Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Here in Florida the summer isn’t quite dry and full of frolic. From June 1st to November 30th we have the dreadful hurricane season, that brings down plenty of rain and storms.

Protecting your data isn’t something that needs to be a science; when that “science” already exists in the form of an uninterruptible power supply or UPS for short.

Power surges or complete loss of power can cause devastating damage to your computer, your online activities and your sanity: imagine losing that penultimate chance to bid on a domain at NameJet, or a storm frying your hard drive that contained all of your domain info and passwords.

Ars Technica provided a humorous but very educating short video about why you need a UPS and how to go about selecting one that suites your needs.

Nowadays it seems that people are impatient with a twist: they don’t want to listen and yet, they expect results.

After reading a post at DNForum about people blaming Sedo for taking a long time to verify domains when added to one’s account, I came up with these short and sweet tips that always work for me.

Enjoy.

• Update the DNS of your domain to ns1/ns2.sedoparking.com BEFORE adding them to Sedo. Since DNS takes 24 hours to propagate, wait this much prior to adding a domain to the Sedo account. For new domain registrations it’s instant.
• If you are the first to add that domain to a Sedo account and it has the DNS set as above, verification takes less than 5 minutes.
• If your domain WHOIS matches that of your Sedo account email, verification is instant.
• If an automated verification cannot be established, an email will be sent. Make sure you follow instructions.
• Are you impatient? Instead of calling Sedo “lame”, call their customer service number. They’d be glad to assist you on the spot.

Even when adding domains that exist or existed in some other person’s Sedo account, I never had to wait more than 3 days and that only when the weekend was in-between, e.g. Friday to Monday.

This June it will be my 7th year using the services of Sedo for parking, selling and buying domain names.  While PPC has had its ups and downs, domain sales have never been stronger.

It’s not just the volume of sales, it’s the ability of Sedo to use its best asset: its people.

Potential buyers come from all places, cultures and speak different languages. Negotiation can sometimes break off for no apparent reason, even right in the middle of a transaction that otherwise looked promising.

Having had an offer from a Belgian bidder, I researched the particular domain and feeling confident about their apparent budget, I responded with a suitable second counter-offer.

At that point, the buyer pulled out of the transaction, leaving me scratching my head; for a domain that was acquired for $10 I was definitely disappointed.

So I spoke to my account manager at Sedo, and she performed a little bit of magic for me. After contacting the buyer and explaining – in their native language – what the process entailed, she came back to me with the news that a new round of negotiations would begin.

This afternoon, I found a notification in my mailbox that the buyer from Belgium had placed an offer that matched my asking range; on top of that, they were expressing their apology for misunderstanding the process.

I could not be happier; from $10 to $x,xxx for a .ORG that’s a great ROI.

It shows how important it is to have recovery mechanisms in place, such as establishing direct contact with the other party. This is not the first time that such a negotiation was re-instated; Sedo has done this for me on several occasions.

Thank you Sedo, it’s been a great seven years thus far!

The subject of this post is not mine; it’s the title of a thread about domain names, over at popular Web Hosting Talk forum.

WHT as it’s known for short, is usually frequented by members of the web hosting industry to discuss related subjects, resolve issues and promote their services.

It also has sub-forums discussing domain names and it was one such thread that caught my attention.

The person who started the discussion vents off his frustration over the fact that his .TV domain – a developed two worder – is in danger of losing traffic from the .com which is “squatted” upon. According to him, the .com owner attempted to “blackmail” him by asking for $45,000 – an exuberant amount of money per the buyer.

A lot of others chimed in, offering such “brilliant” advice as to complain to ICANN, allege trademark violations, or sue the seller for “blackmail” and “extortion”.

I’m amazed at the amount of ignorance among the members of WHT, who as techies should have a better idea about what is the domain industry and how things work with regards to owning, selling, buying or challenging the status of a domain.

If an industry as closely related to domaining as the web hosting industry is so much misinformed, what can be said about the general public out there?

No wonder that the term “cybersquatter” is still tossed around with no real substance, but rather as an attempt to assault the domain investors at any given opportunity.

The real challenge of those that preach domain leadership is educating the key players of the outsiders and the general masses about domaining. Until then, domaining will continue to be an industry that relies on inter-marriage with few external relationships.

As a domain seller, I’m always looking to maximize my ROI; Sedo’s platform offers some room for negotiation.

However, the use of the pre-selected options is rather minimal and some are rather useless. For example, “Please justify your asking price” sounds like a time-wasting response.

There is one option that is quite ominous and that’s “This is my final offer“.

When placed by the offer-maker, it’s an indication that he’s ready to pull out of further acting upon the domain.

Or is it?

A week ago I was in the middle of one such negotiation, when the deal stalled. My asking price and the placed offer were quite apart.

Then, the potential buyer played the “This is my final offer” card.

Big mistake.

When the gap is large, making such a statement won’t push me into “surrendering” the domain. Domain buyers beware: if you use Sedo to attempt to buy domains anonymously, you immediately indicate that you don’t want to negotiate directly; after all, my contact info is in the WHOIS.

So I typed up a nice response to the buyer, explaining why his offer was laughable; for a domain registered before 2000 he was instantly gaining Google juice for the exact terms. I didn’t forget to send him a couple of other potential buyers, using ZFBot as my search tool.

Then I waited. On the last day of the offer, he accepted my asking price.

Epic triumph.

So don’t go around playing the “Final Offer” card to a domain seller that knows when you bluff.