Buying Domain Names

One of the most common problems I face when trying to buy a domain name in private is getting in touch with the owner. You probably wouldn’t believe the number of people who seem to have outdated Whois contact information, making it more difficult to track them down to make an inquiry on their domain name.

When you can’t get in touch with a domain owner, the good news is that other people probably haven’t been able to contact them either, and without their receiving many inquiries, you could have a better shot at making a deal. That said, I think it’s important to make a reasonable offer.

There are many ways to find a domain owner when the Whois contact information and phone numbers don’t work, and I want to share a few resources with you for the next time you are trying to track down an owner:

• WhitePages.com – phone number search
• Facebook – email lookup
• LinkedIn – email and name lookup
• Archive.org – see previous iterations of the website’s contact info
• Screenshots.com    – see previous iterations of the website’s contact info
• Intelius.com – find a person and contact information

Are there any other resources you use to find a domain owner when their contact information is outdated?

Many people shared their domain acquisitions in the comment section of an article I posted yesterday where I shared some of my recent domain acquisitions. I think posting is a good way to give some further insight into my business and it may also be a good way for others to share and learn as well.

In response to some of the domain names that commenters listed, someone named Ze shared some good advice about buying domain names.  I am not sure if Ze is someone’s name or if it’s a pseudonym, but the advice is good and well worth a review, especially for people who may not be making significant sums of money or to those who are just starting out.

This information was poached from his more extensive comment, but I think this is the most beneficial insight from the comment.

A few things to think about when you buy a domain:

When I receive an email from CertifiedOfferService@networksolutions.com, I get a bit excited because I know someone has paid to submit an offer to buy a domain name of mine, and they are using the Network Solutions Certified Offer Service to submit it.

Why is it exciting? The person or company had to pay $39 to make the offer (or more for an offer over $25k), and one would assume that if they are willing to pay that much for the  opportunity just to make an offer, it will be a decent offer.

Here’s a tip for people who pay for a service like Network Solutions to make an offer: You should make an offer that is enticing enough for the domain owner to at least counter offer you. If you send me a $100 offer for a domain name, you are wasting my time, your time, and of course, your money. If you don’t know what a decent offer is, you should probably get some guidance before spending money to make an offer.

Using a service like Network Solutions’ Certified Offer Service or Domain Agents to make an anonymous offer on a name that isn’t listed for sale elsewhere is a wise idea. It’s especially smart for large companies that want to covertly acquire a domain name but not pay for an uber expensive brand management company to do it on their behalf. However, submitting a low offer is only going to result in a rejection and a waste of time and money.

I want to share another domain buying tip (two actually), which might seem totally obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how often I don’t adhere to these when I buy domain names.

The primary piece of advice is to set up default nameservers at your preferred domain registrars. Most companies will allow you to set up default DNS in your account control panel, and this will ensure all newly registered domain names are set up to your preferred DNS. Assuming you plan to park the domain names, at least temporarily, you will be able to use your parking company’s DNS.

Once you have secured the domain names in your account, you will want to remember to add them to your parking account. It’s a nice time saver to not have to wait until the names show up (refresh, refresh) and then click around to change the DNS, but it does you no good if the domain names aren’t added to your account. Your parking company may be happy, but you won’t earn anything nor will you be able to field purchase inquiries.

If you are looking to sell the domain names at an aftermarket company, and you don’t want to park them there, be sure to add them to those accounts at the same time. In the past, I had not really done all of these steps at once, and if I didn’t do them at the time of registration, the  likelihood  of doing them later is slim.

It’s two for the price of one day today. I want to share another domain buying tip that has helped me, and judging by a number of the names I saw on this article, I think it can benefit some of you, too 🙂

When you are buying a domain name, if you have to explain what the domain name actually means to a friend or significant other, it’s probably not worth buying. Sure, it could have meaning to someone else who thinks like you think, but what are the odds that the other person who “gets it” will also understand domain names and want to pay you a premium for it? Probably slim, and each year it will cost you another $10+/- annually.

Yes, the domain name you found may have value, but it’s most likely only valuable to someone who inquires directly to buy the name. That means you will have a difficult time selling it to someone else via outbound marketing methods. If the domain name had not been previously registered in the 15+ years of Internet history, there’s probably a reason.

There are certainly great unregistered domain names out there to find, but again, if you have to explain what a particular domain name means, it’s probably going to be confusing to others. One other small tip is that it helps to have someone like a significant other or friend give a domain name a once over before buying it.

Everyone has some interesting domain names in the portfolio (ie a Saturday at 3am registration), but if you can limit the number of questionable domain names, you will strengthen your domain portfolio and cash position.

I want to share a relatively easy tip with you when it comes to buying domain name. This advice goes for both aftermarket acquisitions and hand registrations, and I think it can help you get an idea of the ease (or difficulty) you may have in selling a particular domain name.

Before buying a name, do a Whois search for similar domain names, and do a search of the same keywords in different extensions. If you see that others are unregistered or owned solely by domain investors, it might be challenging to sell it to an end user buyer for whatever reason. If other similar names are owned by end user companies, you will probably have a much easier time finding a buyer.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say you have the opportunity to purchase a large city Plumber.com domain name (let’s say LosAngelesPlumber.com) either at auction or hand registration. Do some research to see if plumbers own other large city Plumber.com domain names. In addition, see if any smaller town Plumber.com domain names are registered to local plumbers in that area. You should also check out other extensions, and do a Google search of the keyword to see what domain names local plumbers are using for their websites.

If you see the vast majority of similar domain names owned by other domain investors or unregistered, you may want to rethink buying the name. Yes, there could be some commercial value (obviously there is in my simple example), but if no plumber has bought one of the names from a domain investor, you should realize you will probably end up in the same situation.

Keep in mind this tip is one that I use when I am buying domain names to re-sell. If you plan to build out a domain name or monetize it due to known type-in traffic, this tip probably matters much less.