Check Your Parked Domain Names After Buying

Elliot Silver
-
2

It is the responsibility of domain owners to ensure their pay per click links are set accurately and the “for sale” link (if applicable) is working as anticipated. It is a good idea to check on this after a domain name inquiry.

Last week, I sold a domain name to another investor. When I owned the domain name, I had it parked, and I forward inquiries for almost all of my  parked domain names to an Embrace.com inquiry page. For some reason, when the buyer added the domain name to his parking account after I deleted it, the link to Embrace.com remained. I have reported this issue to the parking company.

Another issue I sometimes face is that I occasionally have domain names rejected from my parking account because they are already in someone else’s account. I am notified that the domain name listing was rejected, but I sometimes overlook the notice in the email and assume the domain name was added. When this happens and it is not corrected, I would likely not earn any income from parking nor would I receive any purchase inquiries unless the former owner sends them to me.

A final issue that is less common is

Read More

Legal Review Should be Done Before Agreeing to a Deal

Elliot Silver
-
4

A negotiation can be exhilarating or frustrating depending on many factors. When a domain name deal is finally reached, it should mark the end of one stage and begin the contract and escrow discussions. It should not begin the process of a legal review for the buyer.

I don’t know about you, but I have dealt with prospective buyers backing out of a couple of  deals due to their findings from a legal review. The buyers’ attorneys have either found that a trademark would be tough to get for  domain name (and/or brand) or there are existing trademarks would put an application in peril. Whatever the case may be, it is very frustrating to agree to a deal only to later learn that the prospective buyer decided to back out because their legal team has put the kibosh on the deal.

From my perspective, domain name buyers should do a cursory legal review prior to inquiring about domain names. This doesn’t have to be an extensive or exhaustive review, but it should be enough to know whether a domain name will pose legal issues for them for whatever reason. As the negotiation gets more serious and/or the buyer is able determine that there is a strong likelihood of closing a deal, they should have their attorney do whatever  full legal review is necessary to ensure an easy closing should a deal be reached. This should either be done prior to reaching a deal, or they should let the seller know a deal is contingent upon approval from their lawyer.

A legal review on a domain name should be performed before the parties reach a deal. Once a deal has been

Read More

Monitor Your Domain Registrations

Elliot Silver
-
0

I use DomainTools to monitor the domain registrations of many companies, including my own. I do this for research for DomainInvesting.com articles, and I also use the information I can glean to learn what domain names are moving at large companies.

One important reason I think people should  monitor their  own company name and/or email address is to ensure domain names aren’t being registered under their business name without their knowledge. It would be fairly easy for someone to register a domain name, say a trademark name, under the name of someone else with a different email address. Obviously, nobody wants to deal with a UDRP proceeding or litigation for a domain name they don’t own or even know anything about, so monitoring is something I do automatically.

I use the daily registrant alert email from DomainTools to try and monitor domain names registered in my company’s name. Other service providers like

Read More

Keep Your Powder Dry

Elliot Silver
-
4

When I was a freshman in college, I believe it was the President of our school who, in giving some advice to us, said “keep your powder dry.” I know the saying pre-dates him by several generations, but that saying has stuck with me. As a domain investor, I think it is important to “keep your powder dry.”

This part of the more famous saying means that you should always be ready. Obviously my interpretation of it has nothing to do with firearms or gunpowder, but rather the funds necessary to acquire domain names. As an opportunistic domain name buyer, I do what I need to do to keep my powder dry.

Opportunities to buy domain names come at all times. Sometimes the owner of a domain name who rejected an offer for a domain name a couple of years ago decides to put the name on the market and asks if I am still interested. Other times, a domain name is offered for sale by a broker. There are even cases where an auction seems to come out of the blue, and having cash is necessary to make a purchase. There are too many

Read More

Using UDRPSearch.com to Assess Risk

Elliot Silver
-
3

UDRPSearch.comI am an active user of UDRPSearch.com. As someone who writes about the business of domain name investing, I think it is important to stay aware of new and ongoing UDRP proceedings. I also think UDRPSearch.com is a good way for me to assess some risk when acquiring a domain name.

The percentage of UDRP filings compared to domain names is miniscule. Although a bright light is usually cast on UDRP proceedings that involve generic and/or otherwise valuable domain names, there are probably proceedings that go undetected or were filed before domain industry publications existed. Although I know of many UDRP filings, there are likely hundreds of UDRP proceedings filed against valuable domain names I don’t know of off the top of my head.

When buying a domain name, it is important to know

Read More

Watch out for Poor Classification

Elliot Silver
-
3

I won an auction at GoDaddy Auctions a little over a week ago. After the domain name was pushed to my GoDaddy account, I asked my Account Manager  to change the nameservers on the domain name and I noticed something a bit problematic when I visited the landing page to see if it had been changed. When visiting the landing page on my mobile phone, I saw a large graphic “XXX” header and the keywords were adult related. The domain name isn’t adult related, although I could see why it would be classified as such because of one of the keywords.

Having an adult lander isn’t a big deal for me or my company. I don’t generally  buy adult domain names, but I don’t have any issues with adult domain names or parking. Some people might have issues, but that isn’t why I found it troublesome. The  issue I thought about and wanted to share with you is that a former owner might take exception to this and make a big deal about it. No, the former owner shouldn’t have any say in what happens with a domain name that expired, but some can make a big deal anyway.

I have read quite a few news articles about

Read More
1...424344...212Page 43 of 212