One Way I Come Up With Domain Name Ideas

Elliot Silver
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16

I took my first long 2017 Pan-Mass Challenge training ride yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and I rode for about 3 hours.  These long rides give me time to think about business without having a computer or iPhone in front of me, and it is a time that I brainstorm about domain name acquisitions.

During the ride, I thought  about a couple of ways that I come up with domain names to inquire about. I presume many people do this already, but for those who don’t, it might offer a nugget of insight that could be useful. I want to share some thoughts about that with you.

Most of my rides are through the back roads of the MetroWest region of Boston (I own MetroWest.com). I pass the beautiful Charles River (I recently sold CharlesRiver.com) at several points throughout my ride. One domain name I own and am surprised hasn’t sold is NeedhamRealEstate.com. There have been a ton of teardowns and redevelopment in Needham during the past couple of years, and I am surprised a real estate agent from Needham hasn’t made an enticing enough offer yet.

Maybe you see where I am going with this?

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Valuable Names are Tough to Sell

Elliot Silver
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19

People in the domain space tend to laud those who own the best domain names. I am regularly impressed by the quality of domain names some of my friends and colleagues own. There is one downside to owning valuable domain names – they are not easy to sell for full value.

The best domain names receive inquiries all the time. I would imagine the owners of top one word .com, LLL.com, LL.com, NN.com…etc. domain names receive inquiries and offers every day. It is reassuring to receive regular inquiries for top domain names, but the vast majority of these inquiries will not lead to deals. Virtually all offers are either from people who either don’t understand that these domain names are ultra high value or they simply do not have the budget to buy the domain name.

Obviously an advantage of

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How I Would Start Over with $10,000

Elliot Silver
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102

Let’s say I wanted to start over from scratch in the domain investment space and I have just $10,000 to spend. I thought I would share how I would start over today without any domain names, $10,000 in cash, and the knowledge I already have.

I would spend as much time as it took reaching out privately to buy a single one word .com domain name. The domain name would need to be meaningful to many companies and/or people so my eggs aren’t in one basket hoping that the one prospect understands the value proposition. With this investment, I would need to be certain I could liquidate the name to another domain investor or at auction for at least the $10,000 I paid if I needed to get my cash back to start over because I overestimated the market interest.

Although this sounds simple, it really isn’t. It is very difficult to buy great, meaningful one word .com domain names for $10,000 or less. It takes a ton of time and research and a ton of dead ends. These types of deals are out there for those who are willing to go to the effort because most aren’t marked for sale and some are even developed websites.

Once my $10,000 name was acquired, I would try to find a buyer. Bear in mind that before I made my purchase, I would have done so with trademark risk mitigation and market research in mind to know that there is limited risk with the domain name from a TM perspective, there are many businesses that would want this domain name, and the domain name hasn’t been on the market or for sale before (or in a long time). I would also know how to contact prospective buyers, both from the approach and the actual contact person.

With my $10,000 investment, I would not try to get cute and buy

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Check Your Parked Domain Names After Buying

Elliot Silver
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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

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Legal Review Should be Done Before Agreeing to a Deal

Elliot Silver
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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

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Monitor Your Domain Registrations

Elliot Silver
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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

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