(work in progress)

The story of Mopeds.com and Moped.com began in 1997. Surprisingly, these domains remained unregistered until then. In 1995, there was a huge upswing in domain registrations with the advent of Windows 95, allowing anyone with an internet connection to join the land grab. It is possible, or even likely, that these domains were in existence during that time, but at $50 annually, they might have been dropped in favor of better names. While it's all ancient history, like most things in life, the domains probably weren't registered by a moped enthusiast.

In 2001, I paid $25,000 USD for both domains and proceeded to develop them initially on Moped.com. However, when it became obvious that "Moped" was a brandable domain, I switched my efforts to Mopeds.com. This was a time before Google, when search engines weren't what they are today. People navigated by typing keywords into the browser. For five years, I received thousands of hits, and during the summer, if mopeds were in the news, the hits surged into the thousands. This made the domains lucrative earners, prompting me to seek professional help from lawyers and accountants. As you can imagine, the site grew on the tides of web traffic. Even when Google arrived, it ranked me very high, often as the first search result, and with that, earnings tripled. However, it was too good to last, and it didn't.

By 2010, the type-in traffic had dried up, and I became entirely reliant on Google. Then, one day, Google dropped my site, and along with it, my earnings plummeted. Faced with this challenge, I was forced to sell Moped.com, which was a heartbreaker. I also had to find a job, letting things go and eventually parking the domain. If I ever get the chance to buy it back, I will. I'm not a money guy or a tech guy; I'm a moped guy—probably like you.

As I build out this latest of many versions, I'm awed by the beauty of 1960s sport mopeds. I often find myself asking if I could walk into a shop and buy...