How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com 156 Comments
A rose is a rose is rose… but not with domain names. (Photo: nickwheeleroz)
I am James Siminoff. I’m an entrepreneur.
I have founded more than a half dozen companies, exited from one and currently spend my time on PhoneTag and Grid.com. I have spent over $250,000 on approximately 200 domain names because I believe that a great domain is extremely important to the success of a start-up (I learned the hard way – PhoneTag used to be called SimulScribe).
It’s especially important if you are starting a virtual business as it’s both your company name and how people will find you. My overall rules for domains are: they must be easy to spell, easy to say, and .com (no .net, .us, etc.) domains.
What I find tricky about purchasing domains is that you cannot use comparable sales (like real estate) or actual intrinsic value estimates (as you can with a car, jewelry, TV, etc.) for your negotiations. Vibrator.com sold for $1 million, I spent over $100,000 on Grid.com, yet sometimes you can find names that will be valuable for $10.
I have used my success and failure in buying domains to create a step-by-step process that should help secure the domain you want…
1. Brainstorm names
Type a list. Keep in mind that the better the name the more likely it is to be taken or expensive (see step 6, valuation). [From Tim: a useful tool for looking at word combinations is Dot-o-mator.com.]
2. Initial sort
Go to Godaddy.com, upload your list using the “bulk upload” feature. If there are any domains that are not taken you will see them now. If you like any of the ones that are available, you just got lucky.
3. Hit the auctions
Domaintools has a good search that aggregates most of the auctions. Sedo is also a good place to search keywords. You can sometimes find a great name for a few hundred dollars here.
4. Shrink your list
Go to each domain, i.e. for “XYZ”, go to xyz.com. Break your list into four categories:
a. Real Business – Any names that are being used for a business should go to the bottom of your list. It is nearly impossible to get these. When we bought Trustme.com there was a business there, but it made things a lot harder and pricier.
b. Squatter/Investor Pages – Used to monetize the location. They are typically easy to figure out as they are just links to other sites for lead generation. These sites are almost always for sale, so this is a good page to see. PhoneTag.com had one of these when I found it.
The original page for Phonetag.com
c. Construction Pages – This usually means either of two things. Someone is about to put up a business at this site or an amateur registered the page and forgot about it or is holding it. I have had decent success in names that have these pages up.
d. Dead Pages – Nothing comes up, does not mean it is available. It’s hard to draw any conclusions from these names, other than that the owner is not making money off of it. Nobel.com was a dead page. I found the owner, a large insurance company, convinced them that they should give us the name (we had Nobelcom.com) and, surprisingly, they did. In contacting the company, I figured a CEO or high-level person will hold me over the barrel for money and a low level person will not have the authority, so I went to a VP level in the IT area. My company was NobelCom.com, and I pleaded on a human level that they would be helping a young entrepreneurial company. It worked. For the VP to do the paperwork to sell the domain was harder than just giving it to us. Part luck, part skill. That domain is probably worth north of $50,000.
5. Contact the owners
First you need to confirm that you can not only locate but also communicate with the owner. For Grid.com it took me over a month to find the owners.
a. See if the contact details are listed on the site. Many sites have a contact US or “this domain may be for sale” link. I have found that my success rate is higher when these messages exist on the site. Also use the internet archive to look at old pages and contact details.
b. If you cannot find it on the site then use the “who is” directory (I like domaintools.com for this).
i. About 30-40% of the time the real domain owner’s info comes up.
ii. The rest of the time it is either dead info or private. For the private stuff if you send an email to the private address it should in theory get to the owner. In practice I have found this rarely works.
iii. If standard “who is” does not work, try using the historical “who is” (domaintools.com offers this)
6. Contact the owner and ask if the domain is for sale. DON’T MAKE AN OFFER.
a. Contact directly – If you are a student, first-time entrepreneur, or someone whom I would find no Google results for, then contact the people directly. If you have documented success, then don’t contact people directly, as the price will be based on your status. With Grid.com I had such a hard time finding the owner that during my investigation I accidentally emailed the owner with my real details. This mistake probably raised my price by well over $50,000.
b. Hiding your info -
i. Cheap way – register a gmail/yahoo address with something like joe1234@gmail.com. Sign the email Joe (no last name) and don’t give any personal info out. You might look like a scammer so it lowers your chance of contact.
ii. Pricey way -
Option 1: Use a service. There are a few services that allow you to mask who you are to contact the owners, godaddy.com, networksolutions.com, etc, offer this. I have tried these services and have had zero success.
Option 2: Use a small law firm or PR firm which has a website. Make sure that if you looked them up, you would think they are just above the poverty line on the business food chain. This is the best way that I have found. This service should cost between $100 and $300. To find these firms, I usually ask friends for referrals or just go to someone local (every town has a small law firm). It allows the seller to see that they are being contacted by someone real and it does not jack up the price. This is how I got PhoneTag.com, Trustme.com, as well as a few others.
7. Valuation
As I mentioned, the biggest problem with valuation is that there are almost no comparables to go by. Many times you are dealing with an individual owner, so the domain is worth what they will sell it for. I typically do not have a budget in mind because I look at domains as an asset like real estate.
8. This is my rationalization when figuring out what to spend:
a. How many letters is the name
i. 3-4 letter words are expensive. They can sell for anywhere between 5k-500k
ii. 5 letters and above start to get cheaper
b. How many words is the name?
i. 1 word is most valuable, each additional word is less valuable
c. How easy is it to spell?
d. Is there a reason why people would type this word(s) in their browser? (You can get a traffic analysis on the domain from Compete.com if you want to get the actual numbers) For example: College.com is worth a lot because people type it in, and it gets natural search traffic. PhoneTag.com is worth less because there is no traffic.
e. Do the words naturally go together like “Phone tag”, or are they random like “Micro soft”? The less natural they are, the lower the value of the name.
f. If the domain has a “my”, “the” or other like word in front of it then it is going to be worth a lot less.
g. How will this domain affect my business?
i. A better domain is more viral, which reduces customer acquisition cost
ii. What is each customer worth to you?
iii. What is your current customer acquisition cost?
9. Negotiation
Here are the typical negotiation responses after you get in contact with the owner:
a. “I will sell it to you for $800,000” When you get ridiculous offers, I typically go back with what I think they are worth, so for Bulk.com they asked for 800k and I went back at 35k. The owner declined the offer. I could not justify a higher price for that name so I moved on.
b. “I don’t know, what do you think”. This person wants to sell. They are going to negotiate you up for sure. Typically I would go in at 20-30% below my bottom range of my budget. A note of caution here: If you write back that you will buy it for $5,000, just realize that it is a contract that could be enforceable in court. This actually happened to me with a domain called KisKis.com. Always put some language like, “I will buy it for $5,000 pending all terms are agreeable.”
c. “$500” (when you think it is worth $5,000) Ok, great you have a price. Be careful though, if you just say “yes”, you might spook the seller, as they will think they underpriced their domain. This happened to me with Grid.com. In the end, I had to sue the owner to enforce the contract (settled out of court before trial). If the domain in question is just decent and you don’t care if you lose it, then either say “yes” or negotiate down a bit. [Tim: I prefer the latter to avoid seller's remorse and rescinding of offers.]
d. “$5,000” (when you think it is worth $5,000) Use the info from point C above, but you do not have to be as cautious because you are close to market.
10. Get them to agree
As I said above, if they say yes to your price, that is a contract and is very enforceable. Try and get a yes in writing as quickly as you can. Once you have that, immediately open up an escrow account. I use Escrow.com. The faster you fund the account the better chance you have of the seller not being able to back out.
###
Good luck, and know that the effort and investment is well worth it. Since we switched our brand from SimulScribe to PhoneTag, sales have more than doubled.
