I own a fair amount of geographic keyword domain names. I don’t know how many I have right now, but I would guess the number is around 30+/-. I have only sold a few of them in the last few years, but I want to share some thoughts I consider before purchasing them (typically in auction or hand registrations).

Most of the geographic keyword domain names I own have the following attributes:

• .com
• Medium to large US city
• Keyword is relevant to city
• The keyword industry is large enough that there are many prospective buyers
• Solid keyword sales history

One of the more important aspects is the relevance to the city. Buying snow related domain names might be good for northeastern US cities, but they would not be good for Florida cities. This is probably common sense, but it is something that needs to be considered at the outset.

When evaluating domain names, → Read More

Since I started my company, I have worked alone. I’ve never really even considered teaming up with anyone else, although there are benefits to having at least one partner. Sometimes I wish I had someone to bounce ideas off of and to get an opinion from another vested party.

That said, I am very glad to not have to deal with a partner. Things may run smoothly, but it could be difficult if you’re not on the same page or don’t agree on a critical business decision. For instance, if you and a partner disagree about an investment opportunity or sale, it could cause issues, especially if this happens regularly.

Like everything else, I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both. There are also some risks for both.

If you’re a domain investor, do you work with a partner or group of partners, or do you work alone?

I was curious to see how Whois would look with GDPR upon us. I did a Whois search for a domain name registered at Enom, and “Data Protected” is the term that is input in many of the registrant fields. The email address is listed as noreply@data-protected.net and there is no phone number for the registrant.

Here’s a screenshot of a Whois lookup I did at Enom this morning to show you how (at least some of) their Whois records look in the wake of GDPR implementation:

The majority of my domain names are registered at → Read More

A company called Olsen Holding GmbH of Hamburg, Germany filed a UDRP against the Olsen.com domain name. The UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Olsen.com currently forwards to PerfectName.com where there is a landing page offering the domain name for sale for what I believe is a reasonable price of $68,680.98.

Although the domain owner did not respond to the UDRP complaint and put up an active defense, the panelist (Dawn Osborne) ruled against the complainant. The rationale for ruling in favor of the domain owner is that Olsen is a common last name and the complainant did not show evidence that the domain name was registered to target the complainant.

The most important aspect of the decision can be found in the section involving registration and use of the domain name in bad faith: → Read More

I’ve sold my fair share of domain names, but I don’t recall seeing one turn into a major website before. There are many domain names that have websites on them – some of them are pretty popular in their markets, but I don’t know of a sale that has turned into a major recognizable website that others would recognize. I know of a major website on a deal I just missed out on, but that’s all I can think of this morning.

Have you sold a domain name that was turned into a major website people would know about? You are welcome to share the domain name if you would like.

Andrew Allemann reported about changes that are coming to domain name transfers, and it is a bit concerning to me. You can read about the new, hopefully temporary transfer authorization process on Domain Name Wire, but this is the part that concerns me:

“In many cases, domain name registrars will not be able to get the registrant email address from Whois that is necessary to send a Form of Authorization when someone transfers a domain name to them. As a result, gaining registrars will be allowed to skip the Form of Authorization requirement.” (emphasis added by me).

From what I understand, domain registrars are responsible for generating EPP authorization codes. Each registrar may have its own process for creating them and for updating them regularly or periodically. With the new transfer process coming into play, I think it is very important for domain registrars to reset all EPP authorization codes. If that would be a major inconvenience for customers who are in the middle of a domain transfer, perhaps the EPP codes could be reset for those that were requested more than 30 days ago.

It would appear that someone could → Read More