Domain Name Sales Tip: Ask for a Phone Number

I want to share another tip that might be able to help you identify a prospective buyer of a domain name. People often try to acquire domain names covertly, and it is in the best interest of a domain name owner to know who is inquiring about a domain name for business and legal reasons.

It is very  easy to create an email address. It is as simple as setting up  a free email address using a service like Gmail or Hotmail, or even registering a new domain name and creating email addresses from that. These “throw away” email addresses can make it difficult to track down a buyer, especially if that email address is brand new.

One thing that may help is

Timing is Important for Seasonal Professionals

With the snow finally melted, there are now an abundance of “for sale” signs at homes in my area. With the spring home buying season underway, I am sure this is the same for people around the United States. Even if you don’t live in the US, I would imagine there are certain times of the year that homes are for sale in your area.

When I think of the housing market in Spring, it gets me more motivated to sell some of my real estate domain names. I currently own quite a few city/town RealEstate.com domain names that I think have value to agents. I eagerly began sending out emails to local real estate agents a couple of weeks ago, and  I received fewer replies than I would have expected. Even when I emailed a friend in that business, it took longer than usual for him to respond.

The booming real estate market means real estate agents are

Pax.com Sold for $200k at Sedo

According to a tweet posted a few moments ago, Sedo domain broker Dave Evanson brokered the sale of Pax.com for $200,000.

Current Whois record shows Sedo’s escrow service as the registrant of Pax.com. Prior to this account change, the domain name had been registered under privacy since 2006. At that time, the domain name had been owned by a California company, although I am not sure if the domain name had changed hands anytime from 2006 until the date of the sale.

Because the domain name is in

Sales Tip: Look at the Left Side of the Email Address

It is important to know who is inquiring about one of your domain names. There are many good ways to track down the identity of a prospective buyer or someone who inquired about a domain name, and I want to share what might be a less intuitive method in case you don’t have luck using other methods.

Look at the left side of the email address and perform a Google search for that. For instance, if the email address is MrDomainer999@yahoo.com, you will want to search for “MrDomainer999.” If the person used that moniker as a nickname, forum handle, website comment, or something else, you may be able to identify the prospect.

Oftentimes, people use

Domain Name Sales Broker Commission Now at 15%

I just received an email notifying me that the commission charged by Domain Name Sales brokers increased from 12.5% to 15%. As justification for the rate increase, the company cited market rates for other brokerages as well as the services provided to its customers.

I am not surprised to see the rate increase, and it won’t have an impact on the business I hand off to DNS domain brokers. Generally speaking, I send the more difficult or even non-responsive prospects to DNS since I prefer to handle my own domain sales. In the whole scheme of things, paying an extra couple of points won’t be a big deal to me, as I will keep that figure in mind when pricing my domain names.

The email sent to DNS clients is below:

77.com Reportedly Sold

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The market for short numeric domain names has exploded over the last few years with demand far exceeding supply. I hardly see any 2 or 3 number .com domain names on the market because there are so few of them for sale. When they do come on the market, the prices are very high. One recent nn.com sale was 50.com, which was brokered by Media Options.

Sahar Sarid noticed something interesting and posted it on Facebook today. It appears that 77.com has been privately sold, according to the message that now appears on the 77.com landing page: