Live Domain Auction to Set Bar

• By The WHIR, October 18, 2006

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Live Domain Auction to Set Bar

By Justin Lee, theWHIR.com

October 18, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- The domain name market has been booming in recent years, and domain registrars and investors are discovering new ways to capitalize on the market.

The median domain name resale price rose 24 percent between 2004 and 2005, according to analysts. Additional market research indicates even further growth, making domain names a valuable addition to any investment portfolio.

Domain asset management service provider Moniker (moniker.com) has once again decided to take advantage of this flourishing market trend by holding its third live auction of premiere domain names on October 27.

Monte Cahn, founder and CEO of Moniker, has significant experience in domain names, being the first individual in the industry to sell a domain name for more than $1 million with Wallstreet.com, then the first to sell a domain name over $2 million with Autos.com. 

"[The sale of a domain name] is similar to how a piece of real estate is brokered by an appraiser," says Cahn, "where they look at comparable sales in the neighborhood - if it's the same type of house, same type of real estate, same type of square footage, and if that house is going to have the same kind of value as the house that just sold."

The event is part of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. EAST (targetedtraffic.com) Internet marketing conference, which takes place on October 24 to 28 at the Westin Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida.

Some 700 to 1,000 people will be in attendance, including domain industry participants and those wanting to get into the industry, as well as traffic aggregating companies, Google and Yahoo!, and advertisers.

They will be allowed to participate live or via the Web in the silent domain auction, bidding on traffic-generating domain names like Auction.com, Cameras.com, Dance.com, FreeSongs.com, IncomeTax.net, Location.com, Order.com, Sailboat.com, Text.com, VoiceMail.net and Whiskey.com. 

Cahn says bidding on these domain names will help buyers increase the value of their investment portfolios or build, protect or extend their existing brands.

"The live auction provides a great advantage, establishing a foundation value and a true value of a domain name in an educated market that knows values of domain names," says Cahn. "The people that are buying the domain names either have the great desire to own it because they're a corporation or a brander, a domain investor or a seller."

The two previous live auctions have each seen an impressive value of domain names purchased, increasing significantly from $435,000 in October 2005 to $2.1 million in May 2006. Cahn projects this month's live auction will bring in a total value of $5 million in domain names.

More than just monetary projections, Cahn hopes that this auction, and more like it in the future, will provide a medium for educating those within and outside the industry that domains are not a commodity based transaction, but rather an actual asset.

"The true goal of the show, conference and the auction is to educate the people that are there attending, but also to provide a foundation value for what domain names are truly worth in the market, and that it is a valuable and alternate investment vehicle for outside investment companies and individuals."

Tags:  Domains  Attenda  Boomi  Google  Iona  Moniker  OKERE  T.R.A.F.F.I.C.  Yahoo! 

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