Daily Poll

I have quite a few Google News Alerts set, so I see dozens of news articles related to domain names each day. Oftentimes, I notice news articles that are actually press releases, and occasionally they are used to announce domain names are for sale.

A press release can be an effective way to get in front of decision makers. Sending individual emails is also effective, but a press release can have much greater reach than email. It is also less intrusive than sending an unsolicited email.

The downside to a press release is the cost. I haven’t looked into the cost of a press release, but it looks like they can cost hundreds of dollars. Obviously, there is no guarantee of a sale, but the cost is sunk.

I don’t believe I have ever used a press release to sell a domain name. At least I can’t recall doing so. Would you use a press release – or have you used one – to sell a domain name?

Donuts reported two very large new gTLD sales this year. In January, the company reported that Home.Loans was sold for $500,000. Last week, the company reported that Vacation.Rentals was sold for $500,300. In February, DNJournal reported that The.Club was sold for $300,000. All three of these deals are currently in the top ten publicly reported sales for 2018 year to date.

For today’s daily poll, I am curious which domain name you think is the best of these three new gTLD domain names. Vote in the poll below and feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section:

Sedo will be running a “Domain Hack” auction in about a week and a half, and they are accepting auction submissions until April 19th. The auction will begin on April 26th and conclude on May 3rd.

Here is the criteria for domain names to be considered for Sedo’s auction:

“The domain name must suggest a word or phrase by combining Keyword and TLD. It has to have objective commercial value or needs to be widely known. Once you submit your domains, our brokerage team reviews these against our criteria. It is up to the discretion of our domain brokers whether your domain is accepted for the Domain Hacks Auction (Domains under review cannot be put up for sale for about 3 – 5 business days). “

For today’s daily poll, I would like to know if you own any domain hacks. For what it’s worth, I do not own any that I can recall off the top of my head:

I use a variety of domain tools to help buy and sell domain names. Some of my current favorite providers of domain tools include DomainTools, DomainIQ, Estibot, Dropping.com, NameBio, Whoisology, Archive.org, and a few others.

Some of the tools I use are free, some are paid, and some are a mix of free and paid depending on the tool(s) being used. Without a combination of these tools, it would be much harder for me to operate my business. That said, it might be hard to justify the expense of some of the tools if I wasn’t already earning enough money to pay for them.

I am curious what percentage of readers pay for the tools they use or simply use what they can get for free. Please share in the poll below:

People have different philosophies about making inquiries to buy domain names. Some domain investors believe they will not get good deals if they use their real identity because domain owners will be able to learn that they are investors who want to resell the domain name. Some people don’t care and figure money talks so it doesn’t matter if their information is revealed.

I am in the second camp and figure domain owners will find out that I am the buyer when I send the purchase agreement and open escrow, so I might as well be upfront.

When you buy a domain name, do you use your real identity or a pseudonym?

I have always assumed just about all domain investors participate in domain name auctions. With thousands of auctions occuring daily, including expiring auctions at GoDaddy, NameJet, SnapNames, DropCatch.com or elsewhere, as well as private auctions on platforms like Sedo and some of the others, I assumed just about everyone participates.

In retrospect, I don’t think that is necessarily the case. Participate in the poll below to share if you participate in domain name auctions. You can choose whether you’re a buyer and seller, just a buyer, just a seller, or neither. My guess is that the vast majority of people who respond will be in one of the first three categories, but it will be great to learn more!