Due to the overwhelming interest in his purchase of CookingGames.com, Bill Kara has prepared the following guest post telling of another amazing generic .com. I hand it to Bill as being a great businessman who knows the power of the perfect generic domain for his areas of expertise. Please read on.
If you think Hallpass Media paid alot for cookinggames.com (350k) then
you might be surprised at what we paid for stickgames.com…
We had been looking for a number of niche game sites for a while, in
the crowded field of online gaming very few things set you apart from
the next site offering virtually all the same games. Having prime
domains is one of the few affordable options we had left. We filtered
out our most popular content areas and stick games were consistently a
top section.
“Stick Games are stick figures doing an assortment of things, most
often blowing each other up in various creative ways.”
I went after the top dog of course which was stickgames.com. It was
parked and owned by one of the hardest, most stubborn and least
motivated sellers on earth. This was not good news for us.
The domain was getting tons of traffic (confirmed between 1000-1500
type in a day) and the owners after our first contact wanted 250k for
the domain, no stats and no revenue figures to be provided. I knew the
domain was making nothing for them though, by using automated parking
technology I could see all the ads were displaying “stick” game type
stuff. Like hockey, skating and ads of this nature. I knew the
disconnect was there and viewers were coming to play games and being
shown hockey ads so the click through rates must have been nil. I
countered offered with a final offer of 100k after a few weeks of back
and forth they relented.
StickGames.com a domain unsuccessfully selling hockey sticks and
skates, with traffic coming from stickmen blowing each other up was
sold for a 100k, a 6 figure sum.
Story continues…
We did our development and quickly gained the number one spot on
google for “stick games”, even though the previous first place was to
a site with SEVEN times our traffic and had been developed for at
leave FIVE years before us. Generic advantage? Perhaps.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/stickgames.com+stickpage.com/
It was alot of hard work and networking with many more factors then
I’ve been able to list, but the point is a good business plan, hard
work and the right assets in this case strong generic domains have
helped us in a very crowded and competitive market. We are on track to
recover our investment cost in the next 3 months, during one of the
worst recessions of our time. Still deals to be had, still many
opportunities to be had. Best of luck everyone one!
PS when you’re not working, you should be gaming:) More stories to
come in 2010…
www.stickgames.com “Stick Games”
www.girlgames.com “GIrl Games”
www.wordgames.com “Word Games”
www.guygames.com “Guy Games”
www.juegosgratis.com “Juegos Gratis”
www.hallpassmedia.com “Hallpass Media”
Love it.
Great to hear when people find their niche’ and
just all-out go for it!
Congrats Bill!
Great Story.
Aron
XF.com Investments
Symbolics.com
Great stuff bill 🙂
These kinds of detailed information help others to
understand the mechanics of a good generic domain name
and the potential they bring.
Maybe one day you could put up a “blue print” that would shop all of us another way to develop domains into powerhouses. The how-to steps 1-2-3 is sorely missing after the domain is purchased.
I have my own “blue print”, but it would be nice to get new ideas and maybe your “blue print” would take more of the guess work we have to go through…
John
unplain dot com
I love the unmotivated seller story. It seems to be the key to getting good money for your domain.
I remember Dan Warner’s PPT at Traffic several years ago giving examples like this and saying “PCC is not an exact science.”
This proves that if you have a site with traffic and don’t understand the need, put up a survey page and find out what the visitors want.
It also proves that all the metrics people stick to like the Bible, are not always a measure of anything at all.
Thanks for sharing Bill and thanks Larry for uncovering this gem.
Good post. Thanks.
Thanks Bill & Larry … great stuff!
Bill;
Great job connecting the dots… I can just hear the gears smooking over at estibot with domainers running every name+game.com under the sun… lol nice niche, purchase and strategy…
Regards;
Luke
Great post what the industry needs more of daily. Best of luck.
Great post.
Here is my question: 1000-1500 type-ins a day – Is this pure organic type-in traffic, or was it coming from search engines?
also, How did you confirmed traffic if “no stats and no revenue figures to be provided” ?
Thanks!
Great stuff Bill, thanks for sharing!
Finally, someone is talking about good business models that work with good domains. All to often we are thinking of the domains first and the business model second, if at all.
Unmotivated seller! That’s how all domainers be! :0)
I think there are far more motivated sellers then unmotivated ones.
You don’t hear of the deals were a seller HAS to sell as they often cover up with a NDA. This cookinggames was the highest PPC/Rev cost I’ve paid in the last 2 years but I felt it matched with dressup.com, girlgames.com and our other girl domains would really present a strong offering in this area.
Most of the domains I buy are in the 2-5 years/X range, and that’s coming off a terrible PPC year in general.
It’s great press though, I hope all the other “cooking” related gaming domains get developed as that is the real driver of our type-in traffic. Develop superfuncookinggames.com and cookinggames.com will gain a small percent of the returning viewers.
I think any story in which the domain provides a natural advantage needs to be promoted as that is really the driving force of high domain prices.
Interesting story though I don’t think any mature domainer buys based on PPC, especially when one considers what end users are worth. I think it’s a good strategy to get people to +sell+ to you based on ppc (wink wink) but anyone with a brain will never sell a prime generic based on the extremely limited mindset of ppc. Only a buyer would think so 😉
I think many people also forget to factor in the carrying cost of domains.
If a domain is worth XX,XXX and brings you in nothing per year, the money you “could” have invested from that domain into some other money earning venture also must be considered…
No matter what the explanation. Still not a kosher sale.
I need to buy a good domain too…but then I don’t have that kind of cash
I need a good site name too, but then I don’t have that cash.
Congratulations on the success you’ve been getting on your niche Bill. I like to see people developing instead of just waiting for a deal.
Congratulations on the success you’ve been getting on your niche Bill. I like to see people developing instead of just waiting for a deal.
Good post Bill & Larry… This is an excellent strategy but you need to afford this kind of investment.