Domain Buying Tip

Elliot Silver
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13

I want to share a relatively easy tip with you when it comes to buying domain name. This advice goes for both aftermarket acquisitions and hand registrations, and I think it can help you get an idea of the ease (or difficulty) you may have in selling a particular domain name.

Before buying a name, do a Whois search for similar domain names, and do a search of the same keywords in different extensions. If you see that others are unregistered or owned solely by domain investors, it might be challenging to sell it to an end user buyer for whatever reason. If other similar names are owned by end user companies, you will probably have a much easier time finding a buyer.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you have the opportunity to purchase a large city Plumber.com domain name (let’s say LosAngelesPlumber.com) either at auction or hand registration. Do some research to see if plumbers own other large city Plumber.com domain names. In addition, see if any smaller town Plumber.com domain names are registered to local plumbers in that area. You should also check out other extensions, and do a Google search of the keyword to see what domain names local plumbers are using for their websites.

If you see the vast majority of similar domain names owned by other domain investors or unregistered, you may want to rethink buying the name. Yes, there could be some commercial value (obviously there is in my simple example), but if no plumber has bought one of the names from a domain investor, you should realize you will probably end up in the same situation.

Keep in mind this tip is one that I use when I am buying domain names to re-sell. If you plan to build out a domain name or monetize it due to known type-in traffic, this tip probably matters much less.

Domain Companies: Let Blog Readers Beta Test Your Website

Elliot Silver
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7

Afternic recently underwent a major upgrade, and the user interface and functionality were almost completely overhauled. Shortly after the re-launch, I posted an article seeking feedback about the revamped website, and many helpful suggestions were made.

I am sure Afternic had employees and clients beta test3e the new site, but as with every web project, there were a variety of issues that needed to be worked out. Having a wider range of users test out the new site and provide feedback can be beneficial to companies, especially because the people reviewing the site are customers and potential customers.

I invite other companies to submit their new or revamped websites for review on my blog. I believe the people who read my blog would be happy to help make the user experience and functionality better for a domain industry website that we want to use.

Many companies seem to shy away from the possibility of receiving negative feedback about their website or project. However, if they are willing to address customer issues, even those that aren’t related to a redesigned website, it will improve customer retention and usage.

It really makes sense to ask customers and potential customers for candid feedback, and I am willing to play host to this.

Who To Meet at TRAFFIC

Elliot Silver
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8

TRAFFIC is coming up next week, and there are going to be hundreds of people in attendance. While conventional wisdom might be to meet as many domain investors as possible to make new contacts and possibly work out deals, there are other people who you should be sure to meet.

I believe that just about all of the major services providers will have a decent-sized presence at the conference. Some will have sponsor booths and others will have employees in attendance without a visible presence. When you need to have some done by one of these companies, it’s nice to have a contact there.

I am not sure if all of these people will be at TRAFFIC, but I want to share the names of some of the people who you might want to meet if you do business with the companies below. These people might not be the best people for specific needs that you have (ie tech support) but they will likely be able to put you in touch with the right people.

  • Go Daddy – Brad Larson and Paul Nicks
  • Enom – Bari Meyerson
  • Moniker – John Mauriello
  • Dynadot – Todd Han and  Jacqueline Daly
  • Escrow.com – Andee Hill
  • Voodoo – Donny Simonton
  • Buy Domains / Afternic – Neil Kavanaugh and Jason Miner
  • Internet Traffic – Frank Schilling and Vern Jurovich
  • Domain Holdings – John Ferber,  Jason Boshoff, and Chad Folkening
  • Domain Market – Sonia Doubet and Mike Mann
  • Sedo – Liesbeth Mack-de Boer, Norman Hamel, Brad Lemire, Dave Evanson
  • Domain Advisors – Tessa Holcomb,  Jeff Gabriel, and Amanda Waltz
  • Thought Convergence – Ammar Kubba
  • Aftermarket.com – Omar Kubba
  • ICM Registry – Stuart Lawley
  • Right of the Dot – Monte Cahn
  • Domain Capital – Gregg Freeman
  • .CO Registry – Lori Anne Wardi and Juan Diego Calle
  • Register.com / Network Solutions – Christie Kelly
  • NameJet – Matt Overman
  • Park Logic – Michael Gilmour
  • Media Options – Andrew Rosener
  • DomainApps.com – Craig Rowe

