Get a Third Party Opinion

Elliot Silver
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1

Here’s a relatively simple tip to see if a domain name is good: ask a third party that is not involved in the domain name business.

Several years ago before I was married, my wife and I spent quite a bit of time at her grandmother’s apartment. Her grandmother is very smart and as a former business / marketing professor, she understands domain names and their utility. She and I used to chat about domain names, including names I bought, names I was thinking about buying, and names she thought I should go after. When I mentioned a domain name that she didn’t like, it made me think twice about buying it.

It can be tough to ask colleagues in the domain space for their opinion about potential purchases. For one, everyone is competing on inventory. Sharing information about a domain name can offer more intel than a person would like to give up. In addition, domain investors might look at a domain name in a different way than someone who is out of the business. This is an attribute, but it can also be a detriment.

I have a number of friends

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Step Away from a Negotiation

Elliot Silver
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5

Negotiating a deal to its conclusion is an aspect of this business I enjoy. Negotiations can be exciting, frustrating, annoying, thought provoking, and emotional. Sometimes a negotiation reaches a point that it would be more productive to step away and hand the reigns to someone else.

It doesn’t happen often, but there have been times that a stalemate has been reached. It sort of comes to a point where the counterparty and I have dug our heels in so deeply that progress has stopped and we aren’t really getting anywhere. Taking some time to let things cool down is one approach, but it also gives the counterparty an opportunity to seek out a different domain name or find a different buyer. When this happens on a domain sale negotiation, it makes sense for me to hand the negotiation off to a trusted domain broker.

I don’t love involving a domain broker when it isn’t necessary. I value the effort and expertise of a domain broker, but I would prefer not to have to pay a commission and involve a third party in a private negotiation unless it is absolutely necessary. Sometimes it becomes necessary.

A domain broker may

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Have an Escrow Backup Plan

Elliot Silver
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1

We are fortunate because there are a few very good options when it comes to domain name escrow services. Escrow.com and Payonner Escrow are both licensed escrow services that cater to domain investors and others who have domain name transactions.

In the last year or so, I have had several transactions where the counterparty could not use an escrow service for a variety of reasons. On one occasion, I was doing a deal with a financial services institution, and they told me they would be unable to use a third-party company to do escrow. It doesn’t happen often, but domain name investors should have a backup plan to avoid having a deal fall through because of the escrow aspect.

Many attorneys and law firms, even those that do not focus on domain name law, will offer escrow services for domain name deals. In the transaction with the financial institution, we used their outside counsel’s escrow account. It was a bit concerning to use their attorney’s escrow service, but the counterparty to the deal and the law firm were both large enough that I was not concerned about losing out on the funds and/or domain name. In the end, the deal went through without a hitch.

When buying and selling domain names, I prefer to use

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Domain Registrations Can Tip Hands

Elliot Silver
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7

Yesterday morning, Richard Branson announced “Virgin Group’s investment in Hyperloop One.” The amount invested was not revealed, but it was a large enough amount that the company’s name is changing to Virgin Hyperloop One.

Although it is not yet resolving or forwarding to a website, VirginHyperloopOne.com was unsurprisingly registered. The domain name is registered under privacy proxy, so it is not clear who owns the domain name or who registered it. What is a bit surprising is when this domain name was registered. Usually companies wait until the final moments to register a domain name, but this wasn’t the case for VirginHyperloopOne.com.

Had outsiders been paying attention to Hyperloop-related domain name registrations, the registration of VirginHyperloopOne.com may have tipped people off to this news several months ago. According to Whois records, VirginHyperloopOne.com was registered back in April.

DomainTools has a great tool called

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Don’t Tweet Your Account Details

Elliot Silver
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3

This should go without saying, but if you seek customer support from a domain name company’s Twitter account, you should not share your account details publicly. Tweeting account numbers, domain name details, passwords, call-in pin codes, or any other information that could be used by a bad actor is unwise and potentially harmful. I recently saw someone do this, and it could a big time security issue.

Twitter can be a great way to get support when other methods have either failed or are taking too much time. Many of the medium and large domain industry companies have Twitter accounts that are either staffed by support team members or are used by people who can connect customers to the support team. These Twitter accounts want to resolve customer issues and probably want to keep issues private, while showing that the company offers top tier support. With that in mind, customers regularly reach out to companies via Twitter, and some may not think about the repercussions of sharing private account details.

From what I have seen, the best bet to getting quick customer support via Twitter may be to tweet to the company to let them know an issue needs to be resolved. Instead of sharing personal or account identifying details publicly, it makes more sense to

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Whois Email is Not Always Accurate

Elliot Silver
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9

I thought I would share a tip to help people acquire domain names in private. Sometimes the Whois email address is not accurate and an offer or inquiry email will not be received by the intended recipient.

It can be frustrating to email a very good offer to a domain registrant and not even receive a response to the email. I understand that what seems like a very good (reasonable and/or fair value) offer to me may be low to the domain owner. I also understand that some people have no interest in selling a particular domain name regardless of how good the offer is. I think it is courteous to reply, so not receiving a response can be frustrating.

One thing that could prevent a reply from being made is if the domain registrant did not receive the email. Many domain registrants have a credit card on file at their registrar so their domain names are renewed without having to be reminded via email. They may never receive emails about their domain names, but since the domain names automatically renew, this isn’t something they even notice.

Yesterday morning I was doing some email follow-ups when I received

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