Top 20 most expensive domain names
Domain names are virtual real estates and good one are sold for unbelievable numbers. Here’s the top 20 most expensives:
- Sex.com – Sold for: $14 million on January 19th, 2006
- Fund.com – $9,999,950 – Sold in 2008
- Porn.com – Sold for $9,500,000 sometime in 2007
- Business.com – Sold for $7,500,000 in 1999
- Diamonds.com – Sold for $7,500,000
- Beer.com – Sold for $7,000,000
- Casino.com – $5,500,000 – Sold to a private company in 2003
- Toys.com $5.1M sold to Toys R Us
- AsSeenOnTV.com – Sold for $5,100,000 in January of 2000
- Korea.com – $5,000,000 – Sold in January of 2000
- SEO.com – $5,000,000
- FreePorn.com – $4,000,000 – Sold in February 2008
- YP.com – $3,850,000 – Sold to YellowPages.com
- Shop.com – Sold for $3,500,000 in 2001
- WorldWideWeb.com – $3,500,000 in 1996
- AltaVista.com – $3,250,000
- Software.com – $3,200,000
- Candy.com – $3,000,000 Sold in March 2009.
- CreditCheck.com – $3,000,000 -Sold in June 2007
- Loans.com – $3,000,000
Jerusalem.com for $750,000
The holy city went online this month. Jerusalem.com seeks to become the virtual gateway to religious, historic, and modern-day Jerusalem. They hope to bring ‘the Jerusalem experience to anyone in the world’.
In addition to getting information about the many faces of Jerusalem (including religion – duh, but also Real Estate and Shopping!), visitors can actually submit vocal prayers that are being heard in real speakers overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. The angels over at Jerusalem.com report that hundreds of prayers have already been submitted from more than 72 different countries.
Michael Weiss, the site’s Founder calls the site one “that belongs to every friend of Jerusalem throughout the world who wishes to interact with the city and feels as closest as possible to physical Jerusalem”.
And at $750,000, Jerusalem.com is the most expensive domain ever bought in Israel.
The Pros and Cons of Co-Branding
There are a number of reasons companies embark on co-branding programs. To begin with, they’re a powerful way of introducing one company’s products and services to the loyalists of another.
Co-branding also enables one brand to benefit from the “halo of affection” that belongs to another. That was the rationale behind Nike’s (NKE) original 1984 alliance with Michael Jordan, and the effort has done wonders for both.
Co-branding is not just for giant national or international brands. While a small business may have difficulty linking up with Nike or Procter & Gamble, there are an increasing number of off the shelf co-branding opportunities of which many businesses can avail themselves. Programs have been developed by credit-card companies such as Visa and MasterCard, retailers including Starbucks and Barnes & Noble, and even shipping companies—the U.S. Postal Service offers a service by which you can add your company logo to its priority mail packaging.
Beyond these, there are bound to be dozens of custom co-branding partners for just about any type of small business, whether you serve a local geographical area or a national vertical market. The key is to think creatively about products or services that complement yours in some way and that will enhance the appeal or credibility of your offering.
Develop your own guidelines
Be careful, however—co-branding is not without its risks. First, it tends to have a dilutive effect, since it spreads the credit for a positive experience across two brands where normally there’s only one. And if the experience isn’t positive—even if it’s the other brand’s fault—it may reflect negatively on you. Further, while in a well-conceived co-branding program the whole should be greater than the sum of the parts, you can’t get away from the fact that you are to some extent relying on another brand’s equity. That can, in some cases, make your brand look weak or secondary.
It’s important, therefore, to carefully consider your own co-branding principles before you enter the fray. Develop guidelines that are right for your business that will enable you to objectively assess opportunities that arise.
Create a proposal and reach out
Your criteria may differ based on what’s most appropriate for your situation, but “fit” should be a prime consideration. While many brands share similar characteristics, no two are exactly alike. Co-branding ice cream and root beer is a natural; co-branding sports cars and computers less so (though that didn’t prevent Ferrari from linking up with Acer). Ecco Shoes co-branding with the World Wide Fund for Nature makes intuitive sense; Chanel and Hello Kitty is a bit more of a head-scratcher. Look for brand fit not only from the perspective of attributes and benefits but also with respect to core values and corporate philosophies.
