- Welcome to The Journey.
Today we're talking about how to buy a domain
that someone else already owns.
Hi, I'm Alex and joining us is a very special guest today.
We have Joe from GoDaddy.
Joe, tell us a little bit about yourself.
- Hi, I'm Joe.
I work in the aftermarket.
And one of the things that we do there
is help people by names that someone else already owns.
And I've been doing that for more than 10 years.
- All right, Joe.
So let's say I have the perfect business idea.
I have the most picture-perfect domain name in mind.
I go and search for it and somebody else already owns it.
Such a bummer.
You know, why is it so important to have
that perfect domain name and, you know,
essentially spend some time and energy
into making sure you get that?
- You can always go with another alternative
like a longer name or maybe another TLD like a .net or.org
but if you have this perfect name in mind,
why not try and go for that exact name.
It helps with marketing, it helps with branding.
If you think it's great, I'm sure other people will.
So why not give it a shot?
- Okay, so if you found yourself in this situation,
you're ready to give it a shot.
What is that first step that you need to take
in order to try and get that domain?
- Well, the first thing you want to do
is find out who owns the name, right?
So you can go to the website and see if there's any
kind of contact information on the site, if it's live.
Or you can go to the who is,
which is a public database.
That's kind of like the white pages for,
you know, your phone numbers,
and it gives out the owners of the names in most cases.
And even if there's privacy, like an unlisted number,
there's usually a link on that, "who is."
That will let you contact the actual owner.
So you can go find out who owns it
and see if they are willing to sell it.
- I love using that, "who is" extension on Chrome.
I mean, it's a great way super easy.
You already at the domain,
it gives you all that information.
But there are some instances where it's not foolproof,
right?
- Right.
If they have privacy, like I said,
they might mask it because people don't want you to know
where their home is.
And that makes sense.
So in those cases, there's usually a link
that will let you contact the registrant,
or it'll have a very long kind of obfuscated email address,
but you can still send emails to it,
and it'll forward to the actual owner.
- So basically, you might need to use
some of your detective skills, but it'll be worth it.
So now that we know who owns the domain name already,
you know, now we get to the fun part, negotiating.
What's the first step in that process like?
- The best thing to do when you start to negotiate
is try and find out who the decision maker is,
who owns the name.
If it's just a small, you know, company,
it's usually pretty easy.
If it's a bigger company, it might have a webmaster
or other information on the, "who is"
and they're not going to be the decision maker.
So you really want to get to
who can make the decision to actually sell that name.
So do a little bit more research.
You know, look at the company online,
see if you can find out
who's in the right position for that.
It's usually you know, if it's a bigger company,
CEO, CFO, marketing person,
you want to find the right point of contact
to actually sell you the name.
- Yeah, because if you're reaching out to
the website administrator, you may never hear back.
And that's just going to get lost along the way.
So definitely really important.
The next thing, what about budget?
I mean, how are we determining
how much money you should offer?
- Well, there's some tools that you can use online
to try and find out what a name is worth.
You can use GoDaddys valuation tool,
you can use estibot.com, there's namebio,
which will show you comparable similar sales.
And then the other thing you have to think about
is put yourself in that owners position,
they spent time to figure out the name
that they wanted to get, they spent money on it, buying it.
Maybe they bought it in the aftermarket,
or even if they had it for a long time,
they're paying these renewal fees.
So they've already invested quite a bit in the name.
So if you go and offer them $50,
they're probably going to ignore you.
You need to put yourself in their shoes
and it will be interesting for you.
- Yeah, and is this a domain that they've invested a lot in?
Or is it just kind of sitting there?
You know, what's kind of the current situation?
- Right, exactly.
So you really have to think about
what is the name worth to you
and what do you think it would be worth to them
to be able to part with that name?
- So then, of course, you know, as entrepreneurs,
we're all really excited to, you know,
get things rolling in the quickest amount of time possible.
But realistically, how much time should we kind of expect
for this process to take?
- I think realistically,
ballpark would probably be about a month,
because you have to do the research
and find out who owns the name,
figure out who the decision maker is,
then negotiate back and forth.
And once you reach an agreement,
you still have to transfer the name.
So that can take another week or so.
And you know, if you add everything together
with you know, your busy schedule as an entrepreneur
and whoever owns the name, you know,
going back and forth it'll probably take about a month.
- Alright, so I've talked to the person,
we've settled on a price.
Now let's talk about the nitty gritty
actually paying the person.
Do I just Venmo them?
How does this work?
- No, you don't want to do that.
And you don't want to use a site like PayPal,
because there's not enough protection for you as a buyer.
So what you want to do is you want to go
with a company like escrow.com,
or you can use GoDaddy with our auction service.
And what they do is they take in the domain name,
and they make sure that the funds are good.
And then once everything is cleared,
then they'll say, okay, the parties can move the names.
So if you use escrow.com, you know your money is safe.
If you use GoDaddy, they're going to buy the name
and then sell it to you.
So they're going to make sure that those funds clear
and that you get the name.
- Yeah, and then the owner of the domain
feels a little bit more secure,
because they know that your payment is coming through
on time, everything is moving along.
- Exactly.
And using a third party that people recognize as a brand
that they can trust, that adds a lot to the transaction,
it'll help it to go a lot smoother.
- Now, I'm an impatient person, you know,
I'm all about that instant gratification,
just like a lