I've had a lot of people emailing me wanting to know whether I intend to sell http://www.BindiIrwin.Com or auction it off at Ebay. The answer is neither.

The reason I purchased it was to keep it out of the hands of advertising agencies. The sort who love to collect these sorts of popular domains and make pages full of unpopular links.

Those people seeking to make money are known in the industry as "Cybersquatters." I've been advised by a few people that I can make serious money from this domain and that I even have a convincing case in court to retain it. Taking an 8 year old to court over a domain name that I only payed $6.95 for is simply not my style. It's only drawing interest because of her fame anyway. If I was the judge I'd award it to her.

The other popular domain extensions(dot org and net) disapeared very quickly afterwards. Tom Cruise actually took a professional Cybersquatter to court over http://www.TomCruise.Com and after 10 years got it transferred to himself. Bruce Springsteen was less successful and lost his case to get http://www.BruceSpringsteen.Com away from the same guy.

I contacted a reporter the other day who forwarded on a letter to the Discovery Channel for me. She is going to contact me once they confirm having sent it to Terri Irwin's business manager John Stainton. Now that some time has passed by and the memorial service is over I have asked if Terri Irwin wants the domain and if so to please reply with details on transferring it over to her posession.

It has had over 41,000 visits since I registered it 3 weeks ago. On 17th September there were 211 people simultaneously viewing the page when the Courier Mail ran a full front page story on her. Imagine how popular it will be in 10 years when Bindi is leading Croc Safari's!

Here is an example of an ad agencies idea of a fun website.
http://www.terriirwin.com

Ugh!

Good on you Wayne :)

It's going to break my heart to let it go. I've never owned such a successful domain name. I don't own any websites but I enjoy running forums and like to buy popular domains to redirect them to free forums like ezboard or proboards. Most domains only get about a thousand hits in a year. This one went straight to the top of search engines.

Google search: Bindi Irwin
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bindi+Irwin&btnG=Google+Search
Number 6

Some weird things are happening with the Yahoo search engine. Must be some kind of glitch. Only Wikipedia gets a mention on the first page of results. The rest are all mine. Freaky.
Yahoo Search: Bindi Irwin
Currently numbers 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,23 are all domains of mine! All I did was redirect them to http://www.BindiIrwin.Com !
Again number 6 is actually BindiIrwin.Com behind YouTube, CNN, Animal Planet and Australia Zoo.

That's pretty amazing considering I don't even have a website for it. Like I said it simply goes to a free message board which gives me unlimited bandwidth in exchange for a dicky little banner ad.

I was referring to the Google result when I said that it was number 6 behind YouTube, CNN, Animal Planet and Australia Zoo.

Here's the Yahoo Search link if anybody is interested.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Bindi+Irwin&fr=yfp-t-500&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8

This is going to be such a hot celebrity domain name in a few years. Bindi is already the most famous kid in Australia and has a movie lined up already. I suspect that one day she'll be the most famous Australian in the World but ofcourse anything can happen over time. Maybe she'll become a hairdresser or something instead. Whatever she chooses to do with her life I wish her the best with it.

I have no idea how long it will be before I get a reply. Hey, maybe the Irwin's and their manager won't want it.

:)

Why wouldnt they want it? But you know they might just think you are up to no good. I suppose they have had all types of people contact them of late and are very careful. Oh well time will tell.

I'm not surprised they are difficult to contact and it hasn't been very long. Only yesterday I emailed the reporter to thank her for her help in trying to reach them. I sent a polite letter to Australia Zoo after purchasing the domain to let them know. Kind of forgot that the Australia Zoo website has been very busy and I expect they have had a lot of condolence messages so my own probably hasn't been read yet.

I used to work at Australia Zoo as a volunteer with the Crocodile Team and met Steve briefly a couple of times. I've visited the place countless times taking groups of tourists on day trips. I've known for a very long time that Bindi is a talented kid and a chip off the old block. I can't imagine her ever wanting to do anything but become a third generation crocodile hunter. That's how I knew to grab the domain before everyone else had realised it's inherent worth.

We need highly respected figureheads in the wildlife protection business. GreenPeace hasn't got any. They have done more harm to the image of environmentalism than good. Painting fur seals, stopping back burning and protesting clean nuclear energy to name but a few silly mistakes. We don't want Domestic Terrorists like PETA trying to push their ill thought out tree hugging logic down our throats. We want real Wildlife Warriors. How could I really do anything else? I live on this planet too. At a time of Global Warming and an uncertain future need heroes. I reckon Bindi could some day become a sort of hero to people seeking a leader in the Wildlife and Environment movement.