I was sent the link to an interesting website that might be of interest to domain investors looking to sell their domain names. Dock Name is a website that lets startup founders post their domain name requests and visitors may submit their own domain names that might match the needs of the startup.
More precisely, according to the website, “Dock Name is a crowdsourced service that helps startups find a domain name, by describing their business/product and get proposals from people that have suitable domains for their needs.” Dock Name allows people to promote their domain name requests, which is how the company makes money.
Here are three partial examples of the current domain name needs posted by users:
- “Looking for creative name for a website for an online health insurance/employee benefits agency…”
- “Moving to a coastal area in my country (Goa in India) and looking to create a site that covers various topics (vacation rentals, things to do, etc) – primarily for travel and tourism.”
- “Looking for a super-creative domain name for a website that will act as a hub and generate content (photos) from free-stock photo…”
One of the neat aspects of this process is that visitors can upvote other submissions, and the domain names are ranked in order of the most upvotes. This may make it easier for the searcher to find a desirable domain name, although it also could make the system subject to gaming.
In order to submit a domain name for consideration and to participate in the upvoting process, users need to login with their Twitter accounts. I believe this is the way that people can contact the domain owner to purchase a domain name as well, although I did not go through the sign up process (I don’t have many apps connected to my Twitter account for security and privacy reasons).
I don’t know anything about the founder of Dock Name, but it seems like an interesting concept and it might be worth a look as a buyer or seller.
Thank you to Bill Sweetman of Name Ninja for sharing this website with me.
Interesting concept. The only problem I see is if someone there doesn’t police the submissions then you will get guys submitting the same names for every concept that is there. FlipForest.com was submitted over and over again even though this name doesn’t apply to the business idea.
Hi Todd, Dock Name creator here. We had a thought on that, but one domain can be suitable for more than one businesses and that’s why we don’t limit it. If it’s not good simply it won’t be upvoted.
I think the buyers should be required to provide a budget range.
That’s a good idea, we will consider it. Thanks!
I think it is important to let people who are looking for names specify an extension or extensions they want and preferred maximum length. I would be bored if I want a name for “A modern financing website” and I keep getting names like ‘assist dot ninja’.
Question: If I suggest a name that is available, will it be visible to the general public? I’m afraid someone else may register good available names before the person who asked.
You are absolutely right, people started submitting not relevant domains just to tell them. I will implement this suggested features. The service is new and comments like this really help me improve it.
About your question: If you submit an available name it’s visible to everyone, but I’m thinking on another solution for this; one will be – visible only to the request creator; another will be – reserve the available domains and transfer to the creator the chosen one (which will require third party service).
You get a clue from PickyDomains.com in that case. They are the pioneer of this idea. Study their system. I used to play with pickydomains.com back in 2008 or there about.
Thanks for the feedback.
Reserving available domains may come at a great cost to you. More press or blog coverage, like this one, may increase your user base significantly and it would be impracticable to reserve all available domains submitted. The best thing would be to make available domains visible to only the request creator.
I like the idea behind the website. Good luck.
Yes I totally get it. I’ve implemented the simpler but much better solution, making the available domain visible only to the request creator: https://twitter.com/dockname/status/543460718658740224
Thanks again for your support!
Thanks @Jide, I will take a look how PickyDomains.com works. My idea is to modernise the process, as you can see everything on the website is open and user-friendly and you login with just one click, even it doesn’t ask for an email unless you want to subscribe to request updates.
Kudos to you Alex for rolling with the ideas presented here and implementing things quickly.
Another couple thoughts. To curb abuses you may want to charge “brand agencies” and others who keep spamming the same names or maybe show user ratings under their profile based on the number of upvotes. Also names could collect upvote ratings and you could also add downvotes. Lastly, all the submitted names that are rejected could be saved on a page and turned in to a “marketplace” for you. . . . You could call it the “Island of Misfit Domains” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr6GbKciNCY)
Keep it up.
Thanks Adam. My future plan was having a free and premium accounts. The free account can submit for example 1 question and 10 proposals while for the premium one will be unlimited. It’s now left open because the website is new and it needed content.
I like “The Island of Misfit Domains” 🙂
User rating (based on proposal upvotes) is also a great idea, I will have it in mind.
Do we get paid if our names meet the needs of the users?
Why? Wouldn’t a sale be sufficient?
@Ehren if you suggest a domain you control, then the buyer would have to negotiated with you. The platform gives you options to indicate the domain’s availablity, if you suggest a domain available to register I believe Dock Name has an agreement with a registrar in place.
That is a fun website – thanx! Submitted three . . . We’ll see what happens.
In any event, if domains on the list are not suitable, they might give the buyer ideas which direction he wants to go. Therefore, he gets something for the fee.
For the flip side, someone peruses the domains might see one he likes, even if the startup doesn’t want it. For finance-related, I submit
WorkWallet.com for “network of different websites that contain articles, latest news, event listings an curated guides for different cities,” I submit
GeoForums.com, and for “A mobile app that passively shares location and context with close friends and family,” I submit
LocaleWise.com all listed BIN at Sedo.
There were a couple calls for education domains. I have one, Teachio.com, but just don’t want to submit it.
Namestation.com is another similar site/service.
I agree with the previous post about budgets and on the flip-side submissions should mention prices.