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Press Room
Cover
Story
April 2008
The Domain Giant You Didn't Know:
Rob Grant's Roundabout Route to Real Estate Riches (Online
and Off!)
There
are certain names that everyone in this industry knows, names that
newcomers normally encounter within hours of entering the domain business.
Names like Rick Schwartz, Kevin Ham, Frank Schilling,
the Castello Brothers and others from a small band of pioneers
who have reached the top of a mountain 
that
thousands of others continue to climb. Most in that group became wealthy
because they were visionaries who foresaw how valuable domain names would
become long before they appeared on anyone else’s radar.
August 4, 2011
Rob Grant's RealEstateDirectory.com & eDevelopers.com Team Up to
Launch New Domain Leasing Model With PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com
RealEstateDirectory.com CEO Rob Grant and eDevelopers.com President and CEO Cody Maher have announced a unique content and leasing partnership with the initial launch of PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com. After several months of testing and development the site went live in June and has just been successfully leased to Philadelphia based realtor Noah Ostroff, who will operate the site as a unique real estate portal in the major Philadelphia markets.
Grant said, "We are extremely excited to partner with Cody Maher and Dino Adamou of eDevelopers with the initial launch of this unique platform and I'm thrilled to be working with
Noah Ostroff, who has proven to be a very entrepreneurial and forward thinking Realtor in his approach to traditional real estate marketing. This is a big commitment on everybody’s part with the signing of a long term lease, as well as a willingness to experiment with a unique real estate model that will grow and evolve as the market changes."
eDevelopers
first approached Grant back in October 2010 at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. South
Beach conference in Miami. Dino Adamou of eDevelopers said, “Rob
liked what we offered but was initially hesitant to move forward as others
in the industry failed to deliver on their promises. However, we agreed
to test our model out on a few of his real estate domains. It has been
wildly successful and we are extremely excited about what the future of
this model might hold.”
Cody Maher said, "We designed the Software package to be highly scalable and easy to deploy. Within a matter of 1 week, we launched the real estate platform and began focusing on the SEO campaign which has been running for two months. The domain was originally beyond page 10 in Google search results and today sits at the top of page 2. We anticipate the site to hit page 1 within the next 3-4 months.”
Their client, Noah Ostroff is also a happy camper. "This is an amazing opportunity for anyone looking to capitalize on an opportunity to grow their business through one of the most sought after domain names in their region. It is a turn-key package that will seamlessly enhance their current business without interruption," Ostroff said.
In addition to the launch of PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com, Grant and the team at eDevelopers are testing new platforms with sites at CaymanRealEstate.com and IowaRealEstate.com. Grant said that if the model continues to be successful, this same leasing concept will be executed across more real estate domains in the RealEstateDirectory.com portfolio - the largest network of geo-targeted real estate domains in the world. Grant and eDevelopers hope to open up new opportunities in the real estate industry by offering 'turn key' real estate portals to brokers and agents who are looking for both powerful branding and strategic marketing solutions
eDevelopers.com develops
turn key web portals with their real estate, ecommerce and lead generation
platforms. In addition to these software packages, the company operates
a content creation company at ecopywriters.com as well as a link building
service at edomainers.com. Together, these businesses provide clients
with a comprehensive approach to web development and SEO.
click
here for online article
(Posted August 4, 2011)
ROB GRANT WINS 'DEVELOPER OF THE
YEAR' AWARD AT THE 2011 INTERNET 'TRAFFIC' CONFERENCE IN FT LAUDERDALE,
FL.
On October 18th Rob Grant was presented with the 'Developer Of The Year'
award at the 2011 TRAFFIC East Internet conference held in Ft Lauderdale,
Florida.
Grant is one of the
original pioneers in the internet domain space. His company, WebMediaProperties.com,
has been quietly and methodically acquiring and developing valuable domain
assets dating back to early 1996.
Over the last 15 years Grant has assembled one of the most diverse and
impressive portfollios of premium generic domain names.
Today, his www.WebMediaProperties.com
operates a global network of 7000 high value domains encompasing a wide
spectrum of industries including publishing, music, law, finance, sports,
retail, automotive, and literally hundreds of other niche categories.
