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当叶云建立他的域名投资组合时， 只有一种方式来通过域名挣钱——那就是转售它们。直到2003年付费搜索市场开始腾飞的时候，情况才开始有所改变。当时Overture公司开发和推动了付费搜索市场的发展，现在这家公司已经成为Yahoo公司的一部分，而目前的市场领头羊是Google 公司。推动着事情发展的技术是复杂的, 但基本的商业模式并不复杂: 只有当某人点击他们的广告后，广告业主才予以支付。同时为了他们的链接能排在搜索结果的前面，或列在浏览器里键入域名能登陆到的域名投资者的网页上面，他们纷纷为关键词竞价掏荷包。
普通单词的域名对于域名投资者是金子，针对具体受众的域名也有较高价值。例如，人们在搜索关于厌食症或易饿症的信息时，他们会在Yahoo网站的搜索引擎里键入词组“饮食失调”。这时，一个位于亚利桑那州威肯勃格的Remuda Ranch治疗中心的广告，就会横跨出现搜索结果的上面。为了赢得这个位置，Remuda Ranch治疗中心会为每次点击支付给Yahoo网站3.06美元，这是《Business 2.0》杂志在上旬11月查询到的报价。但许多人寻找同样信息的方式是将
www.eatingdisorders.com 键入他们的浏览器，那会将他们导向对有着5个各种治疗中心链接的网页上面，并且Remuda Ranch治疗中心也会出现在网页的顶部。其中的区别在于: 点击这个网页的Remuda Ranch治疗中心广告时，治疗中心会支付3.06美元给Yahoo网站和拥有这个域名的域名投资者分享。
在这个例子中，富兰克·席林，一个悄然无息地成为进入世界上的最有实力和最受尊敬的域名投资者行列的隐士，他在2002 年底的一场拍卖中，以1100美元的价格购买了eatingdisorders.com这个域名。它使得聪明的席林意识到饮食失调是普遍存在的。“我从来没有意识到，”他说，“每天超过100 个人下意识地在地址栏里键入eatingdisorders.com这个域名。” 他说，现在该网站每天能够得到大约120 次点击，提供稳定和轻松的现金。
讽刺的是，就在叶云卖掉其域名投资组合的时候，席林也差点卖掉他的域名投资组合。但是迪克·切尼副总统无意中说服了他继续建立他的事业。这是2004 年10月5日的晚上，36岁的席林正在佛罗里达州那不勒斯市的丽嘉酒店监测他的网站。自从一个月前飓风伊万袭击了他们在开曼群岛的房子时，他和全家就住了那里了。当席林扫描网络流量数据时，他注意到有件事情不对劲，巨大的网络流量正在暴涨，使得他的服务器快要挂机了。
他查看了Google 新闻，迅速发现原因所在。副总统辩论正在切尼和参议员之间约翰·爱德华兹之间展开，为了辩护他的纪录, 切尼告诉观众去查看Factcheck.com。实际上切尼指的是宾夕法尼亚大学负责运行的Factcheck.org网站，而Factcheck.com 是属于席林的一个网站。
这时席林有两个选择：如果关闭他的服务器，那将会花掉他上万美元去引导他的其它网站流量，或者将 Factcheck.com的域名解析到别处。流量的暴涨对他来说是没有用的，毕竟，只有但访问者点击广告业主的链接时，他才能挣到钱。席林不是布什政府的支持者，他想到了金融家乔治·索罗斯刊登在华尔街时报上的反布什广告。几秒钟后, 他把暴涨的流量引向了GeorgeSoros.com。就这样，当上百万人寻找切尼的纪录而登陆到这个网站时，迎面而来的是“我们为什么不让乔治·布什再次当选”的欢迎信息。
对于席林来说，这是件突然冒出来的事情。当时，他的桌面上放着一份他的域名投资组合销售合同，报价超过1亿美元。席林没有透露名字的这位潜在买家，正在审核着席林的投资。一群人蜂拥着横跨网络到他掌控的网页上的经验，使得希林意识到，域名的价值会随着时间成倍的增长。“敲击几下键盘，看可我所做到的，”希林说，翻转着他的披肩长的金发，悬空敲击几下键。“这是完全超现实的。”自从辩论把那晚以后，他在他的域名投资组合上增加了10万个域名，使得他的藏品超过了30万个域名。产生着现金流的普通单词域名会再度吸引良好经济基础的逐利者。
那些逐利者当中有一个叫拉宾，他说话温和，夹克衣服口袋里有一张白色手帕。拉宾掌管着一笔来自雅可布松家族投资的私募资金。这个家族在卡耐基音乐厅塔楼第56层办公，他们的套房能将中央公园和纽约住宅区的景观一览无遗。对于拉宾来说，一个贴切的看法是，2005年的网络看起来就象100 年前的曼哈顿——充满房地产投资的机会。
一年前，拉宾开始和哈佛大学培训出来的财务专家鲍伯·马丁，以及域名投机商马克·奥斯托佛斯凯合作。据奥斯托佛斯凯称，他们将公司命名为Internet REIT公司，花了2.5亿美元，可能更多的金额，快速地购买他们所能发现的域名所有者持有的好域名。（据记录称，奥斯托佛斯凯于1999 年12月，以750万美元的价格公开销售了Business.com域名。）
当马丁、奥斯托佛斯凯和拉宾合作创建事业时，拉宾对域名知之甚少。他随后开展了一些研究，并被研究成果震惊了。“直航”访问流量是一种增长中的现象，而固定成本是最小的。预计美国广告业主在2010 年以前将在网络上投入260亿美元，大致相当于目前的两倍。他立刻联想到十年前的广告牌产业，那时Clear Channel和Viacom公司大量收买小操作员。“我们还处于了手工卷制雪茄烟的阶段，”39岁的拉宾说，“这个市场容量可能将达到十亿美元级别。"
马丁、奥斯托佛斯凯和拉宾的团队在德尔雷海滩会议期间辛苦地运作着。作为一名销售商，奥斯托佛斯凯直截了当地询问：“你的域名是什么？你的域名月流量是多少？你在寻求多高的增长倍数？”奥斯托佛斯把叶云的崇拜者巴利亚那克斯拉在一旁如是问到。巴利亚那克斯在纽约市皇后区他的公寓里运作着网站，拥有不到100 个域名，但至少其中一个域名是极其难得的: Cellphones.com。这个网站上只有一个简单的网页，上面有些相关的链接，能够给他带来平均每天1300美元的收入。
昨晚，巴利亚那克斯把整个晚上都花在德尔雷海滩参加Internet REIT公司的聚会上，不断地将灰鹅伏特加酒和补剂一饮而尽。当他凌晨回到他的旅馆客房时，发现他的门底下有一份总报价为420万美元的合同。而1996 年，他仅为Cellphones.com这个域名花了90美元。“当我回到我的母校第10 高中参加同学聚会时，我自己暗想，‘谁能笑到现在？’”巴利亚那克斯说。
当奥斯托佛斯凯评估域名时，他会谈到像“思想分享”等模糊的概念。但像所有顶级的域名投资者一样，他和团队会分析网络流量数据。Internet REIT公司会估算出一个域名能导向的公司所属的一些网站，如Officesupply.com（办公用品供应网）的虚拟库存上有着各种供货商和产品的链接。但他们期待的是， 支付每次点击的商业模式能够运作起来。
在他位于休斯敦市的办公室里，奥斯托佛斯凯每晚都会在网上反复地寻找预期卖家直到很晚。那也是为什么在费城9月的一个晚上，他之所以和玛丽及鲍伯·本兹夫妇在他们家中结束谈判的原因。玛丽及鲍伯·本兹夫妇都是医生，他们从1995年开始把购买域名当作一项爱好。他们买到了他们所喜欢的一些域名，如Heartdisease.com（心脏病网）、Highbloodpressure.com（高血压网）、Athletesfoot.com（香港脚网）。他们为其中一些域名开发了网站，增加了相关内容。他们还为其它一些域名设置了简单的首页及相关的广告链接。
在整整一个晚上的谈话后，奥斯托佛斯凯和本兹夫妇达成了交易，Internet REIT公司会为购买他们的101个域名支付360万美元。专门研究肾脏疾病的鲍伯·本兹说, “这比当医生更能赚得多。”
许多因素都能破坏掉域名投资者的聚会。网络广告可以转变风向。对于付费搜索产业而言，一些人可以编写程序反复点击付费链接，这样导致的点击欺骗产生了一个更大的问题，使得广告业主不情愿付费，整个模式因此完全改变。或者，网站因为变得商业化而被网络冲浪者厌恶。
但域名投资者认为，他们拥有的域名是财富。“如果您拥有房地产，” 拉宾认为，“人们在某个时候会很快就抛售掉。”他估计, 华尔街很快会开始普遍跟风，提供机会进入公开市场。然后，象鲁伯特·默多克、巴里·迪勒等网络大家将会大肆收购域名所有者手中的域名。一些人甚至推测正在进入付费搜索市场的Google、Yahoo或微软公司，将席卷域名投资者，删去中间层，让“直航”访问流量直接为他们的广告业主服务。
与此同时，Google 和Yahoo公司设法继续保持“直航”访问流量的来临，这两个公司的主管们都在利用参加德尔雷海滩会议的机会，寻找能够掌控“直航”访问流量的高手。当在德鲁克斯夜总会放松过后，14 名Yahoo公司的董事和一些域名投资者扎堆钻入加长悍马车里，其中包括席林，他手头拥有了一个Yahoo公司为他的网站上的所有广告提供服务的排他性合同。在州际95号公路上，大型高级轿车向着南边35 英里斯嘉丽绅士俱乐部驶去。在那里，大家可以在有着长毛绒和红色天鹅绒帷幕的VIP 房里尽情享受着。
当负责这个区域的女主管前来要求买单时，Yahoo公司的人员都显得紧张，没人想要递交1000美元的报帐单给总部的财务部门。最后，席林掏出一卷现金把钱付了。对于一个拥有一架喷气机股份的人来说，这不是一件大不了的事情。如果知道席林去年的网络流量收入超过Yahoo公司的36亿美元收入的1%的话，你会认为那些人的当中一个会站起来，一个人为整个团队买单的。
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When Ye was building his portfolio, there was really only one way to make money from names--reselling them. That began to change in 2003 as paid search--developed and pushed by Overture, now part of Yahoo, and current market leader Google--started to take off. The technology powering the whole thing is complex, but not the basic business model: Advertisers pay only when someone clicks on their ads. And to get their links listed high in search results--or on a domainer's page that someone lands on by typing a name into a Web browser--they bid on keywords.
Generic names are gold for domainers, but names that target a specific audience are also valuable. Take, for instance, people looking for information on anorexia or bulimia. Type the phrase "eating disorders" into Yahoo's search engine and an ad from Remuda Ranch treatment center in Wickenburg, Ariz., appears across the top of the results. To win that spot, Remuda pays Yahoo handsomely--$3.06 per click was the price when Business 2.0 checked in early November. But the way many people looking for the same information go about it is to type
www.eatingdisorders.com into their Web browser. That takes them to a page with five links to treatment centers, and again Remuda sits at the top of the page. But here's the difference: Click on it from this page and the $3.06 Remuda pays Yahoo for the referral gets shared with the domainer who owns the name.
