ICA Seeking Nominations for 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award

October 19, 2018

Shortly after the unexpected passing of Lonnie Borck, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) created a domain industry award in his memory. The inaugural award was presented to David Weslow ofWiley Rein, and this year’s award was given to Kathy Kleiman.

The ICA is currently seeking nominations for the 2019 Lonnie Borck Memorial Award. Here’s a description of the Award:

“The Lonnie Borck Memorial Award is granted to an individual for indelible contribution to domain investor rights, and we invite you all to take part in the process and submit your suggestions for the nominees. The nomination process is open to the entire domain name community.”

Nominations will be accepted until November 1st. The ICA Board of Directors will review the nominations and vote on the winner. The Award will be presented during the NamesCon conference in January.

If you know of someone who has made a lasting contribution to protecting and enabling the rights of domain name investors, you should think about submitting a nomination. There are quite a few people that go above and beyond to help protect the rights of domain investors, and it is nice that we can honor them. I already know who I am going to nominate.

Not a week goes by that I don’t think about Lonnie. It’s nice to see this Award being given to someone deserving.

Daily Poll: How Many Times do You Follow Up on Old Leads?

Elliot Silver

October 19, 2018

It’s frustrating when an offer or inquiry comes in, I respond to it, and I don’t hear back from the buyer. It is even more frustrating when their offer is somewhat close to the asking price, and I think there is a pretty good shot of the deal getting done.

Following up on offers and inquiries is important. Brokers spend a lot of time following up with prospects. If you’ve ever inquired to buy a domain name listed via Uniregistry, you’ve probably received multiple follow up messages from their brokers over a lengthy period of time.

Re-connecting with old leads works, although it can be a bit annoying on the receiving end if the domain name is no longer of interest.

I would estimate I follow up anywhere from 1 to 3 times depending on the prospect and/or offer. The greater the chance of closing a deal, the more I will try to connect. I follow up via email, but I am not opposed to texting or calling. In fact, I think texting is one of the better ways to connect. I have discussed many domain names via text, although I typically use it to ensure my emails are making it to the prospect and to schedule a follow up phone call.

How many times do you follow up on old leads? Share in the poll below and feel free to expand in the comment section:

Offer an Installment Plan

Elliot Silver

October 18, 2018

I saw a NamePros post discussing the Huge Domains installment plan option. You can see an example of the installment plan option on this domain name I randomly found on the company’s home page. I think Huge Domains is one of the largest domain portfolio operators around. I recently wrote about its parent company, Turn Commerce.

Because I have a relatively small domain portfolio when compared to other domain investors and domain investment companies, I try to emulate what other, bigger companies do. My assumption is that larger companies have more testing and experience with their domain name sales, and they deploy landing pages and offers based on their experiences. I can try and glean insight from these other companies to help my company.

With Huge Domains’ presence, I am inclined to think that many domain name buyers come across their landing pages while searching for a domain name. When they do, they would see a buy it now price along with a payment plan option. This is great for Huge Domains because they control the whole ecosystem and can facilitate a sale or payment plan. Buyers who educate

No, You Can’t Sell My Name First

Elliot Silver

October 18, 2018

A few days ago, I had a prospective buyer land on one of my BIN landing pages and fill out the form with his information to indicate that he agreed to buy my domain name for $7,888. I reached out to him and opened escrow at Escrow.com. I didn’t receive a response to my email confirming his purchase, but he created an account at Escrow.com (or already had one) and agreed to the transaction.

I followed up with him again via email after he agreed to the Escrow.com transaction. I wanted to find out when he anticipated submitting his payment and find out whether he would want me to push the domain name to his GoDaddy account or transfer it out to a different registrar. I also wanted to touch base with him because people don’t typically buy domain names from me like that without trying to negotiate a better deal or simply buying through GoDaddy or other registrar via Afernic (I only have a very small fraction of names that use my BIN landing page though). I did not receive a response to this second email and got a bit suspicious.

Later on that evening, I decided to

Your Domain Name May Not Be Investable

Elliot Silver

October 17, 2018

I am almost always looking to buy good inventory. I primarily seek out great one word .com domain names, but I also regularly participate in auctions for generic terms in the .com extension that would make a good investment. People also regularly send me domain names they want me to buy. Unfortunately, the vast majority of them are not investable for me.

Just because I pass on a domain name buying opportunity doesn’t mean the domain name is worthless. There are plenty of names that are worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Even domain names I can’t imagine selling to anyone can sell to the right buyer. When I pass on a domain name it generally means I can’t see the value in buying it with the hope of making money any time in the near future. My portfolio is filled with “flyers” that may or may not ever sell. I am not going to pay a premium price for these flyers though.

People try to sell a domain name to me on a daily basis. The vast majority are domain names I would

Daily Poll: Do You Go First When There is No BIN?

Elliot Silver

October 17, 2018

I think the majority of domain names my company owns have buy it now prices listed on the landing page or via Afternic. I appreciate a quick and seamless deal, and having a BIN price is helpful to that end.

On some of my higher value domain names, I have not set BIN prices. There are various factors that will impact my asking price, and the domain market is dynamic. Oftentimes, people will ask me for the price of a domain name rather than submitting my offer. When I don’t have a BIN price, I generally push back and request an offer. It doesn’t make sense having a discussion about a $500,000 domain name when the prospect’s budget is $5,000. I am sure this can frustrate a prospective buyer who may think along the lines of a home that is listed for sale where the owner says “make an offer” without a list price.

I am curious about whether you put prices on your domain names when a prospect inquires without first making an offer or if you insist on having the buyer go first. For me, it really depends on the situation. Sometimes I will give a price to make things a bit quicker, other times I will give a range “six figure offers will be considered,” and other times I will wait until the prospect makes an offer. What are your thoughts on pricing names that don’t have BIN prices listed? Do you go first and name your price when asked or do you require the prospect to make the first offer before sharing the price?

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