Investing in domain names isn’t exactly a novelty: a remarkable number of well-known companies have already invested in domain names that stand out. The most expensive domain name sold to date, allegedly is lasvegas.com, totaling $90M. According to the domain investor George Kirikos, the structure of the deal implies several stages: first stage – $12M in May 2005, second stage – $83K per month for 36 months, third stage- $125K per month for 60 months, last stage – $208K per month for 36 months. After June 2015 the contract can be terminated by the parties without penalties. But if that does not happen, and so far it has not, the buyer continues to pay $208K per month through 2040. Insurance.com and privatejet.com were bought around $30M. Porno.com has earned its owner the title “King of domains”. Rick Schwartz bought porno.com in 1997 for $42K. Up to 2015 the domain was “parked” – it functioned only for placing advertising links to other websites and never contained any original content. But even this idle usage yielded an income of about $10M (excluding the income from its sale). He later sold it for almost $9M!
Investing in domains in order to make money off them later is only one way of seeing it. Much more importantly, investing in a domain name can be an investment in yourself, your personal brand and your future professional development. Imagine the end result: you have a neat website that perfectly reflects your values and makes it clear to the world what you do. It gives access to images, videos and files that are important to you. It’s a reference point you can link all your other pages to. If that’s the case, you would feel a lot less panicky the next time Instagram goes down.
It might be too late for a Warhol, but it’s never too late to start building your personal brand. Buy your .ART domain now: 10-year registrations receive 70% discount! www.vip.art
