How GDPR Could be Helpful to Some Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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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

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Using “inurl” Search to Find Prospects

Elliot Silver
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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

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Domain Name Escrow Process

Elliot Silver
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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:

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Great.com: Why Erik Bergman Spent $900,000 to Buy It

Elliot Silver
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The second largest domain name sale of 2018 (to date) is the $900,000 sale of Great.com. The domain name was bought by a tech entrepreneur named Erik Bergman at this year’s NamesCon live domain name auction on NameJet. Erik reached out to me discuss why he spent nearly seven figures on Great.com and to let me know how Great.com will be used by him.

Erik is an online entrepreneur who built a large business with a focus on affiliate marketing. His specialty has been SEO, conversion optimization, and email marketing, all of which help make someone make money through the affiliate channel. He co-founded a company called Catena Media, and Erik told me he and his partner took the company public in 2015. Erik did very well financially from the public offering, and this is what spurred him to think about charity and helping others. It is with this in mind that Erik acquired Great.com.

According to Erik, Great.com will be a commercial endeavor with the goal of giving away all of the proceeds to charitable causes. Here’s what Erik told me about how Great.com will be used:

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LinkedIn Search Stats Can Help ID a Prospective Buyer

Elliot Silver
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I was looking at LinkedIn this afternoon, and I realized their search stats tool can be invaluable in helping to identify a prospective buyer for a domain name. LinkedIn shows users the number of times their profile appeared in their search stats. It also shows “Where your searches work.” This can help identify a prospective buyer.

Let’s say you own Example.com. One day you look at LinkedIn and see that someone from a company called Example Capital found you in a LinkedIn search. Assuming your name is in the Whois record, it is very likely that the company was doing some due diligence to learn more about you in an attempt to buy the domain name.

I have found that larger companies tend to use brokers and/or brand protection companies to acquire domain names. This is done to stay stealthy. The point is to ensure the domain owner doesn’t have any idea who is behind the inquiry. If the domain owner saw

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Providers.com Sold for $100k via Buckley Media Group

Elliot Silver
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According to a tweet from domain broker Kate Buckley of Buckley Media Group, her company brokered the sale of Providers.com for $100,000:

I reached out to Kate to ask her about the sale of Providers.com, and she told me the domain name was acquired by a company called Clearlink. The seller of the domain name is Nett Corp, Inc., the company operated by long time domain investor Roy Messer.

Once the sale is confirmed and archived in DNJournal, it will rank just outside of the top 20 public domain name sales of 2018 (year to date), tied with the $100,000 sale of Jones.com. It is the second largest publicly reported domain name sale of the year for Kate’s company. Last month,

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