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Smart Domain Move by Trump

Elliot Silver
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8

In a tweet made on his Twitter page this afternoon, Donald Trump, Jr. (known by many as Don) and his wife Vanessa announced the birth of their son, Tristan Trump, who was born today.

Although the newest member of the Trump family was just born, he already has his domain name  reserved  for him by the Trump Organization. Whois records show that TristanTrump.com was registered by The Trump Organization just a few days ago, on September 27, 2011.

When real estate mogul Donald Trump had his son, Barron, in 2006, the company did not immediately register BarronTrump.com, and another entity registered it. Current Whois records show that The Trump Organization now owns BarronTrump.com as well. The domain name forwards to the website of the child’s mother, MelaniaTrump.com.

Congratulations to the Trump family, which clearly understands the value of domain names. Perhaps Don should now get in touch with DomainMarket.com and work out a deal for DonTrump.com.

NY State is Domain Savvy

Elliot Silver
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2

The State of New York launched a new website to help state residents connect with government officials. Dubbed Citizens Connects, the website aims to  be an “online town hall where you can find everything you need to communicate with New York State Government.”

Although the website sites on a state government url,  http://governor.ny.gov/citizenconnects, the State of NY smartly purchased the matching .com domain name to forward to the website. If you visit CitizenConnects.com, you are forwarded directly to the correct website.

The government is also promoting  CitizenConnects.com instead of the bulky url, making it easier for residents to access the website. I often see organizations and government agencies pushing hard to remember website addresses, but this is one instance where the government agency has done a good job with its domain name selection.

To be honest, I don’t particularly like the “Citizen Connects” branding because it sounds a bit strange. IMO, Citizens Connect sounds like a better option, but that domain name was registered.

Mike Mann Domain Buying Tip

Elliot Silver
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17

I saw a note that Mike Mann posted on Facebook, and I thought it was valuable enough that it should be shared with a greater audience than just Facebook. With Mike’s permission, here’s a tip on how to get the best price when you want to purchase a domain name from a broker or aftermarket website:

“Tip on buying a domain from brokers: get quotes on 5 names at once so they don’t know which one you really favor, may get lower price. Then negotiate on the the one you like if quote was fair. Some do 50%, we do 15% max. Or walk and buy elsewhere. They may come back to you with a special discount later.”

One of Mike’s companies is a sales venue called Domain Market, which lists thousands of domain names for sale. Mike was also the founder of BuyDomains, which he later sold to Namemedia.

In essence, this advice is a standard negotiation tactic (used on USA Network’s Suits the other night actually), and it works very well when buying domain names. If you don’t let the other party know which domain name you want to buy more than the others, they can’t price it higher than they would if they knew how much you covet that particular domain name.

If you are interested in buying a domain name from a private domain investor, it will generally behove you to research other domain names the person owns and get group pricing. It might also benefit you if the seller thinks you’re a domain investor buying a package rather than an end user looking to buy one name for a project.

Based on my experience buying domain names from various companies, this is a great tip.

Looking for City / Country / Regional Tours.com Names

Elliot Silver
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20

I know someone that is looking to buy large city, country, and popular region Tours.com domain names. This is someone who would not be considered an “end user” buyer, so if you have something of interest, please price it accordingly.

This person is looking to purchase names like the following:

  • BarcelonaTours.com
  • TuscanyTours.com
  • MexicoTours.com
  • CaribbeanTours.com

As you can see, they must be .com, must be a large city, country, and maybe regions but it would have to be somewhere that people visit. All submissions must be priced. It should not be a brandable name like CheapAsiaTours.com or something with a descriptive word like “cheap.”

Please do not submit names that do not fit the bill, as I will hit delete on those comments and will be annoyed 🙂 . I am not brokering the domain names, so you will not have to pay me a commission.

If you don’t like the rules, I recommend listing your names on Sedo, Afternic, Aftermarket.com, or DNForum.

UPDATE: Toby Clements Announces VIP Newsletter for $1,000/Year

Elliot Silver
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21

I received an email from Toby Clements this morning announcing a change in his popular domain sales newsletter. In response to a friend that asked to see his list of domain names before sending the email newsletter to his 15,000 subscribers, Clements opted to create a VIP subscription newsletter.

The VIP list will cost subscribers $1,000 per year, and it will be limited to a maximum of 50 subscribers.

Clements went on to explain, “This VIP group will get our newsletter by 6pm ET the day before the launch. It will have all the names and prices, therefore you will have the shot of buying the names quicker than most… If you are a regular buyer of mine then there is no question that you have missed deals being we sell names so quickly. This simple solution can help fix that problem. You will still need to be quick, but only quicker than 49 other people rather than over 15,000 of them.”

*** Update ***

It appears Toby has decided against this:

“This morning we announced plans to offer an exclusive pre release membership. We have had an astounding amount of feedback on this membership and after much discussion have decided not to follow through with this. Most of you have voiced your opinions on why it is and isn’t a good idea and after weighing all opinions we feel it is better for all of our subscribers to not implement this membership.“

Make Sure The Seller Can Legally Sell You a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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9

After a few weeks of back and forth negotiations with the Whois contact on a great domain name, I came to terms and agreed to buy the name in a five figure deal. The price was more than I initially wanted to spend, but I felt it was still going to be a very good deal with enough upside to take the risk. All was going well, but he needed to wait to pull the trigger until his wife’s website could be moved to an alternate domain name.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I hadn’t heard anything back regarding the domain name. I called the domain owner, and apparently there was some “family  discord” about selling the domain name and relocating the website. The wife, who owns the website, was not happy at all that the husband, who has ownership of the domain name, had agreed to sell the domain name.

Luckily for me, this happened before the deal actually transpired. Had I bought the domain name and the woman had an issue after the deal, I could have been in a legal murky area. Although the domain name was registered to the husband, the wife may have had some say over the domain sale, and that could have been problematic, especially since it seems that she owns the actual business.

When you’re buying a domain name, it’s important to ensure that the domain name registrant has the authority to sell a particular domain name. You can do research to see if he/she owns the company or is a domain manager. If the later, you better check with company management before you execute your deal. Yes, it may actually kill your deal, but it will certainly save you trouble if the deal wasn’t legit.

I am still hoping the husband can convince his wife to sell the domain name, but I am glad it didn’t get tangled in personal issues.

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