Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

As I’m writing this, DomainTools is down “for maintenance” purposes. I’m not sure for how long it’ll be but currently I’m being inconvenienced, especially since I want to use their WHOIS tool which I pay extra for. DomainTools offers a remarkable history of WHOIS data that has assisted many times with the recovery of stolen domains.

But that’s another story. Right now, I want to look up some domains, damn it.

Enter v3whois, a little known but very effective WHOIS tool that offers fast, straight off the cuff WHOIS data in a split second. Instead of waiting for DomainTools’ overloaded page that nowadays features banner ads, blog entries, suggested domains for sale and thumbnail archives, you get the output with a couple of AdSense ads. And that’s fine with me.

The benefit of v3whois is not only its speed but also its multi-TLD lookup. Sporting 25 (!) TLDs in one screen,  the multi-TLD mode is great for researching the owners of a particular keyword. At a glance, you will be able to see whether there are German, Canadian, Italian, French, Swedish etc. domains with the same main part. And that’s an indispensable feature whether you’re buying, bidding on or selling a domain. You will be able to quickly associate offers for your .com coming from other countries and thus increase your radius of negotiation.

Try it: v3whois.com – it’s free.

On Election Day, I commented about how the aesthetics of politics assisted to the outcome of the elections. It was evident that the Obama campaign listened to the hopes and aspirations of the American people, offering visuals that support such a choice – a genius approach, given that millions of new and younger voters are more Internet-savvy and better educated than the generation that produced eight years of “doom and gloom” under former president G.W.Bush.

A new administration is in place, bringing political, financial and social hope and aspiration to the American people. By employing the smartest people for each job, the Obama administration faces a long but successful road ahead, if it continues to listen to the heartbeat of the American people.

As of today, change has come to the official White House web site, at WhiteHouse.gov featuring similarly strong yet elegant hues, colors and a spacious layout as the BarackObama.com web site did during the presidential campaign. Offering a clear, attractive and intuitive navigation, the new presidential web site looks better than ever, displaying options and menus that present information for a multitude of resources. It’s an expertly designed web site that combines elegance and well-defined content.

Hopefully the owners of WhiteHouse.com will now spend some cash to redo their crappy web site as well – it’s still stuck in the Bush era.

I like NameJet for a single reason: it offers the pre-release of aged, really old domain names; some from the late days of pre-commercial Internet – circa 1992-1995. Yeah, that era of Al Gore and “Information Superhighway” when gas was 95 cents a gallon and a burger cost $2 bucks. Or something like that.

I’ve spent many thousands of dollars on NameJet’s babies and I will continue doing so because there are some great deals to be found. I was “cheap” momentarily and did not bid $2,712 for Amphibious.com but overall, the quality of the domains there is remarkable, as they’re Network Solutions inventory of expiring domains. Your not-so-favorite registrar has found the fountain of domain youth through its exclusive co-operation with NameJet – a former project of eNom’s.

Things were good until I realized that a few odd things were happening. Some domains that reached high, competitive bids ended up in the hands of various entities within days of the auction’s end, despite being won by the same bidder. Then, quite a few high-bid domains were never claimed; their deadbeat winners still bidding away on other domains. Apparently, some people at NameJet bid with other people’s money, and others don’t pay when the deal falls through.

Lack of ethics in a competitive market; what an opportunity to show one’s true colors of 100% stinky brown.

The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back came earlier this week, when a trustworthy source brought to my attention the sickening and unethical practices of a NameJet bidder, who approaches trademark holders as a “savior”, offering to grab a domain name at auction on NameJet – for a cool few bucks, I am sure. In the process, he describes other bidders – excluding himself – as “cybersquatters” and seems to have developed a streamlined modus operandi. I wonder if Mr. Slick acquired his skills from talking to barflies.

Here is the modified copy from the email that he sent out to one of the corporations; the dates, names and times have been edited out. Our Slick friend even sends screenshots of private NameJet auctions attached to his smooth-talking, brown-nosing, corporate coyote bark of an email.

I wonder how NameJet will feel about all this.

Pursuant to our telephone conversation moments ago, I appreciate your help in passing this important message along to XXXXXXX’s I.P. legal department. It would be helpful, as well, if you would forward the information to related senior management at XXXXX:

The domain name XXXXXXXXX.com, which had previously been held by a cybersquatter, recently expired and was deleted from the domain registry this afternoon. As displayed in the screenshot below my signature (he then pastes the Namejet bidding screen), one of several service registrars which capture deleted, high-demand domain names at the instant they become available is conducting a private online auction for the trademark-protected domain name, XXXXXXXXX.com on xxxday, xxxx xx at about x:xxpm (EST). Insofar as XXXXXXXX is a globally recognized trademark, all but one of the xx pre-registered bidders clearly have designs on infringing on XXXXXXX’s mark by monetizing the domain’s valuable type-in traffic. This domain name is the plural of XXXXXXXX.com, which XXXXXXXX already owns and publishes.

I bring this to XXXXXXXX’s attention because we routinely monitor expired domain names which infringe on famous brands, in an effort to foil successor cybersquatters and quickly recover branded domain names for their rightful trademark-holders. To that end, we can help. I have reserved a bid position in this private online auction and, with XXXXXXXX’s prior written authorization, will be pleased to acquire XXXXXXXX.com in XXXXXXXX’s behalf. No muss, no fuss, no litigation required. And based on our auction monitoring of recent brand-infringing domain sales, this will not likely be a costly domain acquisition.

