Inc. Magazine Shares Stories of Domain Acquisitions

Yesterday evening, I posted an article about the purchase price for Nuts.com, which was revealed in an Inc. magazine article. This morning, the easier to read version of the article, Stalking That Dream .Com: True Tales From The Front Lines of the URL Wars,” was published online.

There are several takeaways from the article that might interest you and will perhaps benefit your business. From an interest standpoint, the acquisitions of Mint.com, Nuts.com, Hired.com, and several other domain names are discussed. The buyers of these domain names discuss the prices they paid, and there is some insight shared about the value the domain names brought to the companies that bought them as well as the benefits realized by owning the domain names.

From a business standpoint,

List of Domain Sales Newsletters

Many of the top domain name brokers and domain brokerages have weekly or monthly domain sales newsletters. Typically, these newsletters have lists of domain names that are available for sale exclusively through the broker or brokerage. Some of the also include market commentary, which I think is particularly interesting given a domain broker’s position in the resale market.

Some of the best domain purchase opportunities can be found in these newsletters because many aren’t shared publicly, and the prices don’t necessarily reflect actual market value. For example, I saw a broker list a domain name for sale a couple of months ago with a $12,000 purchase price and it recently sold on a public venue almost double. This indicates that there may be better deals available in private than if there was a public auction.

I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of the current domain broker and brokerage email newsletters. There may be others that I don’t know about or accidentally omitted, so feel free to post a comment if you know of another newsletter. I would prefer to only list third party brokers as opposed to individuals who sell their own domain names because that’s a different type of newsletter.

I recommend using a third party escrow service (I personally use Escrow.com) or a trusted attorney that has an escrow account when dealing with a broker, even if the company is willing to provide escrow services. It’s also important to do your standard due diligence to make sure the listing is legit. I trust most of the professional domain brokers, but I trust my own due diligence above all.

Domain name sale broker newsletters (in alphabetical order):

Unique Offer to Entice a Wholesaler to Sell a Domain Name

I can think of several exact match .com domain names I would like to buy from wholesale or manufacturing companies that are not using the domain names. From what I can tell, these domain names were bought many years ago by the various companies, and they have never done anything with them. In all of these cases, my offers have been rejected over the years.

Last night, I thought of an interesting proposal that might entice these companies to sell their domain name, and I thought I would share the idea with you in case you are interested in buying domain names owned by major wholesalers. Instead of simply making a cash offer for the domain name, you can promise the company you will either:

TLD Registry Announces ChineseLandrush.com Version 3.1

I received an email from Mitch Watkins of TLD Registry, and he wants to share that there has been a major update to their  ChineseLandrush.com  website. If you aren’t familiar, ChineseLandrush.com is a website that provides information about investing in Chinese domain names. It is primarily geared towards domain name investors.

This update is version 3.1 of the website, and it includes a bug fix as well as additional features.

According to Mitch, here’s what the update covers and how the website works:

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:

Types of Domain Name Acquisition Deals

Earlier this week, I wrote an article about using an option to buy a domain name. Since there are many types of deals that can be struck to acquire a domain name, I thought I would discuss some of them in a blog post.

It may be beneficial for a buyer and seller to work out a creative deal when a straight-forward acquisition is not possible. Some buyers don’t have the capital to buy a domain name as they start their business, and others would benefit from securing the domain name as their business launches. A creative deal can add value to the seller and give the buyer flexibility.

If you can think of other deal structures that aren’t mentioned below, please add them to the comment section so that I can add them to the article.

Types of domain acquisition deals: