I get random legit email inquiries for some of my domain names, but many of my friends get a whole lot more of them than I do. They get annoying after a while, and instead of politely responding to a $500 offer for a domain name that is worth six figures, people are tempted to respond rudely, In my opinion, this does nothing effective. If a guy is offering $500 for a six figure domain name, he either thinks you are an idiot or he doesn’t have a clue about domain values.
I do have a response that I like to give to random legitimate inquiries, and I would like to share it. I think it may be a bit passive aggressive , but it helps educate, as people are far more knowledgeable about real estate than domain names. This response took a bit of time to construct, but it’s now easy to cut and paste (with the exception of the link that might be difficult to include in some email systems.
My response is built for an email that went something like this:
“I see you are the owner of XXXXX.com, and it isn’t developed yet. My company is in the process of developing a website which would be perfect for the domain name. I would like to offer you $x,xxx, which I believe is a fair price for XXXXX.com.”
My response:
Dear XXXXXX,
Thank you for your interest in XXXXXX.com. This is a domain name I bought for a specific purpose, but I haven’t yet had the opportunity to develop it as I am working on a number of projects. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t sell it anywhere near that price either because it’s worth much more.
When I visit Palm Beach, I always travel on South Ocean Drive. In between Mar a Lago and Sloan’s Curve, there is a beautiful undeveloped plot of land right on the Intercoastal Waterway, and it sits next to twenty and thirty million dollar houses (check it on Google Street View. Unfortunately, the owner hasn’t developed it. I, too, have plans to build a beautiful house (further inland) and it would be perfect for that plot of land because I can dock my boat right in the backyard.
If I approached the owner of that plot of land, and I said, “I looked at the MLS and your plot of land is worth about $4,000,000 – I would like to offer you what I believe is market value” – do you think he would sell it after years of not selling it (and by the looks of the trimmed lawn, it is well maintained)? I am sure he has been approached by many and has turned them all down as he presumably doesn’t need the cash and the land is a better investment than money in the bank earning less than the rate of inflation.
If I really want that plot of land, I will need to offer much more than its worth, in order to convince the owner to sell. Likewise, my domain name will be as difficult to acquire, especially because your initial valuation is so low. If you still wish to purchase my domain name, you are going to have to knock me down with an offer. Until that time, I wish you well in all of your endeavors online.
The preliminary 2009 GeoDomain Expo agenda has been posted on the