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Creatively Bridging the Gap in a Negotiation

Elliot Silver
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25

For about three months, I had been negotiating with a company to sell a domain name. I had initially sent the CEO an email offering the domain name for sale, and after a number of subsequent emails, we were somewhat close to a deal, but still far enough apart to prevent us from consummating a deal.

Because I had dug my heels in at a certain number, I was reluctant to come off this number. It would have been okay had I closed a deal at that number, but I really was not inclined to lower my asking price. The buyer was not interested in raising his offer, so we were basically stuck. I also figured if I went back and said I would take his offer, he could tell me things have changed and the offer is no longer valid, weakening my negotiating position.

Over the last 6 weeks, we had emailed each other a couple of times to see if either of us was willing to come off of our price, but neither of us were willing to do so. It would have appeared that we wouldn’t be able to make a deal happen since neither of us was willing to move.

Last weekend, I thought of a proposal that would bridge the gap and make a deal palatable for both parties. The buyer would pay his final offer price to me to buy the domain name, and his company would donate the difference between what I was asking and the sales price to a non profit organization.

In this situation, I got an acceptable price for the domain name and was able to help one of my favorite non profit organizations. The buyer is getting an exact match domain name for his business at the price he wants, and he can make a charitable donation to a worthy cause. It’s a win/win/win.

Sometimes when you are negotiating and both parties can’t seem to find a middle ground for a deal, you need to think outside of the box to make something happen. I am happy to sell this domain name, and I am proud that this deal will help a great organization.

Don’t get me wrong, my primary motivation was to sell the domain name, but making this offer helped resolve the stalemate in negotiations and we’re both happy with the result.

5 With… Erwin Metius, President of Magnets.com and CustomizedStickers.com

Elliot Silver
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6

Magnets.comOne way in which I do my marketing for DogWalker.com is handing out magnets with the brand logo on them.  I purchase my magnets from Magnets.com, and it is likely because of the domain name that I initially chose to do business with the company a couple of years ago.

Magnets.com was originally founded in 1997, moving from a traditional promotional product model to a growth oriented, enterprise level Web enabled one. The company has seen tremendous growth, including a 35% growth rate from 2009 to 2010.  The company  recently acquired  CustomizedStickers.com, and coupled with its growth, this had led  to a  threefold increase in staff in a year. The company has also been awarded a number of local and industry accolades.

Erwin Metius is the President of Magnets.com and CustomizedStickers.com, and he was nice enough to reply to my request for an interview, which I believe you will find very interesting. Feel free to post any questions you may have.

ES: When was  Magnets.com  acquired, how much did the domain name cost, and how was it acquired (hand registered, private sale, auction…etc).

EM: The domain and business  Magnets.com  was launched in 1997.   We acquired the domain, business, and all its entities from the Torrance, CA based owners in a 2005 private sale for an undisclosed sum.

ES: How does owning the category defining  Magnets.com  help the company in terms of marketing, consumer awareness, and trust?

EM: The domain has provided numerous quantitative and qualitative advantages for the business.   For example, from an online marketing standpoint the domain name (and its long history) helps our organic ranking across both short and long tail KWs alike.   As ranking well certainly doesn’t occur on its own, even with a strong domain, we have invested heavily in SEO as the majority of new customers learn about and order via organic searches.

From an awareness and even memory standpoint the domain helps tremendously -a large number of orders come from direct traffic, both repeat and more surprisingly new customers, with the latter being much higher compared to our other domains listed below.

ES: Does the company purchase longer tail domain names to help with SEO – such as  CustomMagnets.com,  BusinessMagnets.com…etc? Does it own or operate complementary domain names? If so, how does the company go about its acquisitions?

EM: We do have a few other magnet related domains (www.MediaMagnetics.com,  www.ResellerMagnets.com, and the newly relaunched  www.AmericanBusinessCardMagnets.com) not exclusively for SEO purposes but rather as part of our strategic plan to create dynamic microsites that ultimately will point to and act as a supplement to the primary Web site (Magnets.com).   Certainly not identical, but similar to  DrugStore.com  and their numerous microsites.

From an acquisition standpoint, and this certainly holds true with our newly acquired sister site  www.CustomizedStickers.com, we evaluate numerous data points including but not limited to the company’s revenue, overall market size, client portrait, SEO and ranking data, Web technologies, and how well the new business fits within our portfolio.   Looking at Customized Stickers through a  Magnets.com  lens, the business and production methodologies certainly fit together, the customers not identical but a nice extension of where we were looking to grow, and the SEO and other marketing areas strongly align with what we’ve done successfully with  Magnets.com.

