Afternoon Folks!!
Rockies.com sold for $1.2 Million this week. Nets.com is up for grabs at $5 Million and pokes fun at the NY Nets. Cowboys.com now has a value somewhere in between. Except for one teeny weeny problem. Cowboys.com is now making money! We now have this dating site and it's making money!! Who knew this was such a big niche in th heartland?
So now it is not about a domain, it is about a business. A business not a domain and that changes everything IF we wanted to change anything at all. Now I am writing this as an individual, not as a member of the group that bought it. So I am only a minority stake holder in all this and don't speak for anyone but myself.
It's no secret we are getting quite a stream of traffic. Most of which is type ins and Alexa can't measure type ins. I'll get back to you with how many stadiums worth we get. But it's impressive.
Who knew there were so many gay cowboys? It would lead one to believe that if you were to go a certain stadium in Texas, you might want to be just a wee bit cautious. There have been rumors swirling around there for years as I recall.
Not that cowboys.com have anything whatsoever to do with that football team with a very close name that their attorney/rep thought they were buying for $275 instead of $275,000. They actually won the bidding at a LIVE major industry auction, but when it was all said and done they backed out of the deal and our little group ended up with it after that HUGE FUMBLE at a cost of $370,000.
A fumble that has been written about and laughed about for years. Come on?
Anyways, no point here. Just some random thoughts over 5 years later. Shows human nature and how tough folks make it. In football you can recover a fumble. Here too. But then again I am sure noting has one to do with the other etc. etc. etc.
I guess that would establish the value of Cowboys.com domain only being worth somewhere between $1.2MM on the very low end and $5MM today. And just like salaries, who knows what the value will be in another 1, 2, 3 or 5 years as we move into this new orbit. Different markets command different values. The more comparisons, the more you can demonstrate value. The more our business makes, the harder it is to herd cats and have agreement between all owners to do something different.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Acro
I would not sell at less than $3 million right now. Keep the press releases about Cowboys.com going; nothing better than constant flow of news about the domain and its history.
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
Aleaxa cannot measure or count Type-Ins, and Parking Companies have a tough time measuring clicks! These two factors alone mask the values of Virtual Business Foundations. Just sit tight because there are other Factors suppressing Valuations that are coming to light.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
UFO
The management of Dallas cowboys must have been complete muppets not to have bought that domain at that price.
The are paying their top player”Left tackle Doug Free earned the four-year, $32 million contract he was award in 2011 due to his breakout season the year prior”.
Fact is that the sports team is a COMMERCIAL BUSINESS, that domain would have cost them about a month at most of their top players wage bill.
Cowboys.com is the most succinct and best ADVERTISING message they can put on any of their literature, easy to put on GARMENTS because it is SHORTER.
This is all a classic case of not being able to MARKET properly. Lucky for them its not fatal like all these high street commercial entities that are competing on price only.
Ron
As soon as Jerry Jones is gone you should have a deal for cowboys.com
Kevin davis
I wouldn’t sell it and then lease it for 25K a month.That will teach so called corparate america.
James
Just because the owner wants 5 million, that does not mean ANYONE in their right mind is going to pay 5 mil for Nets.com.
NBA teams have their pages listed on NBA.com, and that’s always been the case. If you type in Lakers.com it leads to the NBA.com subpage. Also, conveniently for the nets, the nets.com owner is redirecting all it’s visitors to the nets homepage anyway.
Owen
“Who knew there were so many gay cowboys?”
I did. And i you go back and look at the thread on your board that was”live blogging” while the auction occurred I brought this up as well as Googled and cut and pasted all of the supporting research. :)
henry
.cowboys is a better deal at 185k and spend the extra 2.8 mil branding the name and your possibilities become endless with the GTLD .cowboys
Joao
If they are paying that to one guy only, and the club shows profits at the end of the season, just think about what they could be making in merchandise and tickets selling in that domain alone! Its huge.
Plus, in every club, the players; staff; boards come and go, but the club and its fans remain. Its a lifetime return…if someone doesn’t ruin it of course.
Huge!
michael berkens
Mr. Jones doesn’t get it.
I’m just packing up stuff and found some stuff I got at the Superbowl a few years ago at the new Stadium and do you know how everything is marked on the merchandise?
I’m sure you would expect for every Mug, t-shirt, bottle and jacket to have”Dallas” on it.
Nope
North Texas
That is what is on everything.
So I guess I didn’t go to the Superbowl in Dallas at the new stadium
Nope I went to the North Texas game
Has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?
)):
UFO
Think you’ve missed out how much it would cost administratively to run a GTLD.
I’m sure also that 185k is just the basic fee, there are also likely other criteria on the numbers of domains issued because they generate fees for ICANN.
Also using .cowboys is actually a bad marketing move, so the cost of that coupled with the cost of the extension etc makes it a far sounder investment to pay a couple of mill for the .com
Cowboys sell entertainment foremost not spend their time running GTLDs.
Martin
.cowboys
LOL
it will just leak to cowboys.com
don’t you people learn?
henry
Its not a bad marketing move its genius. The Cowboys have 5.3 million Facebook followers which all could have their very own fan page given to them for free by the Cowboys which in turn could monetize with advertising. Like I said the possibilities are endless. And those that think there will be leakage, So What, if I am looking for the Dallas Cowboys and end up at a dating site, I would, just like every other person redirect myself to the proper site. Berkens and Schilling aren’t investing in GTLD’s because they are fools.
gary
I like the comparison of the ever increasing player salaries to the increase in price of the domain name.
Domainer
Just imagine the value of”Cowboys” as a BRAND name itself let alone the sports advantage or the millions of visitors which is a bonus here. Someone can easily brand this as an authority site selling western wear like clothing, hats and boots etc.. $5 Million is chump change if you extract the true potential from it. imo.
Anunt
If Dallas Cowboys DONT want the name, it is basically worth about $25k to $50k.
ALL football teams do NOT own their one word dot com team name…if they wanted to, they can…but they don’t…that’s a fact.
It does NOT matter what rockies sold for…it does NOT make cowboys.com worth any more.
Is your gay site making $15k per month profit…if NOT, then it is NOT worth the $370k you paid for.
You sit there and say…cowboys is making money…HOW MUCH??? $15k per month…I don’t think so…numbers don’t lie, people do.
You domain nerds over paid for a bullshit domain…sometimes you lose…u just gotta admit it and move on…
Guy
it was obvious the gay connection to nfl.
shoulderpads, tights and helmets
lmao
those pussies would last 5 minutes playing rugby
back on topic, the site is doing really well!
the value goes up daily
my rule for developed sites is theyre not for sale
if someone expresses interest, its simply not for sale
the onus is on them to make you an offer you CANNOT refuse
especially as the site is built on a stellar domain
we have to be in 3-4 million range surely
but a syndicate owns this right?
so everyone has to agree to sell which makes harder for buyer as each person makes a smaller cut
I actually have the perfect replacement for if cowboys is sold and you need a new host domain for site and/or dallas cowboys want an alternative domain
and it’s only 25k
can you guess?
UFO
Problem is Henry when you play away from home you’re at a disadvantage.
When you play on FB’s turf you are actually going to have to play their rules. And what will their rules be over time? Well, whatever they can make you pay relative to your barrier to exiting FB.
What sort of data does FB collect on all these Cowboys fans? Who’s really angling and get the $ from them. Do you think FB is a charity valued at 100b for nothing?
Seriously, there are so many angles on all this from Branding, to data protection, to strategy, to cost mitigation that the Cowboys were ABSOLUTE FOOLS not to acquire that domain and even now at 3m its STILL a good buy for them.
michael berkens
Henry
You can argue whether $185K for .cowboys would have been better spend for the team but they didn’t apply for that either.
maybe they tried to apply for .Cowboys but only wrote ICANN a check for $185
Rick Schwartz
Anunt,
Coming from a serial failure in domaining, your words don’t carry much weight.
Jarred
Anunt, you might not know, not sure how you missed it, but the domain went back to auction after the football team failed to pay for their purchase. And the name immediately sold for way more. The fact they didn’t want it made it worth much more. The football team had a golden opportunity, out of respect many bidders who wanted the name gave them decent room to bid without pressure and take the name. Then the football team shat on all involved and failed to pay. So it became a bidding war when the new owners (who were all right on the sidelines at the first auction and let them win the name) decided to step up and acquire the name, knowing fair well that the football team could care less who bought it instead. To further the record, the name would have sold for more than it did but groups of bidders who were competing decided to band together and form group ownership.