Posted on February 27th, 2009
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156 Comments
David Turnbull — February 27th, 2009, 8:47 pm
Great advice. Definitely interested in acquiring some top domain names soon and I’ll definitely come back to this article when I do so. I’m assuming since everyone’s scared of the economy I’ll be able to pick up a few good deals.
Tony Zanders — February 27th, 2009, 8:48 pm
Very insightful post. I’ve just gotten into the world of domains, and so far, domai.nr has been the most useful. I look forward to following the steps listed above!
James Siminoff — February 27th, 2009, 8:55 pm
David,
Great point about the economy… I have not seen prices go down on domains yet but I seen more people willing to sell. This economy is a great time to pick up lots of assets if you can, I know I am,
Jamie
Yuri Elkaim — February 27th, 2009, 8:55 pm
Very helpful. Would have been great to have this guidance when I first started online. Keep the good stuff comin’ Tim!
Yuri
Marcie — February 27th, 2009, 8:59 pm
Now is the time to buy! I just bought an unclaimed two-word, eight letter domain name – includes an important word – “diet” – that’s the best I can hope for right now! I wonder though, how much importance google places on the words in the domain name in their relevance algorithm – the ever elusive algorithm…anyway, the domain name I really wanted is currently occupied by a clear squat page, but it’s not something people would readily type in, so I’m not going to persue it right now.Maybe after I make the term more popular
Terra Andersen — February 27th, 2009, 9:01 pm
I sold a domain name last year, and all of the information of the buyer was VERY anon. I couldn’t find any information about him at all. Later on, I realized I sold it to a large UK firm and AIRLINE. Do your homework if you can… you never know who you are selling to, and it reallys helps to know (if you can).
David Turnbull — February 27th, 2009, 9:05 pm
@Marcie – From what I’ve seen Google places a huge importance on the domain name keywords. I’ve registered decent keyworded domain names and outranked some pretty well established sites.
In some cases when I’ve made sites about software/games I’ve outranked the official developers site simply because I had the full product name as the domain whilst they had their company name.
Jared Goralnick — February 27th, 2009, 9:08 pm
Great advice, Jamie! I’ve bought a lot of domains but never put as much thought into the negotiation process. A lot of my opinions were formed when someone was kind enough to *give* me setconsulting.com when I was 20 and getting started and he thought he was doing a big favor (he was). Times have changed though…
I can’t wait to learn about Grid.com at your launch on Tuesday!
Mike — February 27th, 2009, 9:21 pm
I use betterwhois.com to search domains. I was on one site in the late 90′s and checked for a domain. The next day it wasn’t available. Still wonder if that was on the up and up.
Nothing is perfect but my site works well. Mike Can Do It. I am in real estate and it is memorable. My client actually put a poster board sign on my real estate sign after we sold her house and it read “Mike Did It”.
The funny thing is one person thought my name was Mike Candoit. I laughed.
For services, using keywords may not be pretty but it can get results. PortlandFlatFeeListing.com has gotten me business and is on the first page for that search.
Also mikecandoit.com is flexible. Real estate isn’t the easiest business right now. If I was to do something else it could easily follow me. I joke that if I wanted to do porn the site name would be perfect.
When I was searching for a domain name I picked another one first and got threatened with a trademark lawsuit. I wasn’t sure that it would have the merit they thought but it could have cost me $15,000 before court and it wasn’t worth it. Later I heard of a woman name Tiffany starting a website called TiffanysJewelery.com or something quite similar. Tiffany’s, the huge department store, sued her, won, and told to pay the winner’s attorney’s fees. Those aren’t cheap attorneys.
Some food for thought.
Robert Jet Set Life — February 27th, 2009, 9:24 pm
Great Post. I agree that simple easy to use words are the best. When we changed our name (to our current name) our traffic literally doubled overnight. This is truly the 80/20 of domain name acquisition. Great info.
Best,
Rob
Robert O'Shaughnessy — February 27th, 2009, 9:44 pm
Wow I’ve been waiting for a post like this for a long time. What great insight. I’ve spent hours messing with word combinations, my this and global that. Also worth checking out is Smashing Magazines Article on Domain names listed here http://www.generate.ie/blog/?p=14 find it’s a good resource
Jose Castro-Frenzel — February 27th, 2009, 10:07 pm
I agree with that Marcie. Stick with what you got and push forward. What would be interesting to see would be a post following this one with , “How to get your money’s worth for your domain” Just a thought…
Nite
Jose
Domain Superstar — February 27th, 2009, 10:41 pm
Good post. The beautiful thing about a good domain name is that every domain name is unique and can be a sustainable competitive advantage even for the “little guy”.
You may want to also add to your domain finding tool list our Type-In Traffic Finder which lets you import a keyword phrase and then shows you hundreds of related keyword phrases and any available domain names that correspond with those keywords (all data is real time data from Google for real Google searches).
You can try out the tool here: http://www.domainsuperstar.com/domain-finder-tools/type-in-traffic-finder
8020 Financial — February 27th, 2009, 10:58 pm
I bought my domain name (8020Financial) from godaddy for $10 or so, and am getting a reasonable amount of traffic for my blog.
Yet I keep having second thoughts about it – it does contradict principle 8e above (‘Do the words naturally go together like “Phone tag”, or are they random like “Micro soft”?’).
Oh well, really helpful article though. Wish I’d read it when I chose my domain name. Maybe this would be a good niche business for someone – domain name selection consulting – I just googled it and no one really seems to be doing it (most of the ‘domain name consultants’ seem to simply be resellers of domain names).
Tim Ferriss — February 28th, 2009, 1:06 am
@8020Financial,
I think it’s important to note that Jamie isn’t saying that a domain like “8020Financial” can’t be valuable — “4-Hour Workweek” comes to mind — rather that since it’s not a common combination, you should be able to purchase the domain for less than, say, “FinancialReturns.com”. There are benefits to having a company/product name that isn’t a common combination of words, as it’s easier to trademark and enforce a name that isn’t already effectively in the public domain.
Best,
Tim
Adam — February 27th, 2009, 11:10 pm
James, Generally speaking good stuff and good advice I would add a few things though in the typical responses area (as I’ve been on both sides of the fence . . . I sold you phonetag.com
D. I’m not really interested in selling it or NO it is not for sale. This typically means the owner is content with keeping the domain name and that you are going to have to make the first move in an attempt to loosen the grip. There’s a high likelihood that they are earning on the domain and really do have no desire to sell the domain. I would not advise playing around with domain owners in this scenario . Make a solid offer that gets their attention and is closer to your Final offer.
E. No response. You’ll start seeing this more and more I’m afraid as domains fall in to the hands of people who “don’t need to sell”
Keep in mind that the owners of most good domains have probably had the name for awhile and have received countless emails just like yours. Make it stand out and make them want to sell it to you.
Also, a good domain broker can break the ice with domain investors that are in his or her network that might not even respond. If you need one, feel free to hit me up any time. [Comment moderator: click on name for URL, then "contact" page]
One last thing it wasn’t too kind to refer to me as a squatter. . . really? Did you refer to me as a squatter because I owned something you wanted or because I “wasn’t using it”? Neither is not squatting. I actually bought the domain name for a mobile project that never got off the ground and I really don’t appreciate that label in any use regardless of my intent for owning a domain. Squatting is claiming ownership on something that you shouldn’t be isn’t it ? Typically domain squatters are the ones registering domains similar to trademarked domains. . . .not the same but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you were just generalizing.
Lastly, good news for generic domain name owners today as Toys”R”us bought Toys.com for $5.1million
http://www.domainnamenews.com/domain-auction/toysrus-buys-toyscom-for-51-million/4154
MsJ777 — February 27th, 2009, 11:59 pm
Thanks! I needed that…
How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of … | | Latest domaining news from around the world — February 28th, 2009, 12:08 am
[...] Read more here: How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of … [...]
Adam — February 28th, 2009, 1:32 am
8020financial check out IncSpring.com they come up with original domains paired with a logo ready to rock. Also there’s a service like you desire called PickyDomains.com and then if you go all out you can hire a naming company and pay thousands of bucks for them to come up with a name. I have no affiliation with either company btw. Also see another article featuring phonetag.com and naming here : http://xr.com/naming
and my response here : http://xr.com/rebranding . Looks like Tim and James took care of my gripe that the article didn’t give advice on buying a domain.
Daniel — February 28th, 2009, 2:16 am
Hi James, great post, thanks !
Got a couple of questions about this:
1- you just go for .com, however, how do you still try purchase the various .net, .biz, .info, etc. to protect your “Google real estate” (I mean from competition or simply web stalkers trying to steal traffic by using an alternative domain)
2- on a similar note, do you acquire mis-spelled variations of the name as well, you mention keeping the name as simple as possible, however people cant spell no matter how much you try help them…. I definitely found this when looking at keywords searched on my Google analytics.
Many thanks !
Other Domain Name News for Feb 16-28, 2009 | Domain Name News — February 28th, 2009, 2:34 am
[...] Tips on buying Domain Names from the Founder of PhoneTag (formerly known as Simulscribe) [4hWW] [...]
Vern at AimforAwesome — February 28th, 2009, 4:03 am
Sounds like sound advice – and goes way beyond my formula for buying domain names. I liked the tool Tim mentioned too for trying out unique word combinations. Something that wasn’t mentioned – do you buy a domain name for a year or more? If you buy a good domain name like, “bulk.com” for instance – and you buy it for 8 years… someone may think they haven’t the slightest chance of getting that domain and move on to another name that also represents their company and what they do.
If you buy it for one year they might be more likely to contact you – yes?
I tend to really think about these things – anyone have an answer?
Daniel — February 28th, 2009, 6:15 am
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the interesting post. One question: on godaddy.com many domains seem to be for rent (9.99/year) rather than for sale. How do you go about actually buying one that is listed for rent? If one costs 9.99/year, how much would it be worth for a one-time permanent purchase?
Justin — February 28th, 2009, 7:20 am
General comment (and somewhat specific to @8020financial), dashed domains are often seen in a bad light; however, this can be advantageous as sometimes dashed variants of a domain you want are available. Sometimes.
Can dashed domains be successful? Definitely: just look at ml-implode.com, which went viral out the gate and is now the site for mortgage industry news.
Thanks for the thorough write-up. My bootstrap approach on domains is always to revert back to being creative and working within the constraints of what is available.
How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com — February 28th, 2009, 8:00 am
[...] We all need to buy domain names occasionally and here are some tips for how to go about the task: How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com [...]
Corey M — February 28th, 2009, 8:18 am
Hey Tim, as always great post with a wealth of information.
We frequently find the team is brainstorming for a good name and it becomes a long email thread or one person sitting on godaddy/netsol doing lookup after lookup. So we created http://domainseekr.com where you can start a private search and share it with your friends, then you can vote for you favourite.
Cheers!
Corey
» Blog Archive » James Siminoff - How To Buy Domain Names? — February 28th, 2009, 8:48 am
[...] On the Net : How To Buy Domain Names [...]
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 9:08 am
@Mike
I do not know the site betterwhois.com, but I do put a word of caution out into the community that there are a lot of registrars that when you type in the name to see if it is taken, they immediately register it for themselves (if you don’t). This is a disgusting practice and from what I understand godaddy.com does NOT do this. That is why I use them to do the first bulk upload.
The domain business is still “finding its way” so be careful out there.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 9:20 am
@adam
Thanks for adding those 2 points. I should have consulted you when I was writing this article as you also have a ton of experience in this. I think that you are correct that you are going to start to see more and more people that just want to hold the domains and have no interest in selling. Your advice on these is good but I would add that if you really believe a name is great for your business just don’t give up, keep contacting the person, never stop at some point they might just give in.
As for the squatter stuff. To me a squatter is someone that has a domain, keeps the domain and no longer intends to use it for anything other then appreciation and/or link traffic. Under this definition I am the proud squatter of about 200+ domains. If you read my definition carefully you will see that in no way was I trying to be demeaning to anyone squatting a name, in fact it is very much the opposite as I have found better luck in buying names when they are being professionally “squatted” vs. owned by an “amateur”.
It has been my findings that when you go to a page like the one that was up at PhoneTag you are dealing with a business person and therefore a proper business deal can be done. This was very true with our deal.
I wish the owner of Grid.com was a squatter, instead it was single owner and in my domain terms an “amateur”. If you read the full story (the link is in the post) on my issues in getting that name you will see that it was definietely not smooth like ours.
LISA — June 2nd, 2011, 4:02 pm
What service provides the ability to buy the name rather an pay a monthly or yearly fee?
Also do you have any recommendations for protecting your personal or business information from spammers using WHOIS directory information. There seem to be sites that offer this but it appears that you also have to rent (?) the domain name from them as well.
Thanks
Chris Desouza — February 28th, 2009, 9:20 am
I have an issue with Terra Anderson. The domain industry is quick on its feet to make every available comparison of its namesake to the real estate market. If so, then the pricing model needs a structured model. Well, the real estate model of late, where flippers went berserk may not be an ideal example.
However, anticipating a sale price, based on the depth of the buyers pockets is akin to legal ransom. It will be a great day when domain names are sold at equilibrium on its intrinsic value and not because some buyer or seller won the pricing tug of war.
Easier said than done. But, sooner or later, we will get there.
Jason — February 28th, 2009, 9:21 am
Great Article! But, would have been nice to make the distinction between true trademark ‘squatters’ and those with large portfolios who monetize their domains using domain ‘parking’.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 9:24 am
@daniel
I have been using the term “buying”… This might of been bit misleading as you are correct you can only technically rent a name. However, once you have begun “renting” a name as long as you pay the annual fee the domain is yours for life.
I look at it at this point like a house. You buy the house for say $250,000 and then you have to pay annual taxes to the town. If you don’t pay the taxes to the town you loose the house… same with the domain.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 9:31 am
@marcie
Google places a LOT of weight on the domain. If you have a domain that matches what people are searching for you get massive points. When I was in the online calling card business it was almost impossible to get http://www.callingcards.com out of the top spot for the search “Calling Cards” in Google.
I should have added an SEO (search engine optimization) section in the valuation part of the post. This is very relevant for how you value a domain if you are looking for search traffic. However a word of caution, if the owner is already getting the benefit of that traffic the price of the domain is going to be a lot higher.
WebDesigner — February 28th, 2009, 9:38 am
nice post… thanks for the tips.
i had a problem selecting a domain with the word ‘design’ in it. after a long time i settled for RedesignYourBiz.com
in future i guess i’ll definitely make use of the tools u suggested
thanks again
Jim — February 28th, 2009, 12:09 pm
Great post. Interested in a domain at the moment and will use the tips you’ve provided about negotiation. For the little guy who sees an opportunity, how can they capitalize on getting a great name for sale at a larger price?
PS: http://www.makewords.com is a domain name finder based on number of letters; very useful
Simona Rich — February 28th, 2009, 12:14 pm
The best advice I received when I was about to register my domain name is that it should contain your main keyword. That really helped me rank well on search engines.
I hade to purchase .net domain because the .com one was taken. But probably that is more important if you are thinking of selling your site some time later.
Kellie — February 28th, 2009, 12:14 pm
James,
I hear what you’re saying about “squatter” and your definition. Here’s the thing. Your definition isn’t helping. There is so much vitriol with that term. People like Adam, myself and hundreds of others are investors – just like land owners.
If you believe that we have legitimate rights in the names we’ve registered I’d suggest using “investor” or something similar.
Finally, there are other options for registering domains. Cheaper, faster, better.
