Archive for the ‘Domain Investing’ Category

Why buying domains privately is better than other available options

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?

Previous domain owner wants to take me in court!

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?

Investing in hyphenated domains

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.

Any of you had success in selling .CO domain names?

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 😉

Thanks to the seller who renewed domain before pushing in my account!

Thanks-to-the-seller-who-renewed-domain-before-pushing-in-my-accountI won’t disclose for which domain I am talking about but you will still find interesting reading out.

I recently purchased a domain which was already renewed till mid of 2013. I always prefer to have the domain at GoDaddy but the seller wanted to push at the same registrar (which wasn’t GoDaddy). Once the payment was approved by Escrow.com, the buyer initiated the push under my account but it was really shocking to see the expiration date of the domain was 2015!

Once the domain was secured by me, I immediately sent message to the seller and asked why he was humble enough to renew the domain for not only 1 year but a couple of years. I never got any response from him so far. Although the deal has been completed few months back.

He wasn’t very friendly while exchanging emails. I was actually trying to acquire that domain for more than 1 year and he responded only 2-3 times and I sent him around 15 emails. Although he agreed to the price which was very much reasonable; no doubt about that. But I still wonder why he renewed the domain for 2 years before pushing to my account. The domain wasn’t transferred to another registrar from which I can assume of 1 year extension. It was simply a push to another account at same registrar. So it’s for sure the seller renewed the domain. I would give a big thanks to the seller who not only renewed the domain for couple of years without my permission 😉 but also sold the domain at reasonable price.

Have you experienced like this before? Any big heart seller you like this faced in the past 😉 ? I would love to hear your experiences.