Domain Owl

Not every person doing business online knows how to research and obtain a factual finding for their chosen domain. Looking to buy a certain domain they may stop short of getting it. They may know how to type it in, but that is not the end of the road. But most people know very few of the domain name tools that domainers use every day.

Today I heard neighboring diners at a restaurant throwing in the towel because they saw their favorite name was “taken”. I knew instantly that the prospective buyer’s path to their chosen domain name had stopped about eight steps too early. But trying to convince someone on the fly is near to impossible. Here is the truth:

A researcher can find the estimated value of a domain name at Estibot.com, test the page ranking at Alexa.com, or use Yahoo or Google keyword indexes to compare the relative value of the content on the website.  If there is no website, an error occurs while loading it (404), there are no ads, or the page is parked with a template from a hosting company showing, the owner might be glad to have the domain name off their hands.

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There are domain research tools that might be used to acquire the most desirable name for any online enterprise or venture. just shrugging and walking off into the sunset isn’t the answer.

1. If the domain name has a website up or has been purchased by someone else, that is not the end of the  line. Non-domainers may become unhappy if they think someone is using the domain name actively or promoting it with a live website. But this may be a placeholder and the owner may be unknowing of any interest for a potential sale and disinterested otherwise.

What may look like a live website to a newcomer may be an old template programmed to show updates. The owner may be looking to get rid of it. Motivated sellers will make sure their listing or proxy is activated and working smoothly. Not every domain name owner is greedy and will automatically name a high price for any domain name.

2. The lookup record will be displayed to tell you who owns the domain name is the WHOIS database. Access to this database may be found from every registrar, or domain name online selling platform. The researcher may want to search for other domain names with similar top level domains suffixes, such as -net or -org, -biz and -tv. These are more in use than ever before.

If the domain name record has been established using privacy, a contact email will be provided for contact and anonymous forwarding. If the owner wants to entertain offers, they will check their email. If the registrar elects to offer a formal offer conveyance, the lookup researcher can click that option and their information and interest will be communicated to the seller.

3. WHOIS records detail the email, first and last name, address and company name with phone number and fax number of the current owner. This person may be contacted using this number and the administrative contact information. There is always going to be a real person for this information, as ICANN requires checkup procedures to verify ongoing accuracy in domain registration and WHOIS submissions and updates.

4. If the domain name record is incomplete and no answer to the listed email is received, contact data for the domain name may be found elsewhere. The email address, employment, even access to a hosting account and connected email names may have been lost. A phone call or even formal snailmail communication may quickly discover who owns the name and who can speak for its brokerage or sale.

5. If the domain name researcher uses a search engine to find other records of the domain name, they may find the owner using it as a signature link in a forum or blog entry.The less search engine results the researcher finds, the more possibility there is the domain name can be acquired easily. A domain name owner who has not spent time developing links or building an online presence has invested less value to lose.

Emailing the admin of the blog to find out who the link holder is might clear things up. The email address of the poster will be evident to the administrator of the blog or website. They may email the operator of the account a communication letting them know you want to open a conversation about domain name ownership for “x” name. From there, its anyone’s game.

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For domainers looking to pick up a few great domain deals here is a typical analysis of the Pool hotlist and the drop evaluation technique. The Pool list is published via email from Pool.com daily in anticipation of recipient interest in bidding on names at the Pool.com domain name auctions held daily online. These names drop or are put up for sale by domainer sellers daily.

Deletion lists can be addicting because they show what other domainers have been up to. Drop lists show what domain names other domainers have decided are either not worth their while to renew, or what domains they have not gotten around to renewing. As many a domain name fish story will start, the “renewal email got lost in the shuffle’ incidence can happen very easily indeed.

Unless a domainer already has a site invested for a given trademark, trademark names are best avoided. One reason they are in the drop to begin with is that the owner has either gotten a “Cease and Desist” letter from the copyright owner or fears one will arrive with any further development of the name. Trademark names are a risk. The domain Amazondiscounts.net is an example of a possible trademark name.

Short names are always good to review because they may come very close to names you already own or may be acronyms for longer names you already own. This begets “type-in” traffic domainers want. A name in tomorrow’s Pool list, like r0b.net, could be good for domain name owners and administrators named Rob or those with burglary aspirations, or those with acronyms totaling R-O-B.

A name for sale like cashmonk.com might be a very good site name for an affiliate or cash raising site or a website with strategems for building multi level marketing or popup revenues online. Keywords like “cash” and “money” can be competitive bidding arenas, so domainers should have their checkbooks ready for active bidding. Money words are genuine traffic attractors because so many people are looking for information about money markets, investing, budgets and so forth online all the time.

Hyphenates are an acquired taste. Some domainers stem from the “old school” of domaining where almost any hyphenate was a detractor for original name value. Symbols were estimated as harder for web users to remember, type in, or use. Hyphenates always stand the risk of building type-in traffic for the name owner of the same domain name without the hyphen.

A name like debt-elimination.com has “money” name appeal but a hyphenate detractor element to it. A domain name for sale at Pool.com like rugged-notebooks has a tech designation but a hyphenate detractor dynamic as well. Likely buyers for this name should be those with other names with “notebook” in them for traffic continuation or site keyword mirroring and linking.

A deleting name like foreclosedlists.com reflects conflicting factors within a qualified domain name up for auction. This is a real estate name, and a partial money name, but also a list name, and can be considered too long by some purist domain name investors. But the likelihood of searches for this type of site might be estimated to be high enough to realize value and profit for affiliate and traffic visits.

Prohomes.com follows much of the same logic, except it can be argued to more valuable because it is much shorter to type in than foreclosedlists.com. The homes market for domain names may also be seen as a longer term viable keyword investment than the “foreclosure” arena of recent financially related real estate activity. Prohomes.com could be an excellent long term domain “flipping” investment waiting for the right corporate buyer.

Foodcult.com and fakeplants.com make amusing ideas for websites if the bidding price can be kept within the probable window of return on domain investment. The domainer should have an idea what assembling a directory and a number of articles should cost and a link building strategy for the site.

Further on down the list, On99.com might make a good site if the number 99 has some relevance to another data item or price level, such as 99 cents or 99 dollars. Numerical domains can be tricky, but a good example of a site is gymnastics2010.com, which has up to the minute gymnastics articles for this current year. Date domains can be worthwhile to acquire and develop in their current “date year”.

Download the full Pool.com list is available at the pool website, and searching out special domain names or names not featured on the list is a domainer’s stock in trade. Expect higher bidding for short names, and money names, and manage bids so cascading auctions don’t rob the domainer of time to rebid. Finally, resist the urge to get in a bidding war or rally to a name that builds interest simply as an auction win to acquire.

Safe and happy drop listing, everyone!

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