Keep Your Minimum Offer Realistic

I typically use the DAN.com buy it now landing page with a Make Offer option. I’ve heard and experienced that these landing pages induce far more offers than buy now deals, but I am okay with considering offers on my domain names. The one suggestion I have is to ensure your minimum offer amount is a realistic number you would consider accepting.

The default minimum offer on my account is set at $500. This number was chosen by me, and it is the highest I can set it because I have one or two names for sale with BIN prices of $500, and the highest default minimum I can set cannot be higher than the lowest BIN price. This means that if I do not modify the minimum offer for an individual domain name, $500 will be the minimum offer set as a default. With DAN, I can modify the minimum offer on a per name basis.

Domain Brokers Need to Have a Website

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There are many people who call themselves domain brokers. It’s an easy business to get into, and the self-regulated nature of the business makes it pretty easy for someone to say “I am a domain broker,” without much pushback from anyone. Of course, there is a big difference between good domain brokers with experience and others who don’t have experience, but that’s a different topic.

I recently received an inquiry email from someone claiming to be a domain broker working on behalf of a buyer. Their email address used a custom domain name, and since I had never heard of the person before, I visited the domain name. I was not impressed. I didn’t respond to the email, and it was deleted.

Domain Name Pricing is an Art

I took a Financial Accounting course my first semester of sophomore year in college. I don’t remember much from the class except for one thing the professor told us that I will paraphrase: “accounting is more of an art than a science.” I think the same thing can be said about the pricing of domain names on the aftermarket.

How to List a Domain Name for Sale

Over the years, I’ve been asked by a number of people how to sell a domain name. Most of the people who have asked are friends or friends of friends, and they are not involved in the business of domain investing. I also saw a tweet from someone this past week asking the same type of question, and I thought I would expand on this.

If I was not a domain investor but owned a domain name that has value and wanted to sell it, here are the steps I would take:

Maven Co-Founder Details Maven.com Acquisition

Gagan Biyani, a Co-Founder of Udemy, Advisor at Lyft, and former CEO of Sprig, announced the name of his newest startup: Maven. The thing that caught my attention is the domain name that the company is using – Maven.com. The domain name has been owned by General Motors, and in fact, Whois records show the domain name is still registered to GM.

With that in mind, I asked Gagan and his two Co-Founders (Wes Kao and Shreyans Bhansali) if they bought the Maven.com domain name from GM. Gagan replied with a link to a tweet thread he previously posted sharing the startup naming process his team undertook. He also shared insight into the process of securing the domain name. I think this is a great thread for investors to read for additional insight into the mind of a startup founder seeking a great brand and corresponding domain name.

Here’s the thread:

Use a Lawyer with Domain Name Expertise

There are many great Intellectual Property lawyers who are familiar with domain names and laws regarding domain names. I think there are few attorneys who I believe have domain name expertise. These domain name lawyers know the ins and outs of the law as it specifically pertains to domain names. They can be particularly helpful to domain name investors who might face legal challenges.

This morning, Nat Cohen posted a series of tweets about how attorneys with domain name expertise have helped his business over the years: