An Australian domain registrar and auction provider, drop.com.au is trying to exploit Mother’s Day in an effort to sell the domain registration mothersday.com.au for the starting price of $7,500.
Also up for sale for a starting price of $20,000 is yes.com.au. Optus has already ruled out owning the domain, however, it would not say whether they would start court action if a competitor purchased the domain name.
Drop.com.au claim that they have an array of impressive inventory in its expired domain auctions – earlier this year ‘carparts.com.au’ was acquired for only $18,011 and ‘printing.com.au’ sold for just $9,211 in 2009.
Now they are looking to replicate that success with this, their first major secondary market auction. Until a little over 18 months ago, the sale of Australian domain names was effectively prohibited by the au Domain Administrator, auDA. Following a change of auDA policy in July 2008, an emerging market for desirable com.au domains has been created. Acquiring key domains has developed into an important strategy for all online businesses, but it is not just about brand protection. Domains drive traffic, which then relates to sales for a company’s products or services. The domain ‘mothersday.com.au’ is the perfect web address for any online retailer looking to own this keyword category killer.
George Pongas, Business Development Manager at Drop.com.au commented, “Once you own ‘mothersday.com.au’, you basically own the direct navigation traffic it generates too. With approximately 18,100 Australian local searches for ‘Mother’s Day’ in March 2010 and a Cost Per Click (CPC) rate on Google circa $1.20, you can quickly see the business case for acquiring this domain name.”
Pongas continues, “After acquisition, the ongoing costs are just $49.95 every two years for the registration licence renewal. As a long-term investment it makes perfect sense for an e-tailer to add th is domain to their portfolio. Once sold, it is unlikely to be listed for sale again for a very long time, if ever.”
