Bloomberg/BusinessWeek ran an interesting about the domain name TeaParty.com.
As you probably know there has been a much hotter topic in the last couple of years tin American politics than the Tea Party.
Yet the domain belongs to a band out of Canada which registered it in 1993, and now after fielding offers for well over a year on the domain is considering cashing out of one of the hottest topics in America, the Tea Party.
The domain according to compete is gets around 4,000 visitors a month and as high as 7,500 during the last election and has a PR of 4 since the Tea Party is has become a highly searched term.
The story Bloomberg wrote entitled:
“Teaparty.com Could Make a Rock Band Rich”
Quotes a representative from Godaddy, Marc Ostrofsky domainer and author of Get Rich Click! and even a former Rep of Goldman Sachs:
“”The band registered the site in 1993 and kept it through eight albums and several world tours. In 2005 the lead singer split (“creative differences”), and the site has mostly been dormant since.””
Yet since the TeaParty is such huge topic in American Politics people searching for information on it either through direct search or even through the search engines are winding up on the bands page, which “causes endless confusion for the millions of people who Google “Tea Party” each month. ”
“If they put the domain name up for auction, with so many Presidential candidates, political operatives, and interest groups vying to capitalize on the Tea Party brand, there could be a bidding war. “Last cycle, Barack Obama raised $500 million online,” says Warren Adelman, president of GoDaddy.com, the domain registrar and Web hosting company. “If you look at the money being talked about this time around—campaigns raising $1 billion—it’s easy to expect teaparty.com to go for well over $1 million.”
“Last year the band started to receive an increasing number of offers to buy the domain, mostly from obscure political groups and investors. The site has a lot to offer: It appears high in Google’s (GOOG) rankings even though it is rarely updated. It’s the obvious destination for direct-navigation traffic—typing a URL directly into a browser’s address field—believed to constitute as much as 15 percent of all Net traffic.”
“Domain names are Internet real estate,” says Marc Ostrofsky, author of Get Rich Click! “A good way to think about them is like tenants in a shopping mall. You’ve got your anchor tenants like Business.com and mutualfunds.com, and then you’ve got seasonal guys who come and go like teaparty.com.” Ostrofsky cites the cautionary tale of birdflu.com, worth a fortune when fears of contagion peaked several years ago. The owner didn’t sell, and the value plummeted when public attention moved on.”
“Teaparty.com is probably approaching its maximum value. ”
“The good news for the band is that there is no shortage of potential suitors: the Republican Presidential candidates; conservative political action committees; a wealthy Tea Party backer (the Koch brothers, perhaps?); a mischievous Democratic group. “The timing of this sale couldn’t be more brilliant,” says Stephen K. Bannon, the former Goldman Sachs (GS) investment banker who directed a trilogy of films about the Tea Party (including this summer’s Sarah Palin biopic) and is considering acquiring teaparty.com. “It could cause a lot of trouble if it fell into the wrong hands.” And that’s just in the world of politics.
Its a really an interesting story and a recognition by a non-domainer publication on the value of a domain including the type in traffic and SEO value.
You should check it out.
I also agree with the some of the people interviewed in the story that with the 2012 elections looming the next year might present the best opportunity to sell the domain for the maximum value.
On the other hand what would the domain be worth if the Tea Party candidate actually won the election?
Such is domaining.
TeaParty.com
====
Looks like the owner of PARTY.COM may want to pay attention
TEA.PARTY.COM
…go nuclear – Drop the .COM
…
TEA.PARTY
“Looks like the owner of PARTY.COM may want to pay attention”
Elequa has owned it since Feb, 2004.
And, I’m sure he would not want to get involved in U.S. politics.
Since, he grew up in the diplomatic community in DC.
not so sure, they don’t sell a “product”
Click
So only domains in which you can sell a product are worth seven figures?
Hum….
Don’t think so
I can’t help but wonder whether the general public is now wise enough to assume that any ‘official’ Tea Party site would be branded under a dot-org extension (e.g., RNC.org, DNC.org)?
Regardless, I fully agree that it could be worth seven figures, especially as a commercial destination site (T-shirts, Events and associated travel, etc.).