Name.com, Moniker, NameCheap… the list goes on and on.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 3:15 pm
@jason
Since I am an tech entrepreneur and not really in the domain business I used the word squatter to my definition which as you point out is not necessarily correct from a perception point of view. I would consider myself as a squatter of names that I have purchased that I like. However many believe the word squatter to be people sitting on trademarks, etc. I should have put squatter/investor as the header for that section.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 3:18 pm
@chris
In real estate while there is better intrinsic value there is still a “pick pocket” problem that happens when the seller knows of the buyers desires and wealth. Look at the story of how Walt Disney bought up all of the land in Orlando for Disney World. He did it through brokers and hid every piece of info, in order not to run up the prices.
James Siminoff — February 28th, 2009, 3:20 pm
@justin
You have a good point, while I have taken the approach to only have the best names, no .net, no dashes, etc., there are people that have made huge successes with both. Like anything in life and business there is no silver bullet. My reasoning behind domain names is that a good one makes it easier to be successful but by no means guarantees success.
8020 Financial — March 1st, 2009, 7:18 am
@ Tim Ferriss
Thanks for the encouraging words Tim. Feel better about my domain now. It didn’t occur to me that 4-Hour Workweek is a brand as well as a book title. I studied marketing years ago and I can see that purely as a brand it does have a lot of potential for extension to other products.
@ Adam
Thanks very much for Incspring.com and other links. Incspring seems like a fascinating business, wish I’d though of it (oh hang on, I did, just way too late;)). I may well end up using them.
Namecake — March 1st, 2009, 8:01 am
Very interesting post. You’ve got some nice names there – especially liked how you negotiated for Nobel.com – you’ve given me some new ideas.
Just bookmarked your site and looking forward to more posts.
Kevin M. — March 1st, 2009, 9:12 am
NIce article with some good advice here.
@ James Siminoff – On your comment – “from what I understand godaddy.com does NOT do this…”
-Unfortunately GD is one of the worst known for the “..searched domains found open and not immediately regged and then mysteriously regged syndrome!” If you check it at GD and it’s open, it’s wise to reg it ‘immediately,’ and to not ‘think about doing it later’! FYI.
I also must point out that a ‘squatter’ is someone laying claim to something that belongs to, or infringes on, others. Just because someone owns something someone ‘wants’, does not make him a squatter because he isn’t using it!!
James Siminoff — March 1st, 2009, 9:22 am
@jason
I updated the post to now say “squatter/investor”. I think it is a better description of the segment.
Please remember this post is about buying a domain, not about the industry itself. When I am buying a name I put all of the brainstorm names into the above mentioned 4 buckets because that is how I have found success in acquiring the right name for my businesses.
Jon — March 1st, 2009, 10:13 am
Actually, there is some rhyme or reason to what domain will sell for at least to another domainer. It usually is based on what the domain name is making a year while being parked. A better name with lots of type-in traffic can be a huge money maker for a domain investor just being parked that is why it can cost so much when being resold.
D — March 1st, 2009, 12:43 pm
Great information James, and glad things are working out for you.
David J Castello — March 1st, 2009, 3:19 pm
All excellent points and your article will point many in the right direction, but there are many exceptions to 8A/B. I would much rather acquire BeverlyHills.com than Omaha.com.
Nigel Hall — March 1st, 2009, 3:42 pm
Re: caution about which whois service to use when checking domain availability. I used to use Network Solutions for whois because they list a lot of different Tlds (.com, .net, .co.uk etc) but I stopped when I found out that they reg’d the .com of a name I was interested in after I ran the search. However, they dropped their reg. a few days later and I was able to get the name through GoDaddy. So, don’t despair if you find a domain that was available is gone when you look a second time. Just try again a few days later.
I now use Namesecure for whois. Their interface is fast and simple and, so far, I haven’t had an occasion where they’ve reg’d a name I was checking.
Dave — January 22nd, 2011, 12:49 pm
I had a similar experience as Nigel Hall who wrote…
“Re: caution about which whois service to use when checking domain availability. I used to use Network Solutions for whois because they list a lot of different Tlds (.com, .net, .co.uk etc) but I stopped when I found out that they reg’d the .com of a name I was interested in after I ran the search. However, they dropped their reg. a few days later and I was able to get the name through GoDaddy.”
I looked up a name with Network Solutions and it was available. Then I logged in to the registrar I use for my domain names and tried to register it. My registrar said it was not available. I called Network Solutions and they said they put a “hold” on the name. This happened a few years ago but I believe the “hold” was for 24 hours. I don’t remember how the conversation went but they “released the hold” while I was on the phone with them and I was able to register it at my registrar that same day.
Other Domain Name News for Feb 16-28, 2009 | Domains News — March 1st, 2009, 5:42 pm
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Marcie — March 1st, 2009, 8:07 pm
@ James – Thanks James – going with that info – If “thepinkdiet.com” was taken (just a random example) – would it be wise for me to register “thedietpink” and other iterations? In other words, does Google care about the order of the words much?
@ Kevin – interesting about godaddy and registering. I was wondering if someone was paying attention to what I search for! What would be an “honest” place to search for available domains?
Jared O'Toole — March 1st, 2009, 8:09 pm
Great tips my biggest problem has always been finding out who actually owns the domain. Most of the time it ends up being a dead end and I just give up.
Kelly — March 1st, 2009, 10:01 pm
If you are in a business and you have the opportunity to buy the keyword product /service domains that describe what you sell or do…Don’t pass them up! Negotiate- but in the end if you plan on staying in that industry, the domains will pay enormous dividends!! They are the keywords your customers are searching for to find you….
StartBreakingFree.com — March 2nd, 2009, 12:13 am
Great post.
Would highly recommend http://www.BustAName.com
I find it much more useful than http://www.Dot-o-mator.com
Thanks!
Brian Armstrong
Craig Wilson — March 2nd, 2009, 12:14 am
@James
Interesting and informative post. As the buyer of numerous domains myself I found this quite helpful. Luckily here in Australia the competition for domains isn’t quite so hot.
Advice for domain buyer | namewise. blog. — March 2nd, 2009, 2:02 am
[...] found to a post on his blog about domains ‘How to buy domain names like a pro‘. So even as I consider myself a domain pro, I found in this post some great NEW [...]
Jé Maverick — March 2nd, 2009, 3:43 am
f. If the domain has a “my”, “the” or other like word in front of it then it is going to be worth a lot less.
Kinda like Myspace?
Mendoza — March 2nd, 2009, 6:47 am
I emailed the owner of a domain, let’s say for this example, “domainme.com”.
I got no reply after two emails. He is not using the domain, he never was. All there is is a godaddy holding page. I own a domain that I could translate for this example as “domain.me”
I am planning to launch a website called something to the effect of “Domain Me”. My “.me” domain is perfect for that, but sooner or later acquiring the .com would be a natural step.
I was wondering.. Can the owner keep his domain if I own the trademark for “Domain Me”? Do I have a case here if the domain is the exact .com of my trademark?
Ricky J — March 2nd, 2009, 7:55 am
Finally…….This is a MUSt read for anyone who is starting a new business. Please take time and get the right domain. Yes you can make up a word and use that for the business BUT getting a domain with a bit of age, traffic is the way to go. I myself have many that any business can come to to obtain. Search and you shall find and possilby riches down the road!
jquaglia — March 2nd, 2009, 8:33 am
A good way to mask yourself when purchasing is to just pay a friend (or buy him a beer) who has no “Googlability” to do the negotiation.
James Siminoff — March 2nd, 2009, 10:11 am
@je
Great example on myspace.com. As I have said before there is no silver bullet, a business can be a success with a bad name. There are many examples of this.
I have found it is just easier with a great one.
