TheHill.com just published a post entitled “ElectHillary.com? RandPaul.com? Betting on 2016’s hottest Web address” the artcile goes on to chat about “Election-year website squatters have dollar signs in their eyes, scooping up 2016-related domain names with the aim of cashing in on six-figure payouts — before any candidate has even thrown his or her hat into the ring”.
“The starting bid to buy either ElectHillary.com or ReelectHillary.com at GoDaddy’s domain name auction site: $275,000. RandPaul.com is being offered for $125,000; ChrisChristiePresident2016.com is up for grabs for $49,000, TedCruzForCommanderinChief.com is $20,000, and ElizabethWarren2016.com goes for a mere $3,300.”
“Jeremy Peter Green shelled out thousands of dollars to amass his collection of 180 domain names. The 26-year-old recent law school graduate says proudly, “As far as I know, I have a better 2016 collection than anyone else out there.”
Green’s bipartisan, eclectic and sometimes long-shot list pairs former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a slew of possible Democratic vice presidential picks in domain names such as ClintonNapolitano.com, ClintonOMalley.com, and ClintonWarner.com, referring to former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, and Sen. Mark Warner (Va.). And Green is gambling on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) running with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) for BushAyotte.com.
“He’s banking on his Clinton names, saying the former first lady is “the single most likely candidate to be the first name” on the Democrats’ ticket. Indeed, more than 50 domains based on variations on Clinton’s name (including HillaryForPres2016.com for $8,300, HillaryNotPresident.com for $295,000, and YesHillaryCan.com for $49,995) are for sale on GoDaddy.com.”
But Bill Sweetman, president of the domain name consulting firm Name Ninja, says dreams of a big payday are likely pie in the political sky.
“I am aware of hundreds of different examples of people registering these names in the hopes of somebody coming along and buying it from them,” Sweetman tells ITK. “I’m not aware of a single instance where a candidate or a group bought ‘Somebody’s name for president.com.’ ”
While “technically not illegal,” according to Sweetman, snagging domain names in the hopes of selling them to a candidate or campaign “just doesn’t pass the sniff test.”
Green, who works at a labor law firm, says he knows not everyone approves of his domain name buying spree.
“It’s sort of a kind of bottom-feeding to a lot of people, I think … I mean I don’t think there’s anything to look down on about it, but I guess it’s just the idea of buying something that you don’t plan to use and then sitting on it until you can exploit it — that rubs people the wrong way,” he says.
The article quotes Bill Sweetman of NameNinja.com as saying “I still don’t think you should do that with political candidates or with people.” “It’s a gamble, and there are better ways. If you’re serious about making money and buying and selling domain names, you don’t play that game.”
“Instead, the domain name expert suggests researching things, not people, that might be all the buzz in a few years.”
What TheHill.com article doesn’t even mention the gTLD’s .GOP or .Republican or .Democrat as potential addresses for the candidates or discuss how candidates could use domains using one of those extensions for their campagn instead of buying the .Com’s that are for sale.
The fact that theHill.com failed to to even mention one of these extensions, including .GOP which is back by an arm of the Republican Party whose offices are located in Washington DC, have not gotten their message out,.
No even just down the street to The Hill.
Berkens,
You’d have to be living under a rock, ON MARS, not even on the Hellas Basin, but perhaps, the Margaritifer Terra, not to be aware of the newgTLD scheme!
People know about it, they just don’t wanna know about it.
But, I agree with a substantial part of the rest of the article.
“Instead, the domain name expert suggests researching things, not people, that might be all the buzz in a few years.”
I own ElectorialVotes.com which I think may be worth something in a few years. I already get good hits on it while it’s parked. I plan to put up a site on it soon.
Naïveté comes in 4-year cycles.
Domains have been bought and sold for decades. During those decades, elections come and go. Every single time, lots of wishful-thinking cybersquatters scoop up domains attempting to “corner the market” on political campaigns. They rub their hands together gleefully and spend their thousands and then … ? Nothing.
Since this experiment has been repeated again and again, we have all the evidence we need. Where are the massive election domain sales from 2012 or 2008 or 2004 or 200? They don’t exist.
What’s really head-shakingly pathetic is that Mr. Green just graduated law school. As a lawyer, you’d think he’d have met with the concept of EVIDENCE. 2016 is not the first time this experiment has failed or will fail, Mr. Green. And you could have verified in advance that you were wasting your money on presidents … by looking at PRECEDENT.
Bill Sweetman’s comments within the article are precisely right.
P.S. As proof that there’s no money in this racket, look at what happened to George Bush (Senior and Junior). The domains were registered. They didn’t sell. They expired. I spent $25 total to rescue the pair … with not a single other person interested. And the domains now forward to a Wikipedia article. Eventually I’ll hand them off to the 2 presidential libraries gratis. George Bush Junior or his staff could have bought GeorgeBushJunior.com if he cared about it. Candidates typically don’t. There’s no money to be made here, folks.
The new gtld ‘s are a scam. Why would anyone buy anything but a .com? Everywhere you look on ads its .com Not .horse. This was all set up to make money for ICANN and nobody will ever advertise with anything but com org and net. Dot Guru are you kidding me? Dot ONL come on. Remember .mobi these are worse. Stay away from anything but .com
Coming soon . . . BarComplaintsAgainstJeremyGreen.com.