company will benefit considerably. If all of one’s domains are held at one registrar, it takes about 10 seconds to point thousands or tens of thousands of domain names away from one parking company and towards another.
*Or maybe not even towards a parking company. Change is in the wind. It always is.”"
***FS*** I was just thinking the same thing.. The “change always in the wind” and “not necessarily a parking co” part. Some parking Co’s aren’t in a position to provide transparency because they themselves don’t have the transparency they’d like from their upstream search partner.
From Sahar’s blog:
http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=597
***FS***Sahar brings up the comparison of domain names to real estate. These comparisons will never go away, and for good reason, since they are comparable, though they aren’t the same. Ultimately what we’re “overlooking” today is the thing we don’t see coming.. a split platform of navigation where future browser manufacturers and search engines bring back the “realnames” concept to run in tandem with existing URL’s .. looking for Hoover Vacuums? Just type Hooverin your future iGoogle Browser and directed to the most popular front door. There will always be a domain name to match because you need a domain for email and not everyone will navigate using the same standardized browser.. but there will be a gradual marginalization of navigation toward other conduits such as search engines and browsers.
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