Tip to Buy Domains in Private: Offer an Alternative Domain Name

I want to share a quick domain acquisition tip with you that I have used in the past when I bought a domain name from an end user company who was using the domain name for its website. Although I didn’t think it was likely that they would sell the name, I made an interesting suggestion to them, which helped close the deal.

My advice is that you give them suggestions for new domain names (or cheap domain names), that they can use for their website if they sell their domain name. Depending on their situation, they may be willing to take the cash and re-brand. This is more likely to happen with a company that keeps a minimal web presence, but it probably also depends on the amount of money you are willing to offer them.

Because the deal I made is private and the domain name has already been re-sold by me, I can’t use the exact names in my situation, but I will use two examples to illustrate what you might be able to do. Let’s say you are hypothetically trying to buy ChristmasTree.com from a company called “The Christmas Tree.” In your email to The Christmas Tree, you offered them $50,000 for their domain name, but they said it’s not for sale since they use it for their website.

If TheChristmasTree.com is available to register (or listed for sale), your next move might be to suggest that domain name to them as a good alternative for their website. This might be appealing, especially for a company that doesn’t heavily rely on their website, as they can get some liquidity at the expense of a URL change.

This won’t work every time, and the success rate may be pretty low. I did it once, and the offer was enticing enough to the company. It should also be noted that they didn’t use the domain name for email, so that big complication was avoided. It’s just another tool to have in your arsenal when buying domain names in private.