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According to DNJournal.com, the domain name CookingGames.com was sold at NoktaDomains for $350,000. My first reaction was disbelief, however, it was coming from a reputable source so I knew it to be true. Then I looked at the page to see what the heck were cooking games. The site reminded me of DressUp.com. Dressup.com was a name that was sold a few years back and then resold very quickly at a huge profit due to its absurdly high PPC revenue. Since the CookingGames.com site is identical to DressUp.com, I assume the same case senerio. Either way, congrats to the seller.
Bought on 8x ppc revenue.
Hallpassmedia.com
Shocked me too Larry. The term meant nothing to me but cooking games are apparently a huge thing with girls – million of pages in Google about them too. Guess I need to get in touch with my feminine side 🙂 Based on the landing pages I would also agree had to have been based on strong existing revenue stream.
It’s essential a really nice looking parked page. I wonder how traffic is directed there. My guess is traffic is purchased as I can’t see type-ins being that great. Would that be your guess?
There are many sites promoting the term “cooking games” so yes this domain probably get’s a hefty amount of traffic:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cooking+games&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Reverse IP address of CookingGames.com shows Animation.com is on the same server. If Chris Chena still owns Animation.com, perhaps he was the purchaser? (he once owned Juegos.com)
I bet ecookinggames.com bought it.
people still buy 8x on domains? Is it 2005?
Actually, it looks like Billy Karamouzis (the first commenter) purchased it. Nice addition to Dressup.com! Hope he doesn’t mind me pointing that out. Amazing the revenue these names can generate.
ron,
I love surprises like this. It only reinforces the fact that domain names are great investments but like any investment vehicle you have to know how to properly value the specific investment. Congrats to both buyer and seller.
larry
Bill,
I assume you bought it. Congratulations. You seem to have developed a great niche. Amazing how I associated it with Dressup.com and you seem to own that also. Please send me an email as i’d like to talk to you further later in the week.
larry
Hey guys, alot of interesting questions…
I was thinking to open up a bit more and share my story as domains and direct navigation have all played a large role in being able to navigate increasing competition in my field of online gaming and casual.
Domaining is not very well know outside of its circle, it would seem online gaming is even less known within the domaining circles even though gaming and online gaming are a huge part of the internet.
Google trends and many other sources all show the growing trends in casual gaming.
Anyhow, you can read more at http://www.hallpassmedia.com, Ron perhaps one day we should chat your story on Rick Latona and many others have already been great reads for me.
As well as this blog, of course:)
bill,
It would be great to do a story on you. Please email me your contact info – Larry (at) DirectNavigation.com.
all the best,
larry
george,
As you see, you are correct it seems to be the same owner. I assume Chris sold animation.com to Bill.
larry
From the reactions in comments and emails most are surprised at the price tag.
These types of domains combined 2 very important things, eyeballs with advertisers.
Dressup/cookinggames both have large amounts of viewers and just as importantly they both have a wide advertiser base to draw from.
For example, on dressup you have the standard free gaming sites, but you also have makeup ads, fashion ads, teen focused ads. So we really get a good value and safe return hence the 8X revenue we paid for it.
If you were lucky enough to have fitnessgames.com you would have seen a huge boost in sales this year as the wii has been making great strides in this field.
“girlgames” as a trend is growing rapidly and by using generic domains, we are able to compete against larger companies as we spend money on the asset, the eyeballs come with it. Other sites find themselves having to buy traffic which always leaves them at risk of market rates and other factors.
We on the other hand, can turn off the taps, turtle up and let our typing, search and word of mouth traffic help carry us through rough times, like the last year for example.
Long winded but first time I’ve posted about such things, sorry if Ive rambled a bit. As many of you guys are numbers guys Ill let the numbers do the talking…
http://www.quantcast.com/p-3c9ytMVVjBUYc
Bill,
It looks like you can buy fitnessgames.com as it is listed for sale also at Noktadomains.com
larry
Regarding animation.com, you guys are correct. I bought a large chunk of domains from Chris.
animation.com
cheapgas.com (sold)
coolgames.com
http://www.juegosgratis.com/ (free games in Spanish, which we just developed. Will be interesting to track its growth if your a stats guy )
Girl Games was also an amazing case study for me, we had a domain with 1500-3000 type in a day type in traffic and exactly 1 year later we hit 158,000k viewers in a day with 700,000 page views.
Great stuff… anyhow check the quantcast link if you like to verify the numbers 🙂
Thank you being open Bill and congrats on your new purchase. I also use to be very surprised at sales prices for what many think are random domains but clearly if the buyer pays a certain price, they have reasons behind it.
How come Bill – the end user who “gets” domains so well – is such a rarity?! What he wrote makes so much sense and should be so ******* obvious to end users. Basically why would not every end user with free cash buy perfect keyword domains at 8-10 years multiple, or even much higher multiple. After putting up some real content and SEO the multiple will come down to 1-5 years. It’s hard to come up with better ROI for cash.
congrats to the buyer!
Thanks for the comment Jon,
It’s not just end users, look at the headline of this entry, even experienced domainers often miss the value of domains. The industry as whole should really be promoting the natural advantages good domains have.
Having a great domain in itself is not enough as we have seen many times. But if you combined it with a smart, realistic business plan you are setting your self up for success.
Amazing story, and thanks for sharing. Congratulations to both buyer and seller!
Thats a great sale and a good purchase by Bill. The stats were very encouraging and this sale has encouraged me to develop a couple of my .coms
Thanks Bill for your insight, really gave me some stuff to think about. However, I should have never looked around and found stickgames, I can’t stop playing. lol.
hai , it is interesting , i too love surprises like this.
So 100% of the site revenue is PPC?
“Ron perhaps one day we should chat your story on Rick Latona and many others have already been great reads for me.”
Absolutely Bill – would love to get acquainted. Thanks for providing this insight into your strategy – I’m sure it has been a real eye opener for many people including me.
Bill is the real deal.
Congrats to both parties.
It’s an interesting AND surprising space. Just as interest in girl-games appears to be rising so does interest in Boy(s)Game(s) and, since I strongly favor generics, I managed to snag all of the boy(s) domains in 1999. I fell asleep, though, and didn’t track the drop(s) of girl(s)game(s) domains, which were (some) picked up on the drop as late as 2002 or later.
Always a bit funny how these things work out. Like “Who woulda thunk?” funny.
It’s amazing how much interest this blog has created, I must have had 20+ emails regarding buying/selling/developing domains within 24 hours, crazy.
Bill,
Thank you. I take that as a complement. Now that you know how effective DirectNavigation.com is, please let me know if you or anyone else would like to advertise on the site 🙂
all the best
larry
Your 5 part series blog post was one of the most interesting I’ve read on a “domaining” coverage site.
Thanks again Bill for those kind words. We ran a highly created and ran a successful parking platform (Smartname.com) and also have been involved in many high end generic domain purchases. I believe my perspective is slightly different from most and am all to happy to share any knowledge of the industry that was gained in all those years.
larry
I agree, the post had many angles not normally covered and shared. Only a select few blogs bring this kind of activity out in the open it’s a real eye opener. Many deals still to be had at all price levels in my view.
Congrat to Nokta and Bill. IMO, this is a good deal for both sides.
WTF? is right.
definitely an eye opener for me and an impressive read on what Bill has been building… wow!
It was amazing deal and I would never have thought it was sold for 8 x revenue. It is massive revenue via a domain and it is an eye opener for me.
Great sale and congrat to both buyer and seller.
Congrats to buyer and seller and thanks
Bill for sharing some insight.
Great read.
– Aron
If you think this thread was incredible, I have news for you. Bill has written a guest post which is simply remarkable. If you enjoyed reading about cookinggames.com, you will drool over his purchase of stickgames.com. go to http://directnavigation.com/2010/01/amazing-guest-post-by-the-purchaser-of-cookinggames-com-a-must-read/
Enjoy and best regards,
larry
It’s kind of amusing whenever sales like this occur, to see the ‘domainers’ bumbling around confused, wondering what happened…
It’s shocking how many “domainers” – including some at higher levels of the game- are completely f**king oblivious not only to the value-drivers that go into making a domain name worth money, but to the entire notion that domains aren’t like baseball cards or pogs, that exist only to be traded and swapped around amongst other ‘collectors’.
Yes, Virginia, domain names have an actual use for actual business that is intent on generating actual revenue and if you own the .com for a niche-killing phrase that’s getting 2mm monthly/exact and trending like a rocket, that’s going to be a very expensive name not only for the SE advantage, but for it’s more organic role as being the preeminent web-property in its niche. The ‘legitimacy premium’, as a dear friend once called it…
Reading the responses to this sale on ‘domainer’ forums has been like watching the reaction of cave-dwelling neanderthals to a man from the future who just landed in a helicopter and beamed them with a spotlight.
@ LS Morgan very funny, but also very true.
I’ve posts about this being some sort of a money laundering scam to a tax play, to completely fake. Almost no one can believe this is real except a select few. To me the online gaming world seems quite busy and mature, but judging from the reaction it’s still quote unknown to the “outside” world. Hopefully this translates to more upside for me in the long run as more learn about this growing trend.
We maintain a public stats account:
http://www.quantcast.com/p-3c9ytMVVjBUYc
Our progress can be tracked, hopefully in a year this proves to be a successful purchase which reinforces the benefits of generic and keyword domain names. Maybe then mainstream press will pick up the story and have one of those “wow, that actually worked” moments 🙂
We’ll see though, tough and load road ahead but that’s what we do, so hopefully we do it well once more.