ES: What has your experience been like with search engines with  Magnets.com?

EM: Being an online business with strong visibility, we are –for better or worse- at the mercy of the major search engines and their constant tweaking.   As a whole, they have been a huge asset to the business, giving us a tremendous amount of not just national but worldwide visibility across many of their offerings.   Of course, we have and will continue to invest in SEO, implementing best practices (including rich snippets) to not only maintain but grow our visibility.

ES: What are some of the challenges of owning a name like  Magnets.com  rather than a unique brand?

EM: Another advantage, the domain is our brand, succinctly detailing what exactly it is we do, what we’re about, and who we are.   Accordingly we use it to our benefit.

From a challenge standpoint, the Web site -not surprisingly- receives a large amount of traffic from the organic KW ‘magnets’, but it’s far from our highest converting KW.   Trying to understand the ‘why’ we developed and fielded a comprehensive survey which showed that while these visitors were indeed searching and planning to buy magnets, they were looking for magnets that we didn’t sell –mainly industrial magnets, rare earth magnets, jewelry magnets, and health magnets (such as bracelets).   This opens a potential opportunity to be all things magnets related.   However, the huge challenge is  how  to market across a wide variety of highly divergent verticals and buyers and avoid alienating current customers.

Thank you to Mr. Metius for taking the time to answer my questions!

My TRAFFIC Experience & Recap

Elliot Silver
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16

I returned home from Ft. Lauderdale yesterday evening, and I want to share some of my takeaways from the TRAFFIC conference. Overall, the conference proved to be a great networking opportunity (as it always is) in an excellent venue.

–  Domain Holdings  made a very impressive showing. In a short span of time, the company has hired a number of people who are experienced in the domain industry and some from outside of the domain space. In fact, when I first arrived, I said hello to someone I know who has worked at a successful but covert domain company, and I was surprised when I saw his tag said Domain Holdings. I think Domain Holdings is a collegial team of experts who are working on products and services that target various segments of the domain business, and I bet you’re going to hear a lot about them in the next year.

– I had a productive meeting with Protrada about the company’s platform, and I am going to set up my account ASAP. I was given a walk through, and I think it is going to help me stay on top of potential acquisitions and auctions. If you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s quite comprehensive and well put together.

– I really appreciated the fact that GoDaddy was there and took the time to walk through the auction platform. I had some issues with it, and I was able to learn a few tricks while showing some of the areas of frustration.

– Sedo and Afternic announced news during the conference, which will help domain owners sell domain names. Afternic is partnering up with Godaddy and Sedo expanded its SedoMLS distribution channel. It’s going to pay to list your names on both platforms. I also had a nice conversation with Don Lyons, who let me know about Moniker’s new partnership with Afternic, making it easier to sell names.

– Whether you think adult sites are good or bad, .XXX domain names are good or bad, or whatever your feelings are related to the adult industry, I can tell you they have a smart team running the operation, and I think they are going to be very successful. I had a long and candid conversation with ICM Registry CEO Stuart  Lawley, and I came away impressed with the organization.

– The .XXX party at the W Hotel was fun. The venue was great, especially because it was so close to the Ritz Carlton.  I think the party could have been a bit more “adult” though 🙂

– I am glad that  Mike Mann was on the Test Track panel. He was very blunt when he needed to be and was entertaining by calling things the way he saw it. I think organizers need more vetting for Test Track to avoid no shows and to choose presenters with solid business plans.

– I want to wish Mike Berkens congratulations for Blogger of the Year. It’s very well deserved and certainly hard earned.

– I think there should be a Domain Broker of the Year category. I know awards aren’t that important to many people, but the broker side of the business helps bring in considerable revenue to domain investors, and some brokers are far superior to others.

– There was a guy who showed up at the conference with one of the most unbelievable lists of category defining .com domain names that made everyone’s jaws drop. Apparently, his father founded the company a number of years ago.

– The Ritz Carlton in Ft. Lauderdale was an excellent location to hold the conference. It was large enough that there was space to spread out and hold private meetings, but it didn’t feel like it was too expansive. The corridor outside the ballrooms was conducive to meetings, and to meet with companies that had booths. There were several areas (inside and outside) and restaurants for private dining and larger parties. In addition, there are a number of hotels within walking distance for those who don’t have a Ritz Carlton budget.

