When negotiating with a prospective buyer, there have been a couple of times I was asked if I own the matching Twitter handle to a domain name I have. In both cases, I did not own the Twitter nickname and it did not impact the negotiation.

I know there are some people who will try to secure the matching Twitter name to their domain name. I think it could enhance the value of domain name if the matching Twitter handle is also managed, but I have never done this before. My feeling is that someone could then ask about Facebook, Instagram, and other social media handles. In addition, most of the Twitter handles matching important domain names were claimed long ago and would take a real effort to secure.

It would be interesting to know how many domain investors secure Twitter handles / nicknames for domain names they own. It would be great for people to share insight in addition to responding to the poll below:

Sedo is running a .CO domain name auction through August 2nd. The keywords up for sale are arguably some of the best .CO domain names. I looked at NameBio, and it seems like .CO domain names sell somewhat sporadically (620 publicly recorded sales in NameBio in the last year), although like everything else, many sell privately.

I do not plan to bid in the auction, but I would be interested in knowing how many others invest in .CO domain names:

Yesterday’s poll about Duck.com, which is owned by Google, got me thinking about the challenges of buying a domain name owned by a huge company. Not only can it be tough to make an offer that is substantial enough to induce a large company to sell a particular domain name, but it can also be challenging to find the right person at a huge company that can decide whether or not to sell a domain name, put a price on it, and see it through the sale process. Most large companies aren’t really equipped to sell their domain name assets.

I have bought a couple of domain names from very large companies, but I don’t believe they were in the Fortune 500. Typically, buying a domain name from a large company can be challenging and frustrating. Have you bought a domain name from a Fortune 500 company before?

Over the weekend, Raymond Hackney wrote about article published on CNET about Google’s ownership of the Duck.com domain name and how DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg asked Google if his company could buy the domain name. That got me thinking about the value of Duck.com, a domain name with a keyword that has multiple meanings.

Duck.com is obviously a short, animal .com domain name. In addition, the word “duck” is a verb meaning to put your head down or leave somewhere quickly. It would also be a great domain name for a company like DuckDuckGo to own. They could shorten the domain name and perhaps even alter the branding. Because it is owned by Google, a company that has no need to sell a domain name, it would likely take a huge windfall for the company to let it go – especially to another company that could be considered a competitor.

Taking out the fact that Google owns Duck.com, I would like to know what you think Duck.com is worth. Feel free to share additional thoughts in the comment section.

I was looking through the WIPO UDRP filings and saw a UDRP filed against a seemingly generic Costa.com domain name. The UDRP was filed by the company that operates Costa Cruises. While UDRPs going after generic (and valuable) domain names are a relatively rare occurrence, it is still a bit disappointing to see them.

That being said, the cruise company could have a better shot to win this UDRP than other companies have when going after descriptive domain names like this one appears to be. When I visited the domain name yesterday and today, I saw PPC links related to cruises. I can see why Costa Cruises would be upset about the domain name. Depending on the details that will be revealed in the UDRP responses, this could be a tough UDRP to defend.

Domain owners should be cautious when using parked pages. A domain name may be generic in nature, but if PPC links infringe on another entity’s trademarks, it could be problematic for the domain owner. For instance, a domain owner could easily and defensible own Apples.com if it was selling apples or advertising a pick your own apple orchard. What likely would be harder to defend is a PPC lander with links to phones and computers.

PPC technology is pretty good. Parking company tech can show advertising it believes is relevant based on the keywords. Sometimes this doesn’t consider trademark implications, which is obviously something a domain owner should consider. When auto-generated PPC links optimize revenue, they may expose the domain name and domain owner to a legal threat.

For today’s poll, I would like to know if domain owners check all of their PPC pages, none of their PPC pages, or only their pages they believe could be a grey area for trademark issues. If you do something else, that would be interesting to know in the comment section:

It doesn’t happen often (enough), but sometimes a motivated buyer makes a very good opening offer that is acceptable right off the bat. The challenge with a good opening offer is whether to accept the offer or push back and try to get an even better offer.

There are a couple of schools of thought here.

Accepting the offer right away could theoretically cause the buyer to think he opened too high and might try to walk back the offer. By accepting, the domain owner has essentially set a ceiling should the buyer decide to walk back the opening offer by making an excuse (“Sorry, the board did not approve but we can offer $x instead”). On the other hand, should the buyer be ethical, accepting it right away could get a deal closed rather than giving the buyer time to seek out something else at a better price.

On the other hand, not accepting the opening offer could present an opportunity to sell a domain name for even more than anticipated. Most buyers don’t make the best offer as their opening offer. Even if the buyer thinks the offer is great, getting push back could cause them to make a better offer to get a deal closed. Accepting an opening offer could leave money on the table.

Whenever an offer is rejected or pushed back, there is always the risk of losing the offer.

Today’s poll asks whether you accept a good opening offer: