Google Plus Can Help Identify a Prospective Buyer

Elliot Silver
-
8

Some people don’t like dealing with prospective buyers who use a free email address like Gmail. The thinking is that it could be a corporate buyer with a big budget trying to go under the radar to get a better deal. I happen to like dealing with buyers who use Gmail addresses.

An “anonymous” looking Gmail address like BostonMAGrandpa787@gmail.com may seem to make it difficult to identify the prospective buyer. This is especially the case if the prospect fills out the form with the name “John” and doesn’t include a phone number. The first thing I do is search for that email address within my Gmail account. This will identify if the person has emailed me before, but more importantly, it will also show their Google Plus page if they have one.

On quite a few occasions, I have been

Read More

Tip for Using DomainTools’ Domain Search Tool

Elliot Silver
-
9

I use quite a few tools from DomainTools. One of the tools I like best for prospecting is the Domain Search tool. This tool allows me to see all of the domain registrations in a specific keyword, making it easier to target prospective buyers who own domain names with a keyword similar to mine.

To give you an example, I own KitchenConsultant.com. I think other businesses with longer tail domain names might want to upgrade to KitchenConsultant.com. For instance, if someone owned BestKitchenConsultant.com or KitchenConsultantNYC.com, they might want to purchase the domain name my company owns. Searching “kitchenconsultant” will yield all of the registered domain names with that particular search term.

One thing I like to do when using this tool is to alter my keyword a bit to broaden the number of prospects. Instead of searching

Read More

Keep Track of Your Marketplace Listings

Elliot Silver
-
4

Earlier this week, I received an offer for a domain name that had its BIN price listed on its landing page. I proceeded to negotiate with the prospect, and I told him he need to come up to a certain number to get a deal done. A couple of hours passed, and I received an email from Afternic telling me the domain name sold for the BIN price, which was lower than the BIN price on my landing page but in line with what I had emailed to the prospect.

I don’t typically have two different buy it now prices for my domain names. I think it is more fair for buyers if my prices are consistent across platforms, and I think it bring up questions if that isn’t the case. It is a case of fairness because a person would be (rightfully) upset if they paid $10,000 to buy a name via Afternic but found out that same name had an active BIN listing on Sedo at $7,000 after they already paid.

When I received the initial offer, I should have first looked at

Read More

Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com May Be for Sale

Elliot Silver
-
15

According to an article in the Wall St. Journal, IAC may be looking to sell two of its websites, which use exceptional domain names. Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com may both be for sale:

Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s WSJ article:

“Dictionary.com is for sale—you can look it up.

The online definition resource is being put on the block by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp , IAC -1.84% the company said.

IAC said it has hired investment bank Allen & Co. to explore a sale after two parties separately approached the company expressing interest in a possible acquisition of the property and its sister site, Thesaurus.com.”

Obviously this would be far more than a domain name sale. Both Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com are well developed and have active websites. From the domain name point of view, both of these properties use exceptional exact match domain names. Not only does the branding tell visitors exactly what they can expect to find on each of these websites, but they are also strong brand names.

I regularly encounter resistance from people who declare that domain names don’t matter as much anymore as they once did. While I would agree with the sentiment on long tail keyword domain names, I still strongly believe that short, relevant .com domain names still hold tremendous value. They can be used in the brandable sense (like Apple.com or Amazon.com) or in the literal sense like Dictionary.com or Thesaurus.com.

We’ll see if these two domain names move in the nearterm. If they do, perhaps we will see how much the buyer values the domain name vs. the underlying business in a subsequent SEC filing from the publicly traded IAC.

ImpeachTrump.com Domain Name in Auction at Flippa

Elliot Silver
-
11

For the last several months, I have seen quite a few television commercials imploring the impeachment of US President Donald Trump. The multi million dollar ad campaign features a businessman named Tom Steyer, who discusses why he believes President Trump should be impeached. The website featured in the commercials is NeedToImpeach.com.

If Mr. Steyer is looking for a more obvious call to action domain name for his impeachment campaign, a better one is now on the market: ImpeachTrump.com.

According to a press release I received this morning, ImpeachTrump.com is now for sale via Flippa. The high bid currently stands at $250 but the undisclosed reserve price has not yet been met.

Depending on the reserve price and the reach of the marketing campaign promoting the auction, I would not be surprised to

Read More

Escrow KYC Verification is Not Due Diligence

Elliot Silver
-
3

In reading some forum threads and email chains over the last couple of years, I think there is some confusion about the Know Your Customer (KYC) verification at Escrow.com, Payoneer Escrow, and other escrow services. As far as I understand, the KYC verification process is not a form of due diligence for a buyer or seller.

From what I understand, KYC verifies that the buyer and seller in a transaction are who they say they are when the transaction is set up. If a scammer or thief is one party to a deal, the KYC process would likely not be able to “out” that party as a scammer or a thief. The process would simply verify that their banking details match their account details.

Let’s say that Joe is buying Example.com from Bob using a domain name escrow service. I believe the escrow service will verify that Bob and Joe are who they say they are. They do not verify that Joe has the funds to buy Example.com nor do they verify that Bob actually owns the domain name or has the right to sell the domain name. Essentially, if Bob stole the domain name or otherwise has no rights to sell the domain name, that is something that the escrow service would not check.

Read More
1...111112113...254Page 112 of 254