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Dom Perignon Using .Mobi

Elliot Silver
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10

Thankfully, because of the precipitous  valuation decline for most .mobi domain names, I don’t own a single one of them in my portfolio.

It’s surprising to me to see a .mobi advertised, and I was particularly surprised that high end champaign house Dom Perignon chose to use a .mobi domain name in its champagne display.  As you can see, Dom Perignon is directing people to Dom-Perignon.mobi, and the company isn’t even forwarding the url to a mobile browser-enabled website.

I think this was the initial thought about the usefulness of.mobi domain names when they were first released. Unfortunately, that potential does not appear to have been realized as many websites can detect mobile browsers, eliminating the need to use a .mobi domain name to provide visitors with a mobile-specific website.

The champagne house does not own  DomPerignon.mobi, which appears to be owned by someone in China. Perhaps they didn’t think it was worth spending the fee to try and get the domain name via UDRP? I suppose the barcode eliminates much of the typing and reduces the chance for error.

Recent Acquisitions

Elliot Silver
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80

I like to share some of my recent acquisitions and welcome your shares as well. Here are some of the domain names I’ve purchased in the last couple of weeks (not including names I’ve already flipped). These were either purchased via auction or private acquisition.

  • WorldTours.com
  • Examines.com
  • CoreConditioning.com
  • Orderlies.com
  • BookFest.com
  • LiteracyServices.com
  • Mohels.com (see definition)
  • SharedWebsiteHosting.com
What have you acquired lately?

Find Out Who a Potential Buyer Is

Elliot Silver
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For obvious reasons, I think it’s important to know who a buyer is when negotiating. Many buyers use various tactics to stay anonymous (like an email alias), but I want to share some methods I use to see who is inquiring about my domain names.

1) Research the domain name used in the email. While some companies disguise who they are, others do not. If the email isn’t from a free email service like Hotmail or Gmail, do a Google search for the domain name to see if it’s a company. You can also do a Whois search. Make sure the website doesn’t offer free vanity email addresses, which could throw you off.

2) Do a Google search from the person inquiring about the domain name. LinkedIn is a great place to learn about who is trying to buy a particular domain name. Oftentimes there is more than one person with that name, but you can narrow down the likelihood of who it is by the nature of the domain name they want to buy from you.

3) View the email headers to see the IP address. This is a good method when you’ve previously received inquiries on the same domain name. If the email was sent from the same IP (or IP range) as before, you can tell if the same person emailed you.

4) Ask for a phone number to discuss the domain name via phone. You can use the phone number to better track the person or company inquiring. Use WhitePages.com to see if the number is listed there. If not, do a Google search for the phone number. If that fails, call the number either at an odd hour or from two lines at once to get the voicemail to see if that helps.

5) Do a Whois search on other extensions to see if that yields any clues.

6) Search the USPTO TESS database to see if any companies recently filed a trademark for the term in your domain name. This might give you an idea of who would want the domain name.

Foolish Inquiry: “I Am a Domain Buyer, Not an End User”

Elliot Silver
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17

I want to share a piece of domain buying advice with you based on an inquiry I received on one of my domain names from the Voodoo.com sales form.

In the field asking for an offer, the person replied (with spelling and punctuation corrected): “How much?  I am a domain buyer, not an end user.” Translated, it means, I am not going to offer you what the domain name is probably worth.

Although I do appreciate the fact that knowing the buyer wasn’t going to pay top dollar, I was able to save some time with the negotiation, I think it is a poor way to open a negotiation to buy a domain name. Why tell the domain owner you’re not going to pay him or her what the domain name is worth?

My reply was simple: “too much.” If the buyer was going to come close to what it would take to get me to sell the domain name, he would have asked how much is too much, but he did not.

When you’re negotiating, I think you should act in good faith, but don’t kill the negotiation before it starts. When replying to a domain forum sales post or to a domain newsletter listing, it may be appropriate to mention that you’re not going to pay end user pricing and that’s an expectation with a listing to other domain investors. However, on an unsolicited offer, it’s probably not a good idea to initially mention that you’re not an end user, unless you don’t want much of a response.

Movie Trailer: Sacha Baron Cohen in The Dictator (Republic of Wadiya)

Elliot Silver
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11

One of my favorite comedy movies of all time is Borat, starring comedian  Sacha Baron Cohen.  I recently learned that Cohen is starring in another movie coming out this summer, and I think the domain name choice is very interesting.

The movie is called The Dictator, and it looks hilarious (watch the movie preview trailer above). You might think they’d use TheDictator.com for the movie’s website, but that domain name is owned by Worldwide Media (Mike Berkens’ company), and it has been registered since back in 2003.

I don’t know if the movie producers reached out to Berkens to acquire this descriptive domain name, but they  are using a creative domain name instead. The Dictator (Cohen) likely lives in a fictitious country called the  Republic of Wadiya, and the movie website is  RepublicofWadiya.com.

Kinda neat to use that domain name, although spelling might be an issue. I can’t wait to see the movie this summer!

Domain Sales: Comparing Aftermarket Websites to Domain Forums

Elliot Silver
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7

Yesterday afternoon, someone posted a question in the Sedo weekly sales article, and it’s something I’ve been asked quite a bit so I want to give the question and my reply more exposure in its own post.

The summary of the question was this: Why do domain names sell for so much on Sedo or Afternic when they wouldn’t even sell at a fraction of these prices on domain forums?

To answer the question, I used physical real estate as an example:

“There’s a big difference between when someone specifically wants to buy one name in particular on Sedo for a project vs. when someone wants to sell a domain name to other domain buyers.

Picture it this way.

Say you live in a penthouse apartment in New York City and you’ve given the listing to a broker in the event he/she finds the perfect buyer. You don’t necessarily need to sell it, but if someone comes looking for a $20 million apartment, you’d consider selling it. That’s what it’s like when a company wants/needs a name and goes after it on Sedo.

Now imagine you own a piece of real estate and you need to sell it ASAP. Instead of trying to connect with a real estate agent who has buyers or listing it for sale, you decide you want to call the number on billboards you see across town announcing that they will pay immediate cash for homes. That’s sort of what it’s like to sell on a domain forum.

Most domain investors won’t pay full retail price for a domain name, and most who would, don’t spend much time on forums.”

I would be interested in knowing your thoughts on the question, especially if they are different than mine. I am traveling today, so comments that aren’t automatically posted may take additional time to be approved.

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