Flying.com Owner Buys AircraftForSale.com
Mark Horne adds to collection of top aircraft domain names.
Mark Horne, who’s firm Flying Online, Inc. has purchased many domains counting Flying.com for $1.1 million, has purchased the domain name AircraftForSale.com. The exact price was not disclosed, but Horne told me it was between $50,000 and $150,000.
Horne told Reglike that “aircraft for sale” is the top search term for his space. The domain name also passed his “name recognition test”.
The name recognition test Horne uses when buying a domain name isn’t some sort of sniff test. It’s methodical. He sends an email to regarding 100 people that goes something like this:
I am trying to determine the value of a domain name I want to purchase. Here is what I want you to consider when reading the below domain names: “The domain name has to do with selling fresh and used aircraft that will be for sale on a website (both a classified-ad and fresh product display website). Please read the following list of 30 domain names (I make up a list of 30 domain names and include competitor names). Then, please delete this email immediately following you read the domain names. I will follow up with you in the near future with a single question.”
30 days later he sends a follow up email asking simply “Of the 30 domain names that I sent you last month regarding selling fresh and used aircraft that will be for sale on a website (both a classified-ad and fresh product display website), please tell me the names you remember.
If at least a third of the people recall a particular name, he then considers:
1) Search volume
2) What would it cost to generate traffic (Adwords etc) in the top “sponsored” position of the first results page from a strictly PPC standpoint for the term “aircraft for sale?”
3) What organic traffic could we expect if we were in the top (first) position of page 1 of the results page following the term “aircraft for sale” is searched?
4) Finally, and very importantly, the value to us from a competitive standpoint. Since online advertising dollars are fleeing print more and more each day, as advertisers are discovering the lack of value in print, (classified-ads to mass exodus levels), we want to make sure those ad dollars find us.
Horne states this purchase concludes his acquisitions for the used aircraft sector. In addition to AircraftForSale.com, he now owns Flying.com, UsedAircraft.com, UsedAirplanes.com, and AircraftForSale.com.
