Peter Askew published an article on his DeepSouthVentures that explains why he went about bidding on DudeRanch.com, how much he paid and what his plan for the name was before he even won the domain name.
Askew writes a very long and detailed piece with a lot of pictures of his journey with DudeRanch.com.
A couple key pieces from the article:
In November of 2009, the opportunity presented itself. You, DudeRanch.com, had expired. Adrift without an anchor.
I was ready for you.
35 minutes of palm sweat bidding & countless f*bombs hurled at fox22, sitevestor, & piety. I kept swinging for you. Until the bidding stopped at $17,949. It was a euphoricly uncomfortable feeling. But you were mine.
My original idea is what you became, a marketplace of dude ranch vacations. The model wound up working. After a few years in the industry, as you know, we partnered with our friendly competitor – GuestRanches.com – operated by David McCollough. We both remained independent, but worked together from an advertising sales standpoint. Effectively, one bill for ranchers to advertise on 2 sites.
Read the full article it’s well worth reading the entire article.
Tip of the cap to TheButler
Outstanding example of determining value of domain by ROI / USE.
This is how I determine potential value which I believe gives buyer a solid foundation to work with in negotiations.
Would like to see domain industry get on board with this approach.
Great story too!
Thank you
Cheers
Having been in the Dude Ranch Industry for going on 19 years I love this story. Peter is such a great guy and the Dude Ranchers Association can not thank him enough for what he did for us and the entire industry…