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EXCERPTS
FROM APPRAISAL COMMENTS: It represents a high profile, powerful impact, recognizable, and authoratative domain presence. DEVELOPED DOMAIN: The name US-ATTORNEY.COM™ is a fully developed, search-engine equipped legal site which made its original debut in 1996 as The Law Office. Although the original name has been superceded, it remains live and original page URL's were retained, thus typing in either name permits visitors to land on the same opening page, and four years worth of place holders on search engines remain intact. Pages can be customized with purchasers logo and/or backgrounds, and contact information added nearly instantaneously. Existing database can also be instantly replaced with names of participating firms, were a multi-office acquisition to be envisioned. Compared to the cost of building a new legal website from the ground up and getting it noticed, vs. stepping into an existing legal site which benefits from a front page link on Home Office Mall, (named to Windows Magazine 1999's 101 Best Business Sites on The Web), from a purchasers standpoint, the latter is distinctly preferable. It also allows for unlimited additions to the site as convenient for the purchaser, with no down-time. The name has greatest practical and prestigious appeal to three primary types of purchasers; 1. PUBLISHERS of legal journalism and/or information. Excellent choice for such an entity. The assemblage of all three incarnations, dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org, leave no room for copycat use, and the name recognition value is exceptional. USE POTENTIAL TO PUBLISHING INDUSTRY: The vast (800,000+/- member) legal profession is augmented by an equally far reaching legal publishing industry. Publishers provide both products and services to the judicial system and to the attorneys, who in turn provide services to the public. More and more attorneys are coming online, as are more and more potential legal clients, who have begun to rely heavily on the web for information, entertainment, and e-commerce. A traditional or digital publishers incremental cost to introduce and/or annually market a product or service to the US legal profession under a high profile US-ATTORNEY.com™ banner (using traditional advertising means) can be readily estimated by use of its own subscription base numbers. Unlike traditional advertising which expires with each hard-copy publication issue however, a high profile domain name augmented with valuable content, gathers visibility and generates voluntary links amongst the legal, legal publishing, and academic community, which further enhances domain visibility. Projected annual revenues to a publisher from a nominal, one dollar a month subscription based online service to an existing publishing base can be calculated. Likewise, calculation can also be made of projected revenue potential for a subscription alternative. A one dollar per use charge for access to legal publications which are not normally readily available to students or to the general public, except by physically going to a public or university library, which has limited access hours. Revenues from this type of use would likely greatly exceed a fixed price subscription offering. The value of a respected, easily recognizable, particularly memorable, thus highly marketable one-of-a-kind domain name such as US-ATTORNEY.COM™ therefore, would be significant to the publishing industry, which is well positioned to take immediate advantage of it. 2. LAW FIRMS , LEGAL SERVICES Large, multi-partner corporate law firms whose partners periodically change (thus so does their name). This domain name offers far greater longevity than a lawfirm's stationery. Name retention value is exceptional. Larger law firms are beginning to appreciate the value of memorable domains as opposed to lengthy names. For example: Howrey & Simon, a DC firm with 352 attorneys, uses the lengthy but descriptive brand www.InternationalTradeLaw.com. Another DC firm, Arent Fox, with 273 attorneys, uses the brand www.AdvertisingLaw.com. In the acquisitions corner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a Silicon Valley firm with 534 attorneys, recently purchased the brand www.ShareholderLitigation.com along with all versions of the name as a complete assemblage. As the multidisciplinary debate rages onward, Price Waterhouse Cooper, which in 1998 employed 1,663 attorneys, has astutely embraced electronic brands as a means to ensure name retention, as evidenced by their acquisition of www.SecuritiesLitigation.com, www.LegalRiskManagement.com and www.DisputeAnalysis.com. IMMEDIACY OF USE FOR LAW FIRMS: Used in conjunction with television advertising and/or banner ads, (targeting the attention of those those who may suddenly find themselves in need of representation, whether business related, accident/injury, class actions or otherwise), the name US-ATTORNEY.COM, coupled its with existing and immediate web site utility, could be judged equivalent to marketing gold. For Pre-Paid Legal Services, the name could appear on television in a series of dignified, five second commercials, and the domain name would register solidly in the memory of literally every single viewer, both individuals as well as company owners. Prestige level is high. Marketing utility is exceptional. Reading it on a business card, for example; smith@US-ATTORNEY.com also makes a powerful impression, and the client will easily recall it and be able to bring it to mind and jot it down for referral purposes. 3. LEGAL RECRUITERS - A third type of potential purchaser is a Legal recruiting specialist. It appears there is a paucity of sophisticated, aggressive legal recruiters online at this date, despite the fact that attorneys themselves have been quick to adapt to the online world. The client potential would be very high for this type of purchaser. An interesting and potentially valuable target-market "fit", might be a marketing program offering free registration plus an additional premium of some sort, to attorneys with experience as current or former government prosecutors. The internally flagged registration would alert the site owner but the distinction would not be visible on the public side of the directory. The contents of that internally flagged directory would provide an outstanding trial lawyer resource for a legal recruiting firm, since such a directory does not currently appear to exist. ROI ADVERTISING: The high visibility of the domain name coupled with a search engine permits what is effectively a rarity; the potential for return on its own advertising dollars for the acquiring firm. A sponsorship position on the front page and/or search pages, permits discrete and tasteful lawfirm or publisher visibility while simultaneously allowing the site to earn advertising revenue. For reference purposes, following are links
to rate cards from two separate entities displaying current targeted ad
costs on business and legal sites. ALTERNATE NAME INCARNATIONS - Various, primarily single incarnations of the name are owned by others. For example; The name usattorney.com (which reads strangely all run together, and registers to the eye as either usatt or us att) is owned by a law firm in Oklahoma; the name attorneyus.com (which reads similarly to toys r us), is owned by an attorney in New York. The name attorney-us.com is owned by a distinguished Maryland attorney. EXCLUSIVITY: The result, is that there is exactly one remaining dot com domain like the subject property in the world. Competition has already been eliminated by assembly of each of the three US-ATTORNEY versions, (.com, .net, .org) Unlike the latter incarnations, the name US-ATTORNEY.COM displays, reads, and is presented properly, achieving maximum name recognition and desired impact. MARKETING ADVANTAGE:
The subject US-ATTORNEY.COM™
name is felt to have a higher inherent marketing value than the generic
domain name attorney.com, as well as any other incarnation, for three
primary reasons; VALUATION PROCESS: Domain name valuation is not dissimilar to real estate valuation, with one particularly notable exception. Unlike valution of a property which exists solely as a brick and mortar enterprise, valuation of a prime piece of cyberestate takes into consideration the fact that the owner of the property will not be similarly constrained by geographic boundaries. In some instances, this can result in a higher value for a digital building than its brick and mortar counterpart. Like its brick and mortar counterpart however, the location which a traditional company selects for its permanent address will have a bearing both on traffic, and upon the type of clientele the location attracts. For business and commerce related entities, top level dot-com (.com) domains command the highest value, and the dot-com suffix has in turn received the greatest amount of publicity. From that point on there exist two primary
types of properties which will command an appraisal valuation of significant
merit; (b) Vacant or presently underimproved properties, occupying prestigious or otherwise market-driven addresses. The logic in both of the latter requires that the name be recognizable, catchy, but more importantly it must have inherent market value to an existing consumer base of significant size, or in the alternative, possess a strong recognition factor, a "hook" that garners mainstream attention. The name doormat.com for example, is short and well recognized. It would have limited marketability though, with most probable appeal limited to a company which manufactures doormats. Even if properly developed and heavily marketed however, it would still not possess broad enough market appeal to merit more than a token valuation. The fact that virtually every home or office requires a doormat, does not impact on domain name value, because the market for the named product is saturated. Doormats, which have long lifespans, are not generally viewed as high demand consumables. That fact would reflect in a domain name valuation. Conversely, books.com identifies a specific and popular product, as does