If you're similar to me, you probably receive a fair amount of "sob story" inquiries to buy your domain name. I regularly receive inquiries from people who, instead of making a fair offer to buy a domain name, they think their tale of woe or sorrow will get me to sell a domain name for a pittance. Sorry, that won't work.

For the last few years, I have taken the tact that I won't respond to an inquiry that is made when the prospective buyer shares a story about why they can't afford to spend a lot of money on my domain name.

There are two reasons why I don't generally respond to these types of offers: (more…) → Read More

Another (likely) seven figure domain name has has been revealed by George Kirikos on Twitter this afternoon. George noted the annual report from Indigo Books & Music stated the company spent roughly $2.7 million USD on domain names in the last year. Included in the company's purchases is the Indigo.com domain name, which I wrote about in February after I noticed it changed hands. Unless there were other major domain name purchases, I think it is likely that Indigo.com sold for 7 figures.

Indigo.com is yet another color .com domain name that sold for a substantial amount of money.

Here are the tweets about Indigo.com:

According to page 47 of the latest annual report of Indigo Books & Music (https://t.co/tpqANFR0u1) they spent CAD $3,387,000 (roughly USD $2.7 million) in additions to domain names in the past year. Nearly all of that must be for https://t.co/9gKh6HB9BF (see next tweet).

— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) May 30, 2018

Toys.com was one of the most expensive domain names ever sold at $5.1 million. The domain name was sold in a 2009 bankruptcy auction, and Toys R Us was the high bidder. Toys R Us is now in bankruptcy, and it looks like the Toys.com domain name may come up for sale very soon, according to a court document I read.

In the motion (pdf document via Prime Clerk), it states that "the Selling Debtors seek to establish procedures to sell or exclusively license all of the Selling Debtors’ rights, title, and interest in and to" Toys R Us intellectual property assets, including hundreds of domain names. Some of the valuable generic domain names cited in the motion include:

• Toys.com


• Geoffrey.com


• Toys.org


• TRU.com


• eToys.com

The upcoming Whois changes due to GDPR compliance will likely have a major impact on the business of domain investing. Although the changes may make investing in domain names more difficult for many reasons, the changes may also make it a bit easier for domain investors to sell their domain names.

Most domain investors who wish to sell their domain names make it clear that their domain names are for sale. From providing links to sales listings on landing pages to hosting a straight inquiry form on the landing pages, most domain investors make it very obvious a domain name is for sale. Additionally, many (if not most) domain investors have their domain names listed for sale on marketplaces such as Afternic and Sedo. Even if public Whois contact information disappears, the majority of domain investors already make it clear that their domain names are available for sale.

When the Whois system changes and contact information is (more…) → Read More

I still occasionally do outbound marketing to sell some of my domain names. When I am having a slow month or made a big purchase and want to drive revenue, I might spend some time looking for buyers for domain names I own.

A Google search is probably the most effective way to find prospective buyers, and I want to share a more specialized search that can be helpful in finding buyers.

When you use Google and search "inurl:[keyword keyword]," the results that are returned all have the keyword(s) in their url. For example, if I wanted to sell DomainInvesting.com and decided good prospects would be those who have "domain investing" within their url, I could search Google with this search term "inurl:domain investing" and any website with "domain-investing" or "domaininvesting" would be returned.

The reason this may be helpful is that (more…) → Read More

When I am dealing with someone who is unfamiliar with the way escrow works for domain names, they often ask me about the process. In response, I let them know how the entire escrow process works from the beginning until the end. I believe the steps are pretty similar between Escrow.com and Payoneer Escrow, but there would be some differences for a lease to own, payment plan deal, or a deal that is out of the ordinary.

I thought I would share this with you along with some parenthetical notes. This can be shared as a guide a buyer or seller about the escrow process. I invite you to share some comments to make this more clear if you think it is confusing.

When I am the seller: (more…) → Read More