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In other
cases we've seen trailblazers like Michael
Berkens, who sold
most of his vast MostWantedDomains portfolio to
GoDaddy in 2015, let go of most of
their holdings when the right buyer came along.
However, Michael, like Rick, continues
to play the game - just at a less intensive level that
leaves him time to enjoy life (as I write this,
Michael and his wife Judi are in the middle of
a five-week anniversary celebration in Italy).
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Skip
Hoagland
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What
we haven't seen a lot of is someone with a
world class portfolio built over multiple
decades decide to sell it all - lock, stock
and barrel - and ride off into the sunset
in the way we traditionally think of
"retirement." Skip Hoagland -
a giant in the geodomain
space who we profiled in a July
2008 Cover Story - recently made
the decision to do just that and has already
taken the first major step -
turning the portfolio over to his family in
the course of estate planning and now
assisting in finding a buyer.
Hoagland
is looking for an offer in the $20 million
range - obviously a
sizeable chuck of change but the Hoagland
family is willing to self finance it for
15-20 years at
3% and would consider other terms as well.
Now, those who don't know Skip and the names
in the extraordinary portfolio he assembled
over the years are no doubt wondering
"what does he have that is worth that
kind of money!?" For starters,
there are the monster geo domains like
Cuba.com, Atlanta.com, Baltimore.com,
Charleston.com and Buenos Aires.com
(to name just a few) and there are also
top tier
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generic domains like Fishing.com
and ChamberOfCommerce.com (the latter
domain is currently producing over $800,000
in gross annual revenue). You can see the complete
list here (Word document). It
is hundreds of domains rather than thousands -
but is a prime example of quality over
quantity.
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Skip
told us, "I had about 3,000-4,000 names
at one time - lots of .orgs, .nets
etc that I just dropped. I now have about
600. I have had several appraisals
ranging from $20-$35 million as
undeveloped property and many tell me fully
developed a billion. The billion would
have been nice, but I simply ran out of
time and I wish the buyers and end users
who buy these all the best."
"I
think my greatest contribution is the fact I
want to empower entrepreneurs who have talent
to be successful, and in the world we live in,
few have cash and few can go to a bank
to borrow money. This is why I decided to
offer 15-20 year seller financing at 3%
interest for all buyers to help them move
forward," Hoagland said. "I
believe this is something the brokerage
industry has to do to grow. To just sell for
cash is not good and limits the chances for
many good smart people/developers to succeed.
It is also good to offer lease to own
and managing partnerships, I have some
of all of these." |
Image
from Bigstock |
Hoagland
will consider offers on individual names and with
so many "dream" domains in his portfolio you
might wonder - especially for
someone who is still as active and fit as Skip is -
why not keep a few favorites rather than sell them all?
Hoagland answered, "Well
to begin, many decisions led to this stage and then my
wife of 38 years, Cathy, was diagnosed with
breast cancer and this put me into reality, but happy
to say she's a survivor. Also realizing if you
are not willing to work 16 hours per day versus just 8
hours, you will never compete against those who do, so
better to retire and focus on my wife, family and
hobbies," Hoagland said.
Skip
& Cathy Hoagland at the 2010 GeoDomain Expo in New
Orleans.
Hoagland
added, "I
am however focused on giving back to my community and
the Geo domain media industry and have decided
to get involved in some local and state politics,
making speeches, and being a harsh critic of
corruption and crooks on Hilton Head, South
Carolina and in our state. The movie Spotlight
inspired me and since I have no risk of losing a job,
and no fear, I decided to try and make a small
difference. You can Google my name to see my lawsuits
against Chambers of Commerce, CVB's (convention and
visitors bureaus) and city DMO's (designated marketing
organization) and even Town governments. My simple
claims are many of these 501-c6 Chamber and CVB
non-profits are corrupt, crooked, misusing tax
dollars, committing theft, violations to IRS Ubit
taxes, and unfairly compete against local media and
many Geo domain owners."
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To
understand Hoagland's passion for his cause
you have to understand it comes from a lifetime
of working in the local media business -
starting with print and eventually leading him
to the Internet (and domain names) as more and
more publishing enterprises moved online to
survive. It all started when he was in his
20s and moved to Hilton Head Island.
Soon after arriving in the popular tourist
destination Hoagland saw an opportunity
to make money by providing information about
the area by printing and distributing
brochures devoted to local attractions.
"I came up with this idea to create a
brochure rack for hotels to clean up all of
the clutter and put all of this information
in one convenient location," Hoagland
recalled in our 2008 profile of him. "We
got the hotels to sign contracts that gave us
the exclusive right to place these
racks in their |
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Skip
Hoagland speaking at the
2008 GeoDomain Expo in Chicago |
lobbies. So
anyone who wanted to have their brochure
available in the hotel lobbies had to come
through our company. It was a big success and
that's where it all began for me."
