Aside from GoDaddy, I can't think of a domain name TV commercial that I have seen that advertises domains or domain services. You see commercials in which a domain name is typed in, but only advertising something else.

Watching CNN this morning I was startled to see a TV commercial about DomainInvesting.com. They are here in Arizona though I have never heard of them, nor do I know them. And whether that was a targeted regional TV commercial, I don't know.

Whether they have anything there or not, I also do not know...but I did like to see the idea of "domain investing" being put out there to the general public. It has to make some think "domain investing" what is that? It made me run over to my PC, and say "what is it that they are doing?"...still not totally clear what that is...though I don't want to sign up to find out. Though the concept of "domain investing" is still far from the mainstream investor's mind in my opinion.

Someone on one of the threads in the past said that the day that "day traders, and house flippers" come running to invest in domains is when values will really take off (something like that...paraphrased). Attracting or at least educating "investors" which see the only investment as stocks, bonds, or real estate, or anything else is good.

It appears that Dotventures owns DomainInvesting.com (I like this name), and I have seen their self-promoted "360 brand" in their press releases, which seems a bit of a stretch to me...but, I'll give them credit for moving the idea of domain investing forward, and wish them good luck.

When the mainstream can clearly see the benefit of having a strategic domain or portfolio of domains, then my golf game will be improving. It has taken longer than I thought, and I hope I am not too old before those concepts are well understood by the mainstream.

http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/p....cfm?PRID=2744

http://www.domaininvesting.com/

I saw a small part of it but it wasn't on CNN.

Would be interesting to see the selection of Domains they are selling and the offering prices.

tell me I am missing the point of their "cease the opportunity" tagline.

From a link off their site:

http://seo.phpmagazine.net/2006/11/p...ny_unveil.html

They really needed to proof that site before promoting it:

Based upon the top open open market domain sales during 2004 and 2006 as reporter in the Domain Name Journal

Reading the blurb - it reads to me like they're selling names that are backed with their monetization system for a 2 year period with a view to them gaining in value that the owner can realise - but I could be well off base as its really vague.

That press release is a bit misleading too imo:

Case and point- business.com, recently selling for $7.5 million.

Investing in Internet domains are being considered the new 21st century real estate market. But consider this, the average profit from selling a domain name after just two years is almost four hundred percent!

Sounds like a lot of hype and misinformation,

the average profit from selling a domain name after just two years is almost four hundred percent!

Misleading as the data is from a time period which shown the best gains.

80 or 90% of web traffic comes from search engines

not true

DotVentures is able to offer these domain names to buyers for half of their appraised value.

At least this line might get some people thinking about why a company would sell a name for half what they claim it is valued at.

I wonder who is doing the appraisal too...

IMO, this seems to be the first organized attempt to capture the attention (and $$) of those in the general public who've just gotten the wind of this *hot new* investment opportunity and would like to do it via a *professional* brokerage; i.e. a rough equivalent of stock brokers. Barring further details to the contrary, the practice would seem highly suspect, but at least it brings the domain business one step closer to the main stream....and that to me is a good news.

Originally posted by ILikeInfo
From a link off their site:

http://seo.phpmagazine.net/2006/11/p...ny_unveil.html

Well reading that it says "They have a catalog of good long domain names which already appraise for thousands of dollars and that they think will significantly appreciate over the next two years. Some examples might be findcheapshoes.com, purchasefinewine.com and many others. Through their clout, DotVentures is able to offer these domain names to buyers for half of their appraised value."

Well I guess they will sell you findcheapshoes.com for $4 (half it's appraised value of $8 after it comes out of pending delete) cuz it's in REDEMPTION now - Expired: 21-dec-2006 ...actually, I don't want it...am I reading the article correctly?

And purchasefinewine.com is owned by Backus Turner International Ft. Lauderdale, FL - which is not them.

I like the "domain investing" idea getting promoted but I hope it does not turn out to be these guys selling worthless to weak domains, or throwing a "360" on the end of generic words and phrases and then pawning that off as domain names offered to buyers for "half of their appraised value"...and they are the ones appraising. Something seems funny.

If it turned out to be a domain scam to dump lousy domains, it would give domainers a new negative label besides cybersquatter, extortionist, etc.

P.S. Excuse my ignorance, but what does IMO mean?

IMO = In My Opinion

Originally posted by Speculator
IMO, this seems to be the first organized attempt to capture the attention (and $$) of those in the general public who've just gotten the wind of this *hot new* investment opportunity

I'm night owl. The other night I put the TV on and there were nothing but Infomercials on. The one I watched was making money on the internet and the "Turn Key Business" included an unspecified number of domain names.

Bottom line: The sharks are out in great numbers and I don't think the average particiant will survive or have anything close to a good experiance. Reading/Hearing all the success story in the media just makes the sharks job easier.

Who knows how many infomercialls like this are running right now. I only watched this one due to them making a statement that caught my ear as I was flipping channels.

look on the bright side guys..atleast they got themselves a pretty valuable domain worth millions "DomainInvesting.com" woho!

I've now learned that this company has bought tons of *360* .com domains and obviously this is what they are offering to their investors. As their sales pitch, they do have a list of several that have been sold (many via Sedo) for low-mid 4 figures.....a sample:

Cash360 com $6,250 Jun 05 Sedo
w360 com $5,507 Oct 06 Sedo
X360 com $5,000 Feb 05 Afternic
Trader360 com $4,994 Jul 06 Sedo
Solutions360 com $3,500 Aug 06 Sedo
Pulse360 com $3,333 Jul 06 Private
Canoe360 com $3,333 Feb 06 Sedo
Portfolio360 com $3,162 Jul 06 Sedo
Supply360 com $3,112 Jun 06 Sedo
Go360 com $2,750 Mar 06 Afternic
MLS360 com $2,500 Sep 06 Sedo
Ride360 com $2,341 Jul 06 Sedo

Although they label their holdings/portfolio "generic" the fact remains that these are non-traffic *branding* type domains and as such carry much higher risk than standard generic domains. So, to me although it'd be unfair to call it *fraud* the investment is pretty much like buying high risk speculative stocks.

I've heard radio ads on sports channels that proclaim:

"people are finding a goldmine in domains! Buy our $39 book to find out how to make millions!"

They're squeezed in between the hairloss and weightloss commercials.