Lest XXXXXXXX somehow misinterpret my intentions, as lawyers are often prone to do, be assured that I will not participate in this private auction without XXXXXXXX’s consent. We protect famous brands, not infringe on them. We have successfully recovered domain names for major corporate and entertainment-related clients worldwide. We would be pleased and honored to serve XXXXXXXX, as well.

Time is short. Please contact me at your earliest opportunity and I will be pleased to explain the acquisition process.

When I acquired 360.org a little over a year ago, I was not intimidated by its seller’s asking price. In fact, the purchase of 360.org took very little negotiation behind the scenes; I was willing to pay the $2,500 price tag but ended up paying five hundred bucks less. To me, paying two grand for a perfect number was worth it.

Wikipedia explains why 360 is such a special number. You don’t have to be a freak of numerology to recognize it as the definition of a full circle in degrees, and the circle as a shape does seem to maintain both actual and apocryphal qualities.

When I acquired the domain name, I envisioned creating a web site about earth, communication, the environment – something global and related to nature. A lot of companies use domains that end in “360.org” and I did have several inquiries from such entities, claiming “not for profit” status and thus making rather symbolic and unsatisfactory offers, which I had to decline. I am in this business for profit and although charity has its place in my personal and professional life, I was not going to let go of this domain cheap.

A few months later, I listed 360.org at TRAFFIC / Orlando 2008, with an optimistic reserve of $6,000. At the live auction, the Moniker guys presented it by gesturing the shape of a circle to the bidding crowd. It was instant recognition of what the number signifies.

Fortunately, the domain did not sell; I realized afterwards that a room full of domainers looking for single word .com’s with traffic did not present me with the best selling options. However, it’s interesting seeing that none in this educated crowd shared my 360-degree vision!

At the end of 2008, a year after the domain’s acquisition, I received a couple of private inquiries – one of them was a rather arrogant email “demanding” a selling price instead of bearing the burden of placing an offer through Sedo. I have little tolerance for behind-the-keyboard snubs and my response was definitely a non-politically correct one.

Right before Christmas, the second inquiry started with a low offer of $2,000 via Sedo and ended at $10,000 with the bidder withdrawing their bid when I asked for more. Now, I am not one who shuns ten grand easily, as it represents a considerable amount of money; after the bidder canceled their round of offers I had that clutching feeling in my stomach thinking, “Did I just throw $10,000 in the garbage?”

I contacted Sedo and attempted to learn more information about my mysterious bidder; they responded that although they were not an active member they were a company. This small bit of information gave me the chance to a) feel better about having just declined a ten thousand dollar offer and b) initiated a secondary round of contact via Sedo’s brokers. They were instructed to inform the bidder that the domain was worth much more than their final bid and that I was willing to negotiate a sale – if only we could meet in the middle.

The secret to successful domain sales seems to be simple: stick to your gut feeling guns. Evaluate a domain’s worth using your own intuition and don’t listen to the obligatory surrounding noise telling you that the economy is down, that the domain’s worth a registration fee, or that you’re simply crazy. At least, be objective with the value of your own assets and learn the methods required to evaluate them.

Right after New Year’s, the same bidder placed a direct offer at Sedo, much higher than the previous one. At that point I was confident that this transaction was almost complete; despite that, I took the chance of counter-offering a higher amount (the “stick to your guns” element) but lower than what I wanted during the first round. The bidder responded with a counter-offer a few thousand dollars lower; I played my final round of “cat and mouse” with one more offer, confident that they would accept it and close the deal.

I went to bed that night knowing that in the morning I’d have a sale.

So the agreement was made a week ago and the exchange occurred this week, making the transaction complete and official. As far as I know, it’s the largest recorded sale of a 3-number .org; perhaps of any number in .org. After all, a perfect number like 360 requires a perfect sale!

To find out the exact selling price, check out DNJournal next week. For several years now, Ron Jackson’s highly commendable efforts of recording and re-energizing the domain community through the research, publication and analysis of domain sales have been producing superb results for our industry.

Have a fabulous new year!

It’s no secret that when things go wrong with Sedo – or any other service-oriented company – I tend to run my mouth a bit; out of frustration about the things that go wrong. But I’m also the one that praises them when things go right, or when wronged things get fixed pretty painlessly.

In light of this “brand new me” – since it’s a brand new year, 2009 – I decided to post a few tips that have worked for me, when it comes down to ironing things out with Sedo-related issues.

• Respond to each notification email by explaining exactly what you did at that step. E.g. “Domain xxxxx.com was pushed to the Sedo account, abc123, with GoDaddy.” This way there is a tracking record in the transaction agent’s mailbox and yours.
• If you’re the buyer, pay for the domain you won immediately after. If you are the seller, push the domain immediately after you’re asked to do so – don’t put things off! This way, you’ve done your part and you encourage and prompt the other party – and Sedo – to act accordingly.
• Keep a personal, friendly relationship with the Sedo personnel and the agent that handles your transaction. Personalize all communications by signing your emails with your full contact info.
• Call Sedo’s offices on the phone as needed, to ensure a transaction’s status is updated the same day. E.g. if you paid for or pushed a domain, give them a call at the closest location to you. Your agent might be in Germany or the UK but if you are in the US call the US office; they have the ability to sync transactions.
• Give them credit when credit is due; they are people that have jobs like everybody else. This seems to be the most neglected issue on the list.
• For the most part, avoid PMing them on forums, especially for support matters, although they seem to offer this type of feature. Use their support/ticket system, email or phone to resolve matters, in order of importance.

My next blog post will be about a large domain sale that Sedo assisted me with – don’t miss out!