Use Caution When Responding to Domain Inquiries

Elliot Silver
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10

Every day, people receive inquires on their domain names. People ask if specific domain names are for sale and some make offers while others ask the domain owner at what price he would sell the domain name. Now more than ever, it’s important to carefully consider how you respond to domain inquiries. Andrew reported on the OpenDental.com UDRP today, and the panel had one startling opinion:

“Complainant offered to buy the disputed domain name from Respondent for $500-$5000.   Respondent’s engagement with Complainant in these offers and counter-offers is evidence of bad faith registration and use.”

So there you have it. If someone inquires about your domain name and you engage in offers and counter offers, you could put the domain name at risk. In my opinion, this is a crock!

Everything I own is for sale at the right price. If someone came to my apartment and asked to buy it, of course I would tell him that I’d sell it for the right price. If he offered me double the book value because he really wanted it, I would sell it ASAP and rent another apartment while my wife finishes graduate school. I am not looking to sell it and don’t want to sell it, but if he was making offers that made it worthwhile, I would consider it, despite the inconvenience it would cause.

Likewise, I would sell my domain names and websites for the right price. I don’t wish to sell any of my geodomain names right now, but I am trying to build a business to make money. If that involves selling my business and domain name for a considerable profit, sure I would consider selling it. I don’t see how negotiating the sale of a domain name or a business implies bad faith ownership of it.

I really think that the OpenDental.com decision is poor, and the language in its findings sets a very bad example that domain owners need to consider. Fortunately, one decision doesn’t necessarily mean others will follow, but it sure should be noted for the next time you receive an offer to sell a domain name.

Internet.com Network Sold for $18 Million

Elliot Silver
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2

Internet.com Sold for $18 MillionPublicly traded WebMediaBrands, Inc. reported the sale of its Internet.com division for $18,000,000 to QuinStreet, Inc, in an all cash deal that is pending approval from the WMB board of directors. The Internet.com Network is comprised of many different brands focusing on developers, IT, Internet news, personal technology and small business.

Internet.com brands that are also presumably included in the deal are BlackberryGuide.com, InternetNews.com, DatabaseJournal.com, WebDeveloper.com, JavaScript.com, Developer.com, and many others. Each of these brands operates on its own website under the Internet.com umbrella.

According to AboutUs.org, QuinStreet is “an online performance marketing company helps businesses target their would-be customer audiences by using its proprietary technologies and media reach to generate sales leads.” Owning the Internet.com brand will enable the company to continue expand its online presence, reaching the estimated 15 million unique visitors who visit the Internet.com Network. Owning the Internet.com brand will be a powerful marketing tool.

WebMediaBrands will continue to operate MediaBistro and the Graphics.com Network, among other brands.

MountainBikers.com – For Sale

Elliot Silver
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2

Mountain BikerI am looking to sell MountainBikers.com and have reduced the price to $6,300 for this domain name. As I did before, I will lay out the vision I have for a website on MountainBikers.com, which I will have developed should it not sell. If you’d like to buy this domain name at the reduced price, feel free to use my ideas below for your website.

Home page is going to have an image of a mountain biker almost looking like he is jumping through the screen. The background will be dark to highlight the biker, and it will be a bright day. I am thinking about using the photo above with some Photoshop work to make it pop.

The revenue generation areas of the site will be focused on either affiliate links or Adsense focused on mountain biking supplies – mountain bikes, helmets, shocks, seats, tires…etc. There will be a page for each section with commentary about different products and companies.

There will also be a section for mountain biking trips, tours, paths…etc. People will be able to submit articles about trips they’ve been on along with photos of their trips. Flickr photos that have Creative Commons rights will be used as well to keep costs down and interest high.

There will be plenty of videos, such as an Mountain biker commercial from YouTube. Many companies have videos showing their cool mountain biking, and I will put some on the site for brand recognition. I will also have videos of crazy mountain biker stunts and races fom You Tube. This will make the site sticky and encourage return visits. Later on as traffic increases, I will add a mountain biker forum on the back end, further encouraging stickiness.

Check out my previous post about website template themes if you want to give it a go on your own, or you can use your favorite designer.

So there you have it. This is my outline for developing MountainBikers.com should it not sell. The price has been reduced quite a bit to encourage a quicker sale, but if it doesn’t sell, I will build it. The price won’t be lowered any further.

