Domain sob stories: Should I feel sorry for your political mess?

An increasing number of businesses produce “sob stories” in order to usurp domain names on the aftermarket.

The usual excuses involve using a company’s status as a start-up or as a non-profit to indicate an inability to budget up for a domain name.

By default, these excuses are not true; start-ups and non-profits can have a budget in the five or even six figures allocated to the acquisition of the best matching brand, but they often choose not to.

Typically, that’s due to the person responsible for managing these budgets, and they are often stingy in how these funds leave their department. When such decisions are being made by IT managers instead of the CEO or the VP of Marketing at the very least, the ensuing communication is a futile attempt at convincing the company’s rep about the value of domain names.

A recent inquiry that turned south involved a .com domain that is formed by two short words in Spanish.

The domain inquiry came from a country in South America, with that person telling a sob story about the political situation in the region. Instead of focusing on the value of the domain, the story unfolded as a medium to deliver the need for reform and political unity – all while the domain name itself has nothing to do with politics.

When I sent him the quote, the response came back as a heavy criticism of the domain business model: how do I dare seek money for domains I “do not use.”

I realized then that the “political mess” that he spoke of was indeed a deep-rooted method to engage in business, and a model spawned by the ill effects of socialism and financial corruption in the region. In other words, one’s expected negotiations are to somehow take pity of the chronic lack of any capitalist motivation.

I wished my friend “buena suerte” for his quest, unwilling to continue arguing over the domain he registered as a ccTLD. I think I’ll stick to the capitalist model, confident that it’s the only way to deliver prosperity and respect of one’s true efforts as a business operator.