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Reach Out to Auction “No Sales”

Elliot Silver
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One way that you might be able to score a good deal on a domain name is to search through lists of previous domain auctions, and reach out to domain owners whose name(s) did not sell. In the past three years, there have been a number of domain auctions that saw a large percentage of domain names go unsold either due to poor market conditions or the reserve prices set by domain owners.

Oftentimes, domain owners believe having their domain name listed in a domain auction is a surefire way to get it sold for big money. Many owners feel that they need to compensate for the commission rate that would be had if the domain name sold. Additionally, owners know that if they set their reserve prices too low, it could get stuck in a silent auction and possibly had for a song by someone willing to dig in and scour the thousands of names listed. As a result, many domain names listed at auction are overpriced.

When these domain names don’t sell, the owners return to the status quo and continue to hold on to their domain names. Many months after the auctions end without bids, the exclusivity period required by the auction houses end, and the domain owners are free to sell their names without the commission, leaving buyers with a ripe opportunity.

I haven’t done much of this yet, but you might consider scouring lists of domain auctions held a few years ago, and see if there are any unsold domain names that you might be interested in buying if the price is right. Do a historical Whois search to see if the owner is the same, and if so, drop him a note. With the economy in its current state and knowing the fact that the name was listed for sale in the past and didn’t change ownership, it might be a great time to buy some domain names.

ICANN Meeting in New York on July 13

Elliot Silver
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ICANN LogoI just registered to attend the upcoming ICANN gTLD meeting in New York City on Monday, July 13, 2009. There is no cost to register for the event, and I recommend that domain owners in the New York area attend the meeting.

This may be the last chance to express your opinion, as a domain name owner, about the IRT and URS proposal. At the very least, it’s a good opportunity to meet ICANN leaders and learn about how ICANN works.

Here are the details for the NY Meeting:

Date: July 13, 2009
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Location: Hudson Theatre, Millennium Hotel – (145 West 44th Street, New York, NY)

If you can’t make it to the NYC meeting, other meetings are scheduled for locations around the world, including London (July 15, 2009), Hong Kong (July 24, 2009) and Abu Dhabi (August 4, 2009). Again, it’s free and easy to register online.

Tricks to Find Domain Owners

Elliot Silver
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I frequently run into the problem of locating domain owners when the Whois information is invalid or outdated. When I want to purchase a domain name, I generally send personal notes to the Whois email address on record – or the historic information if necessary. Oftentimes, I receive the “Delivery Status Notification (Failure)” message that is standard for invalid or inoperable email accounts.

When this happens, I typically call the phone number of the registrant to make contact that way, but I often find that the phone numbers aren’t working either. Depending on the domain name, I will either give up and consider it a lost cause, or I will use a few different ways to get in touch with the owner.

1) Search for the owner’s last name and city on WhitePages.com to find a current phone number. A big DING goes off in my head if the phone number listed is different than the Whois.

2) Search for the owner’s name in Google (in quotes). Oftentimes you will see that the owner is either associated with other companies or email addresses, and you can use those to get in touch.

3) Search for the email address in Google. Sometimes you will find the email address associated with different websites or listed on a particular website along with a more current phone number or alternative means of contact.

4) Search the domain name’s website for info – both the current site and archive.org record. Sometimes the most obvious way of contacting the owner is overlooked.

If all else fails and you need the domain name, you can always visit the last known address. Usually this doesn’t work out, but it is a good way to get information. Sure, most people are reluctant to spend $1k+ on travel and associated expenses to visit a location, but if it can help you buy a $250,000 domain name, why would you give up so easily?

A whole lot of effort went into purchasing Customs.com in September of 2007, and if it wasn’t for going the extra few miles, I would not have been able to acquire it. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to get in touch with a domain owner, but if it was easy, someone else would have acquired the domain name long ago.

NameMedia & NSI to Hold Domain Sales Seminar

Elliot Silver
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In addition to the news released by NameMedia yesterday announcing changes and improvements at Afternic, I want to let you know about   a domain sales webinar they will be co-hosting with Network Solutions. The Webinar, which will be held at two different times, is free of charge, and it will cover domain sales “How to” basics. A tour of the new Afternic platform will also be included to show people the new features of the platform.

