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Privacy After Domain Sales Isn’t a Given, Nor is it Free

Elliot Silver
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44

A few years ago, I used Sedo’s escrow service for a private domain sale. I had closed the deal in private, but I wanted to have a safe transaction so both the buyer and I chose Sedo to facilitate the payment and transfer. The following week, I saw that my sale was reported to DNJournal by Sedo, listing Sedo as the “Where Sold.”

This same thing happened when I used Moniker to handle the escrow for a transaction several months later. The company didn’t facilitate the sale, and it only handled the escrow for the transaction. This upset me because I didn’t know they reported all sales, and had there been a confidentiality agreement, it would have been violated.

In both cases, Ron Jackson quickly took down the sales reports for me, as I did not want the previous seller to see the prices at which they sold.

I was chatting with a friend today who let me know about a Sedo policy I find disappointing. Sedo charges an additional 2.5% to their sales commission to keep a sale private. I thought this was funky, but it was confirmed by a Sedo employee. I know it’s only 2.5% more from your gross sale, but it seems like highway robbery to me. I hope Sedo reconsiders this additional fee, and I encourage people to simply avoid the fee by asking Ron not to post the sale.

Whenever you buy a domain name from any domain venue, you should proactively request privacy before finalizing your transaction. If the company won’t honor your request (or charges you to keep it private), you should consider your other options.

Pasta ‘N More Direct Marketers Understand Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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0

Since my background is in the direct marketing business, I pay attention to infomercials and other marketing efforts specifically to analyze the execution. Some of these commercials (maybe most) are cheesy, but everything from dialog, domains, actors, and product placement has a purpose. The domain name is also important, and in many cases, it’s used for testing purposes.

I saw a commercial today for the “Pasta ‘N More” pasta maker, which seems to be a plastic container used to help cook various types of pasta. The product was being offered by one of the top direct marketers – Telebrands. This product isn’t something of interest to me, but the domain name they used was FreePastaNMore.com.

The url seemed a bit confusing and certainly didn’t pass the radio test, which was surprising to me because most call to action direct marketing efforts (especially radio and tv) do their best to make their phone numbers and urls easy to remember.

I decided to check to see if they registered the potential typos, and it looks like they did.   Here are some of their domain names for this product:

  • FreePastaNMore.com
  • FreePastaAndMore.com
  • PastaAndMore.com
  • PastaNMore.com
  • PastandMore.com

It’s good to see marketers protect their brand, as many companies neglect to do so and are forced to pay for this traffic on a continual basis, rather than the one time registration fee.

Monitor Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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5

For quite some time, when you did a Whois lookup using DomainTools, you had the ability to click a little flag icon to monitor the domain name you were looking up. You could monitor for Whois changes, Nameserver changes, Registration changes, and maybe a few other things. Recently, I tried to monitor a domain name, and I couldn’t find the flag icon.

After a bit of searching this morning, I was able to find the URL to monitor domain names on DomainTools. You do need to have an account to monitor domain names, but it’s part of the package for Silver members.

I have been monitoring a wide variety of domain names, although my list hadn’t been updated in a while. I also keep an eye on domain names I own in addition to names I would like to own.

This is a handy tool that I am happy to learn has not been removed from DomainTools.   I just wish they would move it back to the standard Whois lookup console to make it easier – allowing me to monitor domain names on the fly rather than having to go to a separate URL.

Successful Domainer Starts Domain Blog

Elliot Silver
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32

One of the most successful domain investors is also probably one of the youngest and someone that has sort of flown under the radar. He is a 24 year old Czech domain investor who got his start in the business in 2007, and he has rapidly grown his business in a very short period of time. He prefers to keep his name private, but he is the real deal.

This past week, he announced the launch of his domain blog, Facing the Absurd, which offers his take on the domain industry. His business encompass many verticals, including domain names, lead generation, affiliate marketing, domain monetization, a car insurance broker, search, arbitrage, Facebook apps and games, and even a liposuction clinic. In total, his companies employee 70 people.

This blog promises to offer a different perspective on the domain industry than most, and it is destined to become one of the better resources for domain investors. Check it out when you have a chance.

WebQuest Files Lawsuit Over Hayward.com

Elliot Silver
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A couple of weeks ago, Hayward.com was awarded to the complainant, Hayward Industries in a UDRP decision. It comes as no surprise that the owner of the domain name, WebQuest.com, Inc, filed a lawsuit to retain this geographical domain name. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in the Fresno office of the California Eastern District Court.

Lawsuits may be expensive, but they are necessary when it comes to asset protection. Companies should realize that while a UDRP may seem like an inexpensive and cost-effective way to take possession of a high value domain name, a favorable UDRP decision will almost certainly end up in court, where both parties will need to engage in an expensive legal battle.

Thanks to George for the tip.

Let’s Talk About Sex (.com)

Elliot Silver
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15

Sex.com SaleI’m sure you’ve read the news that Sex.com is the subject of a foreclosure auction next month in New York City. Sex.com reportedly sold for $14 million back in 2006, but there was never any confirmation of the dollar amount for that sale and was only speculation. I am not privy to any information about Sex.com (or the sale other than what was posted), but I want to discuss some things about the domain name itself.

Without a doubt, Sex.com is one of the best pure domain names a company could own. Without it ever really being fully developed into a brand, Sex.com is one of those rare domain names that is already a brand known throughout the world.   Based on the Compete score, it gets decent traffic, and it’s a name that has the WOW factor most others don’t have. This is the name many people would love to have the chance to own if they could choose just one domain name.

There are some downsides to the name though. How does a company monetize it enough to earn a good ROI? Parking the domain name hasn’t seemed to work. Maybe that’s because people who want sex or porn can find that in plenty of other places online. The small portal that is on the site now is presumably not earning enough of a return right now either.

It’s likely the people who are visiting Sex.com don’t really want to find sex per se, but they are looking for porn. Porn is still a taboo word for many, so Sex.com is more of a “comfortable” name to own for some than Porn.com, although Porn.com certainly gets much more traffic and would probably make much more money on PPC. It’s just like a home with a pool. Some people would love to have a pool, but there are many who wouldn’t even consider a home that has a pool. Sex.com is more of a benign name than Porn.com.

According to an anonymous investor that was quoted on TechCrunch, there may be some litigation that could hold up the auction. Additionally, the amount of the debt on the loan is also unknown, and if it’s too high, the reserve price or minimum opening bid may temper bidding or cause people to not bid at all. As the auctioneer commented to me via email, “opening bid will be determined sometime prior to the auction,” and I believe this detail is the most important.

If the auction goes forth as planned, and the reserve price/opening bid is *reasonable,* I believe we are going to see strong bidding from more than one party. If the auction has participants from some of the leading adult companies outside of the domain industry, we could see a record result. In the market today, as Mike pointed out, it might be tough for a company to justify a record setting price. A name like this doesn’t come up for sale often, and this is a great opportunity that more than one company is salivating over.

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