After considerable speculation and discussion, Steve Jobs introduced the new Apple iPad today in a press conference that received much fanfare. The iPad is a device that is a new category of computing systems that bridges the gap between the iPhone smartphone and the Macbook laptop.

If history is an indication of the current situation, Apple is going to want the iPad.com domain name, just as they own iPhone.com and iPod.com.  iPhone.com was also privately held before Apple paid a great sum of money for it, and iPod.com has been owned by Apple for quite some time (since at least 2001 according to a Whois history search).

iPad.com has been a privately owned domain name since 1997. The current registrant (Administrative Contact) is a person with a New Jersey address named Martine Bejasa. They don’t have much on the front side of the website, although it’s quite possible there is information for clients of the owner, as there is a client log in on the home page. The owners will probably get a ton of traffic, which will be expensive for server maintenance.

If I were to advise  Martine Bejasa, I would recommend selling the domain name for the million dollar plus offer that will be sure to come from Apple. The name probably can’t be monetized by the current owner enough to justify passing on an offer in this range. In addition, there is no guarantee that the iPad is going to be a huge success, just as Apple TV has not taken off. If that’s the case, the domain name will probably be worth much less than its peak value today.

Now is  the best time to sell iPad.com, and I hope the owners and Apple are able to come to terms in the best interest of both parties.

Update:

As Bill Hartzer points out in the comments below, the domain name is registered to a company called Enero 6 Corp, translated to January 6 Corp.  Apple and Jobs always seem to have announcements right around that time, so it’s conceivable that the domain name was already acquired by the company.

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I want to give you a perfect example about why domain blogs are invaluable sources of information and why people frequently visit and read popular domain blogs. Yesterday evening, Larry Fischer of DirectNavigation.com had a brief post about the sale of CookingGames.com, which he titled Cookinggames.com sells for $350,000 – WTF ?

Larry speculated that the set-up of the domain name looks similar to DressUp.com, which he knew had “absurdly high PPC revenue.” There was 20+ comments on his blog related to the domain name, its traffic, and the PPC revenue from the buyer of the domain name as well as a couple of other knowledgeable people. Just by reading Larry’s post and the comments that followed, I learned quite a bit about a particular vertical I knew nothing about prior to reading the post.

After reading Larry’s post, I did a bit of research on this vertical, and I was very surprised at the results. Just have a quick look at some of the information I gathered below for these parked keyword domain names. GEKT is the Google Keyword Tool’s exact monthly searches, and the Compete information is estimated monthly traffic.

• RacingGames.com: GEKT: 368,000 monthly, Compete: 5,960 visitors
• ShootingGames.com: GEKT: 450,000 monthly, Compete: 7,457 visitors
• FunnyGames.com: GEKT: 450,000 monthly, Compete: 17,188 visitors
• CarGames.com: GEKT: 673,000 monthly, Compete: 7,465 visitors
• GunGames.com: GEKT: 90,500 monthly, Compete: 3,069 visitors
• MakeoverGames.com: GEKT: 135,000 monthly, Compete: 1,672 visitors
• FashionGames.com: GEKT: 135,000 monthly, Compete: 3,537 visitors

I am sure there will be plenty of people who try to register names like FrenchCookingGames.com or something like that, but that wouldn’t have value (at least none that I can see). Everyone could be given the same information, but some people will still register bad names like my example and try to sell them for stupid money.

Learning how to get a feel for domain values is part of the reason why it’s smart to read and analyze posts and commentary from proven industry leaders. You never know who will appear with commentary or what you might learn.

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When trying to buy a domain name from a person or company in private, I frequently come across private registrations. I usually use the Whois history tool to see if there was an email address previously on file. I concurrently visit the website to see if there is contact information on the page.

Oftentimes people or companies acquired a generic domain name many years ago, and sometimes their projects failed or the domain name isn’t being used any longer. When the Whois history tool doesn’t help and there isn’t any current contact information on the website (or the site doesn’t resolve), there is one great option to find contact information: Archive.org.

Simply visit Archive.org and search for previous iterations of the website. You may find a phone number, email address, or the name of people previously involved with the website and domain name. This information can be used to inquire about a domain name.

Think about it this way. Most of the low hanging fruit has already been plucked. The great generic domain names that may still be acquired are out there, but many require sleuthing and research. Archive.org is another great tool to use to contact domain owners.

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During the past year, a few people have mentioned that they received emails from other bidders competing on domain auctions, although primarily involving drop auctions. The competing bidders reached out in an attempt to thwart their bidding, to keep their own acquisition cost down. Judging by the fact that I was told about this, it’s obviously not something that’s appreciated.

There are a number of reasons people reach out, most of which seem to BS. Sometimes it may be to ask the other bidder(s) to stop bidding since it’s a domain name they really want for “personal” reasons. Others may threaten that they are prepared to bid very high, so they may offer their competitor a cut to step aside – or consideration on a future auction. Some may even ask to stop competing and make a joint bid – to be partners in the domain name (a humorous idea considering the situation).

Whether these actions are illegal or just unethical aren’t for me to decide since it probably differs in each jurisdiction and to each person’s values, but there is one thing I can say for certain. It makes some people very uncomfortable to receive emails with requests such as these. Although some recipients may be too polite or politically correct to call someone out in public, it bothered a couple of people enough to mention it to me.

So… if you are involved in an auction, don’t reach out to other bidders. You may think the other guy doesn’t mind or won’t care, but I bet you are probably wrong.

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