Michael Gilmour in The Age Newspaper.

What’s in a name? A lot of money if you choose wisely.

AUSTRALIAN internet entrepreneurs are raking in millions of dollars a year by spotting the true value of what’s in a name.

The practice of buying up unused names, known as “domain parking”, is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion worldwide — and Australia is seen as a growing market for those with an eye for a dollar.

The Australian Domain Name Administrator (AUDA), the governing body for “dot au” domains, is set to loosen regulations restricting the practice within months, sparking a likely buying boom as a result.

Domainers, as they call themselves, spot generic or popular names that have not been turned into websites and register them for as little as $US7 ($A7.50). They cram them with advertisements and watch as they earn a few cents per hit — big bucks when you have a portfolio of tens of thousands of domains.

Unlike cyber-squatting, where people infringe trademarks and fraudulently obtain internet traffic, domainers say they are supplying people with information.

With two partners, he has built a business around names such as geekwatch.com and bingonight.co.uk — names that receive hundreds of hits through the sheer weight of the billion or so people who use the internet daily.

He now works full-time as a domainer and is auctioning one of his most prized sites, profgolfer.com, which he hopes will fetch him $75,000.

“Enormous money can be made out of parking still in Australia with dot au space, where a lot less penetration has been made than in America,” he said. “It’s as easy as seeing how many times a particular word is indexed on Google then seeing if it is taken or not.”

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