For Sale who got rid of the flu.ca???

[hugegrowth]

It is still showing as owned by Christina Schilling, so this must have been a Frank Schilling domain and I wonder if it's changed hands yet or not? There is an under construction notice on the page and a contact form.

I can't believe all the views on the price, come on. How much do flu medication companies spend on tv advertising alone during the flu season? Waaay more than $45k I'm sure. This is a drop in the bucket to one of them to own the defining keyword in their market. Now they can throw the domain on their packaging and all their ads. No, they may not sell flu medication over the internet, but it will give them mindshare value. I don't buy Pepsi or Coke over the internet but I still see their banner ads from time to time, it's to make people remember their products. We also don't buy anything from a tv ad directly, but we might the next day or week. By buying the domain, they are also keeping all competitors from using it. I don't know who bought it, but I can easily see it being worth that much to a medication company.

 

[airmax]

Good points made above, coke, and pepsi being established brands, if the new owner is launching a new brand, being able to throw flu.ca out there, makes it very easy for end consumer, to remember, and research.

Small price to pay in terms of marketing, and branding dollars, where you can waste tens of thousands on simply billboards alone...

 

[hugegrowth]

Drug companies spend millions on R&D alone. $45k is a minimal amount of their total spending, but we still don't know if a flu med company bought it.

 

[Provider]

Hi Guys,

There are ways to justify every expenditure. That's how the sale actually happened; somebody justified in their mind that flu.ca worth $45k to them. I am just trying to be real and analyze the sale in terms of the domain name value. It is obvious if Apple or Microsoft buy any domain name and dump on it few million dollars in development costs, the venture will succeed. I am just trying to discuss domains and their value in general, and once in a while there are sales that are unusual because the domains get sold/bought for a lot more than other similar names in value. In other words the sales are not in the range of real market prices. We are all participants of this marketplace, and no wonder we are asking ourselves a question why these names sold for that much. Maybe the prices are unusual, but we can't deny and ignore these moves, because these sales may shape the future landscape of .ca marketplace!

Recently you could ask yourself why flu.ca was sold for $45k and Flights.ca for $120k. While both names are premium domains, for me these 2 sales are pure winners for the sellers, and hence pure losers for the buyers. Why? Simply because knowing prices for .ca domains I think the buyers could have done a better job to negotiate the purchase price. Of course I can start justifying all the purchases and fantasize about multi-billion dollar businesses that can be built on these domains, but I am not going to do that, because this is just a theory, and in theory every domain name can be used to build something big. I see no point to justify something I would not do myself. I am just asking myself if I am ready to pay that much for these names, and the answer is no.

This thread was very beneficial for me though. While I wrote one of the replies I’ve gave an example of domain name Fly .ca when compared it with Flu .ca. I compared these 2 domains because I knew what was the asking price for Fly (it was listed on ebay), and also I had a discussion about purchasing this domain name half a year ago, and domain names are very similar - they have only one different word! When I wrote this post, it reminded me to contact the seller of Fly again, and I’ve made another attempt to close the deal. I closed the transaction today and now I own Fly .ca!

Flights .ca is better than Fly .ca, but I still believe that Fly is premium domain. I am aware that the flight price comparison is every saturated field, and in that regard I am happy that Fly gives me more options than Flights in terms of development potential, but when I purchased the name I took also other factors in consideration such as short, premium, dictionary word with few meanings, .com is a popular site and was sold for $1.8 mil. I do believe that Fly is better than Flu though, but now I am biased, so it is up to you to evaluate this deal. I don’t want to share the purchase price, but I’d like to mention that I’ve paid less than the price of Flu.

I wish you all to fly more and less flu in your life

Mike

 

[Eifwen]

Congrats on the purchase provider. I personally feel fly is the better of the two, but again it all boils down to personal preference.

All domains sold after market are over priced when you consider original reg fee.

 

[silentg]

Congrats on the purchase. Since the fly.ca domain was listed for $25,000. I am guessing your purchase price was lower than that. Way better deal than the flu.ca. Do you have plans for development or just gonna hold it?

 

[grcorp]

Congrats on the purchase. Since the fly.ca domain was listed for $25,000. I am guessing your purchase price was lower than that. Way better deal than the flu.ca. Do you have plans for development or just gonna hold it?

Wow! I didn't know that it went down to $25k. It was $65k when I saw it on eBay last.

Definitely a $xx,xxx name to a reseller. In my opinion, it is superior to flights, as not only is it shorter, but there is also no plural confusion (i.e. flight vs flights).

