Get In Touch With the Decision Maker

Elliot Silver
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6

When you are looking to acquire a domain name, it’s important that you get in touch with a decision maker, who may not be the Whois contact. Oftentimes, someone in tech support or the IT department will be listed as the domain registrant, and that person may or may not forward your email to the appropriate party.

When I send an inquiry email for a domain name (usually that is unused), and I don’t hear back from the person I emailed, I think about why I didn’t hear back. I will search the company’s website to find out who I emailed and what their role is within the company. If it’s someone on the IT staff, I usually try to find the CEO’s or President’s contact information to get an answer.

As you probably know from your own email inbox, owners of good domain names are usually pounded with inquiries. It’s likely that a tech person deletes these emails since he or she doesn’t often have a say about whether they’re for sale, and there isn’t an incentive for them to pass the email along to the right person. 99% of the time, domain investors will simply not follow up, and oftentimes, end users won’t either or they won’t make an offer that’s worthwhile for someone to reply.

If you are able to get in touch with the decision maker, you’ll likely get an answer to your inquiry far more expeditiously, obviously depending on the size of the company and who that decision maker is. The thing I’ve learned is that the people who are persistent and make reasonable offers will get the courtesy of a reply and has a greater chance of closing a deal.

Critical Skill: Negotiating

Elliot Silver
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26

When you are buying or selling a domain name, the most critical skill you can possess is the ability to negotiate.

No matter what side of the bargaining table you are on, you and the counter party need to reach an agreeable deal in order to transact. The other party might lie, shield his or her identity, or they might be completely upfront with you. Whatever the case is, being a skilled negotiator will help you close more favorable deals for yourself.

I wouldn’t consider myself to be an expert negotiator by any stretch. I am probably too honest when it comes to negotiating. Because of this, I am not going to offer advice on strategic or tactical negotiations.

However, I can recommend a few resources where you can read about negotiating more effectively:

Obviously, we can all learn about successful domain name negotiations in practice, but it can be beneficial if you have some background.

Do you have additional negotiation resources that you’d like to share? I am sure we would all benefit if you share those in the comment section.

Why I Don’t Like Investing in Brandable Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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97

It’s always fun to start of a blog post with a caveat, so here goes! Many people have made millions of dollars selling “brandable” domain names. There is nothing wrong with investing in brandable domain names. I personally don’t really invest in brandable domain names, and I will share some reasons for that.

To make money with a brandable domain name, you generally need the following things to happen:

  • Buyer wants to create a brand that matches your domain name
  • Buyer has funding (self or third party)
  • Willingness to pay your asking price
  • No other alternative domain names under consideration (other brand names, using a hack, or adding a word in front)

As you can see from the Afternic’s and Sedo’s weekly sales reports, there are plenty of brandable domain names that sell. There are even more that sell in private that aren’t reported. However, compared to the amount of domain names registered, the number of sales is a tiny drop in the bucket.

Some people treat domain names like lottery tickets, and that is fine. When you look at them in this manner, you most likely need to own more domain names in order to increase your chances of success. Unfortunately, owning more brandable domain names doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get more sales. It will, obviously, increase your holding costs, especially if it becomes difficult to give up and drop some unsold domain names since we all think the next big sale is just around the corner.

I read Morgan’s post about brandable domain names, and this certainly isn’t a knock on him or anyone else that sells this kind of domain name. I’ve sold many descriptive domain names in the last few years, and I am sure Morgan has sold his share of brandables as well. As I’ve said in the past, there are many ways to make money from domain investments, and I want to share some of my personal business philosophies.

Millions of dollars in domain sales are achieved each year from brandable domain names. Many times that figure is lost (paid to domain registrars), most likely to never be recovered.

Again, re-read the first paragraph. There are plenty of success stories, but there are many more failures that you probably don’t hear about because the owners either disappear from the domain investment space, or they hold out hope that the next big sale will be theirs.  There are many ways to make money from domain investing.

