domain Social.com

[BlueSkies]

I'd like to get some appraisals from the members of this forum on the name
Social.com

This is the 6 letter dictionary word.

Some history on the name:

I registered the name in 1995. In that year, I was using the name for a web site I called the Social Cafe. The Social Cafe was Cool Site of the Day on Jun 22, 1995

In October of 2006 the name was out of my possession for a couple weeks until my Registrar at the time, Namesecure, was able to recover it. It is now at Moniker and I intend to put it up for auction in early 2007.

Your kind opinoins are appreciated!

- BlueSkies

 

[Steven]

Yes, I am actually. The fact is though that there is a lot of good software out there for free or very low cost. I'm a big fan of Joomla and the wide array of extensions available.

- BlueSkies

I'm having a second thought about your website.
I think you should develop it first and then sell it off for bigger bucks.
Maybe you can form a team (programmer, graphic designer, support), incorporate, and then sell it off later (sharing the profit off the sale).

 

[Bannen]

Dating links pay quite well and are hugely popular; they're one of the best sponsored links to put even on NON dating sites for a few straggling clicks. I even have a 'taxi' name that has nothing to do with dating, that has only dating links on it (don't tell anyone) and does well with them. Check the traffic and monetization forum here to find where you might get the best-paying sponsored links.

The benefit you have, that is more unique than most, is in having this kind of a prime name to do something with. PlentyOfFish, for example, needed a lot of time and continued effort for the branding and community to build up. With 'social.com', you're starting off with the viewers' natural inference that this site is done properly, and large, because you have such a prime dot com. People will remember the name instantly. That consumer memory makes for a very quickly-accelerating traffic increase... as long as you have a nice, even novel site that is fun and easy to use, very clear in its purpose, and provides what they are looking for in such a site.
To spend some time, even to spend a little cash, in consulting people about this kind of development, might go a long ways.
I mention this only to flesh out some options; personally, I'd probably sell now to fund other things I'd rather develop. But who knows what you want?

 

[sine]

BlueSkies,
thanks for the link to the story. wild one, that.

glad you got it back.
good luck!

 

[estibot.com]

My system gives social.com this value:

$108,645

[Edited due to system update]

 

[BlueSkies]

I'm having a second thought about your website.
I think you should develop it first and then sell it off for bigger bucks.
Maybe you can form a team (programmer, graphic designer, support), incorporate, and then sell it off later (sharing the profit off the sale).

A lot of people said the same thing.

The name did not sell during the 2 week period that it was listed at Sedo. After an initial offer of $25,000, which wasn't close to what I might accept, I raised the minimum offer to 1 million. There were no offers at that minimum.

I decided to take the advice that many of the people here offered and develop the Web site. I'd like to invite anyone that is interested in visiting Social.com when it launches (hopefully within a week or so) and give me your feedback.

Anyone know where I can find a CEO with a proven track record?

Thanks!

- BlueSkies

 

[rawandy]

A lot of people said the same thing.

The name did not sell during the 2 week period that it was listed at Sedo. After an initial offer of $25,000, which wasn't close to what I might accept, I raised the minimum offer to 1 million. There were no offers at that minimum.

I decided to take the advice that many of the people here offered and develop the Web site. I'd like to invite anyone that is interested in visiting Social.com when it launches (hopefully within a week or so) and give me your feedback.

Anyone know where I can find a CEO with a proven track record?

Thanks!

- BlueSkies

Good luck bud, hope you fetch millions, update this post when the site is launched, im sure that most of us are interested in seeing how it turned up .

Andree

 

[realestatepro]

We are currently developing a couple decent size websites and it appears to me that you need some creative thinkers more then anything.
Social.com is a good opportunity to turn heads but you must do your ground work first, and it will take more then a couple weeks, try months minimum.

Take this opportunity for hand:
- recent hitwise studies showed that over 99.5% of web2.0 users where voyeurs not users, looking at other peoples social lives to form their own. Which if you think about it, is the purpose of web2.0 isn't it???
- now add some of that purple cow thinking into it at social.com and you could have a winner. But it has to be purple, brown has been done and the ppl with the budgets for this name know this and would already be looking into new areas. For the traditional social website it may already be the case of to little to late.

For more info on what constitutes a purple cow search Seth Godin at google video:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=seth+godin&hl=en

 

[unbore]

PM Sent!

 

[Mike]

you've entered an interesting territory now. If you need creative thinkers, conceptors and last but not least, developers, support and managerial staff, then you're looking at major expenses. If you're prepared to spend before you turn a profit, then you should carry on. If you can't afford the development and daily operation after going live, then i wouldn't even start thinking about it but weigh my options of selling.
If you have the skills to make something out of it yourself, such as programming the core of the site, then i'd carry one and let it grow organically. I agree with "realestatepro", you're VERY late to the social networking game, however - you're not too late and with the right concept you can still get your fair share of momentum and cash.
PM me if you need anything or if i can be of any assistance.

 

[zachary0611]

I was just reading an article that yahoo tried to aquire facebook for 1 billion and i think google offered 750 million but the guy turned it down so i think your in the best climate to sell this name my guess it will sell for around 2.3 million (watch i bet ill be close lol)

 

[Algis]

You can't really take anything out of facebook reject to sell for that amount. It has massive traffic and worldwide known trademark.

 

[richrf]

you've entered an interesting territory now. If you need creative thinkers, conceptors and last but not least, developers, support and managerial staff, then you're looking at major expenses. If you're prepared to spend before you turn a profit, then you should carry on. If you can't afford the development and daily operation after going live, then i wouldn't even start thinking about it but weigh my options of selling.

I would agree. Developing a site and maintaining may require a good amount of capitalization depending upon what you are attempting to do. What's more, developing any idea does entail lots of risk, since there is no guarantee that the increase in traffic will increase the value of the domain name enough to justify the costs of development and maintenance.

My own approach, with my domain, is to develop my domain slowly and incrementally by utilizing open source applications. This permits me to test out new ideas and developing a better understanding of the potential audience and revenue sources. The results always surprise me. It is very difficult to construct a great domain. It takes time, but it is time well spent.

Good luck with your new site.

Rich

 

[astroman]

While I believe purple cow is just an ok book and Seth Godin seems to be the marketers' cliche, I'm in agreement with realestatepro and the others who are saying that you'll need quite a bit of capital and time for development to add any more value to the domain name. You'll need to think one step ahead of the current offerings, ala Wallop and CyWorld, and work hard and fast to promote and populate it.

I think your minimum at 1 million may be much to high based on the fact that social networks have already started to move from being established to becoming entrenched and that the world Social itself is not easily brandable and would be hard to protect even with a trademark (if granted), but then again I don't know the traffic you get and that alone may make the domain worth it.

Just remember that this Social fad will only last for so long.

 

[richrf]

lI think your minimum at 1 million may be much to high based on the fact that social networks have already started to move from being established to becoming entrenched and that the world Social itself is not easily brandable and would be hard to protect even with a trademark (if granted), but then again I don't know the traffic you get and that alone may make the domain worth it.

Just remember that this Social fad will only last for so long.

Hi,

I am always looking for different perspectives and I was wondering if you (or others) believe that links.com suffers from the same issues as social.com - e.g. difficult to brand, lots of competition, etc. I am in the process of brainstorming new ideas that might move links.com into the next level, and would be interested in any thoughts by members of this forum concerning whether the issues I will face are similar to social.com? To me, they appear to be about the same.

Thanks for any comments.

Rich

 

[buymynames]

First of all... I would like to congratulate you for owning this domain. Good job!

Second... Social is in, but i doubt you'll hit $200k in the auction.

One of my one word social .com domain was offered 20k, but have to turn it down...

test the audience, go beta, and with right niche, and a killer domain, you'll get the exit amount you're looking for..

Goodluck!

 

[BlueSkies]

Social.com launched

... update this post when the site is launched, im sure that most of us are interested in seeing how it turned up .

Andree

I've launched a site at Social.com. I decided to make the heart of the site a Social Networking Directory to go along with the name, though I did try to dress up the home page with a couple widgets from YourMinis.com.

I've only got a couple hundred listings - I will probably need at least a couple thousand before I can begin to consider it nearing completion.

For those that are interested, I used Joomla along with a Rocket Theme template and Mosets Tree software to form the core of the site. The template and software have been fixed/changed by me to suit the needs.

