Domain Investing News, Strategy & Tips

Details Behind $1 Million+ Deal for Diversification.com

Domain Sales

Elliot Silver

May 21, 2025

Paul Rubillo shared some details about a deal he struck for the Diversification.com domain name. When the deal concludes, it will be valued at more than $1 million. Paul shared that the buyer paid some cash and will be paying for the domain name via future payments and revenue share. In addition, Paul also retained some equity in the new business and could capitalize on future sale proceeds.

When sharing the news with me, Paul mentioned that it was a “Rick Schwartz-inspired deal.”

Paul commented on the sale of this domain name via LinkedIn:

GoDaddy

Elliot Silver

May 21, 2025

I recently noticed that GoDaddy Auctions began incorporating artificial intelligence-generated images and descriptions to its auction listings. This AI-generated content appears in the Details section below the fold, so visitors would need to scroll below the bid field to view this section for each auction. This field appears above comparable sales and other data related to the domain name in auction.

Here’s an example of the AI generated image and description for Trickster.com, a domain name that is currently in auction at GoDaddy:

Domain Sales

Elliot Silver

May 20, 2025

I don’t use Google Shopping for much beyond the native price tracking tool. If there’s a product I want to buy but think it’s too expensive, I can have Google track the price and be notified if the price changes. Similarly, some websites – like Amazon – have a tool that identifies when a price is lower than it has been previously offered. I think this is helpful when I am shopping for something specific but am not in a hurry to buy it.

Atom.com CEO Darpan Munjal announced that something in that vein is coming soon to Atom, and I think it’s a fantastic idea.

Non-Domain Related

Elliot Silver

May 16, 2025

I’ve been dealing with a frustrating iPhone issue for a while. I don’t recall when it started, but my sound notifications have not been working for my iPhone’s Mac Mail app despite having everything setup correctly.. When I would receive email to my Gmail and Gmail Workspace accounts, I would see badge and banner notifications on my phone, but there was no sound notification. I have the iPhone 15 Pro phone.

I went through all of the troubleshooting recommendations I could find on Apple forums, Reddit, and elsewhere. I visited the Apple store Genius bar. I turned notifications off and on. I went through custom alerts and turned those off and on. I turned individual settings off and on. I reset my iPhone. I regularly updated my iOS when I could.

Rick Schwartz

Elliot Silver

May 15, 2025

Bill Hartzer wrote an article about a report issued by a group called Digital Citizens Alliance that was critical of domain investing. This is not the first time this organization took domain investing to task. In fact, Andrew Allemann wrote an article about it in 2020.

When looking at the report and the organization’s website, I noticed the Executive Director of this organization is Tom Galvin. The website notes that “Prior to founding 463 Communications, Tom served as Vice President of Government Relations and Communications at VeriSign, where he was responsible for driving strategy with policy makers regarding homeland security, Internet security and telecommunications policy.”

This caught my attention because of a recent NTIA release that alluded to prices charged by domain investors and domain registrars. “We also recognize that prices at both the wholesale level and downstream, including prices charged by resellers and substantial markups by warehousers, need to be addressed,” the release stated.

My opinion is that VeriSign is unhappy when a discussion about competition to manage the .com registry comes up, and the company would prefer to have the focus be on (unregulated) domain investor and domain registrar pricing.

Non-Domain Related

Elliot Silver

May 14, 2025

John Berryhill, my wife Karen, and I are raising funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute via the 2025 Pan-Mass Challenge ride in August. Together, we are hoping to raise $30,000 for Dana-Farber this year, and that will allow us to surpass the $200,000 lifetime fundraising mark.

Each year on the second day of the PMC, we wear a customized cycling jersey with the logos of domain industry sponsors/supporters. This year, Andy Booth generously donated to each of our fundraising campaigns, and his business, Cognitive.ai, is the lead sponsor of our jersey.

We are looking for additional supporters! ~~We have two sleeve sponsorships available for a donation of $1,500/each~~ (these spots are now taken). We have between 16-18 additional logo spots available on the back of our jersey for a donation of $500/each. We can also offer two spots on the sides of the jersey for logos that are white (the logo will be place vertically on the black background) for a $1,000 donation for each side.

For tracking purposes, you can make a donation to my fundraising page found by navigating to CancerStinks.com, and I will distribute them to John and Karen. Please email me to confirm availability before donating, particularly for the two sleeves.

I hope to finalize the jersey design this week.

2025 Domain Industry PMC Jersey Sponsors: