closed www.villas.com

[SouthernTn]

I've never seen such a contentious, fractured, disorganised marketplace.

Well, what do you think should be done to make it better and more organized to fit you :angel:

 

[alldig]

I would guess the type-ins to be in the neighborhood of 500+ a day. This name is going to hit the OV score on a daily basis easy. Top bid on OV being $.52. If you had a 50% split and a 20% CTR you're probably on target. Mabey more like $50 a day. To an advertiser it's worth $250+ a day in advertising spending. A cool $90k a year in advertising savings makes 4-500k seem like chump change.

From my experience a real estate name with that sort of overture score will receive unique visitors amounting to 40-70% of that score. 200 uniques/day is on the low side, but I doubt it would receive 500+ type ins a day. By your calculations the name would perform at 100RPM...I think that RPM is a bit on the low side.

Either way the name is easily worth mid 6 figures (with a 50-60% revshare)...who knows what improvements will emerge in the future...

Personally I would hold onto this domain and put it on a lander until the right end user came along (I believe 7 figure offers are possible in the next few years)

 

[steveatvillas]

I am brokering Villas.net for Wayne Trotter.

Any thoughts on the asking price?

Hey Justin:

You probably know that I was approached about a year ago to pick up villas.net directly from Wayne. Whilst it would have been nice for my portfolio, I didn't think it was worth more to me than a WIPO challenge for trademark infringement. I did that, got turned down, licked my wounds, wished Wayne well and moved on.

I'm still new to this end of the business. I approach domain names like I approach everything in business.... Marketing and Branding, Perceived Value, NPV of future earnings analysis, costs to get to market, etc. It's a whole other game in this marketplace. Different set of stats, different way of measuring efficiency, different indicators of value, lots of WAGS (Wild Assed Guesses), lots of emotion.

It's cool. Lots to learn.

I know it was offered to me at 25k. I felt the .net TLD wouldn't add that much to my biz, as i had the .com and some other TLD's. It will be a totally different deal with someone else who can max the utility, as I was going to use V.N only to protect my position and trademark.

Listen to some of the more positive and helpful comments in this thread, I sure have. You have to find the right enduser to max the trade. A no-brainer, really, when you take a step back and think about it for a minute. We marketeers would say "target your market" then go out and get it.

Best of luck.

Steve

 

[Bellissima]

Well,

I think that Steve has really good remarks and they are always constructives.

I wish you the best of luck to reach the million mark with your domain name !!!

Laure

 

[BidNo]

Steve el al,

Looking at comp's, I would bracket Villas.com as better than Lofts.com ($100,000, Aug '05) but below Property.com ($750,000, Sep '05).

Within this bracket, I would judge its market potential to be less than Refinance.com ($706,850, Nov '05) but more than Recycling.com ($300,000, Dec '05).

So, ignoring lots of hidden factor, I'd say your value should be between $300,000 and $706,850. If you want to research comp's, there is a new site at <edited> It is free and searchable. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers,
BidNo

 

[lawpal]

I might as well chime in. I personally think the domain is valued somewhere between $100k and $300k to a U.S. user. To an EU user I would double those figures because the term is much more commonplace.

ainkiller:

 

[steveatvillas]

I might as well chime in. I personally think the domain is valued somewhere between $100k and $300k to a U.S. user. To an EU user I would double those figures because the term is much more commonplace.

ainkiller:

I wouldn't have disagreed with you several months ago, but it seems that the word "villa" has, indeed, permeated the world. I didn't believe it myself until I started Googling my stats. There are 70 million results for villas, divided evenly between US and ROW. Unfortunately, for the positioning of my site extant, 95% of the results are for vacation and holiday destinations not expensive villas. Half million results for "villas.com", same deal. Same on all the other SE's, same on the on-site search tool I have. Same on Overture.

Can't fight the market! I'm looking at a repositioning for V.C into the travel industry, and I'll do the posh pads on VILLAS.EU (got it in the Trademark Sunrise a few months back.)

BTW: just looked at EURID, 703,000 .eu domains reg'd today on the opening of the landrush. Man, that's hot!

Thanks for your comments, most appreciated.

All the best,

Steve

 

[SouthernTn]

but more than Recycling.com ($300,000, Dec '05)

In my opinion I would say Recycling.com is more valuable.

 

[denny007]

I was approached about a year ago to pick up villas.net directly from Wayne. Whilst it would have been nice for my portfolio, I didn't think it was worth more to me than a WIPO challenge for trademark infringement. I did that, got turned down, licked my wounds, wished Wayne well and moved on.

Dude, you are a real piece of :censored: ! That was an attempt of REVERSE DOMAIN HIJACKING and you should end-up paying huge penalty for it...

 

[YOYOYO]

i've got to agree with - denny007

you've got - jackass - written all over you

that reverse hijacking attempt puts you in the - complete piece of trash category -

 

[Creature]

Just from a vanity point of view I am a bit bored of villas.com.

It is not really a vanity name. You would never walk around with villas.com on a t-shirt and look cool :hippie: .

