Domaining Skills to Pay The Bills
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domain Backordering
If probably doesn’t matter in most cases because you’ll want to use a dropcatcher, but have you ever wondered what time of day domains actually drop?
I recently ran across this information so I figured I would share!
Domain Drop Times (all Central Standard Time)
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips
The way the world of domain names has been going, if you aren’t one of the top dogs who started grabbing names a decade ago, you probably either need to start developing your domain names or starting pursuing end-users for your domain names.
There are a variety of ways to go about this, but I’ve always felt it was best to examine Google’s search results for your keyword domains and attempt to contact various sites that are competing under those keywords. You may also want to pay attention to what sites are paying to advertise under those keywords, as they might be the most likely to have interest in the domains.
Before contacting end-users, you’ll probably want to spend some time working on drafting up a generic e-mail where you can just fill in the blanks with the companies information. Here is an example of an e-mail I’ve used in the past:
Hello, My name is <<Your Name>> and I am the owner of the domain name <<Domain Name to Sell>>. I am currently in the process of selling this great domain name and thought you might be interested. You have a very impressive site and I’m sure that you can see the value in having a premium domain name when competing for the best search results, especially in the competitive <<keyword>> industry.
If your company is interested in bidding on this domain name, please feel free to contact me with any questions or for any additional details.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
<<Name>>
<<E-mail Address>>
<<Phone Number>>
How do you go about approaching end-users?
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domain News
We’ve all heard the stories about domainers who sell via Paypal, push the domain after receiving payment, then receive a chargeback removing the payment from their account. Despite proof that the transaction went through as agreed, Paypal will not back the seller in these situations because their is no physical merchandise or service involved.
Unfortunately for domainers, this is not your only concern. What about stolen domains? According to Domain Bits, it looks like we’ve found yet another case where I deal was “to good to be true,” and it turns out that was in fact the case. Despite using Escrow.com to complete the transaction, the domains turned out to be stolen and are in the process of being returned to their rightful owner. That is great news for the victim, but terrible news for the person that stands to lose the thousands of dollars spent for the domain names.
The part of Jeff’s post I wanted to mention is at the bottom, where he gives tips to protect yourself from domain fraud:
1. Escrow Isn’t Enough. All escrow does is ensure that the transaction goes through as agreed – the seller gets paid his money and the buyer gets his domain.
2. Research the Domain History. Before purchasing a domain, check the whois history (on DomainTools.com). Be especially suspicious of changes that occurred recently, particularly a change of the administrative email contact. For a larger domain purchase, pick up the telephone and contact the previous owners to verify the pedigree of the domain.
3. Don’t Rush A Transaction. People are likely to notice that their valuable domains are stolen pretty quickly, so a thief want to unload the domain quickly. Be particularly wary of someone who seems to be in a big rush to close a sale.
4. Buy From Reputable Buyers. Research the person you are buying from. Find out more about them, and particularly about any past domain dealings.
5. Too Good to Be True. If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. When Alexa the Top offered an $XXX,XXX domain for sale at DNF for $X,XXX this raised alarm bells for several members.
6. Keep Your Domains Safe. Make sure your domains are with a registrar that cares about domain security – Moniker and Fabulous are the two that everyone states are good in this regard. Apparently, neither registrar has ever had a domain stolen.
7. Don’t Use Free Email Accounts. Free email accounts should not be used as the contact for your domains. The normal way that a thief gets control of a domain is by getting control of the email account of the administrative contact. Free email accounts are generally easier to hack than ones that you control.
Sadly, even following these steps does not guarantee anything, but it is a great step towards protecting yourself. Great tips Jeff!
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domains
While doing some county code top-level domain research yesterday, I was doing some investigating to see what countries have adopted their country codes. Having this information can help figure out which ccTLD is best to invest in. After finding a fairly current list, I figured why not share it here!
Domain Amount Registered Country
.com 71.619.962 Global Generic
.de 11.673.388 Germany
.net 10.623.637 Global Generic
.cn 9.001.993 China
.uk 6.486.829 United Kingdom
.org 6.373.837 Global Generic
.info 4.948.539 Global Generic
.eu 2.715.101 European Union
.nl 2.695.568 Netherlands
.biz 1.903.406 Global Generic
.it 1.456.787 Italy
.us 1.375.779 United States
.br 1.230.870 Brazil
.ch 1.056.751 Switzerland
.ru 1.030.951 Russia
.au 1.007.458 Australia
.jp 988.886 Japan
.fr 988.421 France
.ca 943.341 Canada
.kr 930.485 Korea
.dk 864.845 Denmark
.es 805.327 Spain
.mobi 799.551 Global Generic
.pl 762.503 Poland
.be 736.499 Belgium
.at 722.193 Austria
.se 702.199 Sweden
.cz 370.642 Czech
.no 361.118 Norway
.nz 314.053 New Zealand
.mx 231.047 Mexico
.pt 184.650 Portugal
.fi 165.252 Finland
.hk 152.405 Hong Kong
.tr 146.083 Turkey
.sk 140.319 Slovakia
.ie 91.353 Ireland
.lt 65.944 Lithuania
It looks like Germany and China have really adopted their ccTLD well. How much of your portfolio is invested in ccTLD’s?
