I want to share an interesting anecdote that Domainsville’s Abdu Tarabichi shared with me last week, and it’s something that may be helpful to you. I omitted the domain name and keyword out of respect for his private transaction, but for the purpose of this article, I don’t think that information is necessary or beneficial.
Here’s what Abdu had to say:
“I recently acquired [Redacted].com and started looking for buyers. After
locating a prospect who owned [Redacted].net and [Red-acted].com, I couldn’t figure out what the domain was used for as the sites were inactive. I searched the company’s main site [Redacted].net and there was no reference to the term “[Redacted]” at all. At page 5 on Google search results I came up with a link to a logo contest the company hosted publicly. The link provided a rich description of what [Redacted] was all about.”
Abdu is now in discussions with the company to sell his domain name. The information that was provided in the logo contest design brief gave him some good intel to allow him to set the price of his domain name accordingly. It included information about the company’s goals, strategy, and growth objectives. Essentially, it allowed Abdu to learn quite a bit more about the company than he would have just by knowing the domain names owned by the company.
There are many startups that turn to public design contests for their logos and web design. Many companies are on a tight budget, and running a contest for this design work is a less expensive alternative to hiring in-house designers or freelancers. If you are able to learn all of the insight that is typically shared in a logo design contest, you might be able to use the information to your advantage in a negotiation.
As an aside, Abdu updated me to let me know the company submitted a $2,000 offer, and his asking price is $5,000.
Redacted, great name 😀 On a serious note, another reason to keep logo competitions private, if one wants no publicity about the business or domain associated with it.
Often the contest holder requires you to sign an NDA before you will be able to see any details. Keep this in mind if you reach out to such an enduser.
It’s publicly available info, and I didn’t even have to sign in to the site to see that information. It’s an NDA when you sign in, such as the Flippa.com auctions that have that term on ’em.