Hoagland soon
expanded into publishing local tourist and
city magazines in a territory stretching from
Hilton Head down through Charleston and
Savannah, Georgia. In 1996 he started
buying the corresponding domain names
(including Charleston.com and Savannah.com)
after a young friend told him he needed to
"watch out for the new Internet because
it could end up hurting his information
distribution business" and another
"kid" suggested he protect his
interests by buying .com domain names
representing the cities he operated in.
Hoagland took their advice to heart and it
wound up being the best move he ever made. |
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Unlike
many who sat on domains with hopes of
reselling them, Hoagland, often in partnership
arrangements, developed most of his into real
businesses. That's when he found out that some
of the organizations that were supposed to
help local businesses like his, were actually
competing with them. He has been trying to put
a stop to it ever since. "I
have accused many |
that
are not run properly under their purpose and
intent as frauds and tax scams," Hoagland
noted. "I have even accused the US
chamber President Tom Donahue, ACCE
(American Chamber of Commerce executives)
President Mick Fleming and DMAI
(destination marketing association) President Don
Welsh, of all supporting fraud by
recognizing their members who commit crimes as
credible."
"Government
and non-profits should not be in any business,
their job is to support and help those who are
and pay taxes for military, roads, schools,
police, fire, etc. It seems there are more and
more cases nationwide of these organizations
being forced to submit to forensic audits and
once they are and their hired audits are
independently audited, massive wrongdoings are
discovered including theft, credit card
misuse, fraud, embezzlement and even prison in
the case of Palm Beach CVB. The Berkeley,
SC Chamber is first case in South Carolina
and is currently under FBI investigation. You
can read about it online," Hoagland said.
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Image
from Bigstock |
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Skip
and Cathy Hoagland plan to spend
more time at their family ranch in Argentina. |
"This
type of fight will result in a few bloody
noses, but is worth it. Again, anyone
interested can read all about it online by
Googling "Skip Hoagland". With my
name I can't hide like Joe Smith! All this is
part time and in between my fishing and bird
hunting at the family ranch in Argentina.
Also at 70 years old you come to
realize that you aren't taking anything
with you and you are only as good at what
you've left behind."
When
Hoagland fully exits the domain business he
will take a lot of knowledge with him -
including things he has learned in his own
businesses as well as advice from fellow
investor/developers. He cited these
observations (highlighted in green) made by
veteran domain investor Alan
Dunn in a Business
Insider article as the best
reasons for making a great domain name the
foundation you build your business on:
How
much is a domain name worth?
"Realistically
a domain name can be worth any amount
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but most domain names sell for around $5,000
to $20,000. Premium domains, category killers
and short domains however can easily command
$100,000 or millions depending on a wide
number of reasons. But let’s not talk about
the value of individual domains per se but how
a domain name compares to the cost and value
of traditional media. Let’s put a $10,000
domain in perspective to traditional
media." |
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Billboard
Advertising
"Billboard
Advertising is some of the most expensive
advertising around. In New York City, for
example, a rotary bulletin can cost you
anywhere from $35,000 to over $600,000 a
WEEK according to Clear Channel’s
online rate card."
Mobile
Advertising
"You
know that advertising billboard which is
essentially carried around on the back of a
truck and drives around all day? $20,000 a
month if you want to advertise in the
Atlanta Market (although fuel cost is
included)."
Radio
Advertising
"Even
radio ads can cost around $200 average per
spot and you need at least a handful a day
to make any dent in attracting
business...total monthly estimated cost $30,000
or more. |
Image
from Bigstock |
"Now
the question is what do you own after the 30 day
period for the traditional media sources above? Nothing!
If
you spend $10,000 on a domain name your only future
expenses are the $8 a year in registration fees - not
even $8 a month … actually less than $1 a month."
"Of
course there are other expenses such as building a
website and SEO but all of these expenses are costs
which go directly to building value to
something you own – not airtime or billboard space
you are leasing!"
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"There
are also intangible factors like authority
which category defining domain names have that
traditional media can never compare to. So,
the real question is not how much a
domain name costs but how much value
the right domain name can bring to your
business."
When
asked to take a final look back at the domain
portion of your career and comment on what he
enjoyed most about it Hoagland concluded,
"All of the people involved and
watching the technology evolve and learning
about the best methods used and proven
in the Geo domain destination marketing for
profit business. All I can say is it is amazing
what can happen with focus, passion and 16 hour
days, a good wife, trusted lawyers, good
accountants, trusted partners and investors
and lots of luck!" |
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