Kevin Ham is the most powerful dotcom mogul you've never heard of, reports Business 2.0 Magazine. Here's how the master of Web domains built a $300 million empire.
Much of that effort is going into developing search tools based more on meaning and less on keywords. "Google is only so useful," Ham says.The aim is to apply a meaning-based, or "semantic," system across swaths of sites, luring customers from direct navigation and search engines alike. Religion.com would then become an anchor to which scores of other sites would be tied.
"It's time to build out the virtual real estate," Ham says. "There's so much more value in these names than pay-per-click." Seeman's patent application even mentions the possibility of turning Web traffic from Cameroon and other future foreign partners into full-fledged portals.
Since 2000 he has quietly cobbled together a portfolio of some 300,000 domains that, combined with several other ventures, generate an estimated $70 million a year in revenue
$233.33 per domain per year....Factor in that he's paid hundreds of thousands for some of them and it just doesn't seem right.
... combined with several other ventures, generate an estimated $70 million a year in revenue
His revenue per domain is therefore < $233.33.
Better to be lucky than smart proven once again. You think now people will know him? What a moron. Usually a handover will suffice for big brands, but only because there no deep pockets to go after.
ive thought of some really cool domain names, only to find they are just there to serve ads and for sale for way more than i can afford. these sites deliver no more value to surfers than arbitrage sites do - very very little
Can't agree more. I recently gave up 2 domains, including one that had 60'000 links attached to it - only to find the new owner slapped a ton of ads on a perfectly good domain name.
Wish I kept it now - jeeze.
I had 200 domains in 1999 and some good ones too. but then I think using domains like that do not serve any purpose.
so never monitized them and do not regret also.
Comments Disparaging Domainers or Their Practices; Public Airing of Grievances About Unavailable Domains: There are many roles in the domain name industry: Industry oversight, domain registrars, drop catching services, domain parking services, aftermarket domain resellers and others. While some practices, such as typosquatting of famous marks, will never gain legitimacy others have firmly established their legitimacy and viability, despite the absence of universal acceptance or universal praise. Posting generalized disparaging comments about any domain industry constituency or their practices is to be avoided as such posts are little more than unproductive flame bait in a Domain Name Forum. Disparaging posts will be removed or edited.
Generalized disparaging remarks neither elevate the dialogue nor add to the community's insight or intelligence. At best they only serve to degrade the dialogue or analysis. Let's not rehash the "domainers are bad" dialogue. That issue was fully aired circa 2003-2004. Thank you.
WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. PO Box 322, Anytown, USA. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Like the quote I made above, all it does is make me kick myself over and over again and want to go back. I still think there is lots of potential for mimicking his model on a smaller scale and going after niche after niche until you can move up to larger niches.
One of the biggest things I got out of the article is that there are some heavy hitting publishing companies in the works. They have more money, have more staff and have the best domains... need to be unique, need to add value, grab what I can now and start building.
"If you control all the domains," he says, "then you control the Internet."
eeek!
I wouldn't classify the Cameron business plan as a "typo scheme". What Ham is doing is no different than what both Mozilla, through FireFox, and Microsoft, through IE, (among many others, including most ISPs) do when you type in any other non-resolving domain name ... you get shuffled to their landing page full of advertisements and sponsored links. Whoever controls the browser behavior controls the internet to a large degree. Ham is just allowing the end user to bypass the browser based "misdirects" by resolving the unregistered .cm domains to his own landing pages. Personally, I don't see how anyone can claim trademark infringement.
How can anyone be critical of the .cm business plan, and not be critical of Microsoft's treatment, through IE, of non-resolving domain names? I think I read somewhere that the majority of MS Live Search traffic was from IE redirects of unresolved and mistyped domain names!
The .cm business is brilliant!
Congrats to Kevin Ham - I've heard of most of the big domainers, but hadn't heard of him until I read the article. I wonder how many other big domainers are out there who are still "unknowns" in the domain world? I imagine quite a few -
[edited by: Rx_Recruiters at 4:30 am (utc) on May 23, 2007]
The past is the past. (hey, I said contexutal advertising would never work and deleted my working service from PureText.com in '01)
The challenge is to realize what you are not doing today that you will be kicking yourself over in 2-3 years time.
The .cm business is brilliant!
Very clever of him. I don't see why it would be illegal.
I had 200 domains in 1999 and some good ones too. but then I think using domains like that do not serve any purpose. so never monitized them and do not regret also.
You probably would regret it if you saw the PPC or sales values today for those same domains :)
The challenge is to realize what you are not doing today that you will be kicking yourself over in 2-3 years time.
Brett summed it up IMHO.
[edited by: Hunter at 3:20 am (utc) on May 24, 2007]
I don't see why it would be illegal.
so surely google.cm is also trademark infringement
But with the .cm traffic he isn't actually registering any domains.
The other .com domains that are not registered are automatically wildcarded to agoga.com which is Kevin's website.
Next in line, they are pitching for .co (Colombia), .om (Oman) and .ne (Niger).
What surprises me is the number of people who end up in agoga.com and actually click on the links. I mean, unless they are first time visitors, they sld know how the destination website looks, have a look at the address bar and try again?
I think the .cm profiting will surely reduce as more and more people get internet savvy.