It is a boring domain name.:bored:

Therefore I would take the loot offered earlier in this thread :hat: or lower your expectations.

 

[steveatvillas]

Dude, you are a real piece of ! That was an attempt of REVERSE DOMAIN HIJACKING and you should end-up paying huge penalty for it...

i've got to agree with - denny007

you've got - jackass - written all over you

that reverse hijacking attempt puts you in the - complete piece of trash category -

Now, now, children...settle down

Since it was none of your busiess, it wasn't for you to comment...but since you have, here's what came down.

I was approcahed by a representative of V.net who asked me if I wanted to purchase the domain for 25k and if I didn't purchase it, they were going to sell it to one of my competitors, and I had to make up my mind immediately.

That's not RDH on my part, boys and girls, that's bad faith negitiation on theirs. And if you knew anything about WIPO procedures, you would know that the doctrine of bad faith is the basis of all WIPO decisions. Having defended v.com on several occasions, it's pretty cut and dried. And you win some and you lose some. So far I'm 2 for 3 against the likes of you.

I've been looking through this forum and it seems that a fair proportion of you are scared to death of the dreaded "C & D". Why don't you explain to everybody what a C & D is?

No?

OK I will. It is a Cease and Desist order sent by the legal representative of the owner of a legitimate domain with a trademark or service mark or prior art, that one of you has infringed on. The C & D tells you to stop immediately or legal proceedings will commence to take the doamin away from you, as you have no legitimate right to it.

Dang, you guys, you've even got a market for "misspellings" in order to parasitise hits from people whose fingers slip on the keyboard when innocently looking for the legitimate domain.

And then you have the cojones to scream RDH when you get caught. Oh, man, give me a f***ing break.

If I'm a jackass for protecting my business, then you are jackals.

It's people like you who give legitimate Internet commerce a bad name.

Big kiss, now it's bedtime,

Steve

Addendum:

I just reread my post. I misspelled two words because my fingers slipped on the keyboard. Does that real world example allow someone else to benefit from an honest mistake?

 

[Creature]

Steve, I would remove your last post if I were you.

They will &#180;rib you to bits&#180; in here and your name may drop in value.

I made the same misstake talking politics in another forum. Never again!!

 

[steveatvillas]

Steve, I would remove your last post if I were you.

They will ´rib you to bits´ in here and your name may drop in value.

I made the same misstake talking politics in another forum. Never again!!

Thanks for that, Creature.

Quite frankly, this thread has degenerated into a real bottom-feeding exercise. All I wanted was an appraisal, and it's gotten political.

But in the offing I've met some real nice, helpful folks with great ways for me to max the value. We've been in contact privately, and they've confirmed the true value of the domain, and we're spinning ideas on this and other stuff.

I knew I was opening Pandora's box with that last bit. But I just got up and haven't had my coffee yet. I give what I get, especially pre-caffeine...

PM me if ya want. I've got tons of ideas.

Steve

 

[YOYOYO]

what a goofball explanation -

did you have a consultant to come up with that -

from what we've read in the past, no, you're quite content on playing the - fool - all by yourself

do you really expect to bring something up as serious as a reverse hijacking attempt on a board
about domain names and expect people not to comment on it -

really, a brain scan is more of what you need than anything else, just to make sure, you know, it's there

- Whilst

 

[steveatvillas]

what a goofball explanation -

did you have a consultant to come up with that -

from what we've read in the past, no, you're quite content on playing the - fool - all by yourself

do you really expect to bring something up as serious as a reverse hijacking attempt on a board
about domain names and expect people not to comment on it -

really, a brain scan is more of what you need than anything else, just to make sure, you know, it's there

- Whilst

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, eh YoYo?

I appreciate and welcome your comments, and I will continue to give as good as I get.

Whilst is the British spelling.

Steve

 

[Creature]

I just reread my post. I misspelled two words because my fingers slipped on the keyboard. Does that real world example allow someone else to benefit from an honest mistake?

Steve,

I would say it depends on whether the name is a typo of a generic word or not or whether the name infringes on a TM or if the typo aims to deceive the user.

If a user types loams and loans are offered then I don&#180;t see a problem.

If someone can change their quality of life, from rags to riches with say an &#180;m&#180; instead of an &#180;n&#180; in a generic word, then the best of luck to them.

I see my .com domain has serveral typos registered which is a bit annoying but what the hell, I might try and buy them one day.

Back to your domain name, I hope that you get the price that you are looking for. The guys with the cash in here seem to like it.

 

[draqon]

steveatvillas, your actions certainly did constitute reverse hijacking. the owner of villas.net has the legal right, under both US intellectual property law (the Lanham Act) and UDRP policy, to buy or sell generic domains such as villas.net. He can sell it to your competition, to your mother, to you, or to Microsoft.

 

[SouthernTn]

Doesn't it seem like Steve just knows everything...

 

[sasquatch]

Doesn't it seem like Steve just knows everything...

After all he's got a degree in economics and math, and an MBA from Stanford, has been selling multimillion dollar properties for decades, his Spanish-based business grosses couple of M per year, and he has had this domain since 97.