How to approach a domain name owner for purchase

[georgiek50]

I was wondering if anyone can help me out here on domain purchasing. I am forming a company very soon and the .com name of the company is owned by someone (no website active). It was previously used as a free blog, but no longer in use.

What would be the best strategy to approach this person and ask them to buy the domain from them. I probably should do my best to acquire it before I set the company, correct?

[georgiek50]

Also, just did a trademark search on the name. The last record ended in 2004, so it looks like it's available. Could I just trademark the term and then get the domain? confused...

[gpmgroup]

Hey Georgie, the guy up the street has a really nice car you might really want, he doesn’t use it much and I know you would make so much better use of it. Why don’t you have a word with the courts and licencing agency and see if they can take it off him and give it to you. I mean it's such a waste to see such a nice car not being used. Sheesh!

[georgiek50]

I get you...thanks for the "sarcasm"...but look, I'm not trying to rip anyone off (even though my previous post clearly appears to be just that), I'm just clueless as to how this whole thing works. That's why I'm asking for advice from someone who might have gone through this issue before.

I get your point, but your "sarcasm" isn't really helping me out. Do you have any useful advice?

[jbinbpt]

The company name and domain name do not have to match 100%. I went through this with a small company we acquired. The company name is a very common French name and a lot of the usable variations were taken. It was being used for a personal site.

I made an inquiry to the one we wanted the most and the initial offer was way more than we wanted to pay. The counter offer was not acceptable to them, so we used an abbreviated version. It ranks well.

I placed a value based on the age of the domain name.
years * (domain registration fees + average hosting costs) and then tripled it. That is as far as we would go. There was no income being made from the site.

It has made no difference to the site.

[gpmgroup]

I get your point, but your "sarcasm" isn't really helping me out. Do you have any useful advice?

Look the owners name up in the WHOIS or on the existing site.

Send an email to the owner saying very little as your perception of current use may be different from his perception of actual use and his perception of intended use - the more you say the more likely it is to appear confrontational. Then up goes the price and up goes the chance of him not wanting to sell to you.

Something like,

Hi ownersname,

I wondered if you you would be interested in selling widgets.info? If you would how much would you be looking to get for it?

Many thanks,

Georgie

[georgiek50]

Thanks for the advice guys. I actually found the name in an auction in sedo. The owner is asking just under $7,000 which is MUCH MUCH more than I'm willing to pay.

It's been around for 1.5 years. It used to be a free blog, currently does not have a website attached to it. No backlinks, no PR, no nothing. How does a domain get such high value with these stats?

Are some domains just valuable based entirely on their name? I threw in my offer (much lower) and we'll see how it goes.

[jbinbpt]

It's all perceived value by the owner. He figured someone would want it and he was right.

[callivert]

Could I just trademark the term and then get the domain?

This dirty trick is getting talked about more often, but it's a myth that trademark registration is a magic bullet for getting a domain name. The fact that you registered the trademark after the domain was purchased will weigh against you in any court. Also, someone can claim ownership of a trademark even if they didn't register it, based on prior usage.
ICANN's domain resolution policy [icann.org] shows that for an owner to lose a domain, all three of these have to be proven:
(i) someone else already owns the trademark;
(ii) the owner does not have a legitimate interest in the name; and
(iii) the name was registered in bad faith.
In other words, the rules are to prevent cybersquatting. I doubt that you would get someone elses domain this way, unless they put up no fight. I know of several high-profile websites that don't have registered trademarks for their names, but if you tried this trick on them, you'd lose.

[SiteChemistry]

Demonstrating that they registered the name in bad faith would be particularly difficult given that the registration pre-dates both your (future) company and your (hypothetical) trademark.

Good luck with the purchase. I've gone after domains in similar situations. Sometimes the owner has had a reasonable idea of what the domain is worth and we've been able to do a deal. Other times the price has been unrealistic and I've had to find an alternative. The latter has probably happened to me more often than the former.

By the way, you've clearly spent time researching the name, but it can also pay to research the seller. I've been quoted one price for a domain at Sedo, but found it listed for sale on the owner's own site for less than a fifth of that. It can help to know who you're dealing with.

[unperturbed]

It would still be worth making an offer. I've bought domains from people in forums for $20-$50 but they have had the domain parked at sedo with a price tag in the thousands of dollars.

As the company isn't formed yet have you thought about a different name?

[georgiek50]

Thanks for the info guys. Great news about sedo, I guess. As far as the company name, I want this name, even if I can't get the .com for it. There are many variants that are quite suitable so if the owner won't budge I'll just go that route.

Thanks again for all the great advice.

[trillianjedi]

How does a domain get such high value with these stats?

As you said:-

I want this name

That's where value can come from in domain names.

, even if I can't get the .com for it

The problem is, if you're succesful in your venture, you will want the dot com later, and at that point the price will quite possibly have gone up.

[georgiek50]

I just dug up some more info on this domain.

The owner posted in a forum (a while back) that the site gets less than 30 visitors/day and wanted an appraisal (currently the site is not online).

Someone took a look at it and appraised it in the double digits.

Not too much to go on, but looks promising (maybe).

[jbinbpt]

Did you check his Alexa ranking? If he is unaware that it is meaningless, it may be a bargaining point in your favor.

[SiteChemistry]

The owner posted in a forum (a while back) that the site gets less than 30 visitors/day and wanted an appraisal (currently the site is not online).

Someone took a look at it and appraised it in the double digits.

Nice find. Appraisals need to be taken with a pinch of salt, and the owner may well disagree with it, but this could help nevertheless. Plus, at least you now have some idea about existing traffic.

[woop01]

Never, never, never get discouraged by an appraisal from Sedo. I've never paid more than 40% of the Sedo appraisal for domains between $5k-$25k that Sedo appraised between $10-$110k. Also, try contacting them outside of Sedo. Sometimes you can get the owner to sell you the domain after their contract with Sedo is up. That prevents them from having to pay a commission.

I just looked through our old initial solicitation e-mails and there was a HUGE difference between the response rates for the following two e-mails…

Are you the slightest bit interested in selling the domain name domain.com?

Our standard feeler e-mail that we send out first. It leaves the conversation wide open in terms of value but gets deleted almost all of the time.

Are you the slightest bit interested in selling the domain name "domain.com"?

We understand how annoying people offering $500 for a premium domain name is and realize that " domain.com" is certainly a premium domain name. We are not trying to do that, we would like to make a serious offer if the price is reasonable.

That worked for us on numerous domains that previously never got a reply to inquires. The owners were blunt that they were tired of getting offered $100 for four and five figure domains. It does put you in a slightly weaker position but if you aren’t willing to pay $500+ for the domain, you’re typically wasting your time with most people who sit on domains.

[georgiek50]

The seller accepted my offer! Just paid sedo via credit card and filled in registrar's details.

Now, does anyone know how long the entire process takes (they say as long as 3 weeks)

So happy! Thanks to all!

[stu2]

Well done! Yep it can take up to 3 weeks on Sedo depending on several factors. The 3 weeks feels like a lifetime :)