|
Interview:
Andres Kello, owner of TheRecordBreakingDomain.com
- 27th May 2006
Tell
us briefly about yourself?
My
name is Andres Kello and I'm a 25 year old entrepreneur.
I'm originally from Argentina but have lived in 5
different countries and speak 3 languages fluently.
I have recently moved back to beautiful Sydney to
live with my Australian girlfriend. I have a Bachelor
of Commerce in Finance and Management from the University
of New South Wales and, like most people, really hate
office jobs and working for someone else.
So
what is
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com?
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com
is a domain name I registered in October of 2005,
after quitting my day job, to break a World Record.
But it's a lot more than that, because this domain
will create the Most Publicized Ad in history, make
me a Multimillionaire, while giving me the opportunity
to give away millions to charity and my supporters,
so it's very powerful. It is for sale for US$12,000,001
(about A$16,000,000), making it the most expensive
address on the web ever, by $1…and only because
I'm making it so.
But
why would anyone pay US$12,000,001 for your domain?
Because
the second they do that, they break a World Record,
and the second that happens, the domain will be all
over the news making headlines across the globe. This
was proven by Sex.com,
when it broke the record in January, and it wasn't
even official. So can you imagine what will happen
to my domain when it breaks the record and is shown
all over the world, on the news, in magazines, on
the radio, in talk shows and newspapers? Everyone
is going to visit it to find out what the hell it
is. If every one around the world is visiting the
record breaking domain, then whatever lies behind
it will be viewed by hundreds of millions of people
all over the world. That's a lot of eyeballs. The
buyer will be able to take advantage of all those
visitors by directing the domain to wherever they
want, be it an Ad for their latest product, their
own web page, you name it. The value is in the hits
delivered, that is, the number of people seeing whatever
lies behind it. It will be the most viewed and well
known Ad ever, hence the most publicized Ad. No TV
commercial or publicity stunt will compare in terms
of exposure.
Isn't
$12,000,001 too much to spend on advertising though?
No,
it's not. Coke reportedly spent US$13 million for
Advertising during this year's American Superbowl
and Oscars.
So
what will happen after all the initial publicity?
This
isn't a one-shot publicity stunt. Of course, a big
part of the marketing value of this idea will come
from the immediate exposure after the sale, but you
have to remember, this domain will be literally buying
itself a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records,
the best-selling copyrighted book in history which
sells over 4 million copies every year in 37 different
languages. Now that's a lot of free ongoing publicity,
with millions of curious readers visiting this domain
each year just to find out why it's the record holder.
How did you come up with the
idea?
In
October of 2005, I was browsing the Guinness World
Record's website. I saw the record for the then most
expensive domain name, business.com,
and I thought to myself, hey, that's a lot of free
publicity and exposure business.com is getting, that's
got to be worth something. So I said to myself, there's
value in this, and I can beat that. And the idea was
born.
How
are you going to find an interested buyer?
I'm
going to let them find me. Basically, I'm going to
create as much "pre-publicity" as I need
to catch the eyes of an interested buyer who realizes
the massive potential of this unique marketing opportunity.
To generate as much "buzz" as possible,
I'm giving away US$4 million from the sale to my supporters
and US$4,000,001 to charity, so this world record
will involve a lot more people than just myself.
How
are you awarding the money to your supporters?
Basically,
I need help now, not after I sell this domain, so
what I'm doing is awarding monthly prizes for people
who link to me, sign my guestbook, tell a friend,
participate in my forum, buy my merchandise, or register
their own domain through me…in other words, people
who are helping me generate the buzz around this whole
idea. The prizes will obviously only be paid in cash
after I sell the domain and pocket $12,000,001. But
with US$4 million being awarded, there is plenty to
go around…like US$1 million to the person who
links to me and sends the most visitors to my site.
In essence, I'm using money I don't yet have to entice
people to join my record-breaking team. Those who
join truly believe that we can do it, and will be
the ones that stand to benefit from the sale. I currently
have hundreds of supporters, but I'm going to need
thousands to really make this happen, so I still have
a long way to go.
Who
do you think will actually buy this domain?
That's
hard to say because there are so many possibilities.
It could be a very rich person who has everything
but a world record and wants to literally buy their
way into the Guinness Book. Or a company wanting to
take advantage of this unique advertising opportunity
to market a new product or service. Online Casinos
are known for whacky publicity stunts, so it could
be one of them. Or even the Guinness World Records
company themselves, as they are known for creating
record-breaking ads to market themselves, and probably
are the most relevant buyer for this type of publicity.
Another very relevant buyer would be one of those
domain registrar company's, like GoDaddy.com,
which allow people to register new domains and are
known to spend millions each year on a 30-second TV
commercial during the American Superbowl.
But
what will keep anyone from just registering any other
domain and selling it for $12,000,002?
Anyone
is free to do that, but I can tell you now, they won't
get any attention or support because their idea won't
be original and they will therefore be branded as
copycats, which nobody likes. I already have at least
3 sites copying my idea, but you don't see them getting
interviewed or making any noise. Those copycats are
just reinforcing the value of this idea, and make
me want to break this record even more. Look at all
the thousands of pixel sites that copied the milliondollarhomepage.com,
not one of them made $1 million. In reality, the value
of this idea doesn't just come from the breaking of
a world record, but also from all the support rallying
behind it, which no other domain will be able to achieve.
Would a company buy any domain for $12,000,001 just
to break a record? Probably not. But would they buy
the original record-breaking domain with thousands
of supporters rallying behind it, which is already
making headlines around the world, for $12,000,001?
I think so.
When
do you think this domain will sell?
It
will honestly depend on how quickly I can gather support
around this. I definitely can't do it on my own, which
is why I need as much help as possible. The support
has been building steadily, which has been great,
but like I said, we still have a long way to go. Hopefully
now that I'm in Australia I'll be able to get a lot
of local support which will spread out around the
world. This is a lot of fun and we're helping make
history, so that together with the potential millions
to be won, will hopefully attract the thousands of
supporters I will need.
Are you doing anything in Australia
to promote your domain?
I'm
just trying to get the word out as much as possible
to get as many Aussie supporters as I can. I'm giving
away US$4,000,001 to charity, and I would love to
be able to help Australian charities, so I'm hoping
to get a lot of good suggestions for charities here
that could really use the money.
Do
you have any tips for other young entrepreneurs such
as yourself?
Believe
in yourself and your ideas, even if others don't.
Sometimes, that's all you have, but it's enough to
get you through the hard times and persevere. Oh,
and if you have an idea you think is great, don't
just say it's great, DO IT.
Website
The
Record Breaking Domain.com
Profiles
TheRecordBreakingDomain.com
Andres
Kello
New
Media Entrepreneurs
Millionaires
Domain
Names
Andres
Kello
|