If I didn’t mention your company (or you), please let us (me and the readers here) know who will be there from  your company. I am going off the top of my head, and of course I probably missed a whole bunch of important people who will be at TRAFFIC from various service providers.

Walfan Wants Your LLL.com at a Discount

Elliot Silver
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6

When I received my first email from Walfan this morning, I was tempted to post an article about it. When I received the second email, I decided to post it to offer some advice.

Apparently, “Walfan” wants to buy my LLL.com domain names and is requesting a special discount! Here are the emails I was sent regarding SHS.com and KJP.com (exact same content except for the names):

Hi,
    I’d like to buy shs.com  .Excuse me,is it available for sale? What’s the transfer price about it.I’m a personal domain investor.Please give me a discount price if you could . Thanks a lot

Best regards,
                    Walfan

Three tips for Walfan:

  • Fix the atrocious formatting and grammar.
  • Don’t send the exact same email to the same people.
  • Don’t ask for a discount.

Trust, But Verify When Using Freelancers

Elliot Silver
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13

There is a considerable level of trust required when working with web developers, people who do data entry for you, and others who are working on your websites or representing your business in other ways. After working with people for a period of time, we tend to trust them with important tasks, but we should always verify their work.

A few months ago, I hired a company via Elance to do data entry for one of my websites. I manually approved each of the 100 or so entries that were added, and the company did a fine job of adding this information accurately, and without stealing content from elsewhere. I was very satisfied with the work.

A few weeks ago, I hired the company again for another similar project. The work was done quickly as before, and I paid them right away, trusting that the job was done as it had been done before. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Many (maybe all) of the entries contain content that was lifted directly from other sites – some even competitors. Because of this, I can’t trust that any of the information is accurate.

It was a big error, but I am also to blame because I should have verified before releasing payment.

When you hire someone to work on your websites, sell your domain names, or do other work for your business, they are representing your interests. People who visit your websites or do business with your employees will assume you either posted the content or approve of how you are being represented, and when you don’t verify that it’s done correctly, you can end up looking bad or may even get sued depending on the issue.

It’s important that you trust the people working for you. However, you should always do what you can to verify that their work is representative of your business and what you are expecting.

Success Story on DNForum

Elliot Silver
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29

When you have a moment, I recommend checking out a post on DNForum written by a user named “Aqua84” who has shared a personal success story from his short time in the domain industry.

From the post:

“So after a year of registering these “Great Domains”, I thought: Why don’t I focus on my own country extension. There were only 600,000 names registered in the co.za domain space as opposed to the 95million .com’s registered. So, my registering journey began. Everyday I would register 10-20 names and continued on my registering spree for a while. Listing them on Sedo and parking them, things started to pay off.

I am getting frequent offers on my co.za names as well as confirmed sales with the lowest to date being a minimum $1200.00. Parking revenue is a constant minimum $2000.00 per month and growing. Wow, What a change in mindset and pursuing the domaining industry. I have now built up a portfolio of over 2500 domains and have become an accredited registrar of the uniforum domain space. What a great achievement in the past 18 months.”

I frequently read comments about how it’s too late to make money in the domain industry unless you are very wealthy. I think there are plenty of people who don’t have significant amounts of money for their domain name purchases, and this post shows that you can make money investing in domain names, no matter when you got your start.

I applaud this person for his diligence in learning about different areas in which to invest, and I am very appreciative of his willingness to share his story. It goes to show that if you spend time learning about buying and selling good domain names, you can still make good money, whether you want to create a living or earn extra income.

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