I was re-reading Liam's and David's latest posts, and the answer became obvious. These guys have come up with a great new way to market web hosting to the technically unsavvy!
Liam is interested in "a place for intangible Internet services in the physical world". And David thinks there might be a market for domain name title insurance. This means...
Ok, let me back up for a sec. In 2000, CNN ran an article about the lunar land grab. 300,000 people had purchased space on the moon. And during 2003, according to Space.com, more than 2.5 million people bought property on the moon and Mars. Even now, you can get your own acre of lunar real estate for $18.95. You'll even get an engraved parchment deed; shipping is $7 extra.
So, what if you took the $18.95 package and replaced "lunar real estate" with "domain name"? Add $5 for title insurance. Add $20 for a theirdomain.com t-shirt. Plus $5 for a gift box and $7 for shipping. I'm guessing land in space is purchased mostly as a last minute present; so it could be with the now-tangible $55.95 domain name gift pack.
When the lucky recipient goes to his newly registered domain name, he should see a "welcome home" message: this land is your land, except it's empty. Would you like to set up a shop to sell off all that junk in your garage? Or maybe you'd rather build a virtual home by uploading some photos? Or a digital safe deposit box for your important documents? Or perhaps even a fan club, where people can download videos and songs from your band? Basic apps would be free, along with a small amount of bandwidth and storage space. Advanced application features and additional hosting resources would be available for various fees. Of course, domain owners could also turn their properties into virtual parking lots on which their hosting providers could run Google ads.
Ok, when I started this post, I thought of the virtual real estate analogy as sort of a hoax, more frivolous gift than serious business service. But the more I think about it, the concept could have actual legitimacy. A few months ago, 1&1 CEO Andreas Gauger mentioned that he thinks *everyone* should have a website. There are so many possibilities. Like... some of the uses I mentioned above. Only these may not occur to the average man on the street. He logs into his hosting account, sees a blank canvas and is at a loss. But if you offered some suggestions and a few templates, Liam might change his mind next year and decide that web hosting could be a useful gift.
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