Kevin M. — March 2nd, 2009, 2:41 pm
@ Marcie – I use Moniker.com, Dynadot.com, and Domaintools to check on availability regs.
@ Mendoza – Filing a trademark on a term/product long after the fact the .com was registered, will not bring you the .com name you want just because it’s not used and you now have a ‘new trademark’. Might bring you a ‘reverse hijacking’ ruling though.
@ James Siminoff & je – MySpace.com is only valuable because of the site’s content and traffic, and was worthless before then as a domain. Like Google it is a brand name, ‘made’ valuable. Having the ‘my’ in front of Space or any word adds no value whatsoever to the name, just some appeal to those that want to ‘personalize’ their products, wares, website etc with the ‘my’ part.
John Graves — March 2nd, 2009, 3:39 pm
I love James’ intro. Life as an entrepreneur can be addictive. Hiding your information, while conveying that you are legit, is key. I intentionally keep my web presence low key to avoid getting the price raised after first contact. Particularly with amateurs, if a national third-party or attorney contacts them they start seeing dollar signs. A little-bitty law firm from Oklahoma doesn’t get them too excited.
It is well worth spending two or three hundren bucks to save several thousand. Great post!
Jessica — March 2nd, 2009, 8:55 pm
Thanks for the wonderful article James and Tim. I recently had an idea for a business but the domain name I wanted was already taken. I had no idea how to go about trying to contact and acquire the domain name. Thanks again for this walk through, I’m sure I will be coming back to this post a lot in the next few months.
Jon V — March 2nd, 2009, 10:35 pm
Here is a little more input from a domainer. Non-domainers need to understand much better that there is huge difference in value between top category generics like vibrator.com and nice brandable names like grid.com. Vibrator.com is biz-in-a-box. Vibrator.com has only one alternative – vibrators.com, while grid.com has thousands of comparable alternatives – grid is just a short nice word that is easy to remember and easy to spell. Most domains beyond the top several hundred thousand though have no value.
It’s normally not a good idea to play games when trying to buy top category generics or nice brandable names like grid.com. All these names were registered over 10 years ago. If the owner wanted to sell cheap, he would have sold already. There is no low hanging fruit any more.
Kevin — March 3rd, 2009, 12:07 am
Great post with great advice!
I will definitely come back and check it out several times as I continue to buy domain names.
Wes Wilson — March 3rd, 2009, 12:08 am
Great post! Domain purchasing is a meticulous process, thanks for clarifying it a little more. It looks like someone already brought up http://IncSpring.com (love to see that), it’s benefits are huge in the areas you mention. You’ve obviously dumped a lot of money into domains so you understand the value. The beauty of IncSpring is we let creatives from all of the world upload new, original names and domains for sale, most with logo packages. Hopefully we can give start-ups a new option when struggling to get their names and domains in place. Good luck to all!
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Mark Wiens — March 3rd, 2009, 10:43 am
I appreciate the advice by way of domain name purchasing. I will surely come back to this article when in the market for making more domain purchases.
I think these days with all the small word domains taken, one has to think of catchy combination’s of words or actual made up new words and then brand the names.
This can be quite difficult, and sometimes it is more efficient to purchase an already established, catchy domain word url. However, with a lack of capital in the first place, I think catchy new words and word combination’s are key.
The “4 Hour Work Week” Blog On The Value Of Buying A Great Domain & How To Do It | The domain industry's news source — March 3rd, 2009, 8:00 pm
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Eddie H. — March 4th, 2009, 8:12 am
Mr. Timothy Ferris,
I was re-reading your book this morning and ran across your timeline. I have applied to Brown University and am running through the admissions process. My ACT score is a falls into the same category as your SAT.
I am wondering what procedure you went about to get admitted into Princeton and what you could recommend to me with the looming April 1st admittance decision date. I am pretty sure my counselor made the same “be realistic” comment you heard in your earlier days.
I appreciate the advice and look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Eddie H.
Fellow NR
Doc Kane — March 4th, 2009, 9:33 am
Tim!
I’ve gotta’ say, as a huge fan of this writing genre. . .you’re intro to this post was RIGHT ON THE MARK! What a crazy intro hook to a great spy novel. If you’re next book is a thriller, or a screenplay for a thriller, I’d say you’ve got some good chops to make it work.
Very nice job. . .very cool.
Cheers,
Doc
Doc Kane — March 4th, 2009, 9:33 am
Whoops!
Posted this on the wrong post!
Ack!
Link: 10 Tipps zum Domain-Namen-Kauf » startwerk.ch — March 8th, 2009, 3:31 pm
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deepak — March 11th, 2009, 3:07 am
Hi James / tim:
G8 article to read at a time when I am setting up a virtual company. It is a real estate search and the have aquired the domain.
I name is easy to spell, not long and can be remembered, however, I find there is another real estate search with a very similar name operating..diff country.
since that one is a running search, am I stepping on someone elses shoes i.e IP problems? and secondly does it matter at all?
hope to see your views!
Timo Reitnauer — March 14th, 2009, 2:19 am
iWantMyName offers a little iPhone app for brainstorming domains on the go. You can even register domains straight away within a couple of seconds.
Sprock — March 15th, 2009, 12:06 am
Hey Tim,
Great post. I found a cool site called http://www.seoparking.com. It’s free and really useful for domains that you own but haven’t had the chance to do something useful with yet.
Sprock
Nameow.com — March 15th, 2009, 8:45 am
If a particular domain is available, it’s prudent to buy it immediately. There have been several complaints of names going missing hours after a whois search is done.
Speed linking, 18th of March 2009 | Mellow Business — March 17th, 2009, 7:18 am
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Adam Fitzer — March 18th, 2009, 5:13 pm
I heard you on the dash. I refused to buy primeobjective.com years ago as it was purchased by a company looking simply to sell domains. They still contact me every years knocking a bit off the price. For me, Prime Objective does not say much about what I do professionally (recruiter) so it is not worth buying. However, since reading this, I purchased both NJHealthjobs.com and healthjobsnj.com as I recruit health-care professionals here in NJ.
Fitz
Jesse Neidt — March 24th, 2009, 1:43 pm
This is good – helpful. I’ve been working with GoDaddy.com for 2 years now and have been able to navigate through the world of website development fairly well.
Faisy — March 25th, 2009, 2:04 am
If any one want to buy a domain, in my opinion it is important to focus on your product name which you want to launch like if you want to start property business then you use property in your domain and it is more effective if you use territory name with product like Dubai Property.
les — March 31st, 2009, 3:08 pm
Funny thing with your article title and picture, “A rose, is a rose, is a rose, but not with domain names”. – The stock picture is not a rose…
Nick Sparagis — April 6th, 2009, 11:57 am
Not to sound ungrateful for all this great, generous information, but when James switched his domain from Simulscribe to Phonetag and his sales doubled; I’m having a hard time attributing this to a new domain. I’m not saying it’s purely incidental and the facts are the facts, but a new name can double your business? People avoided or opted for the service elsewhere b/c they could not wrap their brains around “Simul” or “scribe”? I agree that phonetag is better, but twice as good?
Sometimes, people have to kick an idea around for a few months before they pull the trigger.
Buenos Aires Apartments — April 15th, 2009, 3:51 pm
some great ideas in here- also links from readers are helpful. aged domains also help but whether they help serps more than a keyword rich new domain depends on the competition of that niche.
Siminoff — April 17th, 2009, 5:15 pm
Nick,
I can tell you with out a doubt that the new name has more then doubled our business. I agree with what you are saying about SimulScribe but for some reason customers could just not remember it. PhoneTag is a very memorable name and since 100% of our business is word of mouth it made a HUGE difference in Sales,
Jamie
FitnessPhilosophy.ca « Say Ideas — April 20th, 2009, 2:16 pm
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Don Russell — May 6th, 2009, 7:57 am
Hi James,
Great post, especially the paragraphs on contacting the owner and negotiation
Thanks for the info, and for laying it out so clearly.
