WASHINGTON, DC: How much would you pay for the web site domain name publicrelations.com?
WASHINGTON, DC: How much would you pay for the web site domain name
publicrelations.com?
dollars 50,000? dollars 250,000? One PR pro will soon find out.
Ed Segal, who has run his own DC-based business since 1990, bought the
name for dollars 40 back in April 1995 and is considering putting it up
for rent or sale.
’It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ Segal said. While he
originally planned to use publicrelations.com to promote his own firm,
he decided on an eponymous site name instead.
Segal added that he resents being labeled as a cybersquatter.
’’Cybersquatter’ is pejorative. I prefer to think of myself as an
Internet landlord in a high-rent district.’
Whatever he calls himself, Segal stands to make a tidy profit, but he’s
not sure whether he will sell the domain name outright or rent it. Segal
has received calls from PR firms large and small across the country,
with offers in the mid-to-high five figures.
Industry observers expressed mixed opinions as to the site’s market
value. ’I don’t think a firm would want a generic name like that, since
everyone is trying to brand themselves,’ said Gable Group CEO Tom
Gable.
But Schwartz Communications SVP Anne Desautels said the name could be
worth ’something in the six figures’ to an agency. And Jared Schutz, who
recently sold e-greeting card site Bluemountain.com for dollars 780
million to Excite@ Home, said, ’If he can actually get dollars 250,000
in cold, hard cash, he should take it.’
