5 With… Rick London, National A-1 Advertising

Rick London is the owner/operator of National A-1 Advertising based in Philadelphia.   National A-1 owns some of the best domain names, including Free.com, Girls.com, Boys.com, Babies.com, Antiques.com, Fun.com, Teens.com, Divorce.com and many other great domain names. Additionally, National A-1 was the company who purchased Pizza.com after an auction involving another company fell through on Sedo.

The closely held company is very private, and I appreciate them granting an interview.   I look forward to a future conversation with Rick about the current market situation and how his company is coping.


ES: What was the first domain name you ever purchased, do you still own it, and what is your most recent acquisition?

RL: Do not recall.   Most recent better domain   Pillows.com

ES: When did you first realize the value of domain names, and when you began to purchase high value domains, how did you finance your expensive purchases?

RL: We have been in the business of marketing vanity telephone numbers for over fifteen years.   The business model for vanity telephone numbers and domains is the same. We have the funds from our many past and current business endeavors.


ES: How is your company coping with the decline of pay per click revenue?

RL: Revenue and business of all types does not always increase or stay the same.   We earn less money on our traffic domains but almost all of the better domains are not purchased based on their revenue.


ES: Do you regret ever buying or selling a domain name and why?

RL: Of course,   but in the general course of any business this happens. The less mistakes one makes the more successful they are.

ES: Is there anything you would trade your entire domain portfolio for?

RL: We would sell anything or everything for the right price.

ES: What is your end game with your domain investments?

RL: There is no exact “end game”. You never know what the future holds.   We would sell any domain to someone who needs it for a specific business and who would pay substantially more than the revenue dictates.   We are developing certain domains into what we hope are key sites that will generate substantial income for years to come.

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

14 COMMENTS

  1. He runs some adult businesses and one is called hotmovies.com which he makes a killing from.

    He is like alot of adult webmasters…..he made money in adult and invested in the mainstream.

    He is very smart!

  2. they surly own a lot of generic names and been a customer of ddc over the years.

    i didnt know they were in the adult field.. learn something each day..

    i wonder what domains will be developed cant wait to see there generics making a killing in the years to come.

    thanks elliot,

    j

  3. “almost all of the better domains are not purchased based on their revenue”

    Very important statement. Better domains are valuated on different criteria. “Better domains” have multiple levels of untapped revenue generation.

  4. They do have some fantastic domains and one of the best generic dot com portfolios around.

    As for their adult biz, it used to be good but they are losing market share each and every day.

    They lack focus and the biz model and offering is outdated.

    This is what happens when you own 5,000+ domains.

    Mike

  5. “We would sell anything or everything for the right price.” I am glad that he said that because even people that say that they will not ever sell a given domain name always have a price. There is always a price.

  6. Mike,

    What are you talk about? Losing focusing? Their sites gain traffic monthly and are on pace to do a 500 million dollars in sales in 2012. Please, explain yourself when you make such insane and thoughtless comments. They appear to be run quite well actually.

  7. LOL @ WTF

    Go do some research and check your facts, they are a bit out dated.. As for your 2012 prediction — here is another LOL

    Things will change at least a few more times in the adult biz by then… They always do.

    I used to push their hot movies, vod and other stuff… I know what I am talking about, what about you?

    Mike

  8. Tier 1 portfolio indeed.

    Do they also happen to own Succinct.com? 🙂

    Looking forward to a bit more meat from Rick in the follow-up.

    @M. Menius
    Agreed.

    I focus on end-users (primarily SMBs) with specific strategic business needs and can echo his comment.

    Advertisers love traffic, but they’re not my core customers.

  9. first of these guys are scam artists.. the guy’s name isn’t richard london it’s richard cohen.

    they were recently raided by the fbi, tax man, police, etc… mainly because they steal phone numbers, park numbers illegally, deal in porn and phone sex, and don’t pay sales and use tax on the equipment they use.

    stay away

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