Archive for the ‘Domain Investing’ Category

Breaking News: Ken Hansen to lead co.com Registry

Posted by AbdulBasit Makrani on November 16th, 2013

Breaking-News-Ken-Hansen-to-lead-co.com-RegistryHello and Assalamo Alaikum,

I would like to congratulate Ken-Hansen, Gregg McNair and Paul Goldstone for the launch of co.com registry.  Ken Hansen has resigned his position at Neustar to lead this effort as CEO of “Co.com, LLC”, with Ken Hansen as President and Gregg McNair as Chairman

Recently I received press release from Paul Goldstone which I wanted to share with you guys.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, November, 15 2013 – Three well known domain industry leaders have teamed up to launch the co.com registry that will allow users to register the .com domain names they’ve always wanted!  Ken Hansen,(formerly Neustar) will lead the new venture as CEO, joining Paul Goldstone (President), and Gregg McNair (Chairman).

“When Paul asked me to work with him to build a ‘dream team’ for co.com, I immediately thought of Ken Hansen as our leader. Today our CEO is among the most respected and savvy operators in the registry space. Ken’s appointment along with his knowledge and understanding of the co.com opportunity is turning heads in a sea of confusion. To him the co.com solution was so simple and obvious” McNair said.

Sixty-one countries currently offer domain names ending in “co.countrycode” such as co.uk and co.jp, with registrations for those extensions totaling over 11 million.  Additionally, each year over ten million new .com domains are registered.  co.com Registry intends to capitalize on this strong demand, and the current lack of available domains, by opening up a new tract of land in .com.

“The demand for .com names is not going away”, says Hansen.   “We intend to meet that demand by offering short memorable domain names ending in .com”.

The co.com registry will have an open registration policy, meaning that any company, organization or individual will be eligible to register domain names like companyname.co.com, organization.co.com, or anything.co.com.   “I couldn’t be more excited with the team and the future of co.com domains, where users will be able to pick the perfect .com domain to fit their online and branding needs,” said Goldstone.

co.com domain names are expected to become available in the first quarter of 2014. Plans call for a “Sunrise Period” for trademark holders, followed by a first-come-first-serve “Landrush Period”.  Premium domain names like travel.co.com, tickets.co.com, wine.co.com, insurance.co.com and spa.co.com, are also available.

Those who wish to receive launch updates and additional details, as they become available, can subscribe to the email list at www.registry.co.com.  The co.com team is attending ICANN Buenos Aires and is also available to meet with registrars interested in becoming distributors of co.com domains.

About co.com LLC – The co.com domain registry offers businesses, organizations and individuals, short, memorable and recognizable .com domain names, through a worldwide distribution network of domain name registrars and resellers.  co.com LLC is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Please direct all media inquiries to:
co.com LLC, Public Relations
media@co.com or +1-703-625-6312
www.registry.co.com

I would like to wish them very best and success in everything they do.

Posted in Domaining, Domain Investing Tags: , , 3 Comments »
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Why buying domains privately is better than other available options

Posted by AbdulBasit Makrani on June 19th, 2013

Why-buying-domains-privately-is-better-than-other-available-optionsHello everyone,

I feel it’s an interesting topic to share and discuss with you.

I have been actively buying domains through auctions like GoDaddy Auctions, NameJet, SnapNames no matter they are expiring, buy out, privately listed, etc. But there is one more way to acquire domains quite easily and without any trouble. That is to buy domains privately.

Now there are few points right now on my mind which makes me feel more comfortable buying domains privately.

1) Chances are to get reasonable price because the seller won’t require to pay any commission to middleman (broker) or any companies like Sedo, Afternic. These companies charge 10-20% commission which sellers must pay so many times if the seller is regular in this business he will up his asking price by 10-20% depending on the platform where the commission structure varies. So once you go directly there is possibility of getting straightaway discount in the range of commission they would be paying to those companies.

2) It’s completely hassle free because buying domains through an auction is to wait till you win the domain. No matter what the time is. Chances are to lose as well because some buyers don’t have idea what the real value of that domain is (reseller value) and overpay for that domain. You can be the victim too by outbidding him and winning the domain. At the end you will pay more than you were willing to and will face difficulties in selling at decent profit.

3) One more important thing while making private purchases is the negotiation tactics. You have to be very patient and never show your desperateness for that particular domain. You know there are few domains I bought privately which took me more than 1 year to acquire from the previous domain owner. The more patient you are and have negotiation skills, the more chances to get that domain with lowered price.

There can be some more advantages of buying domains privately. If you come across any, feel free to share. Also do you agree with me on above points?

Posted in Domaining, Domain Investing Tags: , , , , 9 Comments »
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Previous domain owner wants to take me in court!

Posted by AbdulBasit Makrani on March 18th, 2013

Previous-domain-owner-wants-to-take-me-in-courtYou will find this quite interesting and funny. As many of us buy domains through auctions and recently I acquired a .net which I thought was good for reselling purpose and got for mid 3 figures. After acquiring it for 40-50 days I was contacted by the previous owner of the domain asking me to transfer back domain to him as there was some problem with the company he registered the domain. I wasn’t sure what he was actually referring to because of the broken non-English language.

He even said in his initial message that he will be taking me to court if I don’t transfer the domain back to him. It’s a generic term and there is no trademark with that keyword. It’s a short brandable word which must not have any trouble but isn’t he trying to scare me 😉

I have recently parked that domain with InternetTraffic and he came through by clicking the sales link and even tells me that how come you are trying to sell my domain. Well, I think I need to get his permission before I put the domain for sale 😉

I haven’t respond him yet and doesn’t need to do at least for now. It’s my first experience with a person wants to take me in court if I don’t transfer the domain to him in timely manner.

Keep reading and bookmark this blog as many more interesting stuff coming all the time 🙂

Have you experienced anything like that? Care to share your story?

Posted in Domaining, Domain Investing, Personal Tags: , , , 5 Comments »
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Investing in hyphenated domains

Posted by AbdulBasit Makrani on March 1st, 2013

Hello everyone,

Today I would like to discuss and share my experience about hyphenated domains. To be honest I don’t invest much in hyphenated domains. Although I have quite a few domains with hyphen but I really don’t like them very much because it kills the value as far as selling is concerned and lot of traffic goes to the non-hyphen version domain.

Investing-in-hyphenated-domainsIf you see a two word hyphenated domain with huge number of exact searches and high CPC I would still suggest to carefully analyze the domain before you make any final decision. Check the past domain sales of hyphenated domains where you will find the non-hyphenated version have sold for much higher so don’t get fooled by paying higher price thinking you can sell it for big bucks like the non-hyphenated sold in the past.

There are two main countries where you will find the end-users quickly for your hyphenated domains compare to somewhere else. Those two are Germany and United Kingdom. People from both countries love to buy domains with hyphen. They even buy 3 word domains with 2 hyphens in it. So long tail domain looks crazy to me with couple of hyphens in between. If you are planning or in the middle of buying some hyphenated domains than keep these two countries in your mind while making any decision. If the domain can attract those targeted buyers than it will be easier for you to sell the domain to an end-user.

Make sure you don’t invest in hyphenated domains with any lower extension like .net/.org. Stick to the basics. I mean the .com. Still it’s risky to invest in hyphenated .com domains if you are not buying the right domain at right price.

Personally I may have 4-7 hyphenated .com domains and if I remember correctly I have never sold a single one to date. Although I have received offers but none of them attractive enough to sell that domain.

Care to share your experience with hyphenated domains? Don’t be shy and feel free to share with us.

Thanks for coming and reading.

Posted in Domaining, Domain Investing Tags: , , , , No Comments »
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Any of you had success in selling .CO domain names?

Posted by AbdulBasit Makrani on February 13th, 2013

Any-of-you-had-success-in-selling-.CO-domain-namesI am curious to know if any one had real success in selling .CO domain names? Actually success can be defined in many ways by different people. I invested very little amount of money in .CO domains. Didn’t bought any domain in Landrush. Just pre-registered and hand registered domains only. Some of which I sold them at quite nice price. One of my notable .CO sale was Textbooks.CO which I sold for US$12,000. Rest were four figure sales.

I consider it success for myself because my five figure sale of .CO was hand registered domain like other sales. It’s interesting to know that I didn’t sold a single pre-registered domains. Only a handful of hand reg domains were sold to date.

While sharing this with you I recall one of my .CO sale. It was really funny and quick sale. I just completed one domain sale and the person’s email ID was ending with his company name .com and I thought to check if .CO is available and try to sell him. First step was to buy the domain and later I offered him. He simply laughed at me that I registered the domain recently and trying to sell him. He showed no interest and I kept that domain with me for 8-9 months.

As the expiration date was coming I thought to drop the domain because that was the only company who could have shown interest ever. Out of nowhere, that guy contacted me back and asked if the domain was still available. I asked him to make me an offer. That particular time I thought to renew the domain for at least one year because he has shown some interest in buying it. The initial offer was US$150 and ended up at US$1,000 and I grabbed that money. It was a 3 word .CO domain 😉

How is your experience in selling .CO domain names? Any success story you would like to share? Don’t be shy… Just do it 😉

Posted in Domaining, Domain Monetization, Domain Investing Tags: , , 5 Comments »
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