Malaysian Airlines Crash Domain Names Already Being Registered

Elliot Silver
-
17

Unsurprisingly, it looks like domain names related to the Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 plane crash are being hand registered today as the news of the tragedy continues to unfold.  Verisign shares data related to .com domain name registrations in its DomainView Grapher Tool, and that can give us a look at what is being registered.

According to the Grapher Tool, here are some of the domain names that have been registered today:

Read More

Be Mindful of Old Forum Posts

Elliot Silver
-
1

I was visiting DN Forum yesterday, and I decided to look through some of the earliest posts on the forum. While clicking through to some of the earliest sales posts, I was surprised when I came across the posts of a couple people I know who listed domain names for sale. These people no longer actively sell domain names, so it was a bit strange to see their sale posts.

Seeing these old posts got me thinking that domain investors should be mindful of public posts they made, even if they were made many years ago. Some of us have changed business strategies and shifted focus over the years, but there may be an archive of our earlier activities on forums and even domain blog comment sections.

Although most sales posts would likely be innocuous, especially if the name(s) were sold and/or prices were edited out, but there may be

Read More

Due Diligence Tip: Tracking Whois Email

Elliot Silver
-
0

I want to share a tip about performing due diligence when buying a domain name. This tip deals with tracking the Whois email address to try and verify ownership.

Let’s say you want to buy BrandManagement.com from me, and you use DomainTools to do a Whois history search for part of your due diligence steps. Let’s hypothetically say that I use domains@topnotchdomains.com as the Whois email address for my domain names (I don’t). Your historical search shows that the registrant appears to be the same for the last 3 years. All looks good to you on that front, and some people may believe this is sufficient to confirm ownership and proceed.

In my opinion, in addition to a historical

Read More

Don’t Buy a Domain Name on Behalf of Someone Else

Elliot Silver
-
7

I have never advertised domain brokerage services, and I have no interest in becoming a domain broker. That hasn’t stopped people and companies from asking me to broker domain names on both the buy and sell side. I recommend that if you are not in the brokerage business, you shouldn’t agree to acquire a domain name on behalf of someone else (or sell one for that matter).

A while back, a personal acquaintance that isn’t in this business asked me about a domain name that was related to his business. I did a cursory check and saw that it was not a developed website. He asked that I pursue the domain name for him, and I agreed to help him out at no cost because I am not a broker and I figured it would be straightforward enough. After an email exchange, I was able to get the owner to sell it for an agreeable price. Unfortunately, the buyer decided against making the purchase, and that left me in an unfortunate position.

As someone who buys domain names as part of my business, I am often asked

Read More

I Wish Brokers Shared Personal Stats

Elliot Silver
-
8

Whether I am using the Domain Name Sales platform or independently choosing a broker to market one of my domain names, I am doing it somewhat blindly. Because I subscribe to several newsletters and closely follow sales reports, I know many domain names that are being brokered by individual brokers, but I don’t really have a good idea about individual broker statistics.

I wish domain brokerages shared more statistics about their individual domain brokers, including their overall sales and areas of expertise. This would allow me to make a better decision about choosing a domain broker to hire, and that would be helpful to me and beneficial to the brokerage.

When you visit Flippa, you can see how much revenue in sales closed on the platform a seller has under his or her belt. This information is shared as a means of creating trust between the seller and prospective buyers. If private domain brokerages would share sales information for the individual domain brokers working on behalf of sellers, it would be helpful to learn who the best brokers are and individual areas of expertise.

This is some of the information I think would be helpful in choosing a broker:

Read More

Always Check Your Landing Pages

Elliot Silver
-
5

Parking services are pretty smart when it comes to categorizing domain names. I often take the process of categorization for granted when I load new domain names into my account because it’s such an easy process, but I can think of two reasons why it is a good idea to check them out and make sure they are categorized correctly.

The first reason is quite obvious. If you have a domain name that should have insurance keyword links, but instead, the links and landing page are related to pets, you may be leaving money on the table. Not only could you impact your click through rate, but you’d almost certainly be getting a lower RPC on a lower value term. There may be a reason the parking company thinks it is suppose to show pet related advertising, but you may have a better understanding of the domain name than the parking company’s algorithm.

The second reason is similar but there may be different consequences. This morning, I was searching for something for my daughter. As is the case so many times, that led me to look up domain names related to this product. I noticed that one of the better exact match .com domain names is parked and owned by a domain investment company. I was surprised when I saw that the landing page had

Read More
1...707172...214Page 71 of 214