Online Ads $10K Reward: Tenagra's Grand Experiment

From: Cliff Kurtzman <cliff_at_tenagra.com>
Date: Thu 23 Dec 1999 01:42:04 -0600

As you may have noticed if you read the Digits column in
this morning's Wall Street Journal, your hosts here at
Online Ads have embarked on a bit of an experiment in
online marketing. I've put the Year2000.com domain name up
for auction on eBay, with a minimum asking price of
$1,000,000. In a true Y2K countdown, the auction will end
as the final seconds of 1999 draw to a close.

The Wall Stret Journal story is at (4th story on the page):
http://interactive5.wsj.com/articles/Digits.htm
(wsj.com requires a paid registration for access)

We created the Year 2000 Information Center in 1995 for a
single purpose--to create awareness of the Year 2000
computer problem and to get people to take the problem
seriously. To the best of our ability we achieved that goal,
and in the process accidentally created one of the most
financially successful ventures in online publishing.
Year2000.com has now served its purpose well and in the last
year of the millennium it can undoubtedly be put to better
use. So we are now hoping to find it a good home and have
a bit of fun in the process.

The auction is located on eBay at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=225003545

The current public record for the sale of a domain name is
$7.5 million, which was paid in November 1999 to Houstonian
Marc Ostrofsky (a member of my Houston YEO chapter) for his
sale of the Business.com name. There is a good article in
the Los Angeles Times on the high dollar value sale of
domain names at:

  Domain Name Trade Gives Rise to Whole New Breed of Brokers
  http://www.latimes.com/business/updates/lat_cuttingedge991213.htm

One question I've been asked a lot by the press in the last
few days is "who would want to buy Year2000.com and why."
I've listed a few reasons I've come up with below. Now I
wanted to ask for help from members of this list to come up
with additional ideas...

To spice things up a bit and motivate your best ideas, I'm
offering a reward. In return for e-mailing me your ideas,
either serious or silly, as to whom should best buy
Year2000.com for $1,000,000 or more and why, I'm offering a
$10,000 reward to the first person (whether a member of this
list or not) that suggests someone that actually ends up
buying the domain. Send your ideas to me at:

   y2kauction_at_year2000.com

I'll compile the ideas and send the best back out to this
list. If no one suggests the eventual domain buyer but
someone still buys the domain, I'll give the $10,000 reward
out to what I decide is the most clever entry among those
received. And finally, if we do get a buyer, I'll offer a
free dinner at next year's April 9, 2000 Tenagra Awards/Online
Ads dinner in New York City to the first 100 people that
submit a suggestion. If the domain sells, I promise we will
have _one heck_ of a party that night.

Here are some reasons for buying the domain that I've come
up with...

Probably one of the most compelling reasons someone would
want to buy Year2000.com is that the site comes with
approximately 25,000 links pointing to it, so it provides
instant traffic for someone. It might otherwise take
someone years to generate that kind of traffic and a lot
more than $1,000,000 (it took us 5 years of constant work
to get all those links in place).

A buyer would also be able to get some good mileage and
publicity out having the "web site of the year" for at least
the next 12 months. It will, after all, be year 2000 for
another 12 months past midnight December 31. It is only the
computer bug that will stop being a big problem at the end
of this year.

I'd think someone like M&M's might get some advertising
mileage out of it (MM is roman numerals for 2000).

There might be those that would find it of value to have
year2000.com because it is the first year of the 2000's, and
it will be the 2000's for another 1000 years.

Finally, there are those that might find it of historical
value. The role of the Internet on the rise and growth of
the Year 2000 industry has been unique in the history of the
Information Technology business sector. For the first time,
the Internet played a central role as catalyst in
facilitating the rapid growth of a new industry to respond
to a very real and significant crisis. For several years,
Year2000.com served as the primary central focal point for
that industry. -- so perhaps Bill Gates or some other
computer mogul will want to buy it...

Any other ideas are welcome at y2kauction_at_year2000.com

Feel free to forward this message to others to tell your
friends about the reward...

Hey, did someone on this list ask what Viral Marketing was?

The clock is ticking...

Best,

--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman, Ph.D.
President and CEO
The Tenagra Corporation
http://www.tenagra.com/

To avoid the Millennium Bomb
The advice on the Net is, "Stay calm."
You know you can lick it
There's ways you can fix it.
Go NOW: year2000.com.

(You can blame none other than Jim
Sterne for this corny limerick...)





Received on Thu Dec 23 1999 - 01:42:04 CST