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

It probably goes without saying, but it is important to identify who is inquiring about one of my domain names. I want to be able to know if a major corporation wants to buy my domain name, if it really is a college student working on a thesis project, and I need to gauge any risk if a lawyer is contacting me. I want to share some ways I try to identify who is contacting me.

When someone inquires about one of my domain names via my Embrace.com landing page, they are required to input their name and email address. I ask for a phone number, but it is not required in order to submit an inquiry/offer.

The first thing I usually do is run a Google search for the person’s name. This usually doesn’t give me enough identifying information since the majority of inquiries either only have a first name or have a common enough name that I can’t identify the person with certainty. I then try to search Google for the email address. This works better and can lead to a plethora of information, including domain registrations, website and/or forum posts, and other pieces of information that can prove to be useful.

Many people use a separate phone number on their Whois records than they use for their personal needs. They don’t want their home or cell phone ringing at all hours, or they want to know specifically when the phone is ringing for a possible domain inquiry.  I know a few people who use a toll-free number for their Whois records, and I don’t think this is a great idea.

During the last couple of years, it seems that there has been a massive increase in the number of spam robocalls that are being  made. I believe some spammers are targeting phone numbers on Whois records, especially on new domain name registrations. My belief stems from the fact that I get a ton of spam text messages after I register a  domain name, and I also receive  quite a bit of junk mail addressed to new domain registrations. I think spammers assume new domain names mean new businesses are starting, and they believe their plethora of loans, SEO help, and other website offerings  would be well targeted.

There are a number of toll free phone number services that are easy to use and setup. Most if not all