Hot Properties What's the one thing almost every entrepreneur needs these days? A domain name. Here's a closer look at the business of buying and selling domains.
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It"s the 21st century, and every business needs a place topark on the Net. "It's virtual real estate," saysMike Magolnick, co-founder of SolutionHome.com, a domain nameauction and appraisal site. Magolnick, 30, got into the domain namegame when he was offered $1,500 for ventureconsulting.com, a domainhe registered for his venture consulting business. Realizing hecould gain serious profits from registering names and selling themto the highest bidder, he founded SolutionHome.com with his brotherJoel, 37. Mike registered 400 names, planning to sell them-now mostof the names listed on his site are owned by his clients-to thetune of more than 1 million domains up for grabs.
Trafficking so many domain names can be perilous when skirtingcybersquatting issues, and Mike is very aware of the risks."We don't touch anything that would be remotely related toa trademark," he says. "The last thing you want to do isplay around with something like that-there are fines up to $100,000for taking someone else's name and attempting to sell it. Thereis definitely no room to play in this industry."
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| NameYour Price If domain names are the new real estate, check out how much thesemillion-dollar dream homes went for: AltaVista.com..............$3.3 million | ||||||
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