Tube.xxx and Tubes.xxx Sold for $750,000

[Pornflix]

http://www.thedomains.com/2014/01/23...?asid=67f9dff6

ICM Registry the operator of the .XXX Top Level Domain announced today that they have sold the domain names Tube.xxx and Tubes.xxx for $750,000 cash.

The buyer of the domains, is the same company which has bought many of ICM?s highest .XXX domain sales; Really Useful, whose chairman JT is was a founding member of YouPorn.com.

Some of the other premium .XXX domains acquired by Really Useful and JT include Teen.xxx which they acquired for $400,000, Orgasms.xxx, Erotic.xxx, Casting.xxx, BDSM.xxx, Mature.xxx, PublicSex.xxx and Czech.xxx

JT said, ?I have been working on a hybrid tube model for some time and buying tube.xxx and tubes.xxx was a no brainer. I chose to launch with an .XXX domain over a .com due to the impressive stats on our existing .XXX sites as compared directly to our .com equivalents. I have also been studying the results that other major players in the industry are achieving with their .XXX sites, specifically the prominent rankings of .XXX domains within Google search results. Tube.xxx will contain our own exclusive content and offer the visitors a network pass to both our ?sensual? and ?fake? genres and brands. These brands are some of the strongest in the industry.?<

Really Useful is based in the Turks and Caicos Islands, operates 17 websites; many of them operating under the .XXX domains stated in this release above as well as other well known brands such as FakeTaxi.com, MassageRooms.com and FakeAgent.com.

ICM Registry also operates a search engine at Search.XXX and recently rolled out a directory on XXX.XXX

[30SalesPlus]

JT is one smart dude!

[Emil]

omg, what a waste of money.

[~Ray]

seems like a good time to buy.

[lucas131]

lets hope those domains will be really useful

[epicsexmoney]

.xxx is no good for the biz. Easy possibility of censorship

[John.]

These prominent rankings for .xxx domains in the SERPS are talked about a lot, I have yet to see them myself.

[mafia_man]

Just free porn:

http://www.torrent.xxx/

Weren't they supposed to prevent warez on this TLD?

[rogueteens]

what a waste of money

[BlackCrayon]

you've go to wonder why reallyuseful continues to overpay big time for .xxx domains from icm. what is the real deal?

[seeandsee]

Is that really that worth?

[InfoGuy]

.xxx is a waste of money. This quote from Michael Berkens basically says it all about buying .xxx

2014 January 23
Tony Lam permalink

To MHB,

You probably won?t answer me but here goes. If you can do it over, would you buy again at the prices you did? Yes, 20/20 hindsight, etc, etc, but I?m still curious.

------------------------------------------------

2014 January 23
Michael Berkens permalink

Tony

Why wouldn?t I answer you Tony?

The answer is No

[JockoHomo]

Seems excessive but then again, if you are in the business and have the cash it is a tax deductible expense after all if nothing else.

[SomeCreep]

He overpayed... and by a lot. Tube.xxx and tubes.xxx combined is not even worth 5 figures, intrinsically. He's betting that .xxx's will appreciate in value over time just like .com's did. What he is failing to realize is that .com was propelled by every business in every sector in every part of the world. That is why .com is so valuable. No one supports .xxx. Not even the adult industry as a whole. .Xxx only exists so that mainstream can more easily identify and censor/block adult websites and so that registrars can monetize yet another new donain extension.

[Ruseful]

.xxx is a waste of money. This quote from Michael Berkens basically says it all about buying .xxx

With hindsight, I would have bought a lot more .xxx domains when I was part of the founders program back in 2011. The reason I didn't was because my company had not launched any websites at that point and I could not afford more. The first 2 sites I launched in September 2011 were the first ever .xxx sites to go live, namely casting.xxx and orgasms.xxx. The revenues generated paid back the domain purchases within 6-8 weeks of launch. Since then, the revenues from those 2 .xxx domains enabled me to launch new site after new site. In my network I now have 17 of the highest rated websites of all time on the tubes. On the .xxx extension, in addition to the 2 mentioned above, I have mom.xxx and StrapOn.xxx

I have over the past 12-18 months, been adding to my collection of .xxx domain names, with some high profile ones being announced to the industry. Prior to me buying tube.xxx and tubes.xxx for $750k, I purchased teen.xxx for $400k, and a deal for BDSM.xxx, Mature.xxx, PublicSex.xxx which stood me in $200k. I also own the domains massage.xxx, Czech.xxx, party.xxx, erotic.xxx, callgirl/s.xxx, girlfriends.xxx, audition.xxx, agents.xxx, escortagency.xxx, kiss.xxx, 360.xxx cloud.xxx, mega.xxx and around 150 others. F*ck, I even own boycott.xxx

Not all of these domains were purchased from ICM, some were purchased from people who registered them on general release for the $80, and they did very well out of the small investment. And regarding the purchases, quite obviously, I am not paying for these domains in one hit. ICM registry don't hide the fact that ANYONE can approach them for a domain on their "premium domain" list, present a business plan and repayment schedule, and if favourable, you pay your deposit and ICM will release the domain to you. It is what I have done with most of the keyword domains that I have purchased, and I have a LOT of keyword domains.

Also, another huge factor in me investing so much money into .xxx domains lately is the fact that ICM Registry have won the rights to .porn and .adult, and they are expecting to be successful at auction for .sex. ICM registry are grandfathering the rights for .porn and .adult to .xxx owners. So, with the my purchases of teen.xxx and mature.xxx for example, I will also have the domain teen.porn, mature.porn. (and .adult and maybe .sex). You see, you get 3 domains for the price of 1, potentially 4. That means that I can launch 3 or 4 separate websites on the 1 purchase.

Additionally, I have all the search term stats from YouPorn from late 2006 till the sale in May 2011. We used to get over 600m searches a month in our internal search engine. This gives me a very clear insight to the category killing keywords. As and when I can afford them, I purchase more.

The reason I purchased tube.xxx and tubes.xxx?
1. sentimental reasons because of my background.
2. One of the objectives of launching a pay site network was to emulate the tube sites of today. To achieve this, I had to build out a network of the best possible stand alone websites. I did this from the knowledge and experience gleaned from the content partnership program we launched at YouPorn in March 2007. Quite simply, from the inside of a tube site, you get to learn what the typical user wants to see and how to deliver. I studied the content on YouPorn on a daily basis, and still do, looking for what users liked, what they didn't, and worked with the content partners to make their clips perform better, with fantastic results. YouPorn, for many pay sites, was the lifeblood to them keeping the site running. We were the #1 affiliate for most content partners that submitted their content to us, especially those that accepted our help.

Please look at this link: http://www.youporn.com/channels/most_popular/alltime/ You will see that of the top 12 highest rated websites of all time on YouPorn, 10 of them are mine. Its only Nubiles and BRCC that are not.

I am now in a position to launch the tube site that I have been working hard at for 3 years. In this time, I went from a staff of 4 people to over 80 currently today. My teams shoot in excess of 150 full scenes per month exclusively for my network. I have crews in London, Prague, Budapest, Florida and LA. All this has been made possible by simply joining the content partner programs of the major tubes, and delevering clips that their users will like. I wrote a guide on how to monetize the tubes, you can download it here: https://content.porntube.com . There is no secret to what I do.

Yes, I only have 4 .xxx domains live in all this time, however, many of the keyword.xxx domains I purchased was to monetize my existing content. For example, agents.xxx will be a culmination of FakeAgent.com, FemaleAgent.com, FakeAgentuk.com, and PublicSex.com will consist of FakeTaxi.com and PublicAgent.com. I recently launched a compilation site that consisted of all my cream pie scenes, under LoveCreampie.com, and we took over $5k in revenues in the first month.

In the advent of the 1,000's of gTld's being released, the search engines "have" to change. the users need to adapt they way they search. Please watch this short video by Frank Shilling, the worlds biggest domineer, and the early adopter of .xxx domains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p75KeJN9D0E He explains it way better than I could ever do. This video was fundamental in me embarking on the recent spending spree.

In writing this post, I have tried to be as honest and open as possible. Hoping to give you an insight into why I am spending so much money on .xxx domains and why this is working for me. I am not trying to antagonise you or anyone and really don't want to start a riot. For sure, there are still .xxx haters on GFY, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Its clear that .xxx is not for everyone.

My closing note is that, as long as you pay your renewals, your .xxx domain will last generations. I have 6 kids, and I plan to leave them a legacy of some of the most powerful domains in the adult industry. .xxx is gaining traction, with the imminent launch of .porn and .adult, the extensions will be gaining speed. It may take another year, 2 years, 3 or 4 years to really deliver on the promises, but I for one, am grabbing as many keywords as I possibly can.

[TrafficTitan]

What domains did Michael Berkens buy and at what price?

[Pornflix]

My closing note is that, as long as you pay your renewals, your .xxx domain will last generations. I have 6 kids, and I plan to leave them a legacy of some of the most powerful domains in the adult industry. .xxx is gaining traction, with the imminent launch of .porn and .adult, the extensions will be gaining speed. It may take another year, 2 years, 3 or 4 years to really deliver on the promises, but I for one, am grabbing as many keywords as I possibly can.

Good job JT, keep doing what you are doing
You give hope to all of us small fries

[BossDVDs]

If I had to guess the sale price was much less and this was a PR stunt ... This thread would be an example of why it'd be worth the song n dance.

[dyna mo]

If I had to guess the sale price was much less and this was a PR stunt ... This thread would be an example of why it'd be worth the song n dance.

[amateurcanada]

Just free porn:

http://www.torrent.xxx/

Weren't they supposed to prevent warez on this TLD?

LMAO, yes - that was part of the mission statement.

[slavdogg]

ICM has been honest about its domain sales.
There is no reason to suspect this sale or any other .XXX sale was bullshit.


If tube.xxx is worth $750k
Whats http://www.tube.com worth ?

[Maqua]

I have tubesos.com hehe not quite tube or tubes

[BaldBastard]

I remember pulling up a list of thousands of tube domains in 98, and thinking.. tube, whats that got to do with porn? and passing on them all... kicks self in head.

[mineistaken]

Congrats to the winners is in order here.

[mineistaken]

I remember pulling up a list of thousands of tube domains in 98, and thinking.. tube, whats that got to do with porn? and passing on them all... kicks self in head.

How come it was even considered for the list? I mean did tube have any meaning in the internet/website world before youtube?

[BaldBastard]

I would of been looking at non adult names, probably tubing and stuff like that, I was doing a lot of adult at the time and script automatically put adult keywords in the mix.

[DVTimes]

Hope it makes you money.

To me xxx is not worth anything. Also I think it makes banning these domains realy easy.

To me domain names will each year be worth less and less as more people each year are moving from the pc to the mobile and tablets were most will just use phone apps rather than websites. Most people I know now do not use there laptops except to write a letter or a long email, as they just go on there mobile.

but for $750,000 i think if i was reallyusefulcash i would have used the cash to start another of there fake sites as they seem to be doing very well.

faketaxi was a good idea.

the other problem is that most people know and only use the big 4. most probably only use xhamster. i know its the only tube i look at. so to start a new tube, is going to take ages to get people interested unless Tubes.xxx is going to be a paysite.

[DVTimes]

Hope it makes you money.

To me xxx is not worth anything. Also I think it makes banning these domains realy easy.

To me domain names will each year be worth less and less as more people each year are moving from the pc to the mobile and tablets were most will just use phone apps rather than websites. Most people I know now do not use there laptops except to write a letter or a long email, as they just go on there mobile.

but for $750,000 i think if i was reallyusefulcash i would have used the cash to start another of there fake sites as they seem to be doing very well.

faketaxi was a good idea.

the other problem is that most people know and only use the big 4. most probably only use xhamster. i know its the only tube i look at. so to start a new tube, is going to take ages to get people interested unless Tubes.xxx is going to be a paysite.