Fly is impossible to misspell, and utilizes a verb, rather than a noun. A friend of mine who's currently in college for advertising says that's a rule of thumb when it comes to branding; to use a verb.

Congrats on the purchase, Mike. A real great name.

 

[silentg]

@Maxwell - http://www.ebay.ca/itm/FLY-CA-FLY-DOMAIN-NAME-SALE-SALES-3-LETTER-AIRLINE-/300469993203

 

[Provider]

Thanks guys! This name was on ebay for a long time, and the price came down over time.

 

[onlinestoreca]

I can't believe all the views on the price, come on. How much do flu medication companies spend on tv advertising alone during the flu season? Waaay more than $45k I'm sure. This is a drop in the bucket to one of them to own the defining keyword in their market. Now they can throw the domain on their packaging and all their ads. No, they may not sell flu medication over the internet, but it will give them mindshare value. I don't buy Pepsi or Coke over the internet but I still see their banner ads from time to time, it's to make people remember their products. We also don't buy anything from a tv ad directly, but we might the next day or week. By buying the domain, they are also keeping all competitors from using it. I don't know who bought it, but I can easily see it being worth that much to a medication company.

I completely agree. For example, doctors see hundreds of product pushers a year, and now if I am selling my wonderful new medicine all they have to remember is flu .ca. I bet 90% of the companies that visit a doctor are forgotten in an hour. Flu .ca will be remembered by 90% of the doctors, what a huge advantage, if even 5% actually visit the website you will have paid for the name in a month. Memorability in marketing is incredibly important.

I don't see how this can be considered a bad purchase. I still can't believe how long it is taking for everyone to realize how important a good domain is, especially a short name for mobile browsing. Also, Google is going to treat flu .ca a lot better than it is going to treat flucompany .ca when people are searching.

Fly. ca at $25k was a steal, I even like how it sounds, it makes me want to go find ".ca airlines".

Domains are still the best deal available in marketing.

 

[hugegrowth]

Congrats on the buy!

At first thought, if I had a choice between Fly.ca and Flu.ca I honestly don't know which I'd choose. I'd have to think about it, both have their advantages.

Flu totally defines it's category, while Fly would also compete with Flights, Travel, Vacation, Tickets.

Fly is a cooler word that could be used for something brandable, Flu not so much.

Checking Google keyword tool, Flu gets 301,000 Canada searches, while Fly gets 2,240,000 Canada searches (top phrases associated with travel, tickets, to LA, to Toronto, park n fly, and so on).

So I think that last one nails it for me, Fly is probably the better domain because people in Canada are using it a lot for searches in association with everything travel. Also, people fly year round while the flu is a seasonal hot topic. There is a lot of money in Travel and all the related spinoff industries.

I would only pick Flu.ca if I was a flu medication company.

Fly.ca should probably be developed into something like Fly.com for Canada, dealing with flights, travel packages, hotels, car rentals, tickets, park n fly locations, and so on. Fly.com is owned by TravelZoo, and I wouldn't be surprised if one day they were interested in purchasing Fly.ca

 

[msn]

It did change hands. Frank usually holds on to the registration while the financing is done.

The ultimate buyer could be categorized as a Nutritional and Health Products company.

 

[grcorp]

It did change hands. Frank usually holds on to the registration while the financing is done.

The ultimate buyer could be categorized as a Nutritional and Health Products company.

Pfizer or Procter and Gamble would be my guess.

And long time no see, MSN! Where have you been, besides telling liqueur manufacturers that they're dead wrong?

 

[msn]

Pfizer or Procter and Gamble would be my guess.

And long time no see, MSN! Where have you been, besides telling liqueur manufacturers that they're dead wrong?

Suing them, actually. That event is not done. The papers are being filed within a few days.

It is not a Pfizer or a P&G by the way.

 

[hugegrowth]

Sambucol? looks like site under construction.

 

[msn]

Yes, and they will have automatic traffic. Think of what they would have to shell out at Google for placement as compared to owning the traffic already.

 

[DropWizard.com]

45k is a steal for the long term implications of that name and the product exposure it could bring. Frankly it could have gone for xxx,xxx and not surprised me.

Some of you guys are just looking through the wrong end of the telescope. You're more concerned about what you would pay than what it means to your / our portfolio valuations.

Sales like this, especially if they become constant, will send our values skyrocketing. And Franky has them to sell...