Buying Domain Names Archives - Page 50 of 97

Legal Risk Part of Domain Investing

Elliot Silver

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March 5, 2014

When buying a domain name, there are many aspects of the purchase you need to consider. You may think about resale possibility, development potential, traffic and revenue, brandability, and other aspects related to the value of the domain name. Legal risk should also be a consideration that should be priced into your purchase.

For the sake of this discussion, I am going to assume most of you avoid obvious trademark domain names that can lead to UDRP filings and lawsuits. I assume the majority of people who read this blog are wise enough to not buy names with famous trademarks, such as Facebook.Club, MicrosoftsOffice2014.com, or something else along those lines.

Even when you are buying “safe” domain names,

Using a Domain Buyer Broker

Elliot Silver

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February 24, 2014

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Using a domain buyer broker service can be an effective way of acquiring a domain name.

I enjoy just about every aspect of acquiring a domain name. From searching for the owner of the domain name to negotiating a final purchase price, the “chase” is almost as exciting as closing a big domain sale. I’ve found that the more challenging it has been to find a domain owner and secure a deal, the reward is almost always commensurate with the effort.

Despite the exhilaration I get from the process of buying domain names, using a domain buyer broker to secure a deal may be advantageous, especially to people who are not active domain investors. A domain buyer’s broker can save time, reduce stress, and can help the buyer save money on a domain name deal. I’ll give you some examples.

Some of my better deals have come from

If The Answer Isn’t “No” Be Persistent

Elliot Silver

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February 22, 2014

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Yesterday, I wrote an article discussing transacting a domain name purchase in person, and the part of the article covered how I had been trying to buy this domain name for a few years. I want to discuss that aspect in this article.

Had I not been persistent, I am sure I would not have had the opportunity to buy the domain name. I must have sent 4 or 5 emails since 2010, and I also made a few phone calls. Despite the fact that I only received one reply before getting a counter offer, I persisted, and that helped me close the deal. I want to share a few pieces of advice that might help you get the domain name you covet, and I welcome your input as well.

When I sent these emails, I kept them

Doing a Domain Name Deal in Person

Buying Domain Names

Elliot Silver

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February 21, 2014

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I have been trying to buy a particular domain name since 2010. I didn’t hear back after my first offer, had my second offer rejected, and my third and fourth offers went unanswered. I followed up in March of 2013, but I didn’t receive a response, and I figured there was no deal to be had.

Two days ago, I received a reply to my offer, and the owner provided a reasonable counter offer. I agreed to purchase the domain name, and we had a couple of phone conversations to discuss the transfer of the domain name. Because the owner lives within a couple of hours from me, he asked that we do the deal in person. He has a couple of businesses offline, and although he bought a number of domain names many years ago, he doesn’t have much of an active online presence.

I am most likely going to meet this seller in person for a couple of reasons. First, I initiated contact with him, so it’s not like he was targeting me to harm me or steal from me. Second, I don’t want to take a chance that I lose out on this deal since I’ve wanted to buy this domain name for a while. Finally, he is willing to do escrow through his attorney’s firm (a large firm in the state), but I would imagine that could take quite a bit of time since they probably aren’t all that familiar with domain transactions.

Listed below are 5 precautions I am going to take when buying the domain name in person. As always, I welcome your advice and feedback.

Mass “Individual” Domain Inquiry Emails from Domain Investors

Buying Domain Names

Elliot Silver

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February 17, 2014

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A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry on MKM.com. The person inquiring had what looked like a real email address and he made a low offer for the domain name. It wasn’t a $500 offer, but it wasn’t all that reasonable either. I replied “nope” and moved on. Two weeks later, the same person emailed me about RER.com, this time without an offer and telling me that he needed it for a project. Clearly, this was a domain investor rather than an end user buyer.

I get quite a few inquiries on my domain names asking about their availability. Many of these seem to come from what sounds like a real person based on the email address. Instead of using a throwaway Gmail or Hotmail account, these buyers will use something like Angelica@AngelicaFunwoody.com (made up) or some other real sounding domain name. Although these emails seem like an end user wanting my domain name, they are most likely another domain investor using a pseudonym.

There are several ways to get an idea about whether or not the email is from another domain investors masking his or her identity. Here are a few telltale signs that it is a domain investor sending automated emails:

Why I Don’t Like to Share Stats

Elliot Silver

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February 11, 2014

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When I purchase domain names, I almost never ask the owner about stats. I’ve come to find that analytics are different for parking companies and for different stat trackers. Aside from this, I don’t find stats particularly interesting to me because I am buying domain names based on quality rather than traffic and revenue.

I am often asked for a domain name’s stats when selling domain names to other domain investors. On occasion, I will share them with the potential buyer, but I usually just tell them to assume there is no traffic. Sometimes I have stats available on my parked domain names, and other times, I don’t have them available on certain domain names where I haven’t enabled Google Analytics or Stat Counter.

On the infrequent occasions that I have shared stats, I have never received a reply “oh wow, that is a lot of traffic” or anything close to that. More often than not, the potential buyer uses the stats I provided as a means of negotiating a lower price. Perhaps the buyer did think there was more traffic than there really is, but I think it can hurt a sale more than help it, unless the traffic and revenue numbers are legitimately very high.

When selling to end user buyers, I am not often asked about traffic numbers. Most of the time, the buyer is looking at the domain name to either start a new website, use it in addition to the current website, own it for defensive purposes, or buy it for a future project. I am asked on occasion, but typically, this information hasn’t been used by end user prospects as a negotiation tactic (in my experience).

I like to buy and sell domain names based on the inherent keyword value of the domain name. Although having some traffic is good, I don’t look at the amount of traffic as something that would be a dealbreaker.