His
www.RealEstateDirectory.com
operates the largest portfolio of premium real estate domains in the world.
In 2010, in partnership with eDevelopers.com, Grant launched one of the
first innovative leasing platforms allowing brokers and agents to lease
fully developed web portals built around premium real estate brands like
www.PhiladelphiaRealEstate.com
Grant's www.EducationalDirectory.com comprises one of the largest, privately held portfolios of online educational domains including www.SpecialEducation.com and www.CatholicSchools.com
In addition to the above, Grant also operates his own private label network of 1500 developed web sites showcasing travel, sports and lifestyle.
LAST WEEK, I had a
chance to get to know Rob Grant, one of the biggest real estate domain
owners in the world, some of his names include NewYorkrealestate.com,
BeverlyHillsrealestate.com, and many more. His recent sale, ParkCityrealestate.com
(Utah), was sold for a cool $60,000. What’s interesting to me is
he started in “offline” real estate before he stumbled in investing
in web domains in 1995.
His background is as interesting as the man himself; tired with the East Coast culture, he walked away from a promising advertising career in New York city and moved to the Adirondacks Mountain, “We rented a house up there but didn’t have a clue what we were going to do! It was a very scary time,” Grant said.
Seeing an opportunity to market the charming, but unknown Adirondacks furniture nationally, he set up a furniture company. He began to make strides in the design trade and gained strong acceptance in the high-end market. The big problem was he couldn’t find enough qualified reliable craftsman to produce enough pieces to meet the demand. “If it was deer season most of my workers simply disappeared!”
Seeing an opportunity with local undervalued properties in Saranac Lake and Lake Placid he began to invest in real estate, buying an old commercial 3-story building for $20,000, refurbishing it then later flipping:
“We happened to get lucky because we hit that market just as the Adirondacks were starting to be rediscovered,” Grant said. I found I was able to sell the residential properties for two and three times what I paid for them. That kind of ushered in my real estate era.”
By 1991, armed with a string of successful real estate investments, he started a real estate brokerage firm. But the timing couldn’t have been worst, right smack in the middle of one of the worst recessions since 1950, (dwarfed only by the current Great Recession). But he managed to hold on. Saving enough money to diversify to geo-targeted real estate domains.
And the rest as they say, is history.
I share Rob’s story because frankly, I’m tired of the face of the Donald Trump types on T.V, the rock star like status (and lifestyle) of investor “brands” on cable. It’s as if we need to party at the Palms every year to really be considered a success. But the opposite is true, most of the wealthiest investors are quiet rebels, independent thinkers who are the millionaire next door.
They reward themselves with the good things in life, but only after 10-20 years of saving, investing and working hard — Delayed gratification.
I also learned from Rob’s story that a varied background can actually help, not ruin one’s chances for success. The more varied your background: teacher, dishwasher, venture capitalist, farmer, plumber, radio personality, etc., in so many ways, the better, because it gives you a deeper insight on human nature. And that, my friend is one of the great marks of successful investors.
click here for online article
 Rob Grant of Adirondacks.com (and many other sites) won the Developer of the Year Award. |
By Ron Jackson
The final business day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2011 got underway Tuesday morning (October 18) with another bountiful brunch at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach. This brunch was special though - it was the 7th Annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards Brunch that honored companies and individuals who excelled in our industry over the past 12 months.
Before the awards
were handed out there were a couple of other business items to take care
of. Those started with me taking the stage to provide an update on third
quarter domain sales which showed a nice improvement over the same quarter
a year ago. I will be detailing the stats I shared in our next newsletter
that will be out within the next 24 hours.
click here
for article
 |
| Rob Grant (left) and John Burke in front of the Select Sotheby's International Realty office in Saratoga Springs, New York. |
"We are very excited to partner with Select Sotheby's International Realty on this unique project and to be working with John Burke," Grant (who is based in Lake Placid, New York) told us. "If this first site performs the way we think it will, it may represent the future template for a major build out of our powerful New York real estate network in select markets."
The RealEstateDirectory.com was founded in 1996 by Grant who owns the largest network of geo-targeted real estate domains in the world, including LondonRealEstate.com, JapanRealEstate.com, TokyoRealEstate.com, AustraliaRealEstate.com and GermanyRealEstate.com, as well as hundreds of other countries and cities around the globe.
"Our current strategy is to partner with companies like Sothebys here in Upstate New York which offer excellent inventory and a large network of experienced agents," Grant said. "It's critical that we have internet savvy agents who can handle these real estate leads and convert them to actual sales."
Throughout New
York State, RealEstateDirectory.com owns domains representing the most
important markets throughout New York State, including
NewYorkRealEstate.com,
BuffaloRealEstate.com, AlbanyRealEstate.com and SyracuseRealEstate.com
to name just a few. The majority of these domains are still utilizing
a traditional parking based platform generating PPC revenue, but Grant
has his sites set on forming more development deals like the arrangement
with Sotheby's to unlock the full potential of these domains.
"As the traditional PPC revenue model slowly dies, large domain portfolio owners are now finally moving into the next development phase," Grant noted. "For real estate domains, the highest and best use has clearly always been as fully developed real estate portals. The commissions which can be generated from the sale of physical real estate dwarf any other revenue model we know of."
"The way we've structured the LakeGeorgeRealEstate.com deal with Sotheby's is that RealEstateDirectory.com owns the actual web site and Select Sotheby's International Realty provides all the unique inventory and listings. Its a very simple and straight forward arrangement. If we can generate the leads, Select Sotheby's International Realty agents can convert these leads into sales," Grant said.
March 2011
New Wall Street Journal Feature Puts Rob Grant Back in the Spotlight
While I was away on a South Florida visit Friday, the Wall Street Journal ran a new feature piece spotlighting a special listing from real estate domain pioneer Rob Grant's AdirondackRealEstate.com website. The property represented by Rob's company that the WSJ showcased is Kilkenny Lodge - a magnificent Adirondack lodge built in 1901-02 as part of a summer compound for William Kingsley, a New York banker who became president of the U.S. Trust Company.
The lodge was selected for
the spotlight in a new interactive WSJ feature that will be showcasing
unique properties from around the world. Readers are invited to go online
at WSJ.com/realestate to
post their guess as to how much the house will sell for - and when. The
Wall Street Journal will track the Kilkenny Lodge listing for the next
6 months to see which reader comes closest to
the final sales price
if and when the property finds a buyer. For the record Grant is quoted
as saying he expects the lodge to sell for close to the $690,000 asking
price in mid or late summer.
Kilkenny Lodge - what will Rob Grant sell it for?
The building has over 4,200
square feet and features seven bedrooms, six baths, hardwood floors, wood
paneling, massive stone fireplaces, a private study and library, and a
spectacular 80-foot long porch that stretches along the entire length
of the lodge. The property is situated on a very private 2.3 acre plot
surrounded by woods and streams with magnificent views of the surrounding
mountains.
At 690k (less than the price of a number of individual domain sales we
have seen over the past year) I could see any one of a number of domainer
investors adding this property to their real world asset portfolio.
click
here for online article
Rob Grant Making News; ICANN DNS Blocking; Apple/Facebook Team Up; Upgrading
Your PC; Dual-Screen Gaming;
Sunday June 19th 2011
click
here for article
October 2009
Advice From the Most Successful Domain Owners of All Time –
This is part five of a series of five with one piece of advice from some of the most successful domain investors, domain developers, domain monetizers, and others involved in the domain industry. I asked them for one piece of advice they would give to a part-time domain investor looking to build his business. I believe there are quite a few people who are part time domain investors, and I also believe just about anyone involved in the industry can apply some of this advice to their own business models.
I really appreciate all of the contributions from the industry leaders who contributed, and I hope the advice contained within is helpful to you now – or will be helpful to the growth of your business in the future.
Rob Grant, WebMediaProperties.com & RealEstateDirectory.com:
All it takes is one good domain.
The rest will follow.
Today, our domain space has become increasingly cluttered with domain litter…useless extensions and obscure country codes that blow around in the wind like trash in a vacant lot… followed by domain investors running wildly around chasing all this garbage.
