Domain Names Investing

Large media companies are beginning to see the value of traffic domain names and the revenue that can be derived from them (with very little work to do). Investors are simply parking the domain name and adding a page of cost per click advertisements to the site. In a Wall Street Journal article recently published, they talk of the domain name flashgames.com that earns $150,000 per year from visitors looking for Flash games. There are no Flash games on the domain though, just a page of ads that earn the owners revenue every time a visitor clicks on a link.
Generic names that people type straight into their browser are the most profitable, but also the most expensive to acquire. All the big domain names have been taken long ago, but some companies have portfolios of more than 400,000 domain names. Rather than buy a few domain names with a lot of traffic, investors are buying a lot of domains with a little traffic.
For These Sites, Their Best Asset Is a Good Name
"These sites' ability to make lots of money for little investment is now attracting attention from big players. A group of investors led by former MySpace.com chairman Richard Rosenblatt is expected to announce today that it has raised $120 million from investors to build a new company, Demand Media Inc., centered on generic domain names like these. The venture has already acquired 150,000 domain names -- including flashgames.com -- and plans to aggressively acquire more. But, conscious of the limitations of these bare-bones sites, it plans to add some low-cost content in hopes of making the business even stronger." WSJ

# Internet News