Good work
Don
DotComDepot.com Premium Domains — May 18th, 2009, 8:38 pm
Great advice in this article.
Generally domain buyers fall into 3 categories,
a) flippers, someone who wants to buy low, sell high
b) someone who has done their homework on a usually pre existing domain and they want existing traffic to earn $$ on click throughs, many companies go out of business and have incoming links and those can be parked and earn you click income
c) someone who wants to develop the domain for business purposes (have a product or company with that name)
I gravitated towards domains instead of real estate or stock market because if you know what you are doing, the profit margin is unreal. It’s the e-real estate for our generation. Low maintenance, no property taxes, just your $7 per year renewal once you’ve acquired it. In less than a decade, we have acquired a multi million dollar portfolio with very little risk.
If you are brand new, do not go crazy. Read publications like http://www.DNJournal.com which provides a weekly listing of domain name sales. Study the archives of past sales for inspiration. Start small and work your way up. Just like any investment, treat it like a business and don’t invest what you can’t afford to lose. Protect yourself by using services like Escrow.com for every transaction, it keeps both the buyer and seller safe.
Happy Domaining,
DotComDepot
Lee Weber — June 4th, 2009, 2:25 am
Great article. I recently started going after domains in my niche and I was reaching out with a price in the first email. I was always low-balling, but you always feel like you overpaid when they accept your first offer.
Nemo Kemo — July 3rd, 2009, 11:53 am
Thanks for this Tim…this comes at a great time as I’ve been doing more research and brainstorming re: Domain names. Acquiring domain names is a very exciting area of the intranets!
Also, I second that seoparking site. Very good.
Christian Redecen-Davies — July 28th, 2009, 4:26 am
Is it possible to sue a broker that won’t sell you a domain that you trade under and have other domains associated to?
For example I trade under http://www.globalcreative.co.uk – i want to buy the .com address but the guy wants way too much for it.
This is imperative to my business though and they are not trading under that name – surely this is illegal?
Rhonda Madden — July 30th, 2009, 3:48 am
[edited]
Does anyone know of any companies or websited that I can advertise the trademarks and domain names for sale. I do have the UK domain and trademark paked on sedo but so far no enquiries have come through to me.
Do you have any suggestions as to what each domain and trademark would be worth to sell as a complete package.
Google Website Optimizer Case Study: Daily Burn — August 12th, 2009, 4:05 am
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David Shantz — August 13th, 2009, 12:55 am
Several vitally important factors left out of this:
1.Your name is your brand, in every respect. It will touch every constituency and is the most important equity you will be likely to develop in your business. From the day you start investing time and money into the venture, you are pouring that into a brand. To the degree that you own the vessel you are pouring energy into, is the extent that it will be worth something. Typically, new entrepreneurs go with descriptive names – it is most often the biggest mistake. Consider Phones.com vs. Verizon.
2. Tim did not mention anything about Trademarks -this is vitally important. There is no way you can guess about this or go with a Google search. You are better to hire someone who understands it – and the best choice is a firm or professional that knows both branding and trademark law. They will be able to help you steer towards the right brand strategy and clear of the legal sink-holes. You could navigate the http://www.uspto.gov site, but you will still be missing a lot.
… [URL removed per comment rules]
Alfred Hsing — August 20th, 2009, 7:48 am
Great article.
Tim or James – Maybe you could write an article on the flip side talking about the best way to sell domains and/or how long you should keep them before dropping them or selling them off.
I am actually just quitting my JOB this Friday to pursue being an entrepreneur full time. I own a quite a few domain names – some of which I use for business ideas, blogs, or personal.. and some I just havent had time to build up a site for and others I bought with the intent that they might have some resell value in the future.
Hope to hear back from you guys! Thanks!
Matt — August 22nd, 2009, 7:38 pm
Domain scavenging is a talentless market for the greedy. Why not just leave the domains open for people who actually have dreams, ideas, and corporations that can use them. I don’t know how many times a domain I’ve wanted for business has been unused and yet unavailable.
Camilo — August 30th, 2009, 2:13 am
How do you go about contacting the owner the first time? I mean, what do you write in your first email?
Randy — September 19th, 2009, 8:39 am
James, I did exactly what you said and within 12 hours from reading this post 1 nite, I located and sent an email to the owner of the domain name http://www.golfpage.com, spoke and negotiated with him the next morning, purchased the domain name at a very reasonable price and had the name servers pointing to my website by 12pm that same day. I’m still in a daze all that happened so quickly. Thanks for the great tips and inspiration.
Neil — October 29th, 2009, 8:39 am
James – thank you for the tips. I just used them to get a great domain, livepress.com. Great idea about going through a small law firm, I think that was very effective. I used a sole practitioner who specializes in personal injury and employment law as I thought his site would give the right “just above the poverty line” vibe you suggested.
Ron B. — January 16th, 2010, 6:21 am
I find as a buyer/reseller of Domain Names, many people are convinced that their name(s) may be the next cars.com or sex.com. Sadly, when these people learn that their name, although it is a “one of a kind” may only be worth a few hundred dollars, at best, it is like telling them they were just turned down for a mortgage, car loan and credit card …all in one day …and their spouse is leaving them too! Clearly still one of the best investments one can make, but reality must play a big part as with any business decision.
Thanks
Ron B.
mike michelini — January 28th, 2010, 12:49 pm
I just always wonder, I love domain names (have about 200), but I also loved baseball cards and other collectibles……that had their day, and then phased out.
Also, sure, .com is great -but with the slew of new TLDs coming out….social media, and mobile phone / mobile commerce. …… how long will the luster of .com last.
Sure, i hope a long time – but brands and bookmarks are changing as social media and mobile web creep up.
The Domain Naming Dude — February 8th, 2010, 3:58 pm
Friggin’ awesome post. This is the first post I’ve read that talks about the finding and negotiating part. Thanks for your candid approach too. Not too many people would admit that a simple email mistake may have cost them an additional $50,000…ouch. I tried to by a simple domain (I already had the singular and better version but this was the plural version… it would be nice to have but not critical) and I think I made nearly every mistake you pointed out.
Thanks.
sammy — March 9th, 2010, 1:36 pm
a rose is a rose, but that ain’t a rose! it is a flower from the milkweed family (not closely related to roses) (it looks like Adenium – the common name for which is “desert rose”, so you get points for that!). can’t comment on the post yet, i am a botanist and got sidetracked by the misidentified photo……
David Shantz — March 20th, 2010, 1:55 pm
Several vitally important factors left out of this:
1.Your name is your brand, in every respect. It will touch every constituency and is the most important equity you will be likely to develop in your business. From the day you start investing time and money into the venture, you are pouring that into a brand. To the degree that you own the vessel you are pouring energy into, is the extent that it will be worth something. Typically, new entrepreneurs go with descriptive names – it is most often the biggest mistake. Consider Phones.com vs. Verizon.
2. Tim did not mention anything about Trademarks -this is vitally important. There is no way you can guess about this or go with a Google search. You are better to hire someone who understands it – and the best choice is a firm or professional that knows both branding and trademark law. They will be able to help you steer towards the right brand strategy and clear of the legal sink-holes. …
Julien — March 23rd, 2010, 9:36 pm
You can let a domain generator do the work for you: enter 1 or more keywords, and see waht is available. Try http://domain-generator.us/ for example.
Dave — April 21st, 2010, 10:05 am
Great article! Some really handy information, thanks!
David — June 15th, 2010, 12:26 am
That’s a really good list – makes you realise domaining involves a lot of hard work too
Robert — June 26th, 2010, 11:32 pm
James, thank-you so much for your courage developing this site and investing like you have in the domain names. You can help us all so much in establishing a forum where domainers can come together. Here is what I am saying… We need a leader like your self that can help bring some fair rules to the table. I have invested in over 1000 domain names and feel that my business is so effected by little changes. Most domain owners aren’t really effected by price increases but when you own hundreds of domain names it is very different. When I called in to register a new name I had found often I was encouraged to purchase several more related names. I did this trusting the system but was surprised when a small increase by ICAAN would lead the register to take advantage of this by increasing their fees proportionately. So a few cents turned into a few dimes. Doesn’t sound like much but with hundreds of renewals every month is becomes a great concern. Furthermore the names I purchase or in actuality ad campaigns. When I don’t renew a name does that giver the register the right to sell my ad campaign on the open market using insider information to either keep the name or put it up for auction. Why does a register have the right to take possession when they have not invested or loaned money on the ad campaign.
I have several ad campaigns that I am willing to share with those that might be interested. My ad share program could help those that don’t have the money to invest but might want to help promote the site. I have several. sites with unlimited pages and am willing to give away free web pages.
Can you help address any of these issues. I am not asking for money just someone that has the expertise and influence to represent the domain buyers.
Thank-you so much for your consideration and all the hard would you have already done.
Anon — October 25th, 2010, 5:45 pm
James, thanks so much for this site. There is a domain name that is for sale that I am interested in purchasing and found the information on this site very useful. I have questions regarding the actual transfering of the domain name from one person to another. How does this work? once you agree on a price and the payment is made. What is the process that is involved in transfering the ownership over the the buyer? any information on this would be helpful.
Leor G — November 8th, 2010, 10:04 pm
I enjoyed reading this article and, like many posts on this blog, was eager to test it out. I finally had the opportunity two months ago.
A company had parked the website I was looking to acquire. Fortunately, the owner had his email and phone number left in the whois entry. Instead of approaching him directly, I hired a local (Toronto) PR firm to approach the owner for purchasing. This cost $300.
While I did get a reply from the owner, I ended up not pursuing the negotiation any further. I had needed the domain for an iPad app but Apple rejected the app’s name!
Like with an elance job, I was very specific with the PR firms on what they needed to do and how long I expected them to spend on the task.
Has anyone else tried going through a PR firm? What are the merits of this versus working through a virtual assistant?
Thanks,
Leor
Sue Tager — November 11th, 2010, 12:05 am
I currently own almost 100 names. Sometimes the brainstorming session goes really well. This article provides pretty good info for someone looking to buy domain names. I’ve done a lot of research also on the backlinks of expired domains to make sure they were not to spammy or from adult sites. I want to start on good footing with google. Don’t want any bad baggage coming along with the domain name.
The Best & Worst of 2010 | Money, Debt & Attempted Robbery — December 20th, 2010, 9:01 pm
[...] I bought a domain name I’ve wanted for 2 years for $300 less than what the price the owner wanted using 10 Tips from the founder of PhoneTag.com. [...]
JasonH — February 8th, 2011, 7:22 pm
Thanks for the useful tips.
I would like to ask you a question, if you don’t mind.
Will you advice people(me) to buy a domain name that has a “-” (i.e) music-vibe.com – since (i.e) musicvibe.com is already taken by somebody.
What about SEO. Domain names with a “-” have lower luck of getting SEO hits?
Domain Owner — July 30th, 2011, 7:08 pm
We have several URL-s on SEDO for over TWO months.
As of date we only had ONE single visitor on one of them.
Does NOT look like there is any Marketing there or even
some Traffic on the site.
Also, They appraising sites for $3 or 400 USD, which sold
for $ 7,000 USD !
Anybody knows a “Honest” hardworking Broker for URL-s ?
Marc — February 20th, 2011, 7:20 am
Thanks for the awesome post,
I developed my current site (see link) for 2 years. Thanks to this post, I was able to get the non-hyphenated site for $200!
The guy originally wanted $500 but to me it was worth $2000. That’s a potential $1800 in savings and a definite $300 off his original asking price.
AWESOME
Malory — April 14th, 2011, 8:53 pm
Thank you so much for this post; I found it really helpful. Someone already has the domain name that I want. I found out that godaddy.com is “parking” (I think that’s the right term) it for them. Go Daddy says I can buy it for $8 a year. This seems more like a lease or rental to me. Once you buy a domain does it stay bought? How can I pay once and always have it?
Anonymous — June 11th, 2011, 4:18 pm
Great tips for buying a domain. I have my eye on a certain domain, but I won’t say, and the price is REALLY good. Going to try one of your techniques and try to lean the seller that it’s worth less than the asking price, to not scare him.
Mary Smucker-Priest — July 11th, 2011, 8:40 am
Apart from the intrinsic value a good domain name has, premium domains often come with built in domain authority, which dramatically increases the likelihood that the website on this domain will rank well in search engine results. This plays directly into the fourhourworkweek.com philosophy! I wrote an article about this recently. You can check it out here: http://domaininfo.buydomains.com/ec/domain-name-basics/what-is-domain-authority/
travis — July 23rd, 2011, 7:23 am
I am currently working on a site called small engine fix, though these excact terms are not highly searched according to googles keyword tool, we are still doing fair with mid grade terms like “small engine troubleshooting’ and “small engine repair” the majority of our strategy is to hit long tailed questions related to small engines. Usually I’ll buy a domain, host it on maybe a 50 page site for about a year, and then start trying to work it through various marketing startegies. I own vacation myrtle beach, that very term recieves over 400,000 monthly searches. that one is a .com, but now I starting to experiment with .info’s and .co’s great exact match names are still available, I just don’t know yet how powerful they are compared to .com’s, my .info site local-reviews is doing decent for long tails and non competitive terms, but terrible for competitive terms like “lawyers in X city” I have basically no content and my links have yet to register in site explorer so maybe with a little tweaking I can achive a decent position.
PriyaMehta — August 25th, 2011, 2:35 am
Registering for a domain is one of the most basic aspects of developing a site, yet at the same time, it can be vital to a site’s success. If ranking high on search engines such as Google is of high priority, then it would be advisable to register an “exact match domain”.
Exact Match — September 2nd, 2011, 11:56 pm
A good article, and so true. James is right, there are no benchmarks in reality, you are buying blind, and your skill in buying great deomain names is honed, as you go. My best tip is to start slowly, and don’t just buy everything you see.
My site has exact match domains, but I also deal in aftermarket domains from a sister website, and the aftermarket site has more interest, so you never know!
The year 2012 is said to be the year of the 4 word domains, as the domain market hots up, and exact match scarcity bolsters values, there is a window of opportunity for you there.
Exabytes — September 5th, 2011, 6:16 pm
Usually is hard to get the domain name which been owned and ask domain owner to offer it. If possible get your own domain name would be the best choice.
Unless you found a domain name which very useful with high PR , lot of backlink, relevant traffic and most important is do have keywords in the domain name.
Then you just decide is that value to purchase the existing domain or not.
Zap — September 29th, 2011, 11:08 am
I would follow all the advices as I recently started a business with domain name trading!Thanks
patrick s. — October 17th, 2011, 12:10 pm
Any suggestions on how to purchase a domain name that is your name (e.g. BugsBunny.com) from someone else with your name (e.g. another Bugs Bunny)? The one I want does not have an active site (and hasn’t for years), but is clearly owned by my namesake, the WhoIs lists him. Thanks for any suggestions!
Patrick
King — February 22nd, 2012, 9:16 am
Hey Tim, thanks for writing this post. Good tips especially the one about not making an offer first.
What do you do when a domain name contains the 2-worded registered trademark of a company. Legally, is there a way to get the domain without having to acquire the domain name for more than $10K? Or do you think its worth skipping all the legal stuff and pay for it upfront?
Kevin — April 7th, 2012, 9:44 pm
I have a doubt. I heard that any domain name is no tpermanently bought and they can only be rented and must be renewed every year.
