If one does not have financial restrictions or limitations how could
one go about professionally/creatively marketing a portfolio of very
smart domain names. The jewel of the crown is www.SmartSmartCard.Com ;
additionally there are six other names in the portfolio. They are:
www.smart-smartcard.com; www.smart-smart-card.com;
www.smartsmartcards.com; www.smart-smartcards.com;
www.smart-smart-cards.com Finally there is www.smartcardtechnology.com
Seven very smart domain names which my wife is offering for sale as
one parcel to large banking and/or card organizations. Her asking
price for this unique portfolio is USD$2,750.000.00 and  she is
offering a Finders Fee of 10% to any broker,agent or person
introducing a buyer.
My question is how does she (we) BEST go about
professionally/creatively marketing this very unique set of domain
names. We have the singular, the plural and the hypens all covered.
Our first thoughts are to set up a special Website under the banner of
the main name: www.smartsmartcard.com and somehow try to mail the
likes of Amex etc without being accused of spamming. Our marketing
budget is virtually unlimited. We could spend ten thousand, twenty
thousand or even one hundred thousand (if need be) on a good
promotion. But for this exercise let's come down to earth and say we
have a maximum budget of $25,000.00 to use in marketing this portfolio
of names. We obviously need to know how can we best contact the larger
type organizations and banks(and there are literally thousands of
them)
that might possibly be interested in the smartsmartcard portfolio. We
feel it important to remain a bit "aloof" with the marketing of this
set of names and we would therefore like to avoid listing the name/s
together with thousands of others names for sale such as
pinkpussycat.com and the like and/or other vulgur and/or less creative
business names. We would like someone to lay out a marketing strategy
which would include fully idenintifying where our market is and to
basically set out a business plan that could be readily applied. For a
good answer including a business plan: $200.00 plus generous tip.

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Clarification of Question by bwll77-ga on 29 Mar 2003 13:37 PST

Thanks guys (and/or gals). You've probably saved me heaps! I will
withdraw the question and abandon the project. You know deep down I
had a gut (negative) feeling about this whole thing. But did not want
to discourage my wife with her go at being "dot.com entrepreneur". We
were not doing it just for the money (which of course would have been
nice); but my wife got the idea about a year or so ago when she read
that the name www.business.com or something similar sold for
$8Million. Again thanks muchly for your positive contributions. Please
look out for a simple $10.00 question specifically directed to your
good selves, as my way of further saying 'Thank you"
Cheers from: bwll77-ga

'Smart Cards' are not new, having first been invented by Dr Kunitaka
Arimura (Japanese) in March 1970. They were then re-invented by Roland
Moreno (French) in 1974.

Today, the technology is well known; the big players are well
established and are well known by their trade names.

Sorry, but I can't see why anyone would pay big bucks for the names
that you've registered at a cost of a few dollars.

BWll77,

Unfortunately I have to agree that the market for domain names is
pretty much non-existent. The reason is not just because of the status
of the dot.com industry.

The real reason is that it's just too easy to find something similar
and market that name instead. A good example is the titans.com name
here in Nashville and the Titans football franchise. Instead of paying
a measley $5,000, the team registered titansonline.com instead.

Now if you had smartcard.com that might be worth $5,000 or so. Maybe
more. But yours just aren't going to be in demand. In addition,
companies put all their money behind marketing ONE name. Having
several doesn't help your cause a bit.

Now about marketing. Even if your name was worth a million, your best
marketing approach is simply to put a site up saying this name is for
sale. If it's that great a name, and a company wants it, they'll find
you.

Sorry, wish I could be more help. But I know that this "industry" is
pretty much dead and it's not coming back.

Prof

Here's an interesting article about the reselling of domain names:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/personal_technology/2666167.htm