Photo Source: <div xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/episode-one/2195065426/”><a rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/episode-one/”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/episode-one/</a> / <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>CC BY 2.0</a></div>

Follow Up: Make 1,000% Profit

Elliot Silver
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37

I want to follow-up to a post I wrote a few weeks ago called “Make 1,000% Profit.” In the article, I discussed how people can analyze what names are selling at auction at Snapnames, buy names for registration fee at Moniker, and then sell them on Snapnames. The jist was that you can register a domain name for around $8.00 and sell it for $80 (give or take depending on your starting price), for a 1,000% profit.

Since I posted that article, I went out and attempted to do what I had been doing, with then intention of writing up my results here. I had done what I mentioned a few times, and I wanted to prove that it is still possible, even after I publicly wrote up what I was doing.

In any event, the results aren’t as good as the title of my article, but as you will see, I am clearly still more than happy.

Names Registered: 204
Total Spent: $1,550.40

Names Sold: 91
Net Revenue (minus sales commission): $5,849

Total Profit: $4,298.60

All in all, I earned about 3x my investment in profit, and I have over 110 domain names left to sell. One thing that surprised me is that some of the names I bought actually get traffic and some are earning PPC revenue. I suppose with domain tasting being eliminated there are more opportunities to buy names that get random bits of small traffic, but I was surprised. We aren’t talking about a lot of money, but a little bit is more than nothing and shows that there is a value to these names and the buyer presumably knows this.

All in all, I think the test was successful, and I am very happy to have made over $4,000 in profit on this. I still have several months to go to sell the rest of the domain names, but any additional sales is just gravy.

As I said in my initial post as a caveat, it’s important to be able to distinguish a similar domain name to what is selling, and you need to be able to determine someone’s (or many peoples’) buying habits to be successful at this. If you are going to try and do this, I recommend starting small and scaling.

I am sure some people will criticize me because it’s not 1,000% profit as billed. However, I am not selling anything and not making any money from anything you sell, so there’s really no reason for criticism. The first time I did this, the profit margin was greater because some of the auctions had mutliple bidders, driving the price (and profit) higher.

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Just as a “head’s up” I am leaving for a long weekend in Atlanta later on today, so comment approvals may be a bit slower than normal.

Free BuyDomains Webinar on Thursday

Elliot Silver
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0

BuyDomains LogoBuyDomains is hosting another installment of their free webinar series on Thursday, July 16th.

The topic of this webinar is “How You can Earn Money as a BuyDomains Referral Program Member”.

The BuyDomains Referral Program has gotten off to a terrific start.   Just recently, one of its members earned $1,700 for a referral that resulted in the sale of A6.com for $34,000. You can easily integrate the referral program on your website, blog, forum signature, Twitter account…etc. I am sure they will cover this and more at the webinar.

Those wishing to attend can easily register online. I’ll be there – will you?

Lots of Domain Buyers

Elliot Silver
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6

I know what Ron’s numbers are telling him (and us), and I know that many domain investors at all levels are publicly and privately saying that there aren’t many buyers (on the investment side) out there right now. However, I think there are still plenty of buyers out there, but it just takes extra effort to find them these days, and your pricing has to be reasonable.

Here are a two suggestions on how to find buyers right now:

Contact some of the new owners of domain names that recently sold (listed on DNJournal) if you have similar domain names. Distinguish between end users who bought a name because it matched their corporate branding from those who were buying to enhance their company’s online presence, and from those who are investing in domain names. Each type of buyer has different needs, and you need to be able to tell what their needs are before you contact them, otherwise they will simply delete your email.

Follow along with what is selling at the auction houses – even the inexpensive purchases – and contact those buyers as well. Send them similar names that you own and price your names reasonably. Remember, if you are contacting them with names that you’d like to sell, you should name your price upfront. You might make less profit per domain name this way, but if you sell a small portfolio of names, you will increase your profits, despite a tighter profit margin.

I have been finding that there are less buyers in the $10-100k range right now unless you are giving really great prices on your domain names. However, it seems that people are still buying less expensive domain names, which can still be highly profitable. Buy smart and sell smart.

On a side note, I plan to discuss my experience with Snapnames outlined in my post, “Make a 1,000% Profit.” I am leaning towards keeping it in the newsletter, so sign up if you’re interested. (If you think the weekly/bi-weekly newsletter sucks, it’s easy to unsubscribe since I use Constant Contact). The results I have have been very strong, but I won’t write my summary until the funds have been wired.

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