[Maqua]

How come it was even considered for the list? I mean did tube have any meaning in the internet/website world before youtube?

At that time bandwidth costs were a arm and a leg, we were lucky to even have one or two videos on a site, back then it was megs not gigs hehe and we still paid a grand a month for hosting and that was a small plan were now it costs 20$

[XXXtrailers]

I don't know any popular .xxx paysite

[BaldBastard]

At that time bandwidth costs were a arm and a leg, we were lucky to even have one or two videos on a site, back then it was megs not gigs hehe and we still paid a grand a month for hosting were now it costs 20$

I paid 75 per domain a month 5 meg free with $3 per meg thereafter. Internic would let me trial a domain for 3 months I think it was til I had to pay for it ;) Register/ spam them up/ submit go back in 3 months and see if it was making bank, delete those that didn't, rinse and repeat. 2014 I still make money online, hide in my own lil niches not dependant on anyone.. Google included. Best adult reoccurring site I ever promoted was SweetT's casting couch, which had a 3 meg downloadable.. video of the week.

National Net ROCKS!

[Nickatilynx]

If JT thinks its worth the money....it most likely is if you go by track record in this business.

[DamianJ]

the other problem is that most people know and only use the big 4. most probably only use xhamster. i know its the only tube i look at. so to start a new tube, is going to take ages to get people interested unless Tubes.xxx is going to be a paysite.

Yeah, if only the OP had a clue how to make tubes work, right?

[Ju$th00kuP]

Dammm Nice Work.

[rastan]

If JT thinks its worth the money....it most likely is if you go by track record in this business.

If Nick thinks that JT thinks it's worth it, then it probably is.
8)

[Ruseful]

I am not looking for justification on anything I do, not least the price I have paid for the recent acquisition of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx. But I do feel that an explaination as to why I have made this purchase will hopefully help you understand better.

I was part of the team that grew YouPorn from zero (Aug 2006) to 370m users a month (May 2011). We did not buy traffic, we launched the industries first content partner program, purchased $m's of dollars of licensed content and within months of our launch on 26th August 2006, we did not rely on user uploads. This is testament to the sheer lack of DMCA's we used to receive each month.

It was not by accident that we had an average page view per visitor of over 10, which was near 50% more than that of our competitors. It was our choice NOT to have pop unders on the site, even though the high 6 figure offers were on the table on a near weekly basis. We chose NOT to save 10's of $1,000's of dollars a month by throttling our bandwidth, so very rarely did our videos buffer, even in late 2006. We also discovered that instead of adding new banner spots to the site, that when we removed them, it had a very positive affect on page views. Having less banners on our site actually increased our ad revenue. Vendors would bid 2-3 times higher on our ad space than those on comparable tubes, because CTR on our banners were 2-3 times higher. You see, only a small percentage of users have a "click" in them post masturbation. Serving less, but more relevant, more appealing banners, helped us increase the CTR, thus increasing the demand and revenues.

We also listened to our users, and had a 3 strike rule. If we received 3 similar complaints about a product or banner for instance, the service would be removed, reviewed and adapted or replaced. Also, we only did 2 major changes on YouPorn in the time we had it. In 2007 we changed the logo and in 2008, we changed the framework to show 5 thumbnails in a row instead of 4. The YouPorn users didn't like us modifying the site, and they were very vocal about it. They were also very forward with their thoughts and ideas on how to make YouPorn even better.

We did not run video ads for a long time, and when we did, we pre approved each and every one. We were very protective over the user, and would not subject them to some of the nasty video banners that you see today.

As with the content partner program, we were industry first at launching many user experience enhancements. For instance, we created the "we recommend" algorithm. We could footprint a users activity, and after only 6 visits, we could categorize that user. This enabled us to know what the user liked, what he is likely to find appealing in the future, and deliver content on that data. For many users, the "we recommend" section was their first port of call. This also enabled us to serve banners that were relevant and appealing to that user. It also helped us identify the types of niche that we were lacking on content, and we would go and buy the rights to this type of content, to give to the users for free. If you can second guess what a user is going to like, and provide that for them, you have a happy, returning user, that will tell his friends about your site. With our algorithm, we were quite a few steps ahead of the user in that respect.

