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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.

Rob Grant may not be as widely known as some of his pioneering peers, but few in the industry can match the foresight, financial commitment and unwavering faith in the future of domains that Grant has shown over the past 12 years. During that time the personable real estate broker from upstate New York assembled the world's best collection of real estate related domain names (as well as some gems in other categories). click here for entire article

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

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
click here to listen

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.