Why Your Startup Needs a Lead Dog
In dog-sled racing circles, a lead dog is a very valuable commodity. A good lead dog spells success or failure.
In your startup, you will hear all kinds of excuses from your new sales staff. Excuses like, “The prospects have never heard of us!” or “If we would only advertise on [insert the most expensive media here], we could sell more.”
A good lead dog in your organization doesn’t use excuses–he or she just gets things done. He leads by example and soon sets a high standard for the others to emulate.
Here are five attributes of lead dogs:
- They have been successful before, whether in a state championship softball team or as an Eagle Scout. Once they have been to the promised land, it is a feeling they love to recreate.
- They never complain or whine.
- They are sponges for new information, ideas and advice.
- They love hearing you tell the story of their success. Learn to tell it well, and often.
- They are highly principled. In the playground, they were the ones who would quit if the teacher spotted the other team a lead.
Turning up the heat: Dorm room bedbugs have enemy in UF invention
The occasional infestation of bed bugs into University of Florida dorm rooms has motivated researchers there to develop portable eradication devices for the bothersome little bloodsuckers.
The invention, created with less than $400 in equipment, can heat to 113 degrees and is big enough to slide a mattress or dresser into.
The heat destroys the bed bugs, but doesn’t damage the furniture.
A study of the device’s effectiveness appears in the June issue of Journal of Economic Entomology.
“You’re very limited in what you can do to fight bedbugs,” said urban entomologist and UF professor Phil Koehler in a Tuesday press release.
Current treatments for bed bugs include massive fumigations, where entire buildings are tented. A more recent patent, according to UF, was awarded to a private company that developed a way to heat treat an entire building. But for universities, which have thousands of students living in close quarters, large-scale treatments can be burdensome and unnecessary.
“It’s somewhat like cooking a turkey,” Koehler said of the bed bug banishing process, which includes putting probes in some infested items to monitor temperatures.
UF researchers note that while it is can be effective to put clothes and sheets in a standard dryer on high heat to eliminate bed bugs, no one should attempt to build their own heat treatment device for furnishings.
1,200 laptops a week lost at LAX
Last year Dell computers commissioned a study that found that 1,200 laptops are lost each week at U.S. airports. Los Angeles leads the pack with 1,200 laptops reported lost or stolen at LAX weekly. Incredibly, most laptops are left behind at security checkpoints, with only 33 percent ever being recovered (17 percent before the flight, 16 percent after).
Now, part of our shock about these numbers comes from the absent-mindedness of travelers who lose sight of a valuable piece of luggage — and one that they probably need to conduct their business or lives at the other end of their flights. But another thought comes to mind: Why don’t the TSA screeners call after people who have left their notebook computers behind — are they themselves too busy? do they assume such left luggage is dangerous and immediately dunk the laptops in a bucket of water?
Calls to LAX and Burbank Airport’s TSA offices went unreturned by posting time, but Sandee McFarland, who works for a private company that manages Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, says screeners do attempt to page passengers who become separated from their belongings — then lists the most-often lost items.
Property Room: Where Cops Sell Stolen Goods
Property Room is an online police auction site that sells “hot” or stolen goods. It turns out that replacing the classic police auction is good business.
PropertyRoom.com is set up as a kind of eBay for police auctions. Items are sold in categories including jewelry, fine art, tools, bicycles, watches and “everything else.” The site was founded by former police officers, including Daryl Gates, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, according to its Web site.
Since many of the items were stolen but never reclaimed, PropertyRoom.com will return them to their owners provided they can prove ownership of an item shown online.
When the site started in 2001, it had contracts with 100 departments and profits of $3 million. Now, the company has contracts with nearly 2,000 departments, 25,000 new bidders each month, and last year reported a profit of $35 million, according to company spokeswoman Cher Murphy.