YouPorn was often described to as the peoples tube, it was a brand, a cult, a very loyal user base. Thats what Manwin bought from us in May 2011. Is it the same site today? No. Has YouPorn become "just another tube"? In my opinion, yes. Do I think it makes more money today that it did when we had it? Hell yeah!!! We were a team of 7, Manwin/MindGeek have 100's of staff, optimising even the smallest of revenue streams, of course they make more money.

So there you have a little piece of history on how the incredible team at YouPorn did what we did. Which leads me to why I have paid $500k and $250k for tube.xxx and tubes.xxx respectively. I am not looking to justify the price I paid. If I wanted to do that, I would answer the calls from my ex wife.

As my previous post alluded, I have reached the pinnacle point with my pay sites that now enables me to start my own tube site. It needs NO support from content partners, I will NOT buy traffic, I will NOT be selling advertising and I will NOT be accepting user uploads. But what I will be doing is creating a very unique, and in my opinion, the perfect tube site, based solely on my experience.

So, what will I do with tube.xxx and tubes.xxx? First, let me explain the issues that the tubes face today:

Last year, on the YouPorn blog, they asked users "How can we make YouPorn better?" 2 of every 3 posts was "Please remove the disgusting video banners". Unfortunately, for a user, these video banners have the biggest CTR you will find and make the most money for the tube. For me personally, I HATE it when I am looking at a very sensual video on a tube, for the NTV A and B banners to have very rough or violent sex video banners playing. I guess I am part of the 66% of tube users that also detest these banners. Take on board their comments about im ads, audio on pop unders and other annoying revenue generating methods that have crept onto the tubes, and that 66% increases to 75-80%. Those are users that are unhappy with their experience. Every tube does the same as the next, so that is why tubes are not seeing the loyalty that we did at YouPorn. Remove those traits, and suddenly you have a tube that will give those users the experience they deserve, and trust me, there are millions of them, each and every day. They won't all find tube.xxx or tubes.xxx on the first day of their launch, and I am in no hurry for them to do so. But when they do find them, history (and data) tells me they will stick around.

The first to launch will be tube.xxx. This tube will only consist of my own brands content. Brands such as FakeTaxi.com, MassageRooms.com, FakeAgent.com, mom.xxx, StrapOn.xxx, which are some of the strongest brands not only on the tubes, but the industry as a whole.

Why will tube.xxx work? An existing tube user has been exposed to all of my brands. And I built each of my brands from within the tube environment, by joining the content partnership programs of them all. Each day, my tube edited videos from each brand are amongst the highest viewed and highest rated videos on every major tube. It is estimated that we have on average, 8-10m video views a day across the tubes. From this exposure, we have around 15m visitors to my pay sites per month. I'll let you do the math on possible sales ratios and the revenues I generate on that traffic.

On tubes.xxx I will launch a carbon copy of tube.xxx but open this up to a few select pay site networks, those that allowed me to work with them over the years, helping them build their brands, as I did, within the tubes. Working with editors of these companies helping them edit the best possible tube edit from their full length videos. Making sure that they only put out the best possible representation of their brand with each video. So, on tubes.xxx you will have, not only my highest rated content, but content of other highest rated websites on the tubes. Its about quality, and not quantity. Of course, there are strict caveats to being invited to participate.

People often questioned (but thanked) me for sharing with them my knowledge of the tubes and my proven business model in monetizing them. I did this, not only because I am a nice guy, but knowing that one day, I will create an exclusive, invitation only tube site that will be unrivalled in the industry.

I?ll also give you an insight into the revenues I make and why the sale prices stated in the press releases are in fact true, and achievable for my company.

I soft launched FakeHospital.com on Sunday 19th Jan 2014. Today, Friday 24th Jan 2014, I have over 700 members. On immediate revenue, another 6 days and I would have received back 100% of my outlay on the site. Looking at lifetime member value, I made my initial investment back in the first 3 days. The first tube clip hit yesterday, on YouPorn, it had over 1/2m views in the first 24 hours, already the highest viewed clip of the week and had a CTR of 2.34% on the banner. There were 62,701 unique visitors to the FakeHospital.com yesterday alone. This site alone will pay for tube.xxx and tubes.xxx by autumn 2014.

We also saw the same impressive results when we launched FakeTaxi.com, but this site took a little longer for me to break even, 16 days in fact on instant revenues. MassageRooms.com took me 21 days.

Every minute of my time spent with YouPorn, I was planning for my pay site network, planning the sites I would launch, and the day I launch tube.xxx, will make all those endless hours of watching porn and staring at data worthwhile.

I launched my first pay site in September 2011 and reinvested every penny into new sites. 2 years and 4 months later, I have grown from 1 site to 17, from a staff of 4, to over 80 today. I don't have a fetish for hiring staff, but I do have a blue print for what?s needed to support each new site and I do not sway from that.

I'll be the first to admit, its happened a lot quicker than I originally planned.

So, to answer all the questions:

Did I really pay the prices mentioned in the statements issued by ICM? Yes, but most on a payment plan schedule that is offered to each and everyone of you.

Am I happy with the purchase of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx? I set my heart on these domains in 2011, so I couldn?t be happier, really.

Have I over paid for them? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me, so is value. I am very comfortable with the prices I have paid.

Would I have paid more? Absolutely, and ICM knew that, but they are as excited as me to see these domains launch.

[bluebook18]

JT will not spend that huge amount if he didn't know what he's been doing.

[Nicky]

If JT thinks its worth the money....it most likely is if you go by track record in this business.

[BlackCrayon]

you could of gotten those domains for a fraction of the price. ICM is spending way more moeny than it makes and its going to have to do something or sink.

[The Porn Nerd]

JT, what is your split with the various tube sites? 50/50 revshare or do you give them 60/40, 70/30 etc? Or PPS?

I will be contacting you with my new elegant erotic network to see how we can promote on your new tubes. Best of luck with these projects!!

[adultchatpay]

I have no comment when the big gun is speaking.

[Ruseful]

Bulk standard 50/50 and I get no bro favours either

[robwod]

JT: I added you to Skype. Let's chat for a moment when you get online.

[Paul&John]

Finally an interesting thread good luck with tube.xxx

[The Porn Nerd]

Bulk standard 50/50 and I get no bro favours either

Well that's interesting because I see your videos being posted on the major tubes 8-10+ times a day, every single day, while myself (and others) seem to be able to only get videos posted about once a day (at best) or maybe once a month (at worst). So makes me wonder why your videos get posted so many times while others with similar content (and similar CTR and signups) get extremely less postimgs?

But then, when I check non-Manwin tubes I do not see the same numbers for your videos (views, number of vids) so methinks there's something else going on here. You may not be getting "bro favours" but you're definitely getting SOME kind of special treatment, treatment that companies like Met-Art, X-Art, myself and others do not seem to be getting. And I am sorry, tho your content is stellar, it is not "more stellar" than the sites I mentioned.

Still, congrats on the success.

[sandman!]

i dont see the value but thats just me

[srockhard]

JT thank you for the amazing insight and strategy! It's been a couple months since I've seen great read on GFY like this. I'd like to hear more about the payment options at ICM and how that works.

[Roald]

.....
Am I happy with the purchase of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx? I set my heart on these domains in 2011, so I couldn?t be happier, really.

Have I over paid for them? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me, so is value. I am very comfortable with the prices I have paid.
......

This is basically all that matters here.

[rocky1234]

JT is a player...

[candyflip]

you've go to wonder why reallyuseful continues to overpay big time for .xxx domains from icm. what is the real deal?

It's been speculated in the past that this is all just PR fluff.