Hello everyone,
Last week I initiated an escrow transaction at Escrow.com as a seller and I used the following buyer details:
Chriss Barrett (igchrisbarrrett84@gmail.com)
The transaction amount was in starting 6 figures and the moment I initiated the transaction, it took less than 2 hours for another email to arrive from transaction@serverescrow.com which says the following:
Hello xxxxxxxxx (redacted), Payment have been secured for your transaction. Congratulations, Payment has been received on your transactionxxxxxx of xxxxxxxxxxxx Congratulations, the payment of transactionxxxxxx – xxxxxxxxxxxxx has been now received, please send us login information by replying to this email so we can send you next steps to secure the account in escrow hands. Please do not share any confidential information with buyer or anyone for your safety concerns. I’m writing to inform you that we need you to please complete the Credentials (Email / Password) of your Transaction by doing as follows:Complete your Transaction details by providing your Credentials (Email / Password) Your payment has been received and is secure in Escrow trust account, we will notify Email by providing your Credentials initiate the transfer to escrow transaction manager email. Transactionxxxxxxxxxx payment received. If we can be of assistance in any way, please contact us at Transaction@serverescrow.com or call 888-511-8600 (Domestic) and 1-415-801-2270 (International). A friendly member of our team will be happy to help you. Sincerely, Escrow.comYou can reach us for support at support@socialappsescrow.com or call 888-511-8600 (residents of U.S. and Canada) or 1-415-801-2270 (international customers). A friendly member of our team will be happy to assist you between 8.00am and 4.00pm US Pacific Standard Time, Monday to Friday. |
| If you don’t want to receive this email again from us, update your notification settings. |
If anyone reads the English grammar, one can spot that it’s poorly written English and serverescrow.com is registered just 2 days ago. Also in the footer, the domain used is socialappsescrow.com which is available for hand registration!
This scammer is such a dumb person that after initiating the transaction, how can the 6 figure payment be sent from his/her end and receive by Escrow.com which they approve it within 2 hours and notify me to transfer and reply via email only. Everything well within 2 hours. Also, at Escrow.com, the status is showing that “Awaiting Payment Arrival”.
So you idiot using fake name and phishing email, I’m not going to be your victim and you’re already been notified to Escrow.com and this post will make fellow domain investors aware of this dirty trick in potentially looting valuable assets.
Feel free to share if anyone of you’ve received such a phishing email or any other relevant one to make others aware of it.
Thank you for reading.
Posted in Domaining
Hello everyone,
With the overwhelming response for the Afternic experiment of last month, I’ve decided to continue and see how it goes.
I’ve been working hard for the last several years mainly in order to get rid of inconsistency in sales but I realized that I cannot completely get rid of it. However, I can work on reducing it as much as I can. And for this I believe to increase both number of domains along with quality of domains.
Like I mentioned about inconsistency, the first sale for this month happened on 7th February. I’m sure some investors would think that a week of gap is nothing unusual but not to me. In my last month post, I shared that “I’ve invested in 7 figures (USD) for acquiring and holding those 9,200 domains. Also just the renewal cost is approximately $100,000 annually.” Considering this only, I need to have a good amount and number of sales every month to keep things moving smoothly.
Coming back to the first sale of February, it was a complete blast and the best one of the month:
GoWash.com – This one had a BIN of $50,000. The opening offer was $30,000 but the Afternic broker negotiated and brought the buyer to $40,000. All credit goes to the broker and my AN rep Adam Ramsdell in making this sale happen for that price. Very professionally and smoothly handled sale. Hold time around 4 years.
BeAHero.org – Sold for $4,888 via AN BIN. I’ve had a very little success with .org domains but I still like to keep buying sensible .org domains. The most I love to invest is 3L .org domains. Hold time around 4 years.
SpeedFloor.com – Acquired 4 years ago for low-mid 3 figures. This one was a negotiated sale at $4,300 and I think the BIN was $4,888.
FireBirdMusic.com – This domain hold time was 1 year and had a BIN of $2,988. The broker negotiated and it sold for $2,500.
5Hearts.com – Acquired via GoDaddy Auctions 5 years back and the buyer hit the BIN at $2,988 via GD shopping cart.
BeaconConstruction.com – Another domain acquired 5 years back and the buyer hit the BIN at $6,888 via GD shopping cart.
Blacom.com – Another GD shopping cart BIN sale for $4,888. Acquired this one almost 5 years ago.
Ciircle.com – A letter less or an addition in a strong keyword are always good to invest in. The buyer hit the BIN at $3,988 via GD shopping cart. By the way, since January 2020, I’m having easily more than 50% sales via GD search path.
EntrepreneurAdvisors.com – Another GoDaddy search path BIN sale for $2,988. Total hold time was a little less than 4 years.
VeaGroup.com – I love this sale because the ROI is fantastic. Acquired via DropCatch almost 5 years back uncontested at normal backorder price. The BIN was $19,888. The broker did a fantastic job making the buyer agree at $18,000.
MedList.com – This sale came via GoDaddy’s reseller partner registrar and it sold at the BIN price of $19,888.
PoolMagic.com – Hold time 4 years and buyer hit the BIN at $3,988.
SophieDavies.com – As always two word person names are in demand but you’ve to carefully check which ones to invest in and price it reasonably. This one sold for $1,988.
BaranTech.com – The last sale of the last month was a negotiated one which sold it for $2,500. It had a BIN of $2,988.
So a total of 14 sales excluding a couple of more sales happened via Afternic but I won’t mention it because once again my sons sold those domains.
The number of inquiries for February was slightly less than 1,700 and the total number of domains at the end of February 2024 were a little more than 9,200.
Total acquisition + holding costs was around $3,500 and total amount of sales was $119,792.
Feel free to share your sales and give your feedback on mine if you like to. It doesn’t matter how good or good the feedback is 😉
Posted in Domaining
Hello everyone,
I started the Afternic experiment series in January 2020 and did it for almost a year. Those were the most demanding posts from my readers so I thought to give it a go again. I’m not sure how long I can continue this but let’s start with January 2024.
It was a great start to 2024 and I hope it continues at least this way or even better. So coming back to the sales of January are as below except 2 sales which both my sons had each:
MarbellaEstates.com – A sale of $2,988 which is a bread and butter of my portfolio. A little over 46% of my portfolio consists of $1,988 and $2,988 pricing of domains. Hold time for this domain was around 6 years.
GrayBuilders.com – Another $2,988 sale via Afternic Fast Transfer and the hold time was around 5 years.
Smart-Control.com – A privately acquired domain around a year back for low 3 figures and sold for $2,988.
SeedSocial.com – A sale of $1,988 which is the minimum BIN price I set for all of my domains.
MikesTreeService.com – A closeout domain acquired a couple of years back which sold for $1,988.
CreativeDept.com – Acquired this one in 2019 and this was the first sale of 2024. Sold it for $9,888.
ClaimsHub.com – Another Fast Transfer sale without negotiation which sold for $19,888. Hold time around 4 years.
NutriFarma.com – Undersold in my opinion after negotiation due to some mistake in not updating the old price. Sold it for $10,888. This domain was acquired in 2014 via SnapNames for $69.
iTravel.CO – This one I backordered via DomainMonster.com and got it successfully in 2012. The renewal cost are a lot but eventually sold this one for $1,988.
Hotels.im – Can’t even recall when I last sold any .im domain but it should be around a decade back. This domain sold for $1,988. I’m holding 11 .im domains now including Travel, Cars, Law, Media, Mobile and a few more.
Creiamo.com – This one is a difficult to pass radio test but when it comes to buying non-English keywords, then a lot of times domains do fail the radio test which I believe is fine as far as the domain is valuable. Sold it for $1,988. Acquired it in December 2023.
