Consider Adding a Non-Disparagement Clause

Let’s say you just closed a mega-deal. You’re pretty amped because the right buyer came with the right offer, and you closed a fantastic deal on a domain name. You may or may not have signed a non-disclosure agreement covering the negotiation and purchase price, but the company that bought it announces that it acquired the domain name from a cybersquatter. Not cool.

I’ve seen quite a few news reports, first person acquisition stories, and other types of articles that discuss how a company acquired a particular domain name. While most presumably won’t  divulge confidential information, the  company principals  might not be prevented from writing about the seller. Perhaps they were nice when negotiating for the sake of closing a deal, but behind closed doors, they are upset they had to pay a “cybersquatter” or someone who was “domain hoarding.” Whatever the case may be, you should protect yourself.

When I first wrote about

Three Local Websites Not Functioning Due to Non-Renewal

Yesterday, Google Alerts made me aware of three local websites that ceased to function due to non-renewal. This is a pretty common occurrence, but I thought it was interesting to read the local coverage because these websites are fairly high profile in their respective communities.

On WHEC Rochester website, there is an article headlined Domain problems takes Rochester’s official tourism website offline for week. According to the article covering the expiration of VisitRochester.com, “Visit Rochester says it happened last Tuesday without warning and the site averages thousands of web hits every day. Officials say Visit Rochester’s domain name expired.”

In south Florida, another tourism

Ask for a Right of First Refusal

Seller’s remorse is fairly common in the domain industry. As an active seller, there have been plenty of times I regretted selling a domain name I would like to have kept for various reasons. I have an idea on how to combat seller’s remorse just a bit.

When you are in the process of selling a domain name, ask for a right of first refusal if the buyer ever decides to sell the domain name in the future. Most buyers will say no because this could hinder a future deal, but there may be a chance that you could negotiate this into a deal.

I’ll explain how this would work. Let’s say you sell

Why I Put a Time Limit on Domain Prices

I’ve been more vigilant lately about putting a time limit on my sales offers, and it doesn’t have anything to do with domain sales strategy. The reason I have been doing it is to prevent someone else from frontrunning my domain names.

Here’s a scenario for you to illustrate my concerns:

I offer to sell a person a domain name for $5,000. He agrees to the price, and we have a

Domain Name Sales Tip: Ask for a Phone Number

I want to share another tip that might be able to help you identify a prospective buyer of a domain name. People often try to acquire domain names covertly, and it is in the best interest of a domain name owner to know who is inquiring about a domain name for business and legal reasons.

It is very  easy to create an email address. It is as simple as setting up  a free email address using a service like Gmail or Hotmail, or even registering a new domain name and creating email addresses from that. These “throw away” email addresses can make it difficult to track down a buyer, especially if that email address is brand new.

One thing that may help is

Timing is Important for Seasonal Professionals

With the snow finally melted, there are now an abundance of “for sale” signs at homes in my area. With the spring home buying season underway, I am sure this is the same for people around the United States. Even if you don’t live in the US, I would imagine there are certain times of the year that homes are for sale in your area.

When I think of the housing market in Spring, it gets me more motivated to sell some of my real estate domain names. I currently own quite a few city/town RealEstate.com domain names that I think have value to agents. I eagerly began sending out emails to local real estate agents a couple of weeks ago, and  I received fewer replies than I would have expected. Even when I emailed a friend in that business, it took longer than usual for him to respond.

The booming real estate market means real estate agents are