It’s Saturday, again!!
A Jet Is A Jet
Well the big saga this week was the sale of Jets.com. Last week we had Mint.com, but that wasn’t a domain sale.
This Jets.com sale however is indeed a domain sale. The domain Jets.com was sold for ONLY $375,000. ONLY. We often rate domains by how much they sell for, but not necessarily by how much of a bargain the buyer got. Well this Jets.com sale is the steal of the year!
First of all, for those people who think that AreaRugs.com (sold for $405,000 last week) was worth more than Jets.com, let me educate you. A jet is an aircraft using jet propulsion. Or better yet, have you ever looked up to see a shiny machine in the skies making a lot of noise? Chances are, you have seen a jet. No, not a space/alien ship or UFO. A jet. It is a man-made machine that flies through the skies, taking people from place to place, city to city, country to country. Have you got the picture now?
The bigger jets are normally called jumbo jets (Boeing 747, Airbus A340, A380 etc.) while, the smaller ones are normally called private/business jets (Learjet 45, Bombardier Challenger 300, Gulfstream etc.). The Airbus A380 is the world’s largest passenger jet.
I don’t know who the New York Jets are, and I don’t have time to research them. However, whether they are some cricket, table tennis, rugby or soccer sports team, they are not jets (no disrepect to their fans). They are a sports team. Big difference. So you can’t judge the value of Jets.com by looking at some sports team carrying the word “jets” at the end of their name. Absolute nonsense.
Maybe it’s my ignorance kicking in, but I thought that a rug was just a rug. What the hell is an area rug? Why would someone pay $405,000 for AreaRugs.com? I would flinch if I had to pay $5,000 for that. And yes, I am a domain seller.
Well if the rug business is that big and successful, I better start working my Asian connections for some dropshipping deals.
Maybe I’m biased as well. I am the guy that owns Aeroplanes.com. When this domain went to auction some years ago, I fiercely bid for it. It was like one of those domains that you just had to own. Although I won the auction, the reserve wasn’t met. Fortunately, the marketplace that conducted the auction offered to negotiate on my behalf to help me acquire the domain after the auction.
Surprisingly at the time, only a few other bidders were interested. Now I know why. Americans say “airplanes”. Well America guess what? You have got it wrong. It is really “aeroplanes”. The British and the rest of the world studying English say “aeroplanes”. You can check out Wikipedia to see the history of the word:
“In the United States, Canada and many other regions, the term “airplane” is applied to these aircraft. In Britain and many other regions, the term “aeroplane” is used. The word derives from the Greek αέρας (aéras-) (“air”) and -plane.[1] The form “aeroplane” is the older of the two, dating back to the mid-late 19th century.[2] The spelling “airplane” was first recorded in 1907″.
Now, I wouldn’t sell Aeroplanes.com for less that $5,000,000. Yes, laugh all you want. You can’t appreciate the true value of a domain name unless you understand its true branding potential. The word “aeroplane” is used daily in the news on TV, in print and online. Aeroplanes are seen in almost every movie and television show. There is no other object, word or thing that symbolises or represents “travel” better than an aeroplane.
Now, the domain name “Jets.com” is shorter and passes the domain radio test easily, but Aeroplanes.com is the better domain name. Period. Nonetheless, I was personally hoping for Jets.com to stay on the market a bit longer, and I wouldn’t have a problem paying a million dollars for it.
Anyway, I am not going to elaborate on this Jets.com sale, as Alan of NewFoundNames.com wrote a superb article on the Jets.com sale. I left a comment and subscribed to the comments thread. The debate got so hot I had to unsubscribe as my iPhone just kept beeping every few minutes with the “new comments” email notifications.
I like Alan’s blogging style as he says it like it is. Too many domain bloggers spend too much time trying to be politically correct, just because they don’t wasn’t to piss off advertisers. Well, it seems like only a few can really afford to call a spade a spade.
One final thing on this Jets.com sale… I want to give credit where it is rightfully due. I read somewhere where a popular domain industry figure gave credit to another blogger for “uncovering” the Jets.com deal.
No, It was Jamie Zoch of DotWeekly.com who first broke the news about the Jets.com sale. Jamie broke the news TWO days before the other guy did. I believe it is only right to give Jamie the credit.
Now I am not bringing anyone into any controversy. But this is something that happens all the time in the domain space. Someone breaks the news, and then another guy regurgitates it. Guess who gets the credit? The one who regurgitates it days later.
Now as a reader, you wouldn’t understand why I am mentioning all of this. But as a blogger, I know what it feels like when you are not given the credit or someone just barefacedly steals your story, content or topic.
Anyways… moving on.
Domain Auctions
We announced our daily domain auctions earlier this week. We won’t be meeting the October 1st deadline, as our promotional material is not yet ready. Also, we have another key upgrade to make. However, please continue to submit your domains, as they will have to be approved before they can be submitted to our auctions.
Have a great weekend!
Sorry your confused! Your domain Aeroplane(s) comes in last in search volume and exact search. Do a search using the google keyword tool and the others are beating you by a ton. If your theory on “Aeroplane” being the common word all over tv etc.. then why does it have such little search volume? Jets.com was a steal no doubt but your domain is only worth a fraction of the jets.com deal IMO.
As for the area rugs deal I think that was a great deal also. Over 1.8 million exact searches for the term “area rugs” thats more than “rugs” Do not know if have rugs in your house but in the US we have them in the bathroom, living room, kitchen, front door, and a hundred other places. Huge business and market. Rugs can go well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. A simple bathroom rug set will run you $100.
If they have a good site and selection they could pay for the domain in a few days depending on there marketing skills.
So thats my opinion:)
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Not trying to belittle your name or anything as it’s a nice name, but isn’t the term aeroplane dated? While you see the hard time seeing the value in a name like arearugs.com, I have the hard time seeing the value in the name aeroplanes.com. I do know the word, but never have I known anyone to use it instead of airplane.
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In the world is now taught mostly American englis, British english is soo 19th century…
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@Ryan,
Aeroplanes.com is not developed and when it is developed I won’t be seeking to get ranked for “aeroplanes”.
EaCH and every time I blog and mention Aeroplanes.com some guy comes on here quoting stats. People use stats to force value unto crappy domains, and as it is in this case, try to devalue premium domains.
Stats are absolute rubbish. I am not seeking to park Aeroplanes.com, but rather to develop a brand with it. The whole idea of branding is that the customer comes straight to your product/service or website without having to go via a search engine.
Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Priceline.com, LastMinute.com, Hotwire.com etc. are all major travel brands. Do you think the founders gave a toss about Google stats for those words/terms that made up their domains? Hell no!
Do you think the buyer of Jets.com gave a second thought about Google stats for the word “Jets”? No. He was more interested in the credibility and the branding power of the domain name itself.
Listen, a domainer will always be a domainer. The rest of the world doesn’t care about senseless stats. They care about branding.
With regards to rugs, it’s the same thing with “aeroplanes”, where Americans use different words or terms. We don’t say “bathroom rugs”, we say “bathroom mats”. If just like “airplanes” is the popular word in the USA, then maybe there was a strong business case for acquiring AreaRugs.com for $405K.
Rugs are sold at varying prices here in the UK. From £5 to £5,000 or more. However, it’s mostly carpet stores that sell them. So buying Carpets.co.uk or Carpets.com or even Rugs.com for that amount would have been a better buy. Just my opinion.
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IMO aeroplanes.com (which also works in French where I am from by the way) designates more the object itself than its uses. So, it would make a nice site to sell planes or a perfect wiki site about planes (past/present) but not really the best site for travel or tickets. Just an opinion.
I think the best name of the category would be plane.com because its the most generic : it includes airplane, aeroplane, jet, whatever… but jet (not jets) is the most Google searched term both exact and large (respectively 4 times and 10 times more than jets !)
This is why I registered jet.mx during the Mexico landrush (not jets.mx or plane.mx). Also because jet is a more internationally used term than airplane. Maybe it will be worth something some day if .mx keeps its promises (such as .de or .fr country codes which sell sometimes close to .com now). Actually I don’t really now what to do with it. Guess I just have to wait. Suggestions are welcome if you have some.
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@Jacob,
.
Perhaps the Aeroplanes.com is really worth less than its registration fee
Remember, we are talking about a domain name here, not antique furniture. Yes, I know that most Americans would have never heard the word “aeroplanes” before. That is why I wrote those boring paragraphs about the differences and quoting Wikipedia.
Tell me Jacob…
Have you ever heard of “Car boot”?
or “Car Bonnet”?
Well the Americans say “car trunk”, the British say “car boot”.
The Americans say “car hood”, the British say “car bonnet”.
Any by the way, we are not talking about antique furniture here.
Here are some other examples:
A lorry is a slimmer truck.
A lift is an elevator.
A fortnight is two weeks.
A chemist is a person who works in a drugstore (pharmacist).
A dual carriageway is a freeway.
But hey, America is still a great country.
Anyway, it was for this said reason why I pull the plug on the Aeroplanes.com project a few weeks ago, and came up with a brand new strategy. The partners we were working with a few weeks ago had technology that was built to target the American and Canadian markets.
Any brand that is built on Aeroplanes.com will need to target Britain, Europe and the rest of the world.
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@Jeffcool
You have put it perfectly. Yes, I 100% agree that Plane.com or Planes.com would have been better.
” it would make a nice site to sell planes or a perfect wiki site about planes (past/present) but not really the best site for travel or tickets”.
I agree, but the problem with wiki sites is that their branding scope are very limited, and it is hard to monetize the websites outside of the normal Google Adsense perimeter.
The new strategy that I have for Aeroplanes.com will take this into consideration. I can’t share much now, but I have got something special coming. I’m really excited!
Jets.com would be a lot easier to brand as well, but hey, its now sold.
Whether the singular or plural is the better word/term to use is debatable in my opinion. It is not a case were one rule works in all cases.
With regards to the .MX registrations, your confusion as to what to do with it is the said exact reason why I don’t invest in a lot of ccTLDs and gTLDs. I wouldn’t know how to brand them unless I am building a brand for that particular country.
Mexico speaks Spanish, and the debate is always if the Spanish version o the domain name would have been better.
Nonetheless, good catch, and hopefully the Mexican market picks up where you could perhaps flip it to another investor or end-user.
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@Kevin
Im not saying your name does not have value it does but nothing close to $5 million IMO.
“Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Priceline.com, LastMinute.com, Hotwire.com etc. are all major travel brands. Do you think the founders gave a toss about Google stats for those words/terms that made up their domains? Hell no!”
I agree with you here but this is not about google stats and those founders did not consider there domain a $5 million dollar company before they ever made a dime. The issue here is your inflated outlook on the value of the domain not the amount of searches. We know any name can be branded into a company look at Kayak.com not what you think would be there.
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@ Kevin
Also “rugs” and “carpet” are too totally different things.
Rugs are something thats used more as an accent piece.
Carpet is usually for the whole room or covers the full floor. Much more expensive then most rugs.
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Ryan,
The truth is I have never had the intention of selling Aeroplanes.com. When I bought this domain name, I said to myself “if there is any one domain name that is going to earn me life-changing money, then its Aeroplanes.com”.
In other words, this domain name is going to single-handedly make me a super wealthy man. The domain name is registered for 6 years, and that’s enough time to make it a reality. Enough time for trial and error, failure and success.
What I’m saying is that I’m not worried about what the domain is worth now, whether it’s $5 or $5 million. When I’m finished with Aeroplanes.com it is going to be worth hundreds of millions.
I don’t have “mini site” dreams. I read magazines written by business legends and attend seminars where CEO’s speak. I am not feeding on domain blog posts and domainer mentality or fantasy, but rather on the stuff business legends are made of. And I’m not trying to be rude to anyone by saying that. Just the truth.
I think your comment #9 justified what I’m saying, in that it would have made more sense if the buyer had spent that kind of money buying Carpets.com.
But Ryan, on a serious note, domainers looking for multi-million dollar domain sales are really dreaming too much. Investors are not looking for a dead domain, however premium it might be. They want to invest in ventures where the creators have shown creativity, passion, originality and sound business plans.
The future of domain names is not in massive sales, but rather the sale of shares in e-ventures/ebusinesses built on premium domains. Ponder on that one a bit.
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Kevin is one of the few domain bloggers who understands the value and power of branding. He’s building and developing a business and brand with Aeroplanes.com. He’s working on a vision which most domainers won’t think about and act on.
Let’s follow his development and learn. All the best, Kevin!
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@Alexander,
Thanks for your kind words. Much appreciated!
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