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Be Aware of a Domain Name’s Previous Business Activity

Elliot Silver
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One of the most favorable things I look for when acquiring a domain name is a note on the homepage that says the company is no longer in business – or a default hosting page after knowing there was previously a company’s website on it. Businesses go under all the time, but the underlying domain name could still be a valuable asset the former owners don’t even realize has significant value.

I was looking at a domain name that I would like to acquire this morning, and it has all of the signs that it could be available for the right price. There is a note that says the company, which had been in business for 75 years, had closed 6 months ago. The email addresses were bouncing, and the phone numbers weren’t working. This got me excited, as I love tracking down a domain owner. This is similar to how I was able to buy Customs.com a couple of years ago… good research to find a former partner in the firm.

While concurrently doing due diligence on the domain name of interest and doing some research to find contact information for the former President of the company, I came across a website that had consumer complaints about the company. Some of the complaints were pretty harsh:

  • “This place is a disaster”
  • “their behavior has been totally unprofessional”
  • “my advice is to stay away.”
  • “Won’t be visiting… or ordering from their website again”

Although the company was in business for 75 years and these comments may be accumulated over time, it’s still good to be aware of these comments that can easily be seen by anyone who does a Google search for the domain name. The domain name has a dual meaning, so it wouldn’t be used in the same way as it was before, but there are still a few websites with negative comments, and people might infer that they are about a new website that would be built down the road once the site launches.

Although most people would recognize the difference between what was there and what would be built there, some potential advertisers could see the complaints and simply pass on advertising. Domain investors need to keep in mind that comments about a business on a domain name could have a detrimental impact on the domain name’s value.

Double Dose of Development Tips: Develop Complementary Sites & Use a Coming Soon Page

Elliot Silver
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I want to offer you two separate development tips today, although they aren’t exactly related to each other. I have had very good luck with DogWalker.com, a site which now boasts somewhere around 80 paid/paying customers. As more and more companies signed up, I began to seek ways to scale this model.   $10-20k/annually is great revenue for a website like this, but it’s not exactly enough for someone to do full time – even if it grows at a 15% clip.

I thought about different ways to scale, and one idea I had was to acquire another domain name in a similar vertical. I wouldn’t want to cannibalize my listings by marketing a product that was too similar, yet I would want to offer something that was different, enabling me to have a cross-marketing opportunity. I sought out quite a number of names, and most owners were asking for more than I would be willing to pay – even knowing that the model would work. I finally came across CatSitter.com, and made the acquisition.

CatSitter.com will be a great complementary website, and it is going to make money. Not only does it get traffic (had 19 visits yesterday), but many companies that offer dog walking also offer cat sitting services and/or cat boarding. I also paid much less for CatSitter.com, and I can use the same platform as DogWalker.com, lowering my development costs. I can then pass the savings along to customers, in the form of a cross-marketing discount.

One of the smartest things I did after launching DogWalker.com was contact several large organizations and franchises to seek their assistance marketing to members/franchisees, and the largest pet care company agreed to do so. The result of this was that I have about 18 listings from one company’s franchisees throughout the US, and more franchisees sign up each day.   Many of these franchisees offer cat sitting services, and I already have commitments from paying customers on DogWalker.com who are waiting to pay for a CatSitter.com listing when the site goes live.

The second development tip I have today is somewhat unrelated, but it’s important. Despite the fact that CatSitter.com is making a bit of money at Parked, I have taken the parked page down and put a search engine optimized coming soon page up. I anticipate launching the site very soon, but I want the visitors to know there is something better coming. I stupidly forgot to do this several days ago, but it will be going up shortly.

Not only will this be used for lead generation in the meantime, it will also be used to show Google/Bing that something is coming after being parked for 8 years. When I did this with DogWalker.com for 3 weeks, I had 3 inquiries (plus 3 or 4 sale inquiries), and the site launched as a PR1.   Although there will be less time in between the coming soon page and the site for CatSitter.com than there was for DogWalker.com, it’s still something I am going to do and would advise you to do.

Well, that’s it for me for today. Hope these tips were helpful!

Use a Payment Plan When Buying Domain Names to Lower Your Risk

Elliot Silver
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Here’s an idea I had a while back and have used successfully one time on a quick domain resale. When coming to terms with a domain seller, I added a payment plan to acquire the domain name over a set period of time. Using Moniker to handle this type of payment plan/extended escrow, I agreed to pay $xx,xxx over a 12 month period without a prepayment penalty. If I stopped paying, the domain seller would get all payments up to date and receive the domain name back.