Back to your comment, it’s far from the truth, let it be told.. The name is worth many millions, do you even know what’s been turned down so far? Check how many companies use this term.. Some owners don’t even want to sell. So if it does change hands, it’ll need to be pried from the current ones.
Guy
well said Jarred, agree totally
Rick Schwartz
Jarred,
Are you trying to confuse Anunt with actual facts??
He doesn’t do facts very well. ;-)
Anunt
Numbers don’t lie, people do.
How much profit is your gay site cowboys making???
You said it’s making money now as if its worth more now that its making money…i say bullshit…it’s probably making under $2,000 per month…and u nerds paid $370k…that my friend does NOT justify your value of million bucks.
Numbers don’t lie, people do.
J
I think you are all low balling, even Rick. Cowboys.com is a UNIQUE, non-replaceable string. Domains should be valued by how much revenue they can generate for the enterprise. How much revenue would flow through this domain over the next 10 years alone? $20 Million is still a low figure for this asset.
.cowboys? Give. Me. a. Break.
Bruce Diller
Rick
Reading about Cowboys.com and the switch from football to gay dating my mind raced to Marlboro cigarettes.
Most people do not know the marketing history of Marlboro. When the cigarette first hit the market it was marketed to women and FAILED. They changed their adverts to a cowboy on a horse and the rest is history.
The COWBOY image was an immediate success.
Ridem COWBOYS.com :)
Bruce Diller
@anunt
Mark Twain said”there are 3 lies; Lies, Damm Lies and Statistics”
And the truth is Rick KNOWS how to fill in the zeros on bank deposit tickets !!!
Mark B
.cowboys will be a joke, a complete failure… We have .travel and .jobs as concrete proof as what is going to happen to those”valuable” new GTLDs..
Rick Schwartz
And as long as we are dealing in FACTS and NUMBERS.
My share is about 15% or so and my first check of 2013 this month will yield 5% on that investment.
So things have evolved quite a bit and I expect my entire investment to be paid off soon.
Owen
I located the archive transcript of the live blogging that generated interest and demand due to the stats and ideas being thrown out- (Will send to Rick). Rick has often said you can dismiss me as a kook but at your own peril. I save these transcripts so one day I can make that point better. When throwing out size of market research based on marketing metrics not standard domainer search metrics the answer was screaming out among this small snippet of a long list of others:
sex
(talk about cow poke)
1,060,000 for cow poke
360,000 for cow poke sex
2,580,000 for cowboys sex (mostly gay)
Hollywood-
the western is the biggest success story 2,770,000 for movies cowboys 2,420,000 for cowboys and indians
the rodeo and now gay rodeo 178,000 for”gay rodeo”. 23,500,000 for”rodeo”
133,000 for”rodeo cowboys about 2,280,000 for gay cowboys a steak chain
2,160,000 for cowboys restaurant
In response..
Rick Schwartz wrote:”just make it an adult site for dating cowboys. It will do pretty well.”
You had the answer on October 18, 2007
Success begins with understanding. Think outside the domain box.
btw, The name was sold with a site that in and of itself would have a lot of potential- Checkout the money some guy is making on Esty with a similar concept.
Einstein said”everything of importance has been seen by someone who didn’t discover it”
SeanCody the gay porn king who paid $500K for gay.xxx- what would he pay for this site?
Also the guys who bought Men.com
Cowboys have bad connotations with cigarettes but you could sure sell a lot of boots, hats, buckles, vests and turquoise under this brand.
Bottom line: There is great value to the one who has the goods but not the brand. Find”him”
I wish I had gotten in on it.
Owen
btw, Evere hear of Brokeback Mountain?
Owen
ntfw- but don’t forget the subdomain factor- business are already out there built on a keyword they don’t own as an address: http://gay.porn.com/videos/this-gay-cowboy-takes-his-boy-for-a-ride-7247.html
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
The same people that look to .whats? are the same people who swear that FB is the second coming. FB is obsolesced and will not build somebody elses empire on their Virtual Business Foundation , you are merely netted bait in their Walled Garden that promotes their Brand NOT yours. Wake up and Lead instead of following the lemings.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Rick Schwartz
Owen,
It took 5 years to get to that 2007 post. ;-)
Group decisions take a while. :-))
But now it is all good.
Joao
I am guessing that cowboys.com could start a trend of pink hats and boots made by a member of the site community, for special occasions…but not for the ladies.
Jokes aside, it’s a lifestyle, not just a name.