What Are You Buying These Days?

Elliot Silver
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25

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have been buying much less and focusing on developing my websites lately. Instead of spending money externally, I am investing internally, continuing my effort to build a steady alternative revenue stream.

I am still buying great domain names at great prices in order to resell, but my investments are more cautious because I want to make sure I have enough liquid on hand to pay the bills for the next xx months – how ever long xx ends up being. As highly as I value domain names, I would rather have $20,000 sitting in the bank than a domain name I know is worth $20,000 because even those $20,000 names can’t produce $20,000 when you need to liquidate.

I am still primarily buying one and two word category defining .com domain names, because I think there will always be a market for them. Some of my friends aren’t buying anything right now as they wait out the storm, but I have other friends who are buying a variety of different type of domain names – alternative extensions, numerics, ccTLD…etc.

So… my question to you… what types of domain names are you buying these days and what’s your rationale?

Please post the types of names you are buying rather than examples, as most examples will end up in the spam folder.

Best Domain Auctions on Ebay

Elliot Silver
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9

Are you looking to find the best and most popular domain name-related auctions on Ebay?   If so, Ebay has a section called “Ebay Pulse,” which features the most watched auctions in every Ebay category, including domain names. I don’t bid on Ebay auctions much, but when I do visit Ebay, I generally start with the Domain Name Pulse section.

My Favorite Domain Tools

Elliot Silver
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9

In addition to a variety of domain news sources, there are a number of domain tools that I use daily when buying and selling domain names, and I wanted to share some of them with you.   If you use other tools, I would be interested to know what you use, and what they do for you. Below are my favorites – although this list will probably grow as I think of other tools I use:

Whois Lookup (Whois.sc) – I think everyone has a favorite Whois look-up, and I use Whois.sc/domain.com in order to see who owns what.   On my Blackberry, I prefer iWhois.com because it loads faster for me.

Domain History Tool (Domain Tools) – This is imperative when buying an older domain name in order to make sure everything looks legit. The last thing you want to do is buy a stolen domain name, so this tool can help you see if something looks fishy.

Website History Check (Archive.org) – This allows you to see various websites that previously existed on a domain name.

Keyword Popularity (Google Adwords) – See how many searches are done monthly and on average via Google to see how people are searching and the exact terms they use.   This tool is also great for development to see what long tail keywords people are looking to find.

Domain Sales Data (DNSalePrice.com) – Although recorded domain sales don’t always mean that similar domain names will sell for the same prices, it’s a good sanity check.   DNJournal’s sales data is also great, but this tool has many more sales, as DNJ records the biggest sales.

Bulk Domain Search (Moniker) – Easy to use and register – and I don’t have to go through 10 pages of upsell junk that I don’t need.

Escrow (Escrow.com) – If I am 100% certain about the domain name’s provenance and not concerned about the seller, I like to use Escrow.com.   It’s simple to set up, I don’t have to wait to sign forms and fax paperwork, they’re very quick, and they clearly know a thing or two about great domain names. Escrow.com is also trusted by non-domainers, making transactions even easier.

Reverse IP (Domain Tools) I secretly love using this tool when buying domain names.   Frequently, people have multiple domain names on one IP address, and if I can see several great domain names owned by one company, I can make a larger bulk offer.

What other tools am I missing?

“Forced Entrepreneurship” and Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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11

There’s an interesting article in the New York Times today discussing how difficult economic conditions and a tough job market are forcing people to think about how they can make their own work. “Forced Entrepreneurship,” as it is referred to by Mark V. Cannice, (ED of the entrepreneurship program at the University of San Francisco), is where people figure out a way to make money from their own work.

One of the easiest ways for a person to do this is setting up a website and complementing it by using online social media venues like Twitter and Facebook. I’ve seen an uptick in domain offers, although they are mostly for brandable domain names owned by friends and colleagues.   I believe this is a sign that many forced entrepreneurs are looking to build their unique brand online, and when they find their idea domain name is already registered, they are trying to buy it in the aftermarket.

I personally don’t really care to invest in brandable domain names, as I liken them to lottery tickets, but I think there is growing interest. With the job situation poor for several months and getting worse, many people are going to give up on their job searches, and some will try to build a business on a dream they may have had for years. I think this is going to lead to more domain sales and registrations.

Teaching About the Value of Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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7

I got together with some of my former colleagues a couple nights ago at a memorial party for a colleague who died suddenly last week. We were discussing the progress of my former group, and we started discussing the Internet strategy they have and where it’s headed.

They are in the process of launching a new stand alone product website (their first stand alone site), although they were only able to acquire domain names that are variations of the product’s name (for example MyProduct.com, ProductOnline.com, MyProductOnline.com…etc). I asked why they didn’t go out and buy the straight up Product name from its current owner, and they didn’t really have an answer other than the fact that it’s owned by someone else.

This got my mind turning.   Here is a group at a huge company that has seen tremendous growth, are about to launch a serious Internet campaign/website, yet they don’t really understand the value of domain names and what it would mean to own the Product.com domain name.   I assume many companies are in a similar position, and educating them is difficult.

I would imagine a numbers argument would be the way to educate them, showing that the Product.com domain gets a % of traffic (intended visitors) which could be lost if they don’t search to find the correct website.   Figuring out the lost business as a result of not owning the domain name should be the amount of money they could/would pay to acquire it.   However, once the site is launched, it’s unlikely that the owner would sell it, especially if he is fearful of a litigious response.

How do you educate people about the value of domain names?

Flying to Korea to Track Down a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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7

The New York Times has a neat article today about how Mike Iskandar traveled to Korea from his home in Ohio in order to acquire a domain name that was the perfect fit for his website, LifeProfit.com. Iskandar’s journey wasn’t as easy as flying to Korea to buy the name though, and it was a ballsy move.

I think this was a smart tactic, albeit risky for a number of reasons.   It goes to show that if you really want or need a domain name (or really anything else important to you or your business), there’s nothing like a personal conversation.

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