This isn’t really related to domain names, but I want to share information about a Kickstarter campaign created by domain investor Richard Nachum Kligman. The campaign is to raise funds for Mianzi, “the first luxury fashion line meeting the needs of the special needs community.”

You can learn all about Mianzi and what inspired it in the video embedded above. Kligman is seeking to raise $19,000 in the Kickstarter campaign, and he has already raised over $10,000 with 168 backers. There are just over two weeks remaining in the campaign, and hopefully he will reach his goal and be able to establish the fashion line.

Kickstarter is a great way to raise funds for a project, and I hope Kligman is able to reach or exceed his fundraising goal.

The post Domain Investor Creates Fashion Line To Meet Needs of Special Needs Community appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Mike Berkens wrote about the parent company of the .CO Registry, STRAAT Investments, which “purchased a 16,000-sq.-ft. building in Miami’s Brickell area to house its growing headquarters.” This building will also become a workspace known as Building.CO.

You can see a photo of the building above, which is located at 120 SW 8th Street, in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami, and just half a block to a major Metro Rail stop. It is a three-story building, erected in 1982, and it was the original headquarters for Dr. Sanfford Ziff, founder of Sunglass Hut. The building is three blocks away from the company’s current office.

According to Jose Rasco, Managing Director of STRAAT (and the person who is managing the project), when the company finishes the renovation, there will be about 16,000 square feet of workspace, including a retail area on the first floor. The STRAAT companies will occupy 0ne of the floors, and the remaining office space, an open floor plan, will all be rented to other tech entrepreneurs. In addition to the office space, the building has a parking lot and a great roof terrace for relaxing and entertaining. Although there are plenty of restaurants in the area, the building will have a kitchen and lounge area.

“While the space is not limited to companies building on .CO, those that have joined our Membership Program (i.go.co) will get special treatment. For example, if you’re based in San Francisco and you’re stopping in Miami for meetings, you can have access to the facilities at a reduced rate,” said .CO Registry CEO Juan Diego Calle. Judging by the company’s current office space, I am sure this is going to be a very cool space, and it will likely boast top of the line meeting areas, which is good for startups and upstart companies.

Below, I have attached a photo of the interior of the now gutted building. You can also have a look at the pdf file of the study plans for Building.CO, which I assume the company will use to lure tenants to the workspace. The company started renovations a month ago, and they are hoping to open Building.CO later this year.

The post Behind The Scenes at Building.CO appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Staci Zaretsky shares an interesting story on the Above the Law legal website concerning the WestOrange.info geodomain name. WestOrange.info is owned by a person named Jake Freivald who had built a “rudimentary” website about the town of West Orange, New Jersey. According to the article, “it doesn’t look like a site that’s sponsored by West Orange in any way, shape, or form — unless the town hired middle schoolers to create its online presence.”

That apparently didn’t stop the town attorney from sending Mr. Freivald a cease and desist letter (C&D) for attempting to “confuse and conflate the Township’s official domain name and Web site.” In response to this legal letter, Mr. Freivald’s attorney, Stephen B. Kaplitt (who represented him pro bono), sent a very funny response. Both of these letters can be read on the Above the Law article.

Receiving a C&D letter from an attorney can be concerning for a domain owner (and sometimes intimidating), and many simply hand over the domain name in question to prevent legal action from being pursued. It’s great to see that the owner of the domain name was represented, at no cost, to reply to this threatening letter.

The post Humorous Reply to a C&D Letter Sent to the Owner of a Geodomain Name appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

HostingCon is reportedly the web hosting industry’s largest tradeshow, and there are close to 2,000 attendees at the annual conference. Radix has a booth on the tradeshow floor, and the company will begin to accept non-binding pre-registrations for .Host domain names today. Pre registrations are available for HostingCon attendees as well as people who aren’t at the conference, and they can be made at DotHostRegistry.com.

