Product Description
Almost everyone has heard a tale of someone getting rich by selling an Internet domain name for a staggering price. But few understand the secretive world of domain investing, a game that a growing number of people are playing around the globe. The Domain Game chronicles the exploits of leading domain investors and explains how this mysterious market works. Learn how an Oklahoma watermelon farmer wound up owning some of the world’s most valuable Web addresses, from recipes.com to chairs.com, and how a college dropout became a multimillionaire by scooping up domains that others abandoned amid the dot-com bust. Find out how the rise of Google and Yahoo has helped boost the fortunes of domain investors. And explor… More >>
The Domain Game
If I’d read this book in print, I’d likely rate it a 3.5. The content is solid. It’s a great introduction to the world of owning a domain portfoio, well research & well written. I read this book on the Kindle, and simply format, the formatting is terrible. Footnotes are more or less broken (which was sad to see, as they are source of great additional information), any type of column data (e.g., domains & prices) is a mess, making it very hard to read, and these combine together to occasionally lead to incorrect linebreaks, splitting paragraphs & the like. Considering it’s currently priced at twice a typical Kindle book sells for, I was pretty surprised by that.
If you’re interested in the world of domains, I would definitely recommend picking this up, but be aware of the above caveats if you choose the kindle format. Rating: 3 / 5
[...] is a wonderful book for those that want to know the history of the domain name business started, and progressed through the years. It covers the players and strategies involved in the business and exposes the business models used to generate domain portfolios that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Interesting read. Rating: 5 / 5
The Domain Game provides an insightful look into the somewhat “hidden” world of domain name trading. This review is from the perspective of someone who owns a couple of business websites, but had no knowledge of the “ins and outs” of the this market. Having seen press coverage detailing the extraordinarily high prices some names have sold for, my interest was piqued.
The Domain Game is a well researched and written book that details the history of domain trading and introduces some of the key players in the “game”. I enjoyed reading the stories of the risks taken and gains realized. The final chapter whets the appetite of those wanting to try for themselves.
Overall, a highly-readable and informative book that is a must-read for anyone interested in the field.
Rating: 5 / 5
A thoroughly researched and engaging ride through the often murky world of domain name dollars and the watermelon farmers and venture capitalists that you find there.
Just as the book “Hackers” gave us insight decades ago into the nascent world of personal computers and the (mostly) men who wrested that industry from the darkened bedrooms and garages of nerds and geeks, David Kesmodel provides us with a broad and deep look into a highly lucrative business that many people don’t even know exists.
The money made from the high visibility sale of marquee names such as business.com and diamond.com ($7.5M each) are well publicized. These deals pale in comparison to the $100M+ buyout of a domain name portfolio from a single entrepreneur (that no one except the domain game elite has ever heard of) that generates cash most people can only dream of in ways most people will never understand.
Interesting and informative and well worth the effort to read. I would have preferred a bit more development on how us normal schmucks can play the Domain Game. To be fair, towards the end of the book, there is some material directing the newbie on how to get started and an Appendix that includes online resources if you are so inclined. Some musings and projections by the author on how things might change in the future – now that the “cat is out of the bag” on this previously secret society – would have been a great read given Mr. Kesmodel’s extensive research and obvious knowledge on the subject.
One can always hope for an updated edition! Rating: 4 / 5
This is an amazing history of the cut-throat world of domain portfolio management. Reading the book as an outsider to the industry, I was surprised to learn the actual revenue generating power of parked domains. Kesmodel weaves a gripping story of the players who evolved the domain industry. Rating: 5 / 5