Find a Domain Buyer via Google ccTLD

I like to do my own research to find prospective buyers for some of my domain names, and I thought of a way that might be useful to find new leads. Typically, I use Google.com to search for companies that use the keywords of the domain name I am selling. I thought perhaps using a ccTLD where Google operates could bring additional prospective buyer leads.

Google operates many localized search engines using its ccTLD domain names. Google.co.uk, Google.com.do, Google.ca, and Google.ie are all examples of Google’s search engines that  are geared towards local searches in those particular regions.  For instance, if you look up London dog walkers  on Google.co.uk, you are likely to find more local results than if you would do the same search on Google.com.

I’ll give you an example of how this might work using

Do Your Homework Before Making an Offer

When I am interested in buying a particular domain name, I often do research to learn about the history of the domain name. Using insight I can glean from public and private sources, I may be able to learn something that will guide my offer. When I make an offer, I want to be reasonable, but I also don’t want to look uninformed.

There are several things I look for prior to making an offer, and I’d like to share quite a few of those below. Sometimes, I will do more or less research as my research dictates. I have also provided a bit of color for each of the things I look at to try and make it more clear about why I do this and what it could mean to me:

Down Market Could be Good for Domain Buyers

A down market could be a good opportunity for domain buyers

If we see a prolonged bear stock market, it could be good for people looking to buy high quality domain names at better prices. People who have owned domain names for a long period of time might be more inclined to sell as the stock market goes down.

I have been doing quite a bit of outreach in an attempt to buy excellent keyword .com domain names. My efforts haven’t been fruitless, but it seems to be getting more difficult to buy great domain names at reasonable prices. Names that would have likely sold for $5-15,000 now seem to be priced at $25,000+.

For the most part, I have been

Due Diligence: Subtle Email Address Changes

There are many different facets to doing due diligence when buying a domain name. I use DomainTools’ Whois history tool to verify as much information as possible before buying a domain name. I will often call the phone number listed on the Whois record, and I may even call previous phone number listings as well. I don’t think too much due diligence is possible.

One area that may tip people off to a potential issue is a subtle email address change. When I see a very subtle change in the listed email address, it sets off alarm bells in my head. For example, if a Whois email address for 10 years was FirstNameLastName@yahoo.com and it recently changed to FirstNameLastName@hotmail.com, it makes me wonder if the change was legitimate. This change could be used for social engineering or to make others think the domain name has not changed hands.

I have seen and heard of domain name

Put an Expiration Time on Offers

If you are similar to me, you probably spend quite a bit of time trying to buy domain names. When you make an offer on a marketplace like Sedo, there is a set time before the offer expires and is no longer valid. If you are making offers directly to the domain owner, you should probably do the same.

I personally find that most offers I make are responded to within a few days. Domain owners, with the exception of some domain investors, tend to respond quickly to offers because they either know the offer isn’t good or the offer is at least worth exploring further. In these cases, the offer is either accepted or rejected (even a counter offer can be construed as a rejection). When someone doesn’t reply to my offer, I generally consider it a rejection and move on with other inquiries.

The issue I potentially face is that

Final Should “Get Final.com”

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This morning, I read about  a credit card startup called Final. According to its Crunchbase profile, “Rather than a single, static number, Final card generates multiple numbers which the consumer can restrict, and manages them automatically.” The concept seems like a fantastic idea, and I would certainly be interested in using their service when given the opportunity.

One thing that I found interesting is that the company is currently using GetFinal.com for its website instead of the brand’s exact match Final.com domain name. Obviously, Final.com is an exceptional domain name, and given that