There are several reasons why I think offering pre-registrations are smart:

• Can gauge the interest in .Host domain names
• Can use the pre-registration list as a means of determining the premium domain names that will cost more
• Can get a prospect list
• Interested buyers can be notified when .Host domain names are available

It’s a wise move for Radix to offer these domain names to this highly targeted crowd. Being the sole applicant for the gTLD allows Radix the opportunity to market this extension before its .Hosting competition has a chance.

The post .Host Pre-Registrations at HostingCon appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Every domain name that goes to auction, whether expiring auction at NameJet or private auction at TRAFFIC, has many unique attributes. There is extension, keywords, length, inbound links, Google results, keyword search numbers, pagerank, number of other extensions registered, how the domain name was used previously…etc.

All domain names probably have dozens of unique attributes that can be identified, and each attribute plays an important role in the domain name’s valuation.

I would love to have a tool that uses an algorithm to predict the closing price of a domain auction before the auction begins. With thousands of auctions occurring daily across many platforms, there is plenty of data that can be used to predict the sale price. I think it would be a great add on to tools like FreshDrop or Protrada, and it could even be a Firefox or Chrome extension that could be enabled on the auction platforms, allowing me to sort by predicted closing price.

This tool is different than automated appraisal tools like Estibot because it would actually predict closing prices rather than value. In addition to a domain name’s attributes, the tool would also take the auction conditions into account as best as possible. For instance, it would be able to use the auction’s start time, venue, number of backorders, high bid prior to auction, and other factors into account when predicting the closing price. With each auction that the algorithm records, it would be able to self adjust for more accuracy.

Do you think a tool like this would be helpful, and would you pay for something like this? How would you go about getting something like this built?

The post Domain Auction Prediction Algorithm appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

For someone who wants to work in this space, there are a number of advantages and disadvantages to getting a job for a domain industry company, and I’ll share my thoughts with you. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts as well, and if you work (or have worked) for an industry company, you can tell me if I am right or wrong.

Advantages

• More people are buying domain names than ever before, so there’s a larger audience.
• The business of selling and marketing domain names is still developing, and people who are able to innovate in their roles can advance within the company.
• Many industry companies are small, allowing employees to help make key decisions and grow the company.
• There are hundreds of conferences and tradeshows (mostly outside of the domain investment space), so there are an abundance of travel opportunities in the US and abroad.
• People with various backgrounds buy domain names, allowing industry employees to work with all sorts of people.
• It seems like there are plenty of entrepreneurially-spirited companies in this space, giving people a dynamic and exciting work environment.
• The opportunity for a growing salary is present due to the growing nature of many companies.

Disadvantages

• For a variety of reasons, the domain name aftermarket has lost value over the past few years, leading to many cutbacks.
• Non-compete clauses may prevent employees from going out on their own to start their own domain investment business.
• Non-compete clauses may prevent employees from working for competitors in the domain industry space.
• Some of the people who patronize domain companies may be “rough around the edges” a bit and may be more demanding than clients who have worked with corporate account managers before.
• Competitive nature of the business may make it difficult to become wealthy.
• Smaller companies may not be able to offer top tier employment benefit packages.

The post Advantages & Disadvantages of Domain Industry Jobs appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

NameJet and Afternic are sponsoring the meetup, with proceeds benefiting The One Fund, helping Boston Marathon bombing victims. Afternic is sponsoring a happy hour at Game On at 5pm. NameJet is sponsoring tickets to the Red Sox game at 7pm (against the Colorado Rockies). We’ll be in a great standing room section in the Pavilion area, making it easy to have conversations while watching the game.

People who wish to attend the meetup must donate $30 to The One Fund. Email me a copy of your receipt to confirm payment and your place on the list.

If you can’t send your donation today but you do want to attend, please let me know ASAP. It’s going to be a fun night in Boston, and I am looking forward to meeting you there.

The post Last Call for the Boston Meetup appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Trademark / intellectual property law – You don’t need to be a lawyer, but you should know what would constitute a trademark infringing domain name and what is generally safe to own. You should also know how to use a domain name without infringing on someone else’s rights. Not knowing this can cause an expensive mistake.

Negotiations – If you want to get the most for your domain name(s) or you want to buy a domain name for a good price, you need to be able to negotiate. Whether it’s on the phone or via email, having the ability to negotiate is critical.

Domain market – It’s obvious that a domain investor needs to know how to value domain names in order to set purchase and sale prices. Getting this knowledge takes time and quite a bit of market research.

Sales and Marketing – If you are going to reach out to end user buyers, you’ll need to know good sales techniques. My personal opinion is that a great domain name doesn’t need much of a sales pitch if you put the offer in front of the right person, but a marginal to good domain name might need a bit of a sales pitch.

Market Research – Negotiations are important to get an optimal price, but you’ll need to know how to get in touch with the right person at the prospective company.

CAN-SPAM Act – If you are going to be emailing US buyers, you need to know some of the important aspects of this law. Violations can be expensive, and pleading ignorance isn’t going to help you out.

Communications – There are a few domain investors with whom I would never do business because I don’t like them. I haven’t met any of these people in person, so it’s all about how they publicly communicate and do business. When it comes to public confrontations, I think it always pays to be “Switzerland.”

Sales and purchase venues – Knowing where to buy and sell domain names is important, and knowing what you can expect at those places is also important. I know if I list a domain name for sale at DNForum, I am likely to sell it for less than if I’d list it at Afternic, targeting end user buyers.

You certainly don’t need to be an expert in all of the topics above, but it would be helpful to have a basic knowledge. Alternatively, you can probably get by if you have a good friend who is an expert in one of those topics and is willing to offer advice to you for free.

What other knowledge do you need to be successful in this business?

The post Things You Should Be Knowledgable About Before Investing in Domain Names appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

The rationale for domain investors doing this is simple. The domain owner may not have realized the domain name was worth anything, so a lowish offer could get the owner to renew the domain name and then re-sell it to the person who inquired about it. The buyer would then get to purchase a domain name in private before others had the opportunity to bid on it. If others pre-bid on the domain name, the buyer would know that there is interest from other parties.

There are a few downsides to this practice. For instance, it may cause the domain owner to renew the domain name after realizing there is value in his name. Additionally, the owner may not have even realized the domain name expired due to a variety of issues, but the email or phone call from the domain investor served as a reminder to renew the domain name, preventing it from going to auction. Oftentimes, more than one domain investor inquires about an expired name, and this makes the owner even more aware of the value in his domain name.

Obviously, if a buyer is able to get a domain owner to renew the domain name, it won’t go to auction, potentially taking money away from the auction house and domain registrar. Some domain investors get upset that this practice prevents them from having a chance to win a doman name at auction, or if the auction already completed, a renewal will prevent them from being able to transact.

As far as I can tell (with no legal background on my part), there’s nothing illegal about this practice, but it annoys the auction houses, registrars, and other domain investors.

What are your thoughts on doing this?

The post Is There Something Wrong With Contacting Owners of Expired Domain Names? appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

I want to give one final update on the Domain Boardroom / Escrow.com fundraiser auction that was run on my blog to benefit the victims of the devastating tornados, via the American Red Cross in Oklahoma City.

After all of the domain name and service sales were transacted (at no cost) via Escrow.com, a total of $5,655 was mailed to the OKC chapter of the American Red Cross. As I hoped and expected, every transaction was completed in a timely manner. Escrow.com even covered the Paypal and credit card fees that are normally paid by the parties to the transactions, ensuring that the Red Cross would receive all proceeds.

Once again, I want to thank all of the donors and buyers for coming together to help the American Red Cross, which will help the victims of the tornados. I also want to thank Donna Mahony and the team at Escrow.com, who organized and helped ensure a smooth fundraiser. Finally, thank you to those of you who helped promote the auction with Facebook posts, tweets, phone calls, and other promotional help.

If you weren’t a high bidder and want to support the disaster relief efforts of the American Red Cross, you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, which helps people affected by disasters such as the devastating tornados that hit the Oklahoma City area.

The post $5,655 Donated to the American Red Cross in Oklahoma City appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Smartly, the company behind the Nicaragua Canal project appears to have bought the matching NicaraguaCanal.com domain name. The current registrant for the domain name is HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co., Ltd, which is the same company mentioned in the Reuters article.

NicaraguaCanal.com has a registration date of August of 2007, and it appears to have been owned by a domain investor. In 2009, the domain registration was made private. According to Daily Changes, the domain name was on Sedo DNS until September of 2012 when it moved to Afternic DNS. The Whois registration remained private until May 18, 2013. The domain name is still listed for sale on Sedo, but based on the current ownership, I would assume it’s a dated listing that should probably be taken down.

NicaraguaCanal.com does not currently resolve, but I assume the company has plans for it – or didn’t want someone else to control it. Interestingly, PanamaCanal.com appears to be owned by a tour company, not affiliated with the Panama Canal.

The post NicaraguaCanal.com: Smart End User Purchase appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Although the Whois registrant information is private, the website appears to belong to Polish artist Tomasz Gudzowaty. Prior to hearing about this sale, I had not heard of Gudzowaty, but he appears to be an accomplished photographer who likes to work with black and white photography.

According to his bio page found on White.com, “his photos have been published in Max Magazine, L’Equipe, The Guardian, Newsweek, Forbes, Time and Photo and he is also the author of several albums. He is a multiple winner of the most important photography contests, among others the World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, NPPA Best of Photojournalism. ”

Spending six figures on a domain name as an investment can be risky, but for someone like Andrew Rosener, it’s a calculated risk. The acquisition and sale of White.com shows that great domain names are liquid, and there is still a considerable amount of money to be made from flipping domain names for people who have knowledge about the market and a high level of risk tolerance. It also shows that there is a considerable amount of business done below the radar, not reported to DN Journal.

Congratulations to Andrew on the successful flip.

The post Media Options Flips White.com appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

I set up a short poll below to ask where you are buying most of your domain names. I didn’t provide full details on each of the selections, so I broke them out below:

• Hand registrations (new registrations from registrars like Name.com, Go Daddy, eNom, Dynadot…etc)
• Domain auctions (NameJet, Go Daddy, Snapnames, eBay, Flippa…etc)
• Private acquisitions (purchases directly from other domain owners via email)
• Domain forums (buy now or make offers from DNForum, NamePros, DBR…etc)
• Domain marketplaces (Sedo, Afternic, BuyDomains, Aftermarket.com…etc)
• Domain brokers (Domain Holdings, Igloo, Media Options)
• Other (anything I may have forgotten)

The post Where Do You Buy Domain Names? appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

You are welcome to post one name for sale in the comment section. As always, the name must be new to the market (not marketed before elsewhere), it must have a buy it now price, and you must leave a way to contact you. If you don’t follow all of these very simple rules, I’ll delete your comment.

If you don’t see anything you like here, check out Nokta Domains, a company that has a huge portfolio of domain assets.

• Get.com – $600,000 – Sedo (Dave Evanson)
• DomainRenting.com – $15,000 – Cax.com
• Baubles.com – $40,000 – NameConnect.com
• Soft.com – $675,000 – Igloo (Holly Griesel)
• Twin.com – $40,000 – Domain Holdings (Mark Thomas)
• Gig.com – $325,000 – Media Options
• eLove.com – $500,000 – Moniker (John Mauriello)

The post Weekly Domain Brokerage Listings – 6/12 appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

Before I get into it, I recommend reading Shane Cultra’s post about the three important aspects of his business. I think he said it well, so I will use that as the baseline for my post to give you a better idea of what I do and how I make a living as a domain investor.

