Track your keywords Google, Yahoo, Bing - Real-time
Twitter

Selling Domains On Twitter – A Success Story

Okay, first I have to take you back to New Year’s Day 2012.

I work from a home office (this site’s header is the view from my porch) and living the Domaining365.com mantra, I was on Twitter that morning putting out a few tweets about expired domain names.

Anyone who follows me on Twitter knows that I like to tweet recently expired domains that are available to hand-register. Sometimes I muse on how they might be simply monetized or I share my thoughts on what kind of business could benefit from buying them (from you of course).

The flip side of the expired domain tweets is when I use Twitter to promote domains from my own portfolio. I don’t do it very often because that’s not what my Twitter account is about, but I thought I would share a recent domain sale that I attribute directly to a tweet.

For the record, on 1-1-2012, I did not have a hangover.

"After this let's go tweet about our hangovers."

I did however notice several very funny tweets from others who were discussing the previous evening and the ramifications thereof.  They all had a hash-tag for #hangover so use your imagination…or just go search Twitter.

I immediately realized that I had the ideal audience to market one of my domains to.  With so many people using #hangover in such hilarious tweets I knew it would be a very highly searched hash-tag.

Timing is everything

I was pretty sure that I would have to wait another 12 months before so many people were discussing their hangovers at the same time.  And if I knew this, then other businesses knew it too.  And if those businesses were using hash-tags to find people to follow and therefore market to, then I wanted those business to find me as well.

I knew a blaring “This Domain For Sale!” approach wouldn’t work

What I really wanted to do was join in the hangover fun, while at the same time making it clear that the domain CureForHangover.com was A) valuable and B) available for purchase.

I thought if I wrote a compelling enough tweet that I could get people to click the domain, and at that point I would have a surprise waiting.

Here’s the tweet (with 6 characters to spare):

The CureForHangover.com link was live and it sent anyone who clicked directly to a GoDaddy Premium Listing with a Buy It Now price for the domain. 

Well, yesterday morning someone bought it.  Since it was registered privately I don’t know whether it was a business or an individual, a domain investor or an end-user.

The fact that it was a four figure sale ($X,XXX) and that no one ever called or emailed with a lower offer immediately leads me to believe it was an end-user. I think they paid a fair price, maybe even on the low side. Not only am I pleased with the sale, I truly hope they have a cure.

In any case,  congratulations to the new owner of CureForHangover.com and until I receive confirmation otherwise, I’m going to chalk this domain sale up to my tweet.

A special thanks to everyone who had a little bit too much to drink on New Year’s Eve 2012. There’s a warm special place in my heart for all of you.

Angels.com Registrant Will Reap Rewards for Defending Against UDRP

Was just reading some older articles in the “We Get It” section of Domain Name Wire, specifically the article Cardinals Best Off-Season Pick Up Was Domain Name where it is mentioned that The Los Angeles Angels lost their UDRP case against the then owner of Angels.com

10 minutes later I see a tweet from @DomainNiche talking about the August GreatDomains Auction that is currently underway at Sedo as posted on DotWeekly.

It turns out that Angels.com is part of this auction. Putting 2 + 2 together isn’t too difficult here. The owner of Angels.com (bravo bravo) won the UDRP and now the LA Angels are going to have to pony up big time to purchase the domain legitimately. My only hope is that some huge religious entity with more money than God (pun intended) gets interested and bids it to the heavens.

Kudos to Lee Wongi, whoever you are.

_______________________________________________________________________

Domainer Loses 11 Domains To Microsoft In Domain Name Dispute

And yes, some of them are the kinds of domains that you would expect a domainer to lose to a multi-billion dollar international corporation.  Let’s talk about some of the questionable ones though.

Of the 11 domains awarded to Microsoft, four (4) of them, “…feature third-party blog information about the Complainant’s (Microsoft) products.”  That’s a direct quote from the National Arbitration Forum decision published online and in full at Microsoft Vs. Hung Ho.

So in other words, even if you have “3rd party blog content” on developed sites, if you are violating trademark law you still run the risk of losing your domains in a legal dispute.

Here’s the list of the 11 domains (underlined ones had content referenced above):

Domain name dispute got you down?

Hahahaha! You registered what?!

directmicrosoft.com
magicmicrosoft.com
microsoftadvisors.com
microsoftbust.com
microsoftbuzz.com

microsoftscoop.com
microsofttown.com
microsoftwire.com
microsoftwired.com
microsoftwires.com
ordermicrosoft.com

I know, some of you are probably thinking a legitimate use of a domain like MicrosoftBuzz.com or MicrosoftScoop.com would be a tech news blog.  I bet the owners of AppleScoop.com and IpodBuzz.com would agree (no affiliation, just found them as live sites).  And who knows, maybe if the owner of the 11 disputed domains had presented a case he might have been able to keep a few.  However, since the Respondent (the domain owner) failed to submit a response to Microsoft’s complaint we will never know.

Duh!  Ignoring an official UDRP Complaint almost always results in the domain name or names being awarded to the complainant, otherwise known as the company or person who wants your domain.

So, in the spirit of not casting stones at glass houses, I am looking to my own portfolio today and identifying any potentially disputable domains that I own, plus just cleaning house on others that were purchased in moments of weakness.   I highly recommend as a domain investor and active domainer that you be very familiar with the law and making sure that a domain you own is not being used in a manner that would legally be construed as “bad faith” (ie. sending domain traffic to competitor of trademark owner, displaying ads for competitor products as happens routinely with domain parking, and offering domain for sale at a price above out-of-pocket documented expenses).

A personal rule of thumb?  To avoid a domain name dispute and wasting money on unprofitable domains that no one will buy, if the thought “Would They consider this domain a copyright infringement?” (and you can plug in a well known company for “They”) then you should probably just avoid it.