If you dive into one of the detailed listings (for Example Mashable), you can see that I am including a site description, Snapshot site preview, Alexa stats, and RSS feed where available.

Your feedback on Social.com would be appreciated, as would be any links to the site

Thanks,

BlueSkies

 

[richrf]

Hi,

Congratulations on your new site. Like you, I decided to spend my time building value into my domain. So far, I am about six months into the building process and I am always learning something new. My approach is to build incrementally and learn from experiences. I am sure you will go through the same process. The most important lesson I am learning is how to marry my content with my visitors in order to build traffic and value. So far, I have been able to double my traffic since when I started. I am looking at possibly doubling it again over the next six months.

Wish you luck with your building efforts!

Rich

 

[nmr86]

nice one, dont forget to change favicon

 

[ekal]

Hi BlueSkies

No offense, but I don't think you're taking the right track here. I'll explain my thinking:

This is a potentially multi-million dollar domain, so putting up a basic Joomla site is not going to add any value. Either develop a real business on there or wait for a buyer with large capital reserves to do it instead.

In terms of making money - you may make a few $ from Adsense but wouldn't you be better off spending that time looking for a buyer?

 

[richrf]

Hi BlueSkies

No offense, but I don't think you're taking the right track here. I'll explain my thinking:

This is a potentially multi-million dollar domain, so putting up a basic Joomla site is not going to add any value. Either develop a real business on there or wait for a buyer with large capital reserves to do it instead.

In terms of making money - you may make a few $ from Adsense but wouldn't you be better off spending that time looking for a buyer?

Hi,

This is an interesting discussion, so I will present my views.

I think it is alright to start off with a very basic site, if all that is being done is experimenting and learning more about the basic business of social networking. No need, in my opinion, to throw lots of money into a design, until there is some knowledge acquisition. I think it is best to preserve investment capital until it is known what precisely needs to be built. The information gained by an slow incremental growth with ongoing knowledge acquisition can not only be used to increase value into the domain, but also provide more insight into how to sell the domain, if that is one of the objectives.

Rich

 

[BlueSkies]

I think it is alright to start off with a very basic site, if all that is being done is experimenting and learning more about the basic business of social networking.

That pretty well sums up what I've been trying to do. Before last October, 2006 (when the domain was stolen/recovered), I knew very little about Social Networking. I've learned quite a lot since then in going through the attempted sale and now development of the site.

This isn't a full time project for me, though I would like it to be someday. I'd like to connect with a top notch development team or CEO that could take Social.com to the next level. Not quite sure where to find them though ...

BlueSkies

 

[Domaingenius]

Sorry for my opinion but this is not a name to use with a joomla and a public template that evryone can buy from rocketthemes.com (Atention:their templates are very god!!!!) or get it from hackers sites. I think that you need a team of good programmers and start to make a big social network like facebook.com. This name have potencial end i see a lots of millions coming from this one. Social.com. If i had this name i would make a big social network site with some of my friends, not a network like myspace but like facebook where the majority of people are from univercites, colleges and schools,peopple with money.
Great name..... Just Milllllllllllllllllllllllllllllionsssssssssssssssssssssssssss.....
IMHO. If i had a million of dollars i would buy this name.....

Regards ,
DomainGenius.

 

[creme]

This site could be HUGE (in terms of $$$ revenue) if you offered an S.E.O. service through it...Social Search Marketing is the next big thing in the online advertising realm...SEO.com was just bought for 7 figures... I think you could even just offer a private label seo/sem service through Social.com and charge per customer with a minimum $ paid to you each month - I bet you could negotiate 20-30K per month to the right provider.

 

[WolfMother]

Think about a comprehensive database of all the social bookmarking sites. Easy to implement, probably worth mid 7 figures with a business behind it

My system gives social.com this value:

$108,645

[Edited due to system update]

Your "system" SUCKS

 

[BlueSkies]

Think about a comprehensive database of all the social bookmarking sites. Easy to implement, probably worth mid 7 figures with a business behind it

I was working towards that (more generally anything related to social networking) a couple weeks ago when ... hacked. Parking the page for now while I regroup

BlueSkies