Cash flow: This blog generates a decent amount of income. I am usually paid at the beginning of the year or quarterly, and the income has become more consistent over the last three years. Other websites my company owns, such as DogWalker.com and DogPark.com also earn a consistent monthly income (less, but consistent). Finally, domain name leases, financed domain sales, and on a smaller scale, PPC revenue, round out the consistent cash flow for my business.

I bank on this income to cover my overhead. This income also allows me to take on greater domain investment risks than I’d be able to take on without the income, including domain acquisitions and rejected offers. I am able to project with some level of confidence the approximate monthly income I will earn, without including income from domain name sales, which can fluctuate.

Higher Margin Products: When someone asks me what I do, I tell them that I sell domain names. This is where I earn the majority of my income. Some months are better than others, but I am always actively buying and selling domain names in the aftermarket. I would guesstimate that the majority of my domain sales are in the $3-15,000 price range, and the profit margins are “healthy.”

I spend quite a bit of money on domain name purchases, and I have to pay taxes on the profit from sales, so I need these sales to keep my business growing. Although my sales numbers are hard to predict, they’ve become pretty consistent. Some months they might be low and other months are high, but it evens out. The only issue is that I am required to continuously buy and sell to keep my business growing and the cash flowing.

The Gamble: With considerable competition from other domain investors, as well as the reluctance of sellers to part with their domain names, I often pay more than I should to acquire specific domain names. When I buy a name for $20,000 and my trusted friends/colleagues tell me it’s worth $10-15,000 reseller, it’s a bit concerning. However, buying high value and high priced names in the aftermarket can yield big profits, especially because many of these purchases are from people or companies that have held the names for many years, and they haven’t been on the market before.

Many people are discomforted when it comes to making 5 figure speculative purchases, but you need to gamble on some names to make large sales.

In addition to this, I often keep names in my portfolio that I don’t have an interest in selling unless I get top dollar or get a buy out offer for my entire portfolio. A domain name like SHS.com wouldn’t be for sale unless I got a huge offer. Turning down $50,000 for the name was an educated gamble, but I would rather have the name than the cash.

The post Overview of My Business appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

This week, I started to hand off warm leads on inbound inquiries generated from my Internet Traffic and Domain Name Sales landing page. I pride myself in being able to find out who is inquiring about my domain names while extracting the highest price possible. There is a pretty large list of domain brokers who are available to close deals on the DNS platform, so I am going to give the DNS brokers a try.

Sometimes I feel like I am a bit too close to the inventory to objectively price my domain names. Yes, it would be nice to get $75,000 for a particular domain name, but maybe it’s really only worth $40,000. A broker can advise as well as negotiate on my behalf in order to close the deal.

I hate chatting on the phone, unless it’s a discussion I want to have. Using a broker opens this channel of communication when I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to do it myself. I know it’s an effective way to discuss and close a deal, so it’s great to have this negotiation tool.

A little over a month ago, I had a $20,000 deal on DNS, and the buyer didn’t end up paying for it. I would assume the DNS broker has access to back end information about buyers and they might be able to see if a buyer has the potential to back out of a deal. If that person had agreed to 5 other deals and never paid, they might be able to save all of us time and cut off the negotiation. In this business, there aren’t many worse feelings than closing a large deal and having the buyer back or not pay.

The nice thing about DNS is that I can monitor the progress of negotiations to see where things stand. I can also assist the broker if I see something of interest – perhaps additional information about a new service or that the buyer has funding.

I haven’t yet closed a deal with the assistance of a domain broker on DNS, but I will be sure to provide an update with results when I have more insight. If you’ve worked with DNS brokers or another broker on DNS, I welcome you to share your personal experience.

The post Domain Name Sales: Always Test appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

I was checking out the Whois information for a couple of education related domain names, and I came across EducationLoans.com and EducationLoan.com. Somewhat surprisingly, these domain names appear to be owned by financial giants PNC and Sallie Mae (or a related company). It’s a smart move to own great domain names like these.

PNC Bank is the registrant of EducationLoans.com, and Student Loan Funding Resources, LLC (with a Whois contact email @salliemae.com) is the registrant of the singular EducationLoan.com. Unfortunately, neither of these great assets are currently resolving to any type of website. They aren’t even being used for forwarding purposes to these companies’ primary websites.

Screenshots.com shows that both domain names had once been used. The most recent screenshot for EducationLoan.com shows the website was in use in 2011. The most recent screenshot for EducationLoans.com shows that the website was in use in February of 2013. I don’t know why these great descriptive domain names aren’t currently resolving though.

These domain names are each worth quite a bit of money, and I am surprised they aren’t being utilized by their owners.

The post Sallie Mae & PNC Get an F appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

That being said, I could see how CrunchBase could help domain investors find buyers of premium, relevant domain names. One reason for this is that the listings share information about the company. You can also see how much funding was raised, who invested, and when the company was created. There is a considerable amount of insight you can glean from CB listings.

Here’s how you might be able to find someone that would want your exceptional domain name:

• Search the tags section for your domain name’s keywords
• Read about what the company offers, and see if it would make sense for them to buy your domain name
• Visit the company’s website and make contact with the potential buyer

I strongly urge you to make sure you are only pitching good and relevant domain names to these buyers. Don’t email everyone on the list simply because they used the tag that you searched. You must make sure they are a pre qualified potential buyer. You’ll want to make sure they are still in business and look to be active in that space.

Just like you use Google or even LinkedIn to find a buyer for a domain name, you need to use discretion with whom you email. Domain names for sale that are sent to relevant buyers may help produce a sale. Be sure to be professional with your email and get to the point. I strongly recommend not using this method en masse or with crappy domain names.

I haven’t used this method yet, but I think it could be a good way to find companies in the vertical you are trying to reach to sell a domain name.

The post Can CrunchBase Help You Find a Buyer for Your Domain Name? appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

I learned that Domaining.com owner Francois Carrillo has changed the pricing structure for sponsored headlines, and I want to share this with you in case you’d like to advertise to the domain investment audience. As I mentioned in the past, I have had luck selling domain names using the Domaining.com sponsored headline.

The standard rate for a sponsored headline is $150/day. It’s not cheap, but if you sell a $5-10k domain name, it’s well worth the price. That rate hasn’t changed, but Francois created a special offer as a way of inducing people to purchase a headline. If you choose to purchase a sponsored headline, and there are no other sponsored headlines at the time, the cost is just $99/day.

There aren’t many industry resources that have the readership of Domaining.com where you can pay less than $100 and get as many eyeballs on your article. In addition to the 24 hour headline at the top of Domaining.com, a link to your article/post is also included in the morning Domaining.com newsletter.

I’ve probably spent around $3,000 in sponsored headlines over the past few years, and I find that it’s money well spent.

The post $99 Domaining.com Sponsored Headlines appeared first on Elliot's Blog.

It’s been a nice weekend so far, although I won’t bore you with the details. Here are a few Sunday updates for you.

• There’s been a good discussion on NamePros about brandable domain names. It seems like this is a topic that always produces a good discussion, and the nice thing about it is that nobody is really wrong. I don’t generally invest in brandable domain names, but I do know that people are making money from them.

• There are now just 5 tickets remaining for the NameJet and Afternic sponsored domain investor meetup in Boston. If you are interested in attending, let me know ASAP. It’s going to be a good crowd, including people from Afternic, NameJet, Igloo, Sedo, Enom, and a couple other companies, in addition to independent domain investors.

• I was going to mention that DNS is now allowing buyers the chance to use a payment plan for their purchases, but Mike covered it.

• First quarter estimated taxes are due a week from tomorrow. If you run a small business, you’ll probably need to pay estimated taxes soon.

The post Sunday Updates appeared first on Elliot's Blog.