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 asking a prospective buyer for a phone number to contact the prospect and discuss the domain name over the phone. It is likely more difficult for someone to create a new phone number, making it more easy to find out who the prospect is when the email address doesn’t yield any information. If you won’t negotiate with the prospect via email, they will need to provide their phone number to discuss. Since they won’t know when you are going to call, they can’t simply use a third party’s phone number.

Once you have someone’s phone number, you can use a variety of services to trace the ownership of the phone number.  I think there is also a way that you can call the phone number where it will go straight to voicemail so you can hear the voicemail message and possibly find out more about the prospective buyer.

As with all other tips like this, getting a phone number will not guarantee being able to identify the prospective buyer. I have found that this is an additional tool a domain owner can use to identify a prospective buyer, and it can’t hurt.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. Thanks for sharing Elliot but it may not be easy to get a phone number because many people are very sensitive to giving their numbers out.

    • If someone wants a domain name badly enough and you refuse to negotiate via email, that will be their only alternative.

      I don’t know if I would put my foot down over something like this, but some people might.

    • You did not answer my previous questions…at all.

      Anyway, so tell me, how will having your phone number in a domain name prevent domain theft? How are phone numbers in a domain name a “great marketing tool”?

      I in no way expect you to give me straight answers to my questions since you failed to answer my previous questions. People like you are funny.

  2. The flip side is also true. As a buyer, don’t just call the number in whois and think the party will respond if you don’t leave an email in your message. They may not like that and may wish to only negotiate by email.

  3. Unfortunately I am unable to use telephone due to my total deafness since birth hence setting up my own site ‘Domains Feast’ as an ideal alternative as well as using emails & mobile texts.

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