Unless the band needs the money, I would not sell.
I would just monetize it. – Mars
Or, for the more moderate, how about this one:
DecafTeaParty.com
It’s one of mine, and our motto is
Tread Lightly On Me
I can’t recall exactly at which auction this was, but within the last four years a couple of political domains came up for auction – things like democrat.com and republican.com (or some equally strong variant – my memory is failing me) and I don’t recall them creating much of a buzz or whether they even sold.
I’ve done some consulting work for politicians and I have a pretty strong handle on what some of the most well funded folks are willing to pay to protect *their* brands by getting domains in the aftermarket. I don’t think many of them would pony up any significant dollars to snag this.
That isn’t to say that it wouldn’t go for a decent sum. I’m constantly amazed by the idiocy of a handful of deep pocketed folks.
“seven figures”
big companies like Apple or Microsoft can buy seven figures domains also without use them, but all other companies must earn money from their investiments
I own the e(That).com and would sell it for $8K.
So, you can have (that).com for $x,xxx,xxx or e(that).com for $x,xxx.
For a political party (where ‘type-ins’ mean little to nothing) using it for fundraising purposes, that no effing brainer.
… but I’d say there’s a VERY small chance this domain sells for seven figures.
Bloomberg / BusinessWeek should also buy week.ly while it is still available.
The domain name, TeaParty dotPRO looks like a political upgrade to me!*
Just sayin’…
*In the interests of full and fair disclosure, this domain is in my company inventory.
@ Click
The product is a “Better America”
Just a side note here and interesting point too,
[..]…./either through direct search or even through the search engines are winding up on the bands page, which “causes endless confusion for the millions of people who Google “Tea Party” each month. ”[..]
The same could be said the other way around. Let’s say your a fan of the rock band”Muse” and you typed in muse.com, it would be equally confusing to the surfer to see a software app site instead of the next tour dates.
Ironically this – “causes endless confusion for the millions of people who type in to their address bar “muse.com” each month. ” 😉
BTW Muse can be located at muse.mu
This is a great example of one countries cultural usage of a key word vs another. “Cricket” for example is known in the US as a wireless cell phone carrier, and in commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand, India etc, it’s a major national/international sport.
Solution is obvious though, ccTLD extensions are in their element in these predicaments, I’d be looking at “TeaParty.us” as a possible area of interest for example.
When all this happened traffic on my Teabagging.com went thru the roof (presumably from Teabagging Party 0r something like that I guess – was not just the adult term) – now traffic down to only about 15 a day.
I do not think there is much to monitize in TeaParty.com – and might be even a TM issue if the domain is newly used to misrepresent the Tea Party.
Point is – sell it – in as much I might belive in a lot that the Tea Party represents – I do not see it sticking as a main stay political term
maybe $500K – but certainly not in the mils
“the idiocy of a handful of deep-pocketed folks”
An eternal truth.
So, accepting this is an economic fact, is it a problem or an opportunity?
I think it’s clear how some domainers view it.
Internet VC have long built their business around this as an opportunity.
Education is in decline, which certainly includes technology, and I don’t see this changing anytime soon.
TeaParty.com is a winner! Either way, if the band keeps it or sells out it is still a winner. I have StreamingTeaParty.com & TeaPartyQRcode.com. My reasoning for hand regging these two puppies is somewhat obvious. You have to start with the basics and this is you must have all the elements sometime to make things work. Meaning, you have to have the domain name such as TeaParty.com, then, you must have a QR code which will further the development of the domain and then perhaps a sub-domain to compliment your tier domain. Thus, streaming being the most trendy future domain a head of us all. Why? Because the intire internet will go streaming. If TeaParty.com goes to a political canidate or party then they will surely “stream” all their updated information to Americans abroad. Once a QR code is applied to the smartphone this will allow for all content to be streamed from the website to the smartphone or vice versa. This is how it will all unfold. Berkins is 100% right in his opining. Just a bit more, I was in Hollywood, CA. yesterday and QR codes are posted all over store fronts and signs in the Los Angeles area. You copy the QR code on your phone and the code will take you to business websites. The QR code will take the place of “Apps” as we once knew them. Everything will be streaming….