Is that so? or buying a permanent domain name is possible. Did you buy those domain names permanently?
Regards,
Kevin.
irfan — April 15th, 2012, 3:37 am
I’ve a question, why not you trademarked phonetag.com and bought the domain by law. in other words, how a domainer should safeguard his/her interest if the other party registers a trademark of a domain owned by the domainer?
King — April 16th, 2012, 3:07 pm
@irfan, if you own a domain name includes a registered trademark, to protect yourself as a domainer, you simply cannot publish a website on that domain that promotes said registered trademark in the content.
irfan — April 17th, 2012, 12:25 am
@King, Thanks for your response. Actually, I read somewhere that a person can take away your domain by first applying for a trademark on that term (which you own as a domain) so that he can get that domain name easily.
C.E.R. — April 19th, 2012, 2:46 pm
Why is a domain name that starts with “the” worth a lot less?
Karl — April 24th, 2012, 1:49 pm
Thanks,
Old dude here, trying to learn a brand new media. In todays terms internet stupid. In regards to domains darn near comatose. Bought 30 learning all I can about terms, internet usage, software. Big jump from cleaning toilets for a living but hey 52 still can learn. Disabled but can use my mind and hands so thanks for the info I really appreciate it. I am amazed at how much money a domain can sell for. I am thinking of buying ” stupidoldmantryingtomake moneyonsomethinghehasnoclueabout.LOL”
Respectfully,
Karl
Internet Ani — April 28th, 2012, 5:53 pm
Just had an interetsing eperience on sedo: I sent a bid for a domain (with no price indication), the owner immediately fired back a price that was *exactly” 10x my bid. 3 days later (while i was still thinking about how much to increase my bid) they fired back a “Final Offer” that was *exactly” 9x my bid. I responded with what I thought was a reasonable bid (~ 4x my initial bid) – and they just cancelled their offer on me?
What should I do?
Ani
Aaron — June 14th, 2012, 4:15 pm
“Since we switched our brand from SimulScribe to PhoneTag, sales have more than doubled. ”
Nice to see another company recognize the value of a good, intuitive .com domain.
I’d argue that the author is a little ‘off’ on some of his value expectations (Bulk.com for $35k?!?), but all in all, a good set of tips.
Sarfaraz — July 12th, 2012, 12:59 am
Hi All, Sir I have myairtrip.com I want to sell this can you suggest which is the best platform to sell. and pls your apx valuation for this domain.
Rowena — July 16th, 2012, 4:37 am
Thanks a lot for the great post on How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com. This is very helpful for a newbie like me.
Rachel R — August 28th, 2012, 8:33 am
Great article! #6 is good advice. This is all relatively new to me, and I need tips like this. And yes, why are domains that start with “the” worth less? Shorter the better kind of deal?
I found this online too. Super simple and helpful for newbies like me. Thought I’d share!
Brandon — September 2nd, 2012, 1:05 pm
James, I’m in a similar situation you mention when you purchased Nobel.com, and I’d like to ask for a couple more details on how you closed the deal. Did you use your company domain (Noblecom.com) email, and and did you contact through the whois domain service email?
Its my first online business, and I’d like to make as few errors on my part as possible with this one. Any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Yuli — September 17th, 2012, 6:03 am
Hello
I would like to know if n0pe.com domain can worth anything ?
(it has zero instead of o)
Thanks !!!
Aaron Wright — September 18th, 2012, 7:09 pm
When I am looking for a good domain name, I head over to http://bustaname.com. It lets you combine words and find domains that are built with those words.
Offliner — November 29th, 2012, 7:53 am
I actually liked the post u explained about domain names.. in last hour I was totally confused about what domain should I choose, but now m clear.. thnx.. I m planning to buy a domain from http://domain.hexcoders.com .. please give a review over this.. since I found this is a cheap web hosting and domain provider
Offliner — November 29th, 2012, 7:54 am
I actually liked the post u explained about domain names.. in last hour I was totally confused about what domain should I choose, but now m clear.. thnx.. I m planning to buy a domain from http://hosting.hexcoders.com .. please give a review over this.. since I found this is a cheap web hosting and domain provider
Matt Mazur — November 29th, 2012, 9:28 am
Hey everybody,
I’m joining this conversation a little bit late, but I wanted to share a domain name generator that I built and recently launched that I think you all might like.
It’s called Lean Domain Search and you can check it out at http://www.leandomainsearch.com. It pairs your search term with 5,000 other keywords commonly found in domain names and instantly shows you which .COMs are available. Because it pairs your search term with actual English words (and most of the time just one), you get to choose from a lot of memorable, pronounceable, and most of all relevant domain names. It’s quite good IMHO
Again I’m a wee bit late to this blog post, but I think it might help a few of you out so figured I’d share.
George Cooke — December 29th, 2012, 7:59 pm
Today I tried unsuccessfully to get a domain name at both GoDaddy and Namecheap. In both cases I was driven away by getting jerked around about prices in a way that would put a sleazy carnival to shame.
Ewan Domain — January 6th, 2013, 4:40 am
Very informative! I agree that it is best to use words that are simple and easy. I’m planning on buying from a1domainsale.com and I will definitely follow your steps.
Jody — January 16th, 2013, 1:56 pm
Talk about a timeless article! Thanks for the great info! I will be sure to use it!
Ewan Domain — January 19th, 2013, 3:59 am
Your article is a great help. I am very much interested in acquiring some top domain names at domainka.com and I could use your points to buy domain names like a pro! Keep it up!
John — January 21st, 2013, 2:26 pm
Hi. Is it legal to purchase someone else’s name and sell it to them for an increased price? I had someone purchase mine. Please let me know (email works well!). Thanks.
Nia — January 27th, 2013, 3:58 am
Hi
The domain I want to buy is up for auction
I am not wholly read to set up that element of my business yet, but it is a great domain so I don’t want to lose it!
What a reasonable amount to pay for domains when starting out in business?
Thanks,
Nia
Akmal — February 6th, 2013, 6:21 pm
Great!
Bo — February 16th, 2013, 12:48 pm
Why would anyone buy names like “PhoneTag” when you can register similar ones for $3??
One word natural sounding names, sure, but even those are not worth more then a couple of hundred bucks. I can always find a just-as-good two word alternative for reg price. Domaining is like the housing boom used to be, a fool looking for a bigger fool. It works and you can make good money on fools, always
Mike — February 27th, 2013, 8:56 am
Looking for a good domain name and I will certainly make use of this idea and twist it. tnx mate
jacob — March 10th, 2013, 4:44 am
Ok now I have a domain that hasen’t any true value. It’s just my last name, and it is not a very common one at that… for the sake of argument let’s just say it’s “Puckett.com” (not actual) – so something not ordinary, but also clearly a name and not associated with any celebrity … that domain re-directs to something as unrelated as a martial arts school – which is called something like “martialartsxyzcity.com” (not actual). I politely asked if the owner (called say John Doe) if he is willing to sell and I receive an answer: “sorry not for sale”.
Ok I understand that someone doesn’t want to sell something – however I wonder if there is any way I can request him or her to give a reason …
Probably haven’t got a chance but just wanted to check if there is any way at all I can ask for a more detailed answer – for example if his wife or someone in his family carries the same name I would back off immediately of course but just someone owning the domain to my last name without giving any reasons what so ever why he or she doesn’t want to sell – I find that hard to swallow…
there is something about domains that’s different to, say real estate, it’s that they are unique. Meaning that they can only be used by one person or organisation only and I and I find it quite a waste if someone’s name is not in use, for no particular reason – even if someone carrying that name would want to make us of that domain… I hope I’m making sense why I find that disturbing… thanks for any pointers…
Hemal — May 13th, 2013, 7:06 am
Great information here, thanks for the share!