2022 started off on a very strong note. I closed some great deals, and things were looking positive, despite some dire economic predictions. The Summer has been quite slow, and I am sure it is not isolated to my business.

As a result of this roller coaster year so far, I have been maintaining the status quo. I am opportunistically buying good domain names, but my priority is to preserve cash for a longer downturn. On the sale side, I am still saying “no” quite a bit, as I am not motivated to move good names for prices I believe are too low. I would say I am more willing to move replaceable inventory for more reasonable prices though.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been forwarding the bulk of my domain names to domain name-specific inquiry forms on Embrace.com. I am doing this in an effort to induce more sales that may have been lost because the minimum offer amount was set too high on Dan.com and to retain more control over inquiries for future discussions.

In order to send leads to Embrace.com landing pages, I changed the nameservers to default GoDaddy nameservers and set up forwarding to domain-specific landing pages. People can submit an offer or simply leave their contact information.

I have come across two issues managing my own leads. People have reported trouble submitting inquiries to me and people are confusing domain name landing pages with other websites.

George Kirikos is the best at sleuthing out domain name sales from SEC filings. While some domain name sales may look easy to spot because they are fairly obvious when you know where and when to look, it can be difficult to connect dots and confirm a domain name acquisition. Sometimes it is impossible to pin down a domain name sale even when it is mentioned clearly in a SEC filing.

Case in point, I see that Fastly referenced a $39,000 domain name carrying cost in this month’s Quarterly Report filing. In order to see when the domain name was acquired, I searched for all Fastly Quarterly Report filings that mention “domain name.” The August 2019 Quarterly Report had the first mention of its domain name acquisition:

One of the biggest advantages of using my own landing pages is the ability to track visitors in the way that works best for me. To track website visits, I have a paid StatCounter account. Being able to track visitors and visits is invaluable to me when negotiating with a prospective buyer. I use the 100,000 visit plan and pay $25/quarter.

A prime example of the utility is being able to track people who made an offer for a domain name. When someone makes an offer, I go into my StatCounter account and label the visitor by name and offer amount. I am able to see how many times the person visited before making an offer, and I am also able to see how they ended up on the landing page. In addition, I am able to see subsequent visits. This allows me to see that the person is still interested in the domain name even if they aren’t communicating with me any longer.

In the Summer of 2017, I reported on Elon Musk’s acquisition of the X.com domain name from PayPal. The acquisition price for this domain name was not disclosed by Musk or PayPal, so the purchase price for X.com remains publicly unknown. Since that time, Musk has done very little with the X.com domain name. It currently has a text letter “x” in the top left corner of the landing page.

According to a Wall Street Journal article this morning, Musk may use X.com for a social media platform if his deal to buy Twitter does not go through. That deal is currently being litigated. Here’s what the WSJ article noted:

Tom Glover, President of Northwest Registered Agent, LLC, asked me to share a job posting that might be of interest to someone with experience and expertise in the domain name space. The company is looking to hire a Director of Domain Name Registrar for its registrar business. The job listing was posted on TwoBarrels.com.

Northwest Registered Agent is a registered agent service that also offers business formation services. I wrote about the company in 2013 after I saw a press release announcing its acquisition of StartingABusiness.com. The idea behind the acquisition was that people would find the company when starting a business since they offer business services in addition to registered agent services.