e-Business blog

How much is the estimated most valuable Web address worth?

Everybody knows sex sells, and sex online sells as well as well as any place. But the real test: How much will the ultimate online address “sex.com” sell for on the open market?

We’ll soon find out. Sex.com, a domain name that’s believe by many to be the Web’s most valuable address, will be auctioned off next month.

The sale is the result of what’s driving a lot of fire sales these days: foreclosure.

DOM Partners LLC, a New Jersey lender that backed the 2006 purchase “sex.com” for a reported $14 million, is foreclosing on the Internet property in a March 18 at New York law firm Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf LLP.

The Web site once made at least $15,000 per day, according to a 2008 book, The Sex.com Chronicles, by attorney Charles Carreon who has represented a former owner of the site.

In January 2006, Escom LLC acquired the domain name from Gary Kremen, founder of dating website Match.com and chief executive of Grant Media. Kremen registered the sex.com domain name in 1994.

Escom LLC is reportedly to be in default on financing it got from DOM Partners.

As for the auction, the opening bid is $1 million and you’ll need a certified check for that amount to get in on the action.

Oh, and the folks who are running the auction say they’ll take online bids. Of course.

Want to give to worthy causes without actually giving any money? There’s an app for that. It’s called CauseWorld and is currently available for both the iPhone and the Droid.

Here’s how it works: You download the free app to your mobile phone. Then you visit one of the project’s retail sponsors and “check in” using your phone. No need to buy anything, no need to even talk to a sales rep.

The app registers your presence and awards you good “karma” points, which you accumulate and donate to the nonprofit of your choice. Users are encouraged to spread the word about their good works via social networking sites such as Facebook.

Proctor and Gamble said it will give users karma points for scanning the bar codes of 27 products, like toothpaste or face cream. And now Citi is expanding its support of CauseWorld. It’s adding two micro-finance outfits to the list of charities that can receive users’ karma points.

The app also lets you create a profile and earn different levels of merit for using the software and helping the world.

Most important of all, the 300,000 downloads of CauseWorld have caused investors to flock to the company’s developers. Now that’s how to raise money.

The CauseWorld App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone or  here.