Always Keep Registrant Email Address Active

Elliot Silver
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Many domain names go to auction post-expiration because the administrative domain name they used for their registrar emails is no longer active. When this happens, domain name renewal emails aren’t received and important messages such as credit card declines go unanswered. Domain names can then expire and are auctioned to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately for a Washington state art gallery, this is exactly what happened to the domain name it uses for its website, according to an article in the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber. Here’s a quote from JiJi Saudners, who was one of the founders of the art gallery:

“We had this mishap where we changed the website, which in turn changed our email addresses. Go Daddy sent the email to the defunct email and auctioned off the domain.”

Since their original website domain name was auctioned, it is apparently being used for

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Do Some Research First

Elliot Silver
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What is the first thing you do when you receive an unsolicited spam email? In general, I mark it as spam in Gmail or simply hit delete. My guess is that most domain owners do the same thing when they receive a purchase inquiry. My advice is to do some basic research before sending an inquiry email.

I want to share a few things I research before sending an offer or an inquiry:

The owner’s name or a good company contact – When I am inquiring about a domain name that is owned by an individual or a small company, I try to find out the owner’s name. A personalized email “Hi Elliot” looks more professional than something else like “Dear sir.” I will simply delete many of the later assuming the person is blindly spamming.

Prior sales prices or domain broker listings – It’s a good idea to

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People Can Spoof Emails from Your Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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Over the years, I have had several people ask me to let them have an email address on a domain name I own. Some people like having an email address from a particular domain name because it’s a novelty and others want to have name@something.com because the something is related to their profession or personal interests. I have never offered an email service and I have no interest in offering it for many reasons.

Yesterday afternoon, I received a phone call and text messages from someone who apparently received an email that looked like it came from one of my domain names. Someone harassed her from a made up email address, and she asked me for information about the email address because she saw that I own the domain name. Obviously (from my perspective) the email was spoofed, but it was quite disturbing to hear that someone chose one of my domain names to use for this.

Luckily, this seems to be

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Be Cautious About Giving Prices

Elliot Silver
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I regularly receive price requests for domain names I own, but I don’t always give prices when asked. One of the major reasons why I am sometimes reluctant to give a price is that I don’t want a “prospect” to take my price and try to sell my domain name to someone else before he or she buys it.

I’ll share a hypothetical example with you:

Let’s say someone asks me about the price of [Example].com, and I give the person a price of $10,000. This person can then go out and try to find a buyer for [Example].com at a higher price than I quoted. If he is successful, he will buy the domain name from me and immediately flip it to his buyer. If he is not successful, either because he can’t find a buyer at a higher price or he is caught in the act, he will disappear without much of a trace. Aside from reputational damage, there is little risk for this person for doing something I believe is unethical.

Some people might say that there is nothing much wrong with this approach. In theory, the original seller gets his asking price and the buyer makes a profit on the resale. All parties are theoretically happy. Unfortunately, there is a major risk

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Ask Inquirer for Other Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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Coming up with a list of great domain names you want to buy can be an endless process. I am always reading things and thinking about domain names, and I don’t think it would be possible to come up with a comprehensive list of good names I would buy (endless.com, process.com, always.com, thinking.com, possible.com, comprehensive.com to name a few from the first two sentences!).

Inquiring about domain names is also a time consuming process. You need to do Whois searches to find the owner, investigate to get good contact information, craft emails, and for the best results, you will likely need to come up with a reasonable offer to start the conversation. Being good at this takes time and it may be difficult to do this effectively.

I thought of a way to generate acquisition leads that I want to share with you.

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Does it Pass the “Radio Test?” Ask Siri

Elliot Silver
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Most branding professionals would recommend that a brand name must pass the “radio test.” This means that someone who hears the name of the company on the radio would know how to spell it in order to find it online or to recommend the brand to someone else who could easily find the website.

Even with the advances of Google and spell check, I think it is very important for a company’s domain name to pass the radio test. A website may never actually advertise on the radio, but there are plenty of reasons for why a domain name should be easy to recall and share with others.

George Kirikos shared some great advice on Domain Boardroom about how you can tell if a domain name passes the “radio test,” and he allowed me to share it with you. Simply take out your iPhone and ask “Siri.” If Siri can locate the website you are seeking, you’re likely in the clear. If Siri can’t find the website or doesn’t understand what you are looking to find, even with the assistance of its AI engine, you might want to rethink your brand and domain name.

If you want to

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