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domain Sales
If you frequent various domainer message boards, you’ve probably noticed an overabundance of LLLL.com sales. These domains are usually a random combination of four letters, many of which wouldn’t carry any value to any non-domainer.
As someone who doesn’t buy/sell LLLL.com domains, it can often be frustrating digging through those message board posts looking for domains that I may be interested in. I put LLLL.com in the speculative category, and we generally don’t invest in speculative domains due to the risk involved.
With that said, many of the people that invested in LLLL.com domains in 2006 and 2007 are now making good money flipping them for anywhere from 500-1000% profit. Are these domains just a fad or are they a solid investment? The Daily Domainer recently tackled this subject in their recent post, LLLL.com Domains: Gone Wild or Geniune Opportunity?
As suggested in their post, all LLLL.com domains are gone and they aren’t making any new ones, and that alone creates value. My problem has always been that who is the end-user? I need to see a potential end-user to invest in a domain, otherwise I feel like I am simply paying renewal fees only to flip it to another domainer for a minor profit. While you can profit that way, is it worth all that effort? The only potential end-user I can find for these domains that are not pronouncable are upstart radio and tv stations that might want to use their call letters as their domain name.
What do you think? Are LLLL.com domains a solid long-term investment or just a fad that will fade out over the coming year?
By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domains
Thanks to URL Academy, we now have a list of the 100 oldest domain names. You’ll find a few that are familiar, and a very large number of domains that you’ve probably never heard of. Enjoy!
THE 100 OLDEST CURRENTLY-REGISTERED .COM DOMAINS
1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
11= 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
13= 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM
16= 08-May-1986 GMR.COM
16= 08-May-1986 TEK.COM
18= 10-Jul-1986 FMC.COM
18= 10-Jul-1986 UB.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 BELL-ATL.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 GE.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 GREBYN.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 ISC.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 NSC.COM
20= 05-Aug-1986 STARGATE.COM
26. 02-Sep-1986 BOEING.COM
27. 18-Sep-1986 ITCORP.COM
28. 29-Sep-1986 SIEMENS.COM
29. 18-Oct-1986 PYRAMID.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 ALPHACDC.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 BDM.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 FLUKE.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 INMET.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 KESMAI.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 MENTOR.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 NEC.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 RAY.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
30= 27-Oct-1986 VORTEX.COM
40= 05-Nov-1986 ALCOA.COM
40= 05-Nov-1986 GTE.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 ADOBE.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 AMD.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 DAS.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 DATA-IO.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 OCTOPUS.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 PORTAL.COM
42= 17-Nov-1986 TELTONE.COM
42= 11-Dec-1986 3COM.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 AMDAHL.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CCUR.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CI.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 CONVERGENT.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 DG.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 PEREGRINE.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 QUAD.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 SQ.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 TANDY.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 TTI.COM
50= 11-Dec-1986 UNISYS.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 CGI.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 CTS.COM
61= 19-Jan-1987 SPDCC.COM
64. 19-Feb-1987 APPLE.COM
65= 04-Mar-1987 NMA.COM
65= 04-Mar-1987 PRIME.COM
67. 04-Apr-1987 PHILIPS.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 DATACUBE.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 KAI.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 TIC.COM
68= 23-Apr-1987 VINE.COM
72. 30-Apr-1987 NCR.COM
73= 14-May-1987 CISCO.COM
73= 14-May-1987 RDL.COM
75. 20-May-1987 SLB.COM
76= 27-May-1987 PARCPLACE.COM
76= 27-May-1987 UTC.COM
78. 26-Jun-1987 IDE.COM
79. 09-Jul-1987 TRW.COM
80. 13-Jul-1987 UNIPRESS.COM
81= 27-Jul-1987 DUPONT.COM
81= 27-Jul-1987 LOCKHEED.COM
83. 28-Jul-1987 ROSETTA.COM
84. 18-Aug-1987 TOAD.COM
85. 31-Aug-1987 QUICK.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 ALLIED.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 DSC.COM
86= 03-Sep-1987 SCO.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 GENE.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 KCCS.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 SPECTRA.COM
89= 22-Sep-1987 WLK.COM
93. 30-Sep-1987 MENTAT.COM
94. 14-Oct-1987 WYSE.COM
95. 02-Nov-1987 CFG.COM
96. 09-Nov-1987 MARBLE.COM
97= 16-Nov-1987 CAYMAN.COM
97= 16-Nov-1987 ENTITY.COM
99. 24-Nov-1987 KSR.COM
100. 30-Nov-1987 NYNEXST.COM