I don’t invest in brandable domain names, and I wanted to give you my rationale. As always, your thoughts are welcome.

Use Screenshots.com to Find Contact Information

Elliot Silver
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1

It’s probably silly for me to give away insight related to how I find contact information when Whois lookups fail, but I guess that’s one reason why my blog is helpful.  Here’s another tip to get in touch with a domain owner.

One giveaway that a domain owner might be willing to sell his domain name is when a website is taken down. There are many reasons why someone would take down their website, but if they are no longer using the domain name, it might be for sale, whether it’s listed anywhere or not.

If the Whois information isn’t public or is outdated, you can use a tool like Screenshots.com to find more accurate contact information. Many websites list their email and/or phone number in the footer or home page, and if you search for the previous iteration of a website, you may be able to locate contact information for the owner. The domain name might resolve to a parked page or a registrar landing page, but Screenshots.com can be helpful to you to find valuable information.

Another tool you can use for this is Archive.org. I prefer to use Screenshots.com though because they support my blog and are a part of the domain industry.

Benefits of Attending a Conference

Elliot Silver
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17

I try to attend as many domain industry conferences as my time permits. It’s a great way to meet people in the industry, and the benefits extend beyond the conferences. I wanted to share a story that just happened last week to illustrate this.

At TRAFFIC  a year ago, I had the chance to meet the guys from Domain Holdings and get to know them a little better. I knew several of the people who worked there, but being at the conference allowed me to learn more about the company and the people who work there. We’ve been in touch since, discussing various opportunities as they come up.

I just returned from a “vacation” in south Florida. I say vacation in quotes because this business never sleeps, and as you could see from my blog posts over the last couple weeks, I was doing some work most days.

I decided to take a drive to Delray Beach to see the guys from Domain Holdings while on vacation. I had no agenda, and I wanted to go and shoot the shit about business for a couple hours.  While in the office, I was asked if I had any names for sale, and I mentioned a recent acquisition and let them know I was in the midst of a private negotiation on the name. I was told that they could probably get my asking price if I gave them a bit of time.

I let them know I intended to continue negotiating with my buyer, but if they could get me my asking price ASAP, I’d sell if I hadn’t reached a deal privately (clearly had I agreed to sell it to my buyer even for less, I would have done so).

The next morning, I was told that they have a deal with their buyer if the name was available, and since I hadn’t come to terms with my buyer, I agreed to move forward with them. The name is now in escrow and is awaiting payment.

From a few meetings at TRAFFIC, to a chance meeting in Florida, to a nice sale, I want to reiterate the value of attending conferences to get to know other domain investors personally.

Tip To Find a Domain Owner

Elliot Silver
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3

I have been trying to track down the owner of a domain name that was registered to DNStination Inc. I’ve seen that company in a number of Whois lookups, and I am pretty sure a number of large companies use them for domain registration and likely other services. I am quite certain they don’t actually own the domain name, but they are the registrant.

I’ve shared a number of ways to find domain owners in the past, and I want to share another method I used to find the owner of this domain name.

The domain name was sort of developed, although it wasn’t extensive enough to consider a business. I used Screenshots.com to see that this particular website hadn’t changed much in the last couple of years, so it’s possible that the project is no longer a priority for the owner.

As I previously recommended, I had a look at the privacy policy and terms and conditions pages, and the email addresses were @domainname, which didn’t help me because it hadn’t worked in the past. In the privacy page, it listed the name of the company that operated the website. I was then able to search Google for the LLC name, and I found a site that had quite a bit of legal information about the LLC, including the company’s registered agent.

I recognized the registered agent’s name and have his contact information on file already (he’s an attorney and owns the domain name). This person isn’t involved in the domain industry, but I know of a few names he has sold in the past, and this will be helpful when contacting him directly.

I have no idea if I’ll be able to strike a deal, but it is always nice to be able to contact a domain owner directly instead of stopping when the trail goes cold. From my experience, going the extra mile is the difference between acquiring an awesome domain name and skipping over it like others have in the past.

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