Domain Holdings

Congratulations to John Ferber and Jenna Wehner

Today is a special day in the lives of John Ferber (of Domain Holdings) and Jenna Wehner, as they are getting married in Florida. I want to wish the two of them very happy lives together as they tie the knot.

Congratulations to their families and friends on this special day!

Chocolate.com vs Capital.com

Earlier today, Sedo announced that it secured the exclusive brokerage listing for Chocolate.com,unarguably one of the best food-related domain names. Domain Holdings announced that it had secured the listing for a great financial domain name, Capital.com.

If you had the funds to purchase one of these domain names at fair market value, which would you prefer to own and operate?

 

Domain Holdings Brokering Capital.com

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I received a press release from Domain Holdings this afternoon announcing that the company has landed an exclusive brokerage contract for the Capital.com domain name.

The asking price was not mentioned in today’s press release, but based on the statement that “Domain Holdings anticipates this category defining premium name will command one of the highest finance related domain sales in history,” and the references to  the seven figure sales of Fund.com, Investing.com, and PersonalLoans.com, it appears they believe it will sell for north of $2.5 million.

At the present time, Capital.com is used as a credit card comparison website. I am not sure who owns the domain name, but the registrant email address is @americancapital.com, and American Capital is a publicly traded private equity firm whose stock trades on the NASDAQ market.

In case you have an interest in discussing this domain name with someone from DH, the press release is below with contact information for the brokers.

Benefits of Attending a Conference

I try to attend as many domain industry conferences as my time permits. It’s a great way to meet people in the industry, and the benefits extend beyond the conferences. I wanted to share a story that just happened last week to illustrate this.

At TRAFFIC  a year ago, I had the chance to meet the guys from Domain Holdings and get to know them a little better. I knew several of the people who worked there, but being at the conference allowed me to learn more about the company and the people who work there. We’ve been in touch since, discussing various opportunities as they come up.

I just returned from a “vacation” in south Florida. I say vacation in quotes because this business never sleeps, and as you could see from my blog posts over the last couple weeks, I was doing some work most days.

I decided to take a drive to Delray Beach to see the guys from Domain Holdings while on vacation. I had no agenda, and I wanted to go and shoot the shit about business for a couple hours.  While in the office, I was asked if I had any names for sale, and I mentioned a recent acquisition and let them know I was in the midst of a private negotiation on the name. I was told that they could probably get my asking price if I gave them a bit of time.

I let them know I intended to continue negotiating with my buyer, but if they could get me my asking price ASAP, I’d sell if I hadn’t reached a deal privately (clearly had I agreed to sell it to my buyer even for less, I would have done so).

The next morning, I was told that they have a deal with their buyer if the name was available, and since I hadn’t come to terms with my buyer, I agreed to move forward with them. The name is now in escrow and is awaiting payment.

From a few meetings at TRAFFIC, to a chance meeting in Florida, to a nice sale, I want to reiterate the value of attending conferences to get to know other domain investors personally.

MicroGiving Acquired by DonorCommunity

It looks like John Ferber, co-founder of Domain Holdings and also co-founder of Advertising.com (sold to AOL), has made another exit from a company he started. MicroGiving has been acquired by DonorCommunity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to a press release this morning:

“DonorCommunity, Inc., developers of an innovative cloud computing software platform for nonprofit fundraising and advocacy, announced today that it has acquired the assets of the Micro Giving Foundation.

These assets include MicroGiving.com, a personal fundraising website with an online community of more than 50,000 people and will provide uninterrupted service and support to their associated clients and partners. The private transaction formally closed on November 1.”

Donor Community operates fundraising software for non-profits and organizations, and it seems that this is a pretty good fit for them, since they will have access to many donors and non-profits that used the MicroGiving platform to raise funds.

MicroGiving is a crowd funding platform for non-profits that was started by John Ferber in 2009.

Domain Holdings Going The Extra Mile(s)

I received s press release that reminded me about an article I wrote a couple of years ago. In the article, I said “I think it might be a smart idea to attend an industry tradeshow in a vertical where you are selling a domain name to try and close a deal.

It looks like Domain Holdings had the same idea, and it’s going to take them across the world to connect with potential domain name buyers. According to the release, someone from Domain Holdings “will be presenting five premium domains to the world stage at two of the longest running United Arab Emirates tradeshows from November 4-14, The Big 5 International Building and Construction Show and ADIPEC. The premium domain names include: Gas.com, Oil.com, Energy.com, AbuDhabi.com and Dubai.com.

One thing vie learned in this business is that emails and phone calls often go unanswered, even if you have the perfect domain name for sale. Executives are busy, and assistants who screen calls and emails often filter out sales pitch contacts, even if the product would be desired.

When you meet people in person, you can usually have a better conversation while answering any questions directly. You can get direct contact information to avoid having to go through intermediaries in order to reach the decision maker. In addition, it’s always helpful if you can remind the contact about your meeting and get through an admin by saying that his or her boss told you to call.

Attending a tradeshow will give Domain Holdings the opportunity to meet with many prospects at once, which also gives the impression that the opportunity may be jumped on by s competitor. There are a couple of other reasons attending a tradeshow to sell a domain name is a good idea, which I previously wrote about in one of my first blog posts from back in 2007:

Small business owners are accustomed to dealing face-to-face with account representatives from the companies with whom they do business. Much of their business is done with a handshake in person at a tradeshow – especially when opening a new account with a supplier. For the most part, this is impossible to do on the Internet. To many small businesses, learning how to successfully operate with the help of the Internet is a daunting challenge. Why not meet with these business owners in person, make them feel comfortable and win their business? All of this can be accomplished by attending industry specific tradeshows.”

It seems that some domain brokers prefer the “low hanging fruit,” which is fine, but Domain Holdings is going the extra mile to close a deal on these names. Should these high value domain names sell as a result of this effort, the company has certainly earned its commission.

Press release follows:

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