Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

While I’m known for engaging in fast domain sales, particularly via Sedo, some buyers just take their time to complete their part of the transaction.

One such example I witnessed yesterday.

I use DomainTools’ alerts to see what goes in and out of Sedo escrow on a daily basis, and a domain I sold in December popped up.

At first I thought the domain was resold by its buyer, but then I looked up its history using DomainTools.

Apparently, the buyer wanted to transfer the domain out to a new registrar, as part of the transaction. Obviously, my part of the deal ended when I pushed it to the Sedo account with Fabulous. Sedo then informed the buyer to transfer the domain out to GoDaddy, and the buyer took their sweet time to do so.

Five months later, the domain is in the hands of the buyer. Judging by the amount of traffic the domain had when it was in my possession, at least $300 in PPC revenue was lost in the meantime.

As the buyer, it’s important to keep track of your transactions and outgoing transfers, or you might end up losing domains this way.

Unlike gold, oil and precious metals, domain names don’t have a unit price associated with them. And yet, domain names are commodities that can be traded freely, can be sold and bought.

When it comes down to tagging a price to a domain name, my evaluation method as a buyer and as the seller follows similar principles.

The idea, is to evaluate domains with the intention to either develop them or to sell them to end-users. Flipping domains to other domain investors is like trading stamps, coins or sports cards; domain investment is not a hobby, it’s a profession.

In the same manner, when evaluating a domain for others, keep in mind that only the end-user potential matters.

Evaluating a domain for a purpose and function other than that of a “final destination” does not make sense to savvy domain investors that usually position themselves long term.

When an offer comes through at Sedo with a comment that wasn’t populated from the drop down menu, that comment is held for review by Sedo staff.

There are two ways to deal with such comments, and my response depends on the offer itself.

In the past, I explained why listing my domains with a fixed price on Sedo or other venues does not work for me.

If an offer with a custom comment is detrimental to the domain negotiation game, I usually call Sedo for them to review and potentially release the comment, in order for me to see what the buyer is attempting to convey.

Usually, Sedo does that within minutes and the process has helped me speed up the negotiation process. The method works in a similar fashion if I wanted one of my own custom responses to be relayed to the buyer without much of a full day’s delay.

Now, if the offer that comes with a pending comment is not of interest, I never wait for the comment to be released, but I simply cancel the negotiation on the spot. I don’t have time to waste and this way the lowballing buyer thinks twice before making an offer again in the future.

Backorderzone.com – I ‘hate’ these guys.

Actually, I don’t hate them, but I’m amazed that they beat both SnapNames and Pool for a domain I had backordered.

While SnapNames sent me the usual “apology” for trying and failing to capture the domain, not a pip was heard from Pool.

Upon checking the WHOIS via DomainTools, I noticed that Backorderzone.com is the new holder of the domain.

The Colorado Springs company both captures and auctions domains and it’s free to join. It is not yet clear to me if Backorderzone also holds domains for themselves or only catches them for clients.

So far I haven’t signed up, but I might do so, if the domain I wanted is somehow sent to auction.

Good job, Backorderzone…

With regards to domain investment and sales, I tend to do things the fast way: I close deals quickly, after negotiating in a sharp manner.

I don’t have time to waste. My method and approach to doing business online is often perceived as arrogant, but trust me, I’ve never had any real life complaints.

The truth of the matter is that many disagree with me. And that’s fine, because one can be patient in how they approach certain business opportunities in domain investment.

When Rick Schwartz negotiated the sale of Candy.com, that was the ultimate paradigm of engaging patience as a domainer’s virtue.

Unfortunately, this is not a virtue that I can always stake a claim to, but I appreciate it in others. This way, I’ve learned that one can be flexible, e.g. when negotiating a price or when making an offer with long term benefits.

The bottom line is, that adapting to the flow of events but maintaining your own momentum works best. Sometimes, one has to slow down and regroup, other times one must go forward as if their life depended on it.