Don’t chase
the litter. Don’t buy the garbage.
Stay focused. Save your money and wait. The moment to grap one good dot
com domain has arrived.
You can thank the worst recession in our country’s history for this
remarkable opportunity.
I would rather
own one good dot com for $100,000. than a large portfolio filled with
useless extensions.
Size means nothing in this market. Only quality matters.
When I look back
to my early years in this industry – back to 1996 -when the domain
stone age was unfolding and just a few dinosaur domainers were roaming
around the earth buying domains and bitching about Network Solutions -
Even then, the mantra was always the same.
All it takes is one good domain.
Nothing has changed – even after 13 long years…except the amount of litter that has piled up in the neighborhood.
click here for Elliots Blog
January 2007
Get a Great Domain
Name. Looking for a memorable Web site address?
Don't think for a moment that all the good ones are gone.
BY MICHAEL RUSSER
Lease
it.
You don’t have to buy a domain name to benefit from its use. Domain
leasing is based on the principle that many people simply type in the
domain name for the type of product or service they’re interested
in. Then, they’re redirected to your site, giving you extra traffic.
For example, if you specialize in Hollywood real estate, you may find
that hollywoodrealestate.com is available for lease (which it actually
was until someone leased it). If you leased it, whenever prospects type
in www.hollywoodrealestate.com, they would be sent to your site.
You typically pay a fixed monthly fee based on the anticipated traffic.
Think of this as a sophisticated form of pay-per-click, except that you
pay a flat fee rather than a per-click cost. One domain leasing site that
specializes in real estate domains, LeaseThis.com, also offers to wrap
an appropriately designed branded version of the leased domain name location
around your site. To see an example, go to www.hollywoodrealestate.com
at the top you’ll see the branded domain name being leased, underneath
is the site of the company that leased it. 
Leasing is smart for several reasons. Since you don’t own the name,
this approach creates a clear separation between your brand and that of
the domain name. So when you’re ready to terminate your lease, it
doesn’t affect the branding of your own site. (Tip: Never brand your
site using a leased domain name, but always with one you own.) Also, you
can use it as a listing tool; Imagine going on a listing appointment for
a property in Hollywood and having the prospective seller type in “www.hollywoodrealestate.com”
and see your site come up this way. Their perception is likely that you
“own” that space.
click
here for entire article
January 2007
Rob Grant, the President of
RealEstateDirectory.com, a company that owns a massive portfolio of highly
targeted real estate domains - "I wanted to help create a new revenue
channel," Grant said. "I did not want to remain dependent on
Google and Yahoo (the main providers of PPC revenue) and this looked like
a very smart alternative. For a vertical portfolio like mine is is especially
good because it is possible to forge a direct advertiser relationship
for thousands of domains at once."
click
here for entire story
October
19, 2006 09:00 AM Eastern Time
LeaseThis.com Ushers in a New Era of Internet Advertising
New Platform Brings the World’s Premier Internet Real Estate to the
Masses
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LeaseThis, LLC announced today the introduction of LeaseThis.com, a radically-new, cutting-edge Internet advertising platform that seeks to revolutionize the business of online advertising. Research has shown that while the number of global Internet users is growing exponentially, the availability of premium, targeted domain names is rapidly decreasing. The result is an increasingly difficult task for businesses to establish an online presence, or even reach out and attract new customers, through a meaningful domain name.
LeaseThis.com’s proprietary, patent-pending technology is designed to address this issue by better aligning the interests of online advertisers with those that control the Internet’s premium real estate. “We are the first company to offer domain leasing on a scalable, global platform, thereby releasing the incredible value of premium domain names to businesses and individuals around the world,” said Jonathan Boswell, CEO and Co-Founder of LeaseThis.com.
The value of a premium domain name is easily illustrated in the “real” (as opposed to “virtual”) world of real estate. According to the 2005 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 82 percent of first-time homebuyers and 78 percent of repeat homebuyers used the Internet to search for homes, and 24 percent of buyers actually first found their home on the Internet. For many Internet users, that search starts with real estate domains. For example, a prospective buyer looking for a home in Atlanta often types “AtlantaRealEstate.com” (www.AtlantaRealEstate.com) or “AtlantaHomes.com” (www.AtlantaHomes.com) into their web browser. With a median home price in Atlanta of $265,000, it is easy to see the intrinsic value of this type of highly-targeted traffic.