ClarityPay.com – “Pay” keyword domains are always hot in demand and after going back and forth of negotiations, I let this domain go for $12,500. Hold time around 6 years.
BioTuning.com – The last sale of the month which had a BIN of $4,888. Negotiated and sold it for $3,750.
The number of inquiries for August was close to 1,700 and the total number of domains at the end of January 2024 were 9,200.
Total acquisition + holding costs was under $4,000 and total amount of sales was $75,818.
The above costs and sales amount may look out of the world for some investors but there is one important thing to keep in mind that I’ve invested in 7 figures (USD) for acquiring and holding those 9,200 domains. Also just the renewal cost is approximately $100,000 annually. So there are a lot of expenses and money is invested. But overall, I’m in profit and happy with the progress.
Feel free to give your feedback no matter how good or good it is 😉
Posted in Domaining
Domain investment is all about buying low, and selling high.
So, it makes sense to negotiate the best prices when purchasing a domain for your portfolio. Every penny counts.
And that applies to the renewals as well. The renewal costs quickly start to pile up even for smaller domain portfolios. So, it is essential to choose a domain registrar that helps you keep your expenses low.
But you must be careful while comparing your options and do not opt for the cheapest one possible, just to save a few extra cents.
In this article I will explain why your selection criteria should not be the registration price alone, while choosing your domain registrar as you build your portfolio as a domain investor.
It is a widespread practice for the registrars to market their domain registration services at heavy first-year discounts. Throughout the years I have taken benefit of several $0.99 promos for first year registration. Sometimes even cheaper.
But if they are selling domain registration below the wholesale prices, they are selling it at a loss.
The registrars which offer such deep discounts are often the ones which have high markups on renewal prices. So that they recoup the loss incurred in the first year in just one or two renewals.
So as a long-term strategy you need to analyze the renewal prices of your registrar along with the registration prices so that you save money not just the first year, but in the coming several years as well.
Even though domain registration is a fully automated process, sometimes things go wrong.
And a lot of the domain registrars’ support teams are simply not equipped enough to understand the needs of domain investors. Some registrars are even notorious for deliberately creating friction while renewing in the grace period, and in the transfer out process.
A good registrar would provide prompt support irrespective of whether you are transferring-in a domain or transferring-out. My favorite type of registrars is the one that provides a way to escalate, and instantly complete domain transfer yourself rather than waiting for 5 days or calling support.
Not all registrars are targeted towards domain investors as their customers. They may be good enough for bloggers and business owners with a couple of domains in their account along with other add on services like hosting, SSL and emails. One such example is Cloudflare.
But as a domain investor you have to often make bulk changes to the whole portfolio, like changing the landing pages, updating contact information, or verifying ownership with TXT records.
Many-a-times you need to have sub-portfolios inside your portfolio and want to make changes only to one of your sub-portfolios in your account.
Good registrars make it possible to have all your domains inside a single account and still manage them easily using folder/labels. They provide you domain focused dashboard which allows you to make mass changes like bulk register, bulk renew, bulk transfer, and bulk edit.
This is the most important feature I always look for in a registrar as a domain investor.
It should be a part of Afternic DLS Network, preferably with a fast transfer support, as most of my inbound sales come from Afternic network.
It would be even better if that registrar is also a part of SEDO MLS Network, preferably with a fast transfer support. Though SEDO does not make as many sales as Afternic, it is still significant enough.
Whether you have a domain portfolio or are you planning to create a new one, choice of the domain registrar matters a lot.
My favorite registrars are Dynadot, followed by Sav, and NameSilo.
All these registrars are focused on domain investors. They have very competitive renewal prices, excellent customer support, expedited transfer-out, bulk editing features, and portfolio management.
These registrars also have support for both Afternic and SEDO network fast transfer.
I avoid some other popular registrars like Namecheap, GoDaddy, Network solutions etc. because of their high renewal prices.
I also avoid resellers and web hosting companies who double as a domain registrar.
Posted in Domain Investing, Domain Coupons
