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Sunday Morning Updates

Elliot Silver
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13

I am almost back home, and here are a few updates for the weekend.

  • Thanks to everyone who commented on my post the other day. I plan to select the winner at some point tomorrow afternoon and will let that person (and everyone else) know who was selected. Depending on the interest level and the time, I might do something like this in the future.
  • If you’ve sent me an email in the last week, please excuse my belated reply. It’s going to take a few days to catch up on emails. If you don’t hear back from me for some reason, please re-send your email and I will be in touch.
  • I read a couple of domain-related articles that people sent to me this past week, and it seems like there was quite a bit of interesting activity:
  • >>> Regarding “pigeon shit” domain names – I agree with Rick in some ways although I don’t entirely understand the point behind the posts. Yes, there are plenty of people who register bad domain names. I’ve registered plenty of shit domain names. I assume many people read domain blogs to learn, and I hope I can flatten the learning curve to help people buy good domain names.
  • >>> I also saw Rick’s post about the traffic/oil spill domain names, and although I won’t pass judgment on another person’s or company’s investment strategy, I will say that I don’t personally monetize tragedy-related domain names. It’s more of a personal thing for me, but it disappointing to see Rick publicly disclosing these investments. IMO, people look up to Rick for advice and knowledge and when people see the “Domain King” owns BP (trademark) names, others might follow suit thinking it’s okay, and some might be okay but others might be problematic. Of course names like these get some traffic and revenue, but in the whole scheme of things, is that $1k (maybe) in revenue worth it?
  • >>> Mike Berkens’ post about the CamRoulette.com lawsuit was interesting and had some great responses. I don’t really feel badly for the 20 year old “kid” because I’ve been in the position of losing out on a name after a price was agreed upon. I don’t wish any ill-will on him, but I hope anyone who reads about this sees that backing out of a deal (even one consummated via email) is not only unprofessional but can lead to additional legal problems.
  • >>> In that same vein, it seems that some potentially upcoming legal cases may make it more costly for a seller to back out of a deal. There’s the CamRoulette.com case, the 7 legal domain names sold on Sedo, the Women.com case, and the MobilePhones.co.uk case. If the buyers sue to get the domain name(s) and legal fees and win their cases, it could become known that’s very costly to back out of a deal. Right now, perception is that it’s simply a matter of a damaged reputation, but the reality could be that backing out of a deal is costly and not worth it.
  • I put some names for sale on DN Forum as I said I would, using a sticky thread. So far, two of the better names have sold and I will begin to reduce some of the prices and add names like RingtoneSites.com.

Don’t Stop Domaining

Elliot Silver
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15

No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to stop working… whether I am out to dinner or on vacation, I always seem to find myself thinking about business. It’s not necessarily bad – unless you happen to be a person with whom I am spending my “free” time.

Nevertheless, it’s not always a bad thing (I think). We’ve been staying right on Jardin du Luxembourg, and it’s a beautiful area, as you can see from the photographs in this post. We went for a run in the gardens this morning and it was magnificent.   Been rainy for a few days, but the past two have been sunny in the high 70s.

While relaxing this evening, I went to see who owns JardinDuLuxembourg.com, and the name had expired and was not owned by anyone at the time. I pinged Bari (my rep at Moniker), and as she usually does when I send a message to her, she bought it instantly on my behalf.

I may post some photos on my new domain name when I have a chance and write a little bit about the area.There are quite a few hotels, restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, apartments…etc. It’s too bad I didn’t own it before I left… would be interesting to ask my accountant about expensing some of this trip… kidding.

Talk to you all soon… It’s time for some wine in the gardens.

===

I didn’t bring my cord to upload photos, so these are courtesy of Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/xlibber/2961646533
http://www.flickr.com/photos/switchhook/3388584338
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28793002@N03/3750452968
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davearquati/3808246269/

More photos on Flickr that aren’t Creative Commons.

A Deal May Not Be Done Until the Domain Name is in Your Account

Elliot Silver
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7

Back in February 2010, I made an offer in private for a domain name. The domain name hadn’t been on the market, and my inquiry was unsolicited. The owner’s asking price at the time was significantly higher than my offer, and he opted not to sell me the domain name because the gap was too great.

A couple of weeks ago, the owner contacted me again to ask if I had an interest in any of his other domain names, some of which were very good.   I was interested in one name, but the price was too much for me to buy it, so I asked if I could try to broker it for him to a few clients, and he agreed (although I had no luck selling it at his asking price).

Late last week the owner contacted me again to see if my initial offer was still valid for the domain name I had originally inquired about, and I said it was. I asked if I could pay using my American Express card, and he agreed to that. I assumed the deal was done since I said my offer was still good and we were finalizing the payment vehicle.

I spoke with a couple close colleagues about the name the next day, and one mentioned that he just saw it for sale through a domain broker. Apparently, when the owner contacted me to ask if my offer was still good, he also reached out to a domain broker to ask him to get a deal done.

Fortunately the broker had just sent out his email and didn’t have any clients bite at the name, so I reached out to him and explained the situation. I didn’t want the domain owner to leverage the broker’s clients and me to get a sweeter deal for the domain name.

The lesson here is that even if you think a domain deal is done, it might not be until the domain name is in your account. Of course there might be legal recourse, but that can take a significant amount of time and expense, and unless the name is of significant value, it might not be worth pursuing.

Sign Documents Online with Adobe Electronic Signature

Elliot Silver
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21

This probably sounds silly, but since I work from a laptop, one of my bigger annoyances is going to hook up my Macbook to a printer and scanner to print agreements, sign them, and then scan them back to my computer (yeah, I should get a wireless device for it but that’s not the point).   It’s not that big of a deal but it’s one of those stupid, little annoyances. A friend of mine introduced me to a new Adobe online service that will virtually eliminate this.

Adobe’s Electronic Signature is a free, Internet based service that allows parties to an agreement to share and sign the agreement online. Users simply upload an agreement (only pdfs are accepted), enter the email address of the other parties, post a due date for the signatures, select a signature profile, and hit submit. The user has the option of choosing a standard signature, or the user can upload an image of an actual signature to make it more authentic.

Once the user has finished his part of the agreement, the other parties are notified and receive an email to access the agreement online. The must click the link furnished by Adobe to access the agreement. Once there, they are unable to alter the agreement, and the service leaves a note on all pages to show that all parties read and acknowledge each page. The other parties then check off their electronic signatures and the agreement is executed.

It’s an easier way to get important documents signed online without having to worry about scanners and fax machines.

Using Whois for More Than Buying a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0

A few months back, a friend of mine posted an interesting request on her Facebook page. She asked if anyone had the contact information for three different artists, as she was thinking about commissioning a piece of art for the cover of her music album.

I did a bit of historical domain research, and lo and behold, I found what appeared to be a personal (AOL) email address from when one artist had first registered her domain name around 2001. My friend was then able to get in touch with this artist to make a request rather than having to go through other channels to get in touch with her.

Many people don’t consider the privacy issues when using their email address to initially register a domain name. Also, many people don’t really have the need to remain private until they “hit it big” and can change their contact information later.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind if you contact people using archived Whois records. The first thing is that it’s quite likely that an older email address, especially if it’s free, will no longer be used years later.   More importantly, however, is the likelihood that the person you are attempting to contact will not appreciate being contacted, so be wise about when you use this and to whom. If you have something to offer them, there’s a better chance you’ll get an answer.

Keep Your Whois Records Updated

Elliot Silver
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10

I made a $2,500 offer for a domain name the other day via email, and immediately after hitting send, the email was returned to me as undeliverable.   I did a bit of research, and I found that the domain name used for that email address (but not the domain name I want to buy) had expired and was available for anyone to register.

Technically, I could now register the expired domain name, set up an email forwarder for the Whois email on record, hit “forgot password” at the domain registrar, and use the password reset to take over that company’s domain account. I could then transfer the domain name I want to buy (and all other names in the account) to my domain account.

Domain registrars seem to send an annoying amount of “Annual Whois Update” emails, but it’s important to keep your Whois records accurate and updated. Not only is it useful so you can receive email inquiries (like my $2,500 opening offer) but you can also make sure your domain names aren’t transferred without your authorization.

Taking over the company’s domain account (and/or domain names) would amount to theft (illegal), and I certainly would never do this, but it’s something you need to think about with your own domain names because there are a lot of people who wouldn’t even think twice about doing this and quickly selling the domain names. Now I just need to do a bit more research to get in touch with this company so I can buy its domain name!

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