The two webinar sessions will be held on Thursday, July 9 from 2:00 – 3:00pm EDT and on Thursday, July 23 from 2:00   – 3:00pm EDT. Click the embedded links to sign up for the session.

Some of the announced improvements and changes to Afternic include:

– A new and improved user interface to make it even easier to find exactly what you need.

– Improvements to increase your chances of a successful sale — including a brand new promotion level that allows you to reach a much wider audience of qualified buyers.

– Cutting-edge portfolio management tools that streamline the buying and selling process

AthensVacations.com – Domain for Sale

Elliot Silver
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<a target="blank" href=I have sold several Country/Region Vacations.com domain names in the past year and a half, and I am listing AthensVacations.com for $5,500. Athens is one of the most popular tourist locations in the world, and I think this can be built into a great travel portal. If it doesn’t sell this week, I plan to develop it similarly to TobagoVacations.com, which is now earning around $1.50/day with Adsense after just launching a couple of weeks ago. I think AthensVacations.com is a far superior domain name, and it would be great for a smallish website with a WC Travel or IAN hotel affiliate engine on it.

One of the biggest online travel agencies, Vacations To Go, has a number of city, country, and regional vacations.com domain names, and they use them to forward traffic to their primary website. The company owns names such as StockholmVacations.com, BarcelonaVacations.com, BrusselsVacations.com, BucharestVacations.com, CairoVacations.com, and many more great names like this.

Below are some comparisons of Vacation/Vacations.com domain names that have sold recently, and I think you can see from this that AthensVacations.com is listed at a very fair price:

CaribbeanVacations.com $130,000
EuropeanVacations.com $85,000
IrelandVacations.com $17,250
AustraliaVacations.com $16,000
AsianVacations.com $15,000* Sold via ElliotsBlog.com
BudgetVacations.com $10,300
CanadaVacations.com $9,600
FijiVacation.com $9,200
BahamaVacations.com $8,188
SwitzerlandVacation.com $7,500
IsraelVacations.com* Sold via ElliotsBlog.com (price not revealed)
EnglandVacations.com* Sold via ElliotsBlog.com (price not revealed)

The first person to post “sold” will get the domain name. This is a multi-venue listing, and I believe it will sell quickly, so if you want it, claim it. The domain name is registered at Moniker.

Photo Source

IRT Report & URS Comments

Elliot Silver
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If you own a domain name, I implore you to read the IRT Proposal to form your own opinion of its contents. If you have any issues with it, please take a few moments to write a comment to ICANN – today is the final day to make your comments heard. You can also read other comments that were submitted.

It is my opinion that the Uniform Rapid Suspension System is dangerous to domain owners, and I submitted an email comment explaining why I believe this. The only way for my opinion to be heard is via the public comment forum, and I wanted ICANN and those who follow ICANN to see (and address) my issues.

While the odds are great that a URS dispute won’t be filed against a domain name you own, it is very likely that one will be filed against someone who owns a generic domain name. Now is the final opportunity to provide your comments about the proposal – not 6 months or a year from now when a legitimate domain name or website is taken offline by an overzealous trademark attorney.

As I stated in my submission, I do believe the intent of the proposal is good, and it probably won’t impact the majority of ordinary domain owners and small businesses such as mine. However, just like there are domain owners who don’t take the legal/ethical high ground, I believe there will be trademark interests who use the URS as a way to secure domain names in a less expensive manner than direct acquisition. For those domain names and owners that become targets, fighting URS complaints will be a very costly endeavor.

It’s likely that it won’t be your domain name that is targeted, but if you are unlucky and a large company wants your domain name, the costs associated with defending your rights could be very high.

Take some time this morning to read the report. You can also read Mike Berkens’ comments and read more information from Ron Jackson. Rick Schwartz has also weighed in as has George Kirkos. Comments from the Internet Commerce Association are also available online. Now is the time to form an opinion and make your comments known. The trademark and IP attorneys have spoken, and now is the time for domain owners to voice their opinions.

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