Furthermore, a recent study conducted by WebSideStory, Inc. (www.WebSideStory.com) shows that this type of “direct navigation” has a conversion rate more than 80% higher than that of traditional PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising on Yahoo! and Google.
Ammar Kubba, COO and Co-Founder of LeaseThis.com, acknowledges that the early response has been tremendous. “Businesses desperately want access to this premium traffic, yet the current PPC model often fails to capitalize on the true power and value of premium domain names, to the detriment of both advertisers and domain owners alike. With LeaseThis.com, we now have the ability to deliver this highest-quality traffic directly to the businesses that need it most, in the most efficient and compelling manner possible. We see it as the next logical step in the evolution of search marketing.”
To develop its comprehensive and unrivaled inventory of premium domains, LeaseThis.com has been working closely with prominent domain owners such as Rob Grant, CEO of the RealEstateDirectory.com, which controls one of the world’s largest and most sought-after portfolios of Real Estate domain names. According to Grant, the advantages to controlling a valuable domain on an exclusive lease basis are significant. “By leasing a strategic industry domain, companies can now effectively leap frog over their competition. Instead of merely being listed with dozens of other advertisers on a traditional PPC template, one company alone will have the exclusive use of these extremely valuable domain properties.”
The initial release of the LeaseThis.com platform is currently available
exclusively to select beta partners, in preparation for a full-scale global
launch in early 2007.
Cover
Story
January 2009
The State of the
Industry January 2009: 15 Leading Experts ... Predict What Will Happen
in 2009
To make sense of what happened in 2008 and where we are headed in 2009
we called on 15 of the most successful people in the domain industry for
our 5th annual State of the Industry report. Our panel of experts includes
key company founders, CEOs, developers, investors and attorneys. The all-star
roster includes (alphabetically by last name): Monte Cahn, the Castello
Brothers (Michael and David), Phil Corwin, Michael Gilmour, Ari Goldberger,
Rob Grant, Dr. Kevin Ham, Dr. Chris Hartnett, Michael Mann, Andrew
Miller, Howard Neu, Rick Schwartz, Tim Schumacher and Divyank Turakhia.
With so many top minds gathered in one place this is a report you can't
afford to miss! click
here for Full Story
Rob Grant (Adirondacks.com)
Rob Grant, a Lake Placid, New York based real estate broker owns the world's best collection of real estate related domain names. The former Madison Avenue advertising executive, who is also an active domain developer, told us "When we look back at 2008 and try to fathom the historic events that unfolded, I think history will show that we reached a major turning point for the U.S and the world. In 2008 the American financial system, and, ultimately, the global financial system experienced a near fatal meltdown. The collateral damage this caused was so deep that it will take several years for our economy to recover. Entire industries were eliminated, seemingly overnight, highlighted by spectacular failures like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and the collapse of the entire Investment Banking sector. In many respects what we witnessed in 2008 was the equivalent of a deadly financial comet striking at the center of the worlds financial markets and flattening Wall Street. In the aftermath, we lost a lot of big dinosaurs."
"In the new economy that emerges from these ashes, the question now, is who is left standing... And how will this impact the domain industry? If you're a dinosaur, your days are numbered. That much is certain. Old legacy industries like the newspaper business have seen the collapse of major publishing empires like the Tribune Company as advertising revenues disappear and migrate full force to the web. Even venerable institutions like the 100 year old New York Times appear to be teetering on the brink. But what's bad news for dinosaurs is very good news for domains. As the dust settles on 2008, many old industries will be replaced by new efficient business models. Domain names will move to center stage and play an increasingly important role in this new economy," Grant said.
"In effect, domain names will become the new brands of the 21st century. As online ad spending continues to grow at the expense of traditional media, businesses from Fortune 500 companies to small main street vendors will finally understand the strategic importance of owning a descriptive domain name. This, in turn, will transform the value of domains in a very significant way. Domain names will shift from being historically passive inert investments (earning marginal ppc revenue) to fully functional retail platforms and end user web sites. Development will take center stage."
"Parking companies will have to adapt and reinvent themselves. Those
companies that do survive will have to develop new ways to mine the value
of domains including the formation of strategic 'development partnerships'
with portfolio owners. These same companies will also have to forge direct
relationships with major advertisers and agencies in order to circumvent
the monopolistic control that Google and Yahoo currently exert over the
domain channel. This will create chaos in the domain space and lead to
disruptive, exciting new business models which will benefit both advertisers
and domain companies," Grant said.
"All of these
changes will ultimately serve to unlock the pent up and explosive value
of domains. These new brands of the 21st century will emerge in full force
in 2009 & 2010. Powerful generic domain names will look and feel like
true media properties. As we enter the new year, the domain industry will
continue to grapple with many of the same issues it has been faced with
in the past (including the threat of CADNA and over reaching trademark
laws). However, despite these issues, we are remarkably fortunate to be
at the forefront of a new and emerging industry. For every old world dinosaur
that disappears in this new economy, a powerful new domain stands ready
to take its place," Grant concluded.
Domain name gifts: Dot-com boon for charities
By Jenn Abelson
Published: Thursday, March 30, 2006
BOSTON — When Tom
Bird started receiving six-figure offers for his domain name, farm.com,
the Massachusetts- based entrepreneur this month made an unlikely move:
he donated the Internet address to the Boston Foundation.
In less than a week, the nonprofit group sold farm.com for $200,000. The buyer? The online pet supplies business Pets United, which already owned dog.com, fish.com, and horse.com.
"We've never
dealt with anything like this before," said Ruben Orduna, vice president
for development at the foundation. "We were scratching our heads
trying to figure out if this was O.K. But it was surprisingly easy and
a great gift."
click here
for entire article
Rob Grant Interview – Real Estate & Geo Domains – Wednesday, August 6th,
2008
My good friend Rob Grant was recently interviewed on WebmasterRadio.FM
on 23 July. Rob is the Geo Realestate King of the industry. He has some
great information to offer on how he built his empire and the future of
realestate geo domains.
I advise readers to take notes and listen to this informative podcast.
Realestate Geo Domains will become some of the most valuable domains as
the industry matures. Really, most large realestate companies still do
not understand how powerful these brands are at this time. It is amazing
that in 2008, the biggest industry taking the internet by storm, still
does not completely understand the value of these geo domains.
As I have stated many times, the industry is maturing and pioneers like
Rob are doing a fantastic job getting the word out to the masses. If you
would like to chat with Rob, you can reach him on GeoDomainer.com.
click
here for posting
Rob Grant Interview - Real Estate & Geo Domains
DIGG
click
here
Domain Masters: Online Radio
Talk Show
Domain Masters is a free online radio talk show dedicated to teaching
listeners how to register domain names, build websites, monetize website
traffic and protect your online brand. The radio show airs each Wednesdays
at 7:00pm EST. click
here for link
Monte talks to Rob Grant and Rob Barbour 12/21/2005 - Monte Cahn Monte
talks to Rob Grant and Rob Barbour. Rob Grant spent many years on Madison
Ave. with Grey Advertising working on major accounts like Proctor and
Gamble, Northwest Airlines, Playtex, etc. He moved to Lake Placid in the
early 80s and started a number of businesses including a real estate brokerage
firm and rustic furniture company! He created www.RealEstateDirectory.com
which controls one of the largest online real-estate networks in the world.
Rob Barbour, 39, is President and CEO of Digit Software, Inc, which provides
software development services worldwide, cell phone services in Africa,
and maintains a domain portfolio of 4000 names. Digit Software is also
the parent company of Pokerliving.net, which teaches people how to make
a living playing poker.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York Award Nominees Written by Domainer's Magazine
Staff Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:38 click
here
We invite you to visit the worlds' most powerful online
real estate network.
Real Estate Directory.com
A Global Real Estate Portal Supported by the Worlds' Largest
Network of National & International Web Sites
