This is part 1 of a full story I will be posting in the coming days but I thought I would share one important aspect of the story. How to avoid a vital mistake when attempting to purchase a domain name that is already owned by somebody.
Often times when you are interested in a specific domain name, it likely will be owned by somebody already. This is OK as most things in life are for sale, at the right price. If you don’t know what you are doing, hire somebody that does!
Situation
You are interested in buying the ".com" domain name
The .net and .org domain names are "available"
Do you register the .net and or the .org before obtaining the .com?
Absolutely Not!!!!
Why?
Research can lead to you paying more! That is the simple answer. The more complex answer is this. When you register a domain name, there is a system in place called Whois. This reveals vital information that can easily be obtained. Creation date, who the owner is and much more. Yes, there is "privacy" services to hide who purchased the domains but you have to be aware of and use it. Secondly, if you purchase the available domains, that doesn’t hide when they were created.
If you register other TLD’s before trying to acquire the ".com", it is very likely that the .com domain owner will check whois data on the other TLD’s of the domain name you are interested in upon you contacting them with your interest. If this happens, it is a dead giveaway that you are very interested in the domain name. In the end, this will likely cause you to pay more for the domain name!
Tip
If you are interested in owning the main TLD’s for a specific term, try your best to obtain the domain name you want the most first, before showing your hand at all with the other domain names!
Knowing the above information can save you or your company a lot of money! In fact, when I share the rest of this story, you will see that it cost this company $xx,xxx because they didn’t do the above. They even hired a professional domain buyer but not a sneaky enough one! In the end, the company is the one who made the mistake by registering the .net domain name before securing the .com!
BullS
Hey, why do you choose that one in your post as it is in Seattle?
Steve Jones
It depends. I would tend to agree with you, but if the .com is priced out of reach and the seller takes the inquiry seriously, they might reg the .net and .org to complete the set. Granted if the buyer is starting a business, they should generally be sticking with .com, but if they would feel better with that .net than with a different .com, they could have just missed their opportunity at it.
There’s reasons for and against doing it. Not all sellers will raise price if they see the person owns another ext of the name. Keep in mind the buyer could also say “I just registered the .net but may be interested in buying the .com depending on the price” – the seller would know that going sky high wouldn’t reach a sale in that case.
Jamie Zoch
@Steve,
More to come soon.
In this case, they (interested party in the .com) registered the .net about 1 month before even contacting the .com owner. I did some digging for the seller and the price went up because of the situation that was taking place
Web Hosting
Thanks for the tip, It is the useful information ..