– Despite the three days of rain, spirits were still very high. People stayed at the venue for the most part, and there were many good opportunities to meet with other people and companies in the industry. I tend to take some time during the conferences to catch up on work/emails…etc, but I stayed at the venue almost the entire time.

– I am sure many people are just waiting until I discuss the auction. Actually, a lot of people will probably skip over this entire post just to write negative things about the auction. In any case, I don’t think it takes a genius to realize the results weren’t great. I think the .XXX sales were strong, although I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Movies.XXX sell, in light of a few other high dollar sales. Everyone seems to have an opinion on what went wrong and what can be improved, and I am going to stay out of that.

– As usual, the show organizers put on a professional trade show without many hitches. They’ve been at it for years, and I felt that the whole Traffic team made attendees feel welcome and appreciated.

Registrar Domain Name Price Increase Notices Being Sent

Elliot Silver
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12

I’ve started to receive emails from domain registrars announcing an increase in the price of .com and .net domain names, “based on the  VeriSign  and  Neustar  announcements” of price increases in 2012.

The price you pay for .com and .net domain names depends on the domain registrar you use, but I imagine the increases will generally be across the board. You’ll probably receive an email announcing a pricing change sometime in the next few weeks.

You may consider paying for additional years of registration for domain names you plan to keep for a while, and you may wish to renew soon to expire domain names before the increase takes effect. If you don’t receive a notice of a price increase, you should reach out to the support department at your preferred registrar to ask, or ask an account representative.

Quick TRAFFIC Thoughts

Elliot Silver
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16

I spent much of the day catching up on some things that I overlooked during the past few days, and the rest of my day was spent traveling back to New York City… I hate flying in the rain, and it was raining in FLL and at JFK.

AI am not ready (nor awake enough) to post a recap of the Traffic conference tonight, but I want to post something quickly in response to a few articles I caught just now via  Domaining.com.

The quick summary is that I had a great time at the conference and thought it was very well organized and well attended. I didn’t think the auction was very good, which I will discuss more tomorrow, but I think the auction was just a tiny part of the entire conference. I find it peculiar that people are so focused on the results and use it almost as an indictment of Traffic.

I met with a number of people and companies who are in the process of creating very large and exciting projects in the domain space. There were several deals announced during the event, which will help domain investors sell domain names. I met with a few companies that are building products and services that will help domain investors.

The mood was far more jovial than just a couple of years ago, despite the current economic uncertainty. I didn’t go to bed before 2:00am, and I found myself with dozens of attendees hanging out and talking shop each night.

I found it very disappointing to read comments in articles that seem to imply that Traffic wasn’t a good conference. This is especially concerning and frustrating because I am quite sure those commenters were not even in attendance. It’s like reading a Yelp review about a pizza place you’ve never tried and agreeing that the pizza is bad. It makes no sense.

Anyway, I just want to follow up to Mike’s post because I agree with just about everything he posted. I will post a full rundown of my conference takeaways tomorrow, but I had a very good time at the conference. I probably spent more time meeting with people than I did at any other event in the past, and I believe it’s going to lead to increased business for my company.

Learn How to Play Poker With a WSOP Champion

Elliot Silver
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9

Poker ClinicWhen you pair an exact match domain name with an expert in that particular field, you are off to a great start. I read a note from Dutch Boyd, a professional poker player who has won two World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, and he has started a poker clinic on PokerClinic.com.

It’s one of the top exact match domain names for this particular endeavor, and it’s not a surprise that Boyd owns it. In addition to playing poker professionally, Boyd is also a domain investor, owning a significant number of domain names.

Boyd is currently offering a deal on private lessons, charging aspiring poker players just $20 for the first half hour lesson via Skype. According to Boyd, “I have decided to offer affordable, individualized 1-on-1 poker lessons to a select few individuals. Right now, you can reserve your first half-hour session with me over Skype for only $20! This is a special introductory price that I’m only offering for a very limited time as I build my poker clinic and develop my content.”

I’ve played poker with friends several times, but I’ve never learned poker strategy before. I guess that’s why my friends like playing poker with me – I like to gamble but can’t bluff and don’t know much in the way of strategy.

I may take Boyd up on his offer to learn a bit more about basic poker strategy, and I may purchase lessons for my brother, who plays more than I play. It seems like a pretty good offer.

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