Term "wealth" garners 185 million search results a month in the U.S. alone. The domain name "wealth.com" is for sale. Cambridge, Mass.-based Sedo, which runs a secondary market for domain names, is holding a private auction for the URL on 25 June 2009 on behalf of its owner TheInternetCompany.

Bidders have to be pre-qualified by 15 June.

"We have owned 'wealth.com' since 1996," says Don Cook of Wilmington, Del.-based TheInternetCompany. "Although we have had several attractive offers for the name over the years, we believe that now is the right time to monetize this asset and that an auction rather than a traditional sale is the best strategy."

Re-direct

The secondary market for domain names is pretty lively, and the top prices paid for domain names so far this year underscore the perceived value of strong generic names: $9.9 million for "fund.com," $5.1 million for "toys.com," $1.7 million for "fly.com" and the same amount for "auction.com."

Many companies use generic domain names -- which redirect to their main websites -- to improve their website's organic search ranking and save on pay-per-click advertising costs. Examples include Bank of America
(which owns "loans.com"), Monster.com
("jobs.com"), Fidelity ("funds.com") and CNN.com ("money.com").

"These domains have the power to improve company web traffic and search results dramatically, while creating instant brand credibility that will last well beyond the economic downturn," says Sedo's COO Jeremiah Johnston. "The Internet has been flooded with searches for finance as millions are re-evaluating their approach to wealth management."

The term "wealth" is searched through Google more than 1.5 million times a month -- just in the in the U.S. This results in over 185 million search results, according to Sedo.

Those interested in bidding for "wealth.com" should contact Sedo's acquisition consultant Tessa Holcomb at 617-499-7242. -FWR

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