wine.com. Books was purchased by Barnes and Noble. Wine.com, with appeal to vintners and retailers alike, also serves a broad market, and a sales price of $3 million has been reported. The generic term business.com, although non-specific, has weighty presence and offers excellent potential for development. Sold for $150,000 two years ago, the domain name was recently resold for $7.5 million. The domain name AsSeenOnTV.com which sold in January of 2000 for $5,000,000. was acquired by a company whose CEO, effectively a pioneer in acquisition of media bolstered phrases, announced that he recognized the tremendous marketing value of a term with which the public was already familiar, and could easily recall. Another media bolstered name, ForSaleByOwner.com sold for $835,000. in 1999. The fact that all three incarnations of US-ATTORNEY are included in the Subject Property (representing a unique, real estate-like assemblage of the .com, .net, and .org versions), and the exclusivity of the name itself, have each been taken into consideration when determining final value. The public's overnight realization that cyberestate has suddenly become as tangible an asset as a brick and mortar business location, has also been taken into consideration. One media report advises that a Korean bank has already begun to accept particularly prime domain names as loan collateral. To a certain extent, the limited availability of prime cyberestate simply mirrors the limited availability of prime real estate. Similarly, like the original Disney assemblage of low cost Orlando swamp acreage upon which Florida's DisneyWorld was constructed (spawning a bustling metropolis in its wake), a property's original acquisition costs (i.e.-individual lot cost) will often bear no relation to either its value as a fully assembled parcel, (i.e.-the cumulative Disney acreage) or to its projected/improved value (i.e.- the developed DisneyWorld). The same logic can hold true with cyberestate. US-ATTORNEY.COM ™, .NET, and .ORG coupled with The-Law-Office.com, represent an assemblage of prime cyberestate. Ownership of the entire range of these names allows the owner to select one or more for active marketing use, allowing the balance to be relegated to a virtual safe deposit box. Across the board ownership therefore, removes potential for competitive use of the same name by another firm. All conditions for an appraisal valuation of significant merit apply. The name is recognizable, catchy, and has inherent market value to an existing consumer base of significant size. Beyond that however, thanks to frequent media use, the name also possesses a strong recognition factor, the "hook" that garners and holds mainstream consumer attention and domain name retention. Ref. Article: The Standard Dec. 1, 1999 Domain Real Estate Soars Higher Than Ever. http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,7953,00.html TOTAL OF 4
:Domains
Sold Comparables: Books.com Undisclosed price, sold to Barnes & Noble Sky.com Undisclosed price to British Sky Broadcasting 01/18/2000 MP3AudioBooks.com - $8,000,000. sold 02/16/2000 (MP3audiobooks.com, Inc. of Santa Rosa, CA) business.com $7,500,000. sold AsSeenOnTV.com - $5,000,000 sold 01/18/2000 AltaVista.Com -- $3.25M sold Loans.com --$3 million sold 01/28/2000 to Bank of America Wine.com $3 million sold Autos.com $2.2 Million sold (closed Dec. 16th) Express.com $2 million sold WallStreet.com $1.03 million sold Rock.Com -- $1.0M sold eFlowers.Com -- $1.0M sold Websites.com $975,000. sold ForSaleByOwner.com $835,000. sold Capital.com --$750,000. sold Cinema.com - $700,000. sold 2/01/00 drugs.com $823,456. sold University.com --$530,000 sold computer.com $500,000. sold Wisdom.com - $475,000 sold 01/24/2000 BlackJack.Com -- $ 460,000. sold Recording.com $300,000 sold Vote.Com -- $ 250,000. sold Jungle.com - $235,000. sold 08/99 Tower.com - $208,000. sold 01/31/00 Bingo.com - $200,000. sold Question.Com -- $ 175,000 sold Fruits.com $160,000. sold Push.com - $125,000. sold to Push Computing 01/26/00 11/99 GreatDomains PhoneCalls.com $120,000. sold 1 Speaker.com --$120,000. sold 12/27/99 Seminars.com - $119,000.sold 01/19/00 Internet - $100,000. sold Perfect.com $94,000. sold. 11/08/99 HappyBirthday.com $55,000 sold Madiera.com - $50,000. sold e-privacy.com - $35,080 sold 12/10/99 Yarns.com - $30,000. sold 1/26/00 BusinessMall.com $28,575. sold eSecure.com - $23,005. sold 1/21/00 reported by CNN Grocery.com $10,000. sold Promotion.com Undisclosed sold 12/99 Capital.com Undisclosed sold 12/99 Perfect.com Undisclosed sold
The subject properties have not been valued individually, but as a single unit. CONSERVATIVE VALUE RANGE: $1,500,000+ is easily supportable valuation
for the quadruple domain name entry. A heightened awareness of the requirement
for legal assistance, (class actions of note being one example) could
positively impact upper value. reprinted with permission of C.Webb vonKittendorf, CDA Member ACDA - Association of Certified Domain-Appraisers Copyright 2000 Terms of Sale:
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