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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。 （完） 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. 责任编辑：米尊 |