In this case, that's Frank Schilling, a reclusive man who has quietly become one of the world's most powerful and respected domainers. Schilling bought the name in late 2002 for $1,100, snapping it up in an auction. It struck Schilling as a smart one to own since eating disorders are common. "What I didn't realize," he says, "is that more than 100 people a day blindly type the name into their address bar." Today, he says, the site gets around 120 click-throughs a day, providing steady, easy cash.
Ironically, Schilling came close to selling off his portfolio at the same time as Ye--until Vice President Dick Cheney inadvertently persuaded him to keep building his business. It was the evening of Oct. 5, 2004. Schilling, who is 36, was monitoring his sites from the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla., where he and his family had been living since Hurricane Ivan leveled their house in the Cayman Islands a month earlier. As Schilling was scanning traffic data, he noticed that something wasn't right. An enormous burst of traffic was threatening to take down his servers.
He pulled up Google News, quickly discovering the culprit. The vice presidential debate between Cheney and Sen. John Edwards was going on, and to defend his record, Cheney told viewers to look at Factcheck.com. Cheney had meant to say Factcheck.org, a site run by the University of Pennsylvania. Factcheck.com was one of Schilling's.
Schilling had two options: Take down his servers, which could cost him tens of thousands of dollars in traffic to his other sites, or redirect Factcheck.com surfers elsewhere. The onslaught was useless to him, after all, since he only makes money when a visitor clicks on an advertiser's link. No fan of the Bush administration, Schilling thought of an anti-Bush ad that financier George Soros had run in the Wall Street Journal. Seconds later, he pointed the surging traffic to GeorgeSoros.com, so that anyone seeking out Cheney's record--and many millions did--was greeted with the message "Why We Must Not Reelect George Bush."
For Schilling, it was an epiphany. At the time, he had an offer on the table to sell his portfolio for more than $100 million; the potential purchaser, whom Schilling won't disclose, was in the middle of auditing his business. The experience--a flood of people surging across the Internet and ending up at a page he controlled--made Schilling realize that the value of domain names would become exponentially greater over time. "A few keystrokes and look what I did," says Schilling, flipping back his shoulder-length blond hair and typing into the air. "It was totally surreal." Since the night of the debate, he's added another 100,000 names to his portfolio, bringing his holdings to more than 300,000--cash-generating generic names that are again attracting well-financed suitors.
One of those suitors is Rabin, a soft-spoken man who keeps a white handkerchief tucked into his suit jacket pocket. Rabin runs a private fund called Jacobson Family Investments from the 56th floor of Carnegie Hall Tower, a suite with sweeping views of Central Park and uptown New York City. It's a fitting view, since the Internet in 2005 looks to Rabin a lot like Manhattan 100 years ago--awash in real estate opportunities.
Rabin teamed up a year ago with a Harvard-trained finance whiz named Bob Martin and domain speculator Marc Ostrofsky. They named their company Internet REIT and, according to Ostrofsky, are spending $250 million, probably far more, buying out domain owners as fast as they can find good names. (Ostrofsky, for the record, was the man who pulled off the much-publicized sale of Business.com for a reported $7.5 million in December 1999.)
When Martin and Ostrofsky approached Rabin about forming a business, Rabin knew little about domains. Then he did some research and was astounded. Type-in traffic is a growing phenomenon, the fixed costs are minimal, and U.S. advertisers are expected to spend $26 billion on the Internet by 2010--roughly double the current level. He immediately thought of the billboard industry a decade ago, before Clear Channel and Viacom bought up the small operators. "We've only just begun the roll-up phase," says Rabin, 39. "This market will likely be in the billions."
The team of Martin, Ostrofsky, and Rabin is working the Delray Beach conference hard. Ostrofsky, the salesguy, dives right in: "What are your names? What's your monthly traffic? What kind of multiple are you looking for?" Ostrofsky pulls aside Bahlitzanakis, the Ye worshiper. Bahlitzanakis, who works from his apartment in Queens, N.Y., owns fewer than 100 names, but at least one is a gem: Cellphones.com. The site--a plain page with relevant links--makes an average of $1,300 a day.
Bahlitzanakis spends his last night in Delray Beach at an Internet REIT party, tossing back Grey Goose vodka and tonics. He returns to his hotel room in the early morning to find a contract under his door. Total price: $4.2 million. He paid $90 for the name in 1996. "I just went to my 10th high school reunion, and I thought to myself, 'Who's laughing now?'" Bahlitzanakis says.
Ostrofsky talks about fuzzy concepts like "mindshare" when it comes to evaluating a name. But like all the top domainers, he and his crew also analyze traffic data. Internet REIT figures it will run some of its sites, like Officesupply.com, as virtual stores, with links to suppliers and products. But they're expecting that the pay-per-click model will drive the business.
From his office in Houston, Ostrofsky trolls the Web late each night to find prospective sellers. That's how he ended up negotiating with Marie and Bob Benz at their home in Philadelphia one evening in September. The couple, both doctors, began buying names in 1995 as a hobby. They bought some they liked--Heartdisease.com,Highbloodpressure.com, Athletesfoot.com. In some cases, they developed the sites and added content; in others, they set them up as simple landing pages with relevant advertising links.
After an evening of talk, Ostrofsky and the Benzes reached a deal, and Internet REIT is paying $3.6 million for their 101 names. Says Bob Benz, who specializes in kidney diseases, "It's a lot more lucrative than being a doctor."
Plenty of things could spoil the domainers' party. Internet advertising could turn south. Click fraud, in which someone writes a program that repeatedly clicks on paying links, could become a bigger problem for the paid search industry, making advertisers reluctant to spend. The model itself could change entirely. Or sites could become so commercial that Web surfers sour on them.
But the way domainers look at it, they own the property. "And if you own the real estate," Rabin says, "people are going to wind up there at some point." Soon, he figures, Wall Street at large will begin to catch on, providing opportunities to tap into the public markets. Then big Internet players like Rupert Murdoch or Barry Diller could buy out the domain owners. Some even speculate that Google or Yahoo--or Microsoft, which is entering the paid search business--will roll up the domainers, cutting out a layer and serving up the type-in traffic directly to their advertisers.
In the meantime, Google and Yahoo are trying to keep the type-in business coming--and execs from both companies are using the Delray Beach conference to court the folks who control it. As the party at Delux winds down, 14 Yahoo executives pile into a stretch Hummer with a few of the domainers, including Schilling, who has an exclusive contract in which Yahoo serves all the ads for his sites. The limo heads 35 miles south on Interstate 95 to Scarlett's Gentlemen's Club. The men kick back in the VIP section, outfitted with plush booths and red velvet curtains.
When the woman in charge of the area comes by and mentions the cost of the booths, the Yahoo crew gets nervous. And in the end, no one wants to submit the $1,000 tab to the expense department back at headquarters. Finally, Schilling pulls out a roll of cash and pays up. Not a big deal for a guy who owns a share of a jet. But considering that Schilling's traffic generated more than 1 percent of Yahoo's $3.6 billion in revenues last year, you'd think one of those guys could have stood up and taken one for the team.
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