Essentially what I did was give myself the opportunity to quickly sell the domain name in one month for 1/12th of the purchase price, in 2 months for 1/6th of my purchase price…etc. Fortunately, I was able to sell the domain name at a profit within 2 weeks of its acquisition, but had I not been able to do so, I would have had cash in my pocket and the ability to sell the domain name over the course of a year.

Of course not all domain sellers will offer or agree to a payment plan, and some may but would want more money for the domain name – either up front or built into the overall sale. It just so happened that the domain seller offered a payment plan before we even closed, which is what gave me the idea in the first place.

Technically, the buyer could also pay 1/12% of the sales price for the opportunity to re-sell at a profit, and if the buyer can’t find a person to whom he could flip it at a profit, he could simply cancel the deal, losing out on just a little bit of money. This is a pretty good way to reduce your risk when you’re simply looking to flip a domain name.

CES 2010: Take a $1,688 Gamble on Smart Televisions

Elliot Silver
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Consumer Electronics Show

This morning on the CNN website, there was coverage of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show currently being held in Las Vegas. CES is one of the preeminent technology tradeshows that features product launches, pre-release gadgets and technology, and previews of electronics and other devices. Companies who are featured at CES are looking for buzz for their new products or upcoming launches.

In the article, CNN reported that, “‘Connected TV’ and ‘smart TV’ are two terms that already are being tossed around CES this year. Both refer to the idea that couch potatoes are looking for ways to get the power of the Internet and social media onto living room television sets.”

To me, “smart tv” or “smart televisions” sounds more brandable for a category of televisions, similar to smart phones. As a domainer, I did some domain research on that term and found the following:

For under $1,700, you can buy the domain name for a term that could be big in the next couple of years, and for under $7,000 you can buy both. My business model is built around short term flips, so it’s not a gamble I want to take, but it could be worth investigating if this type of investment appeals to you.As you may recall, SmartPhones.com sold for $95,000 at TRAFFIC.

I don’t have any affiliate or advertising relationship with Buy Domains or Page, but if you want to reach someone at Buy Domains, drop Sonia an email, and if you want to reach page, visit his website.

Common Abbreviations & Mister Steamy

Elliot Silver
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Mister SteamyThe holiday season commonly features many infomercials and other television commercials featuring products to purchase online or over the telephone. There is a lot of remnant television time to purchase at great rates, and we generally see more commercials such as the one for the Prayer Cross discussed on my blog on Sunday.

One commercial I recently saw was for a laundry product called “Mister Steamy,” and of course they use the MisterSteamy.com domain name, which the company registered in March of 2008. Unfortunately for the makers of Mister Steamy, the company didn’t take into account the common abbreviation people in the US use for the word Mister, which is Mr.

It seems that someone in Shanghai, China was able to register the domain name MrSteamy.com in November of 2009, taking advantage of the typo traffic from the infomercials and television commercials. Making matters worse for the laundry product makers is the fact that the PPC advertising for MrSteamy.com is X-Rated, as Mr. Steamy could certainly be a porn name.

One reason I don’t like geodomain names (or other names) that have common abbreviations like Saint and Fort is because many people may abbreviate those using St. or Ft. If you don’t own both versions of the domain name, you risk losing traffic to the alternative. It’s a shame the makers of Mister Steamy didn’t think about this and spend the additional $8/year to register the other domain name, which was available.

Finding a Domain Owner Using Archive.org

Elliot Silver
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When trying to buy a domain name from a person or company in private, I frequently come across private registrations. I usually use the Whois history tool to see if there was an email address previously on file. I concurrently visit the website to see if there is contact information on the page.

Oftentimes people or companies acquired a generic domain name many years ago, and sometimes their projects failed or the domain name isn’t being used any longer. When the Whois history tool doesn’t help and there isn’t any current contact information on the website (or the site doesn’t resolve), there is one great option to find contact information: Archive.org.

Simply visit Archive.org and search for previous iterations of the website. You may find a phone number, email address, or the name of people previously involved with the website and domain name. This information can be used to inquire about a domain name.

Think about it this way. Most of the low hanging fruit has already been plucked. The great generic domain names that may still be acquired are out there, but many require sleuthing and research. Archive.org is another great tool to use to contact domain owners.

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