#1 Make a decent first offer, it does not have to be huge, thus showing your ‘total hand’, but letting the potential seller know you are serious is very important. They will ignore you otherwise.

#2 Be polite, most serious domain owners and/or domainers actually have incomes and trying to convince them that your $350 offer is a good one is a little short sighted. Treat the situation with some respect, or expect a big counter offer, or to be ignored.

#3 Be patient, good things come to those who wait and you never know when the potential seller may need some cashflow for a new purchase or web development. By keeping the door open you do a lot of favours for future deals and saving some money on your next domain name purchase.

#4 Be prepared to bargain, Rome wasn’t built in a day and most higher quality domain negotiations take time and perseverance. Don’t give up at the first hurdle!

#5 Work out what a domain is actually worth, value is in the eye of the beholder! Is the domain name replaceable for the amount you want to pay? Would you sell or resell for that same amount you want to offer? Just because someone is not using a name, don’t mean they don’t want it – I doubt you go around the beachfront trying to buy vacant land and getting annoyed because the owner won’t sell cheap because they are not ‘using it’.

#6 Don’t make Low Ball Domain Offers, receiving $50-500 offers on domains that are easily worth in excess of $2500 (even at wholesale domainer prices) will frustrate the seller, not only wasting their time, but also your time. Go too low and the counter offer will be high, but more frequently you won’t even get a response.

#7 The early bird catches the worm, good domain names continue to rise on value, even during economic downturns. If you get in first, not only will you pay less, you get appreciation on your side. Good domains sell fast and they are rarely as cheap as you want them to be. If they are cheap, don’t hesitate, snap it up fast!

#8 Happy buying, remember you are buying something that might well last forever and feed your children’s, children’s, children. Buy wise & be prepared to pay for the good names that will appreciate.

Check out the typical domain inquiry video below (click to view)!

Thanks to Bill for making it.

Our next post will be about how to buy a .au domain name, including the transfer process, how a typical sale works and also how to locate a potential seller and get to the owner when you’ve exhausted the regular avenues of contact.

http://www.sedo.com/press/domainmarketstudy2007.pdf

Sexually explicit content is prohibited (X18+, and Refused Classification content).

* R18+ content (non-sexually-explicit, but restricted) must be hidden behind a verification service that checks for ages 18 and up.
* So-called “Mature audience” (MA15+) content must also be hidden behind a verification service that checks for ages 15 and up.
* The Act will use “take down,” “service cessation” and “link deletion” notices to force publishers to remove content or access to content that is the subject of a complaint.

Users will have to supply their full name, and either a credit card or digital signature.

The new rules also apply to live chatrooms, which is a whole different problem.

The Panel recommends that auDA conduct a two year review of the new transfers policy.

… you think .mobi is a whale.
… on your job application you list cybersquatting.
… you can recite GoDaddy promo codes from memory.
… you’ve named one of your kids Alexa.
… you think “tasting” has nothing to do with food.
… you’ve appraised your own name.
… your main source of income is Adsense revenue.
… your Sedo rep sends you holiday cards.
… you consider “traffic” a good thing.
… your company’s CEO is not as important as it’s SEO.
… you own a “Vint Cerf for Pres” shirt.
… you have a diverse portfolio, but don’t own any stocks.
… you consider new visitors to your home as unique.
… you’ve registered a LLLL.com that doesn’t even make sense.
… you’d rather register a domain than register for class.
… you consider Whois a social network.
… you still refer to Zuho as SwapNames.
… you’re not a lawyer but can recite trademark laws from memory.
… you own some sort of iphone related domain name.
… your backlink quality is more important than your quality of friends.
… two words: ICANN
… you’ve ordered chips & Dotsauce.
… you knew GoDaddy before he was even a father.
… you’ve been in a fistfight because someone has dissed your Pagerank.
… you’ve registered a celebrity’s name.
… you consider parking nothing to do with an automobile.
… you’re favorite quote is “may the Rick Schwartz be with you.”
… you’ve posted over 1,000 posts in any domain forum.
… you trust Estibot more than your girlfriend.
… you’ve registered a misspelled word…on purpose.
… you cried when all the LLLL’s were gone.
… you don’t know a country’s capital, but you sure as hell know thier .cc
And the last reason You Might Be A Domainer is….
…you have a bracelet that says “What would Frank Schilling Do?”

25 percent growth every year for the last 5 years. I love this CCtld space.. Very potent/powerful extension. Would prefer name.au to name.com.au.. But there’s lots to love about Australia.. Lex Luther had it right.

Via Frank Schilling!

Great Comment By Ben Wilks re Google and Domains

“”I have friends that only use Google search box for direct navigation. Why? Because it’s faster and if they stuff up Google will fix it. This is how a lot of people use the web. Domainers need to start abusing this. I watched my mate do it last night, his comment was a. it’s faster b. I want to start at Google, that’s why it’s MY homepage. Fair enough I say.

Site’s that don’t rank for their own name are VERY RARELY banned. It is actually quite difficult to get a site banned. I know guys that do all the time. Sites that don’t rank just don’t have the links coming in from the right places.

It’s not rocket science and one good paid link (or free from your own network) can rank the domain top 10 – #1, it’s not hard hey.

So if your sites are not ranking for their names you are missing half the pie and it’s only going to get worse.

A BIG factor of the Google algo is AGE OF LINKS. The sooner you act the better. In some niches you will be left behind.

I also understand it’s WORK to the domainers, but at the same time it’s not that much extra if your systems are smart. READ: it can be automated. The ROI is there and it’s not difficult with a network of sites that are indexed or have link pop.

Food for thought anyway.”"

***FS*** Well said Ben.. I’m sure we’ve all noticed friends and fam who navigate in this way.. We could all take some of your advice.

Leland Hardy, NewYork.com (via DN Journal). What a domain!