Many times people want or need to contact the owner of a domain name but by visiting the domain name directly, does not reveal who owns it or how to contact them.
Here are some ways to find the information you may need to contact the domain owner.
Whois Database:
The whois database is public information of domain name owners which allows you to search by specific domain name. I personally use Whois.sc as they provide a wealth of information including the registrant (owner) name, phone number, email address, address, city, state, zip code and domain name registrar (where the domain is "kept" at). There are other data options like whois history, reverse IP lookup, Name server history and email search which cost an added fee, but these can also help to track down the owner.
If the whois data is up to date and no privacy service is used, you should simply be able to use the email address provided or phone number to contact the domain name owner.
Internic
If you tried the email address and it "bounces" and or try the phone number and that happens to be dead.. a service provided by internic.net allows you to report the domain name as having incorrect whois contact information.
Using internic.net, you can report whois data problems . They will in return contact the domain name registrar, who will contact the owner to update the information.
Domain Privacy
If domain name privacy is used, you should still be able to use the very long and ugly email address to contact the domain name owner. If privacy is on the domain name, your best chance is using Whois History provided by DomainTools.com . DomainTools caches domain history based on when somebody does a whois query for a specific domain name. If somebody happened to do a whois query before privacy was put in place for that specific domain name and they owned the domain.. your chances have increased in finding contact data.
Domain privacy can and is one of the harder ways to find contact details on a domain name owner. False or fake data is another problem in contacting a domain owner.
WhitePages.com
Using some of the tools above, if you can find the persons or companies name and location, Whitepages.com may become a helpful tool. Simply enter in the persons or companies name and location and start calling.
Search Engine
Using a search engine like Google.com will often reveal contact information hidden someplace on the web. If you can drum up a name, email address or another domain name you happen to know they own, do some searches using them! People may have posted on a forum at some point, Facebook or another social network like Linkedin or Twitter.
User Name
If you happen to only have an email and it looks like a user name in the start of the email address, use that user name in a search engine. This can often bring up a profile which can lead to more data.
Ask for help
A domain consulting service will gladly assist you for a small fee. Ask a domain name blogger like myself or visit a domain name forum. Domainers often are very good investigators and will offer there time for free or a very small finders fee.
No Luck
Sadly, many times a domain name owner wishes not to be known or found. This is not a crime if something like a privacy service is used. Even if you used the email address for the privacy service provided in whois, still does not mean they "need" to reply to you. Many domain name owners get contacted by an interested party to purchase their domain name.
One big problem, not everybody agrees on what a fair price is for a specific domain name, if it is even for sale. One good thing to keep in mind is, some domain name sell for Millions of dollars. If you are offering $20 and are not hearing back, this could be why.
Domain names are one of a kind and people own specific domain names for many reasons. Many domain name owners that are willing to sell, will not make it very hard for you to contact them. This means simply by using the first step I provided (whois) will lead you into contacting the person you want.
