Facebook RSS Twitter
Home Snapnames Page 9

Snapnames

WristletPurses.com Vs. WristletPurse.com

Elliot Silver
-
22

I was bidding on two domain names this week on Snapnames – WristletPurses.com Vs. WristletPurse.com.   Both domain names had relatively little bidding until the final day. WristletPurse.com ended a couple of days ago and WristletPurses.com ended today.

Neither domain name was especially interesting to me, but it’s a product (and a plural) so I figured they’d probably be worth a couple hundred dollars or more to someone.   I locked in both bids, and I wasn’t surprised when I was outbid on WristletPurse.com. I was very surprised when I saw the final price was $1,450.

With the singular auction done, I figured I didn’t have a chance at the plural, so I left for the airport without even looking at my Snapnames account. I logged onto the Wifi network on Delta, and I was even more surprised to see that I was the winning bidder on WristletPurses.com for under $100.

Doing some quick research, here’s a brief comparison of the two terms:

Wristlet Purse – 33,600 Google results (lots of advertisers)
Wristlet Purses – 40,300 Google results (lots of advertisers)

Wristlet Purse – 3,300 Google exact match monthly searches (US)
Wristlet Purses – 720 Google exact match monthly searches (US)

Clearly, people are searching more for the singular but in my opinion, it doesn’t really justify such a huge price differential. When I see a name sell for over $1,000, I know there has to be a pretty good reason. However, I don’t understand the reason for such disparity between the two domain names.

What are your thoughts on the price differential for these domain names?

You Can Still Win a Snapnames Auction if You Are Bidder #2

Elliot Silver
-
3

I sometimes place bids on Snapnames auctions that have other bids, even if I am not interested in buying the domain name. Generally, if a domain name has a bid already and you place a bid, you are considered the losing bidder when it goes to auction, as the person who places the first bid takes the lead.

I recently found out that this isn’t always the case. I placed a bid on a domain name shortly before it was scheduled to go to auction after I saw it in a list of names with bids. I was curious to see how the name would perform in auction, but I wasn’t sure entirely sure I wanted the name. I was surprised when it went to auction and it showed me as the high bidder (of 2 bidders).

Apparently, someone had placed a back order on the domain name a long time ago, and their credit card on file had lapsed or something else happened to their account between the time they placed the back order and the time it went to auction. As a result, I was the top bidder, and I ended up winning the auction without placing an additional bid.

I am not upset that I won because I like the name, but it’s something to be mindful about if you place bids on auctions that already have bids thinking you aren’t going.

Some Sunday Thoughts

Elliot Silver
-
17

It’s another lazy(ish) Sunday, and here are some things I am thinking about today. Hope you have a great afternoon!

  • Does anyone know of a tool/script that I can use to analyze names at Snapnames and Namejet? Specifically, I would like to load a list of names (10,000 or more) into the tool, and it will spit out the GAKT exact matches, # of results in Google, # of advertisers in Google for that keyword, Average PPC for the term, and Ovt for the domain name as of the last update? I’d imagine it would require someone knowledgeable about programming and Google.
  • For those who don’t know (some people asked in a previous post) GAKT stands for Google Adwords: Keyword Tool, and it can be found in your Adwords account. I only use the exact match searches to get an idea about how many people are looking for those keywords. It’s not an indicator of type in traffic to me, but it does show how many people are looking for information about that topic every month.
  • I am very thankful that the earthquake in Chile and subsequent tsunami action seems to have relatively limited casualties. I have a friend who has been traveling to Chile and I heard from him today (he wasn’t there). Glad that he wasn’t impacted.
  • I hope this doesn’t come off as “jerky” but I want to give a quick tip when registering domain names. Any name could be developed into just about anything. When buying names, think about whether you will spend the time to develop it or whether someone else will realistically pay you for the rights to do it. I would much rather own one good name that I bought for $2,500 than 300 newly registered names. If you don’t end up selling them, you’re just going to double your carrying costs the next year.

Quick Tip to Buy Domains in Private

Elliot Silver
-
22

This morning, I was looking through some drops on Snapnames for the next couple of days. I was researching one of the names I thought was worth bidding on, and I saw that it was an expired domain name rather than a private seller’s auction. After some further research (including a Whois History search), I saw that it was owned by a company whose name I’ve seen on a number of previous Whois searches, and the company owns thousands of domain names.

When companies begin dropping domain names from their portfolio, it usually means one of a couple of things. The first (and usually most likely) is that they didn’t think the name was valuable. For some reason, they decided that this particular domain name isn’t worth $8/year to renew. There are plenty of names I have dropped because I didn’t sell them and I didn’t want to throw good money after bad.

The second potential cause is that the company is facing financial troubles, and they need to lower their overhead. Not renewing domain names is a way to reduce overhead, although it’s probably not the smartest way to do so, as this would bring no revenue to the company. However, if a company is dropping thousands of domain names, it might not be worth searching through huge lists to find one or two worth keeping.

Since the name has at least 2 bidders now, I don’t think the first scenario is likely. With that said, I am going to reach out to the company in private and see if I can buy some of their domain names. If they are facing a cash crunch, perhaps we can work out a deal for other names I’ve looked at in the past. They could get the much needed liquidity, and I could get some strong names at good prices.

FitnessTrainer.com: Why I Stopped Bidding & Some Buying Advice

Elliot Silver
-
15

Fitness TrainerWhen I was looking at Snapnames the other day, I saw an auction for FitnessTrainer.com, and I placed a bid on it. The domain name went to auction on Thursday afternoon, and the auction continued for a couple of hours after its original close time, with 5 minute extensions following last minute bids. FitnessTrainer.com ended up selling for $20,888.

Had I won the domain name, my plan would have been to build it in a similar fashion to DogWalker.com and CatSitter.com. I opted to stop bidding for a couple of reasons. First, the price was more than I wanted to spend on a directory domain name right now. Second, and the reason I am writing this post, is because I wasn’t sure if enough people were called (and known as) fitness trainers.

When buying a great domain name like this, it’s important to dig deep into the numbers and actually think about the usage of the name. There are a lot more listings in Google for “personal trainer” than “fitness trainer,” and the Adwords keyword tool indicates that many more people perform searches for fitness trainers than personal trainers. When you are buying a domain name like this, think about the term and how it is used in every day by the people who will be visiting the site and/or advertising.

I still think FitnessTrainer.com is a solid name, but I couldn’t justify the price because so many people refer to fitness trainers as personal trainers. At the end of the day, there would still be great interest in the FitnessTrainer.com domain name and term, but my model wouldn’t have been able to justify the price.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivelyfit/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Responsibility of Auction Houses & Domain Registrars Regarding Legal Threats

Elliot Silver
-
8

Gavel

As many of you read yesterday, the non-profit organization, Goodwill Industries International has sued the owner of Goodwill.com for alleged trademark infringement, after he won the name in a Namejet auction for north of $55k. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me at all. Case in point, one of my clients was a bidder in that auction, and when it was in the $25,000 range, he asked my opinion on the value. My reply was, “there’s a thrift shop like salvation army… could be TM risk if monetized that way.”

The surprise to me in this situation was actually what was found in the lawsuit pdf (also found on DNW). According to Goodwill Industries’ complaint, “Upon learning of the auction from Radia Holdings, Goodwill contacted the registrar of the domain name, Network Solutions, to attempt to prevent the auction from going forward, but was unsuccessful.”

Whether Network Solutions passed this information to its partner Namejet is something we probably won’t know. It also might be possible that the information may not have been sent through the appropriate channels at Network Solutions, and the issue died in the customer service queue. Whatever the case is in this situation, it bothers me that Goodwill Industries claims that Net Sol had information that would have rendered this domain name even more risky for a domain investor to monetize.

I read a post on Namepros where Snapnames VP of Engineering, Nelson Brady reached out to bidders on the JeniferLopez.com auction to inform them that Snapnames had received a notice from Jennifer Lopez’ lawyer regarding the name. Although the domain name later appeared to be registered to “domainqueue@gmail.com,” a company allegedly linked to bidder Halvarez, one has to wonder if Snapnames had or has a policy of informing bidders of potential legal threats.

As far as my client recalls, he didn’t receive any notice from Namejet while bidding on Goodwill.com. Of course one could argue that there are plenty of proper uses for Goodwill.com that would not infringe on Goodwill Industries’ trademark. Why would Namejet or other auction house risk dampening interest in an auction when there are plenty of ways it could be used without any problems? That wouldn’t make a lot of fiscal sense.

My question is this: what responsibility should a domain registrar or auction house have when they receive a legal threat for a domain name that is going to be listed for sale by them or a partner? I am sure domain registrars and domain auction houses receive legal notices all the time. They aren’t a judge or jury, so it’s probably not their place to provide legal advice, but should they make bidders aware of a potential legal threat?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joegratz/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

1...8910...15Page 9 of 15

Recent Posts

2021 vs 2025 – % of .coms in my Portfolio

Elliot Silver - 1
I don't closely track the percentage of domain extensions in my portfolio. I could have 75% .com or I could have 99% .com domain...

Nominations Open for 2026 ICA Awards

Elliot Silver - 0
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is now accepting nominations for two domain investing community awards. Domain investors may now submit their nominations for the...

Bodis Gives Performance Update After Google Parked Domain Opt-Out

Elliot Silver - 3
Bodis sent an update to customers yesterday about recent performance impacts related to pay per click parking revenue. The company attributed the decline to...

Glad This Sale Wasn’t an LTO

Elliot Silver - 0
Sometimes, the most obvious use for a particular domain name is in a manner that would either be offensive, controversial, or negative. This will...

Com Laude to Acquire MarkMonitor

Elliot Silver - 3
Com Laude has built its reputation as a leading domain name management service and registrar for large corporations. The company competes against several other...
© Important Notice: Unless explicitly stated, Top Notch Domains, LLC does not endorse any advertiser on this website. Advertisements and links may take visitors to external websites. Top Notch Domains, LLC is not responsible or liable for products, services, or content found on any other website. See the DomainInvesting.com disclaimer for additional details and information as well as this website's Terms of Use. Copyright © 2007-2025 - DomainInvesting.com | Top Notch Domains, LLC