Escrow.com launches fantastically re-designed website

Escrow.com-launches-fantastically-re-designed-website I am sure most of the active domainers have seen the newly re-designed site of Escrow.com which has come up with some new features as well. One of the feature I like is Milestone Escrow. You must be wondering what is it actually. Well, I have taken the explanation from their site “From a kitchen remodeling contract to an IT project, Escrow.com’s 5 Simple Step payment process can be used to provide protection for both Sellers and their Buyers. Buyers fund the full contract amount upfront and Sellers receive their milestone payments once each phase of the project is complete. This way both parties can be assured individual project commitments and deadlines are met and payment for them is received.”

With the new site launched you will find out lots of more information which will clear all doubts of any one who was hesitant using their service in the past. Although they had necessary information on their old website but this time they have put everything. I would say more than anything you would ask for!

You may also find the complete list of Escrow.com partners –  There are some very big names like GoDaddy.com, Cars.com, Ebay.com, AutoTrader.com

Following are the benefits for both buyer and sellers in case you are not aware of Escrow.com yet:

Buyers benefit:
Escrow.com tracks the shipped merchandise and verifies it was delivered.
The Seller isn’t paid until the Buyer accepts the merchandise, or the inspection period expires.

Sellers benefit:
Escrow.com confirms when the Buyer receives merchandise.
The Seller is authorized to ship only after Escrow.com verifies good funds.

You will find out my testimonial on their customer stories page. Once again a big thanks to Escrow.com for providing such a great service which is really not comparable to any one else. Also for publishing my story which is absolutely true.

Parking revenue at InternetTraffic aka DomainNameSales.com for March 2013

Parking-revenue-at-InternetTraffic-aka-DomainNameSales.com-for-March-2013As I mentioned in my previous month’s parking revenue which was quite low and I was hoping to reach once again US$300 mark this month (March) but unfortunately didn’t reach it. But somehow managed to get very close towards US$300. I am planning to add some more domains with IT/DNS this month so that I can make sure I reach US$300 in April.

One of my friend Mohammed Zaki Ahmed informed me that it’s spring and holiday season in U.S due to which there will be minimal competition among advertisers. That clears my doubt because I added few more domains but the revenue didn’t go up. One thing I noticed overall that traffic didn’t went down and was surely better than previous month because very few domains in March but the only thing which went down was $$$.

Once again my highest revenue making domain was from technology niche.

Did you see any ups and down in parking revenue? How March 2013 turned out for you? For me it was a better month compare to previous month (February 2013).

Sold my first domain through InternetTraffic.com aka DomainNameSales.com

Sold-my-first-domain-through-InternetTraffic.com-aka-DomainNameSales.comI have been parking my domains with InternetTraffic aka DomainNameSales.com for few months and received many inquiries but none of them was tempted enough to sell or the potential buyers didn’t even bother to present their offer once I asked them to make it. I have tested several other parking companies and found IT/DNS the best so far in terms of PPC and getting domain inquiries more frequently than at some other places.

In the first week of January 2013 I received an offer on one my domain with starting offer of US$500 and they explained their purpose of buying and who they are. It didn’t took much time for me to analyze and counter offer with US$6,000. Next day the person informed me price is too high and they could max US$1,000. I politely informed we cannot proceed further. After several back and forth emails of US$1,250/US$1,400/US$1,750. I simply told them not to waste my time. Although this conversation was with one of the employee of that company who were interested in buying my domain. I just told him instead of wasting my time please present your best and final offer and I will simply accept or reject it. He offered US$2,000 and I rejected. I offered US$5,000 as my final offer and stated it’s valid for next 7 days only but they didn’t bother to respond and I decided they need to suffer for that and I will stay strong on my offer if they come next time.

Fast forward to March 2013, I got an offer of 3k and I knew it’s the same company trying to buy but with different name and email ID. My counter was again 6k. And once again similar pattern of offers got started with US$3,750/US$4,250 but with no success.

A couple of days later the CEO of company contacted me and started with straightaway US$5,000 but I wanted more than 6k this time but he just wanted to wrap up quickly and was serious enough so I let this domain go for US$6,000. Once again I will say US$6,000. I got extra US$1,000 just because they didn’t accepted my offer of US$5,000 on time.

Oh yeah, and the domain was Semios.com

As mentioned in my previous post where the buyer was unable to make payment on time and I cancelled the deal. At that time I really needed the money and after cancelling that deal I got this sale happen successfully. Although I was having conversations with this company for the last 2 months.

It was the first time I asked for more money once the buyer didn’t take it seriously and responded on time. And luckily I got what I wanted.

So what do you think of this sale and had any similar experience?

Buyer was unable to make the payment on time and I cancelled the deal of US$5,000

Buyer-was-unable-to-make-the-payment-on-time-and-I-cancelled-the-deal-of-US$5,000This is a lesson I learned last month and thought to share with you so one should be very careful while giving out first counter offer without doing due diligence. Something similar happened with me as well but fortunately I was able to cancel the transaction because the buyer was unable to make payment on time.

Once again I am sorry for not sharing the domain but you will still find it quite interesting for sure ;)

I received an offer on one of my domain which is related to hotels/travel/news/journal. The initial offer was of US$1,000. I countered with US$6,000 without going into detail who the buyer could be which was the mistake I normally don’t make it. A week later I got US$2,000 offer but I rejected the offer. Next came US$3,000 and I lowered my asking to $5,000 and mentioned that it’s my final offer. He accepted my final offer of US$5,000. To make things clear the person whom I was dealing was middleman.

Once my offer was accepted, I initiated the transaction at Escrow.com. Until this time I didn’t knew who the buyer was. Anyhow, I notified the buyer that I need the payment within 4 days or I will cancel the transaction. I normally don’t say this to my buyer but at that period of time I needed that money to be invested somewhere quickly. The buyer accepted my as well as Escrow terms.

Now see my craziness that before giving out my first counter offer I never dig deeply who the buyer was but after initiating the transaction at Escrow I searched for him. I tried my level best and found the buyer is from Australia and operates 5 star hotel. This was really shocking to me. I found many sites with same keyword which I was selling has developed hotels/bars/journals, etc. Each of them was really big. I promised myself that I will check each and every domain in depth before I give out my offer. Also I was praying the deal gets cancelled in any way. Those 4 days were difficult for me to pass and luckily for me a week passed away and I reminded the buyer about my terms upon which he agreed and I cancelled the deal.

He came back after 8-9 days insisting me to re-initiate the transaction at Escrow or his boss will not be happy with him. I apologized and informed the deal cannot go on this way. Fortunately he didn’t bothered any more as well.

Just to give you an idea of the domain I am talking about is I have two word .com and they own three word .com. In short it was an upgrade domain for them.

After everything was over I decided to sell this domain for five figures to any one who wants to acquire it in future no matter whatever the circumstances are at my end. Not because the same buyer would come and pay me in five figures but the truth is I found the real value of this domain at least in my eyes. Although I know everyone assess the value of domain differently.

I hope you enjoyed reading it. If you are still interested in knowing the domain name just post your name and email and I will get back to you.

Gambling content and domains can now be monetized through Google Adsense

Gambling-content-can-now-be-monetized-through-Google-AdsenseI am not sure if this is something new for you or not but I received latest newsletter from Google where it’s clearly mentioned that gambling domains can now be monetized through Google Adsense. Although I don’t buy gambling/alcohol/adult related domains for some reasons so this news is not of my interest but I thought to share it with you guys in case if any of you are unaware of it.

The ads will only show up for the publishers who have opted to display ads on their websites. Also the ads will show up in certain countries where gambling is legal and have no issues whatsoever. So as I live in Pakistan I cannot see the option for making it enable because gambling is not legal in our country. I think most of the people around the world won’t see the ads because gambling isn’t legal all over the place.

This must be a positive sign for those who currently own and invest in gambling related domains because that would boost them in order to make some extra money.