Mike Berkens Invests in .XXX Domains

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Frank Schilling’s 7 figure investment in .XXX domain names as part of the ICM Registry’s Founders Program. I learned that another domain investor has also made a large investment in .XXX domain names, via the Founders Program.

Mike Berkens paid “into the six figures” for three .XXX domain names. His company acquired FreePorn.xxx, BlowJobs.xxx, and AnalSex.xxx. The actual purchase price isn’t being disclosed by Berkens or the ICM Registry.

The people behind the ICM Registry and their plans for the extension are big reasons for Berkens’ investment. According to Berkens:

“I think when you invest in a new extension your investing the registry as well, the people behind it and their vision and plan.

ICM has some very smart, determined people who also have the budget and desire to make a turn .XXX into one of the better known extensions throughout the world to compete with .com for adult material.

I also think their forthcoming micropayment system will have a big impact on the space.

Moreover I don’t think another adult oriented domain will be approved by ICANN in the new gTLD process and therefore I think .XXX will own the adult domain space.”

Websites on these domain names (not safe for work or those under the age of 18) went live this past week. Berkens used the web development services of DDC to launch these three websites.

It’s likely that FreePorn.xxx is one of the ten most valuable .XXX domain names. It’s a risky investment, but it could certainly pay off down the road, assuming .XXX takes off. In fact, Frank Schilling is hoping for a ten bagger when it comes to his investment (watch the video on Danno’s Blog  3:00 mark).

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

28 COMMENTS

  1. Here’s what ICM states on their website. If you own a domain in another TLD then you can apply to get the matching .xxx domain during Sunrise A (Ends October 28)

    Pretty shady business

  2. True to his word, Rick did not buy porno.xxx. I love that story he told about porno.com on domainsherpa. It is my all time favorite. I try to commit that story to memory to tell my friends. They absolutely love it.

  3. Interesting considering those are .com prices from the high times of 2008 or so. In fact I KNOW one of those in the .com that sold for a good amount was a bust and huge regret for the buyer. Apparently the .xxx will do much better…yikes!

    I also take 6 figures for all 3 to mean $100,001 because frankly even that amount doesnt make sense imo, more would be a head shaker.

  4. @Gnanes: What is shady about it? Sounds to me like Berkens took a smart early risk. Berkens is right, he is investing in the entire .XXX extension by buying domains early and developing them.

  5. I’m with Gnanes

    Selling off the top names before Sunrise looks shady

    smart if you can get away with it but its still missleading the public.

  6. The bottom line is what is happening with .XXX, is going to happen with virtually any new TLD.

    You can say what you want, but these kind of private deals do look shady. It is well connected insiders cutting private deals.

    The Average Joe never had a chance.

    Brad

    • “The Average Joe never had a chance.”

      @ Brad

      I guess the takeaway for us average Joes is that if there’s a name in a new extension we want to buy, we should be in touch with the Registry and make them an offer that is mutually beneficial. I suppose Mike could have waited until the names came to auction, but he connected with the Registry and made a deal via its Founders Program.

      ICM is a private company and they can allocate domain names as they wish. It behoves them to make the most money, but it’s also important for them to have owners develop and market their websites.

  7. Haha very tasteful selection. Sorry just made me laugh but in reality they are very good xxx domains. Personally when it comes to new extensions I think it’s best to stick to single words. Multiple words require a longer period of time generally to become killer in a new extension.

  8. Yawn. I don’t see .XXX catching on so fast, do you? I predict an uber-failure. It is priced WAY too high and is destined to die the same painful death as the new gTLDs. (Think .Travel, .Museum, .Aero, .Mobi, .Biz, .Aero and .Coop).

    Didn’t New.Net try .XXX several years ago? Yeah, we know how that ended.

    .Com rules. Period. End of discussion. Either BE the .Com owner or… compete against him while he steals your type in traffic, pilfers your misdirected domain based email and eats your cyber lunch.

  9. @ Rick

    freeporn.com gets according to compete 3.3 million visitors a month.
    If I can pick up 20% of that or 500K visitors a month on one domain I will convert them just fine. Been making money off of adult domains since 1997 and have made thousand a month off of one adult domain since 1999 which cost me $70 to register. If the domain gets serious traffic I will convert enough

    @Josh

    No the number wasn’t $100,001.

    You guys know that sex.net and porn.net sold within months of sex.com and porrn.com and the ratio was like 5% of value. If you think that .XXX domains are worth less than 1% of .com’s or 1/5 of a .net, hey you might be right but I think your wrong.

    @ Brad

    Under .co they gave the domains away under the founders programs for FREE, I think to those willing to recognize the opportunity early & willing to develop, Bahamas.co I wonder who got that domain in that fashion.

    @Bull

    Coming up to 25 years married already got the best girl in the world and she agreed to marry me when I didn’t have sh*t

    Mike from Wanna, your the only correct one, Frank got in EARLY before the extension got approved and got the best domains for the best prices.

    The rest

    The rules are set by the registry, they are opened to all. If you have interest step up to the plate, put your money down and take a shot, that is what investing is all about.

    Anyway you have all inspired a post that will be up in the AM

  10. As a general rule, I wouldn’t bet against Mike Berkens or Frank Schilling.

    There will be a few valuable extensions in just about every extension, but in the non-dotcom space the quantities are limited.

  11. It’s a big risk, and is too early for anyone to tell how well .xxx will do. Personally, I think viewers will see it as a “poor man’s” alternative to .com but there’s no denying that the identity is there and I guess we’ll all see what happens.

  12. @Elliot, a special thanks to you for sharing your experience with bahamas .co.
    That’s one of the reasons I dropped all the .COs and labelled them as crap.

    .COMs, .NETs, .ORGs a(nd ccTLDs for local markets) are the way to go.
    The rest is just pure gambling

  13. It’s on Sedo and it lists the traffic at about 10,000 hits a month. For the best adult domain in the entire TLD, you would expect a little more than that. So, I am a bit skeptical that it will go for more than six figures.

    My take on .co has been that the domains are very good for branding but do not receive a particularly high amount of natural traffic.

    However, I do wish .co and this domain owner all the best in this auction. I look forward to watching the whole thing go down.

  14. @OuMun

    “That’s one of the reasons I dropped all the .COs and labelled them as crap.”

    Maybe you dropped all your .COs because they would have been crap even in .COM.

  15. @Joe
    Lol, I wished that was true but if I owned 1/3 of my .co domain names in .com version, I probably would be storing cash with a caterpillar.
    No offence to all of you .co fan boys, but if Google isn’t going to love the extension you can buy all of them, you aren’t going to make a dime out of it (I’m talking about developing a .CO)

    I use the web for work (not domaining), I make a gazillion of searches on Google for any kind of things and never happened to see a .CO.

    Keep investing in .COMs, that’s what the great lord Google is screaming to me!

  16. All that glitters is not gold. I had porn.net leased a couple of years ago, it got so little type-in traffic that I had to drop the lease after only a couple of months.

    If the .com is a high profile, natural destination, sometimes the net gets very little direct navigation traffic.

    The .xxx rollout rules change daily, names that were available under Sunrise A, disappear daily under the “Reserved by ICM Registry for Premium Generic Domain Names Program”.

    They have effectively now removed all top 200 adult type-in domain names from Sunrise A, to be sold privately to the highest bidder.

    Cheers!

  17. HI guys,
    I have bought anobit.xxx domain…the company APPLE just took over for half a billion…hw much cud i get for d domain…if anyone interested in buying it call your price for it..

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