Tip to Find an Inquirer

Elliot Silver
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13

I like to share a variety of ways you may be able to find out who is inquiring about your domain names. This surely isn’t foolproof, but it’s one way you might be able to get a bit more intelligence on who is trying to buy one of your domain names.

More often than not, I find that buyers are fairly honest about who they are. They might not list their full information in their signature, but many who inquire use their real email address. Since many don’t list their full name or other identifying information, I’ve found it can be helpful if you search Google for the first part of their email address and see if you can connect the dots. For instance, if

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After a Sale, Find Similar Domain Names to Sell

Elliot Silver
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2

After I complete the sale of a domain name to an end user buyer, I try to find similar domain names for sale, in an effort to close additional deals with the buyer. I am especially keen to do this when I’ve had multiple offers and significant interest on a domain name from several end user prospects.

Let’s say I sold CollegeApartments.com to an end user buyer. I would do some research to try and find similar domain names that might be for sale. I would search Google and the soon to be killed off Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find terms that are similar to “college apartments.”

This research would probably lead me to

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Unscrupulous People Trying to Sell Names Owned By Others

Elliot Silver
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68

My business model involves the re-sale of domain names. Oftentimes, I will buy a domain name on a venue like NameJet, and after I won the auction, paid in full for the name, and have it in my possession, I may seek out an end user buyer via resale of the domain name.

This morning, I sent out some emails to end users about a domain name I recently won at auction. A few minutes after my first email went out, I received a reply asking me how much the domain name would cost. After sharing my price, the prospect emailed me back asking why my price was higher than what my “colleague offered a few days ago.”

Since I don’t have any co-workers or employees, and since this was an expired domain name rather than a private auction, I am pretty confident

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Tip To Find a Buyer or Seller

Elliot Silver
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5

I often find that a tech support person or CTO is the registrant contact for domain names owned by mid to large-sized companies. This is done most likely for convenience, as the registrant contact person should have knowledge about domain names, and many companies leave that duty to the “tech guy.”

For the sake of this article, I won’t discuss the potential security issue associated with this, but I will give you a tip about how to get in touch with the decision maker when you want to buy or sell a domain name.

Based on my experience, the “tech guy” who manages the domain name and website doesn’t have

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Use The Phone to Do Due Diligence

Elliot Silver
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7

Doing due diligence is a very important aspect of the domain acquisition process. When you are in the process of buying a domain name in the aftermarket, it’s critical that you know the person from whom you are buying the domain name is the legitimate owner (or seller), and using the phone is one good way to do some of your due diligence.

In my opinion, there are two major reasons why you should do due diligence with respect to ownership before buying a domain name, although a domain name lawyer would probably cite other reasons in addition. Domain theft occurs rarely, but it occurs often enough that domain investors need to check on a domain name’s provenance before buying. In addition, rogue employees could potentially be selling a business asset they have no right to sell. In both cases, a phone call can help with due diligence.

Calling the current Whois registrant contact number may be

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Use Other People’s Replies for Yourself

Elliot Silver
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6

I inquire about purchasing many domain names, and the majority of these offers are made to people who aren’t involved in the domain space. Since I am generally making cash offers rather than simple inquiries about availability (probably 80% of the time), I receive a wide range of replies from domain owners.

Because I am not offering end user prices in most cases and because it’s almost essential to counter offer in my opinion, I receive all sorts of replies – from simple one word replies to extensive replies. The replies are either an attempt to get me to pay more, not contact the owner again, or tell me that my offer is far too low for some reason. Some people are better at crafting effective replies than others.

One thing I like to do is think about the reply emails I receive to see what I think is effective and what doesn’t seem to work, and then I use them for my own inquiry replies when I don’t send them to the brokers at DNS.

On occasion, I will receive a

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