We’re right in the heart of summer, and it’s probably the slowest part of the year.
During these summer doldrums, as Elliot calls it, it’s good to expand on one’s domain selling channels, and I’m currently using Uniregistry brokerage.
The capable guys and gals at Uniregistry are going through hundreds of inquiries that did not complete, revisiting them on my behalf. I’m pleased with their approach, and it has generated secondary leads and some “fun” responses.
One of these responses by a “buyer” whose $10 dollar offer six months ago was responded to with an 800x quote, didn’t like being reminded of the asking price.
His response, was comedic:
You’ve had your chance and totally blew it. 8K is ridiculous and you have encouraged me to find a workaround. So, not interested anymore!
So what did our Dutch friend end up registering?
The .com domain keyword is a two syllable dictionary word, short, easy to pronounce and the asking price was definitely reasonable. The Dutch buyer is an entrepreneur and his start-up ended up with the following variants:
- keywordventures.com
- keyword-ventures.com
As a brand specialist, I understand the need to circumvent the unavailability of generic domains, by resorting to two word compounds. In fact, these stand more of a chance to rank high, than their generic counterparts.
In this case, however, the word is technically a ready made brand, as it’s not English but Greek.
Lots of brands seek alternate dictionaries to tap into, and Greek words such as Nike, Atlas, Delphi, Pandora, Pepsi, Eros, Amazon and Canon have become famous brands; I’ll throw in Synnefo, Meraki and Aphelion, just because.
A lot of start-ups are driven by the concept that being not just frugal, but stingy is the right approach. In the case of launching an international brand, such a shoestring budget can hurt the brand’s recognition long term.
I seriously doubt I “totally blew it,” because the Dutch company will have to fork out a substantially higher amount in the future; from the looks of it, they are getting enough funding already.
If $8,000 for a brand is deemed “ridiculous” then maybe an $80,000 dollar quote would help bring them to their senses.
Some buyers don’t get it and feel entitled when they make their silly offers like you bought the name to resell at same price back to them .How can they then want to provide a good service and want people to pay more?What if people prefer to pay cents for it and say its not worth their time.They forget they are paying for a name that they would own forever and it’s their brand for life .
I have an offer from a finance company and the guy sticking to his low 3 figures even when I told him on phone I could give a cut and accept mid figures for it but he is unrelenting .I told him another country in Asia would soon own the name and they pay well because they know what works from them .He was asking me what company and I told him ,”Google it ” .
Theo when the firm realises others may also be interested in the keyword I wouldn’t be surprised if they come back later, maybe even in a year, with a low 4 figure offer, and increase it to mid 4.
Sometimes it takes a long time for the penny to drop.
“the Dutch company will have to fork out a substantially higher amount in the future” – Totally true. With my first online enterprise, i had chosen EMD.com of my niche, and it actually gave me a nice initial boost, but in the couple years when i had spread over that narrow niche all over the vertical, i understood that my choice was not really smart and i really needed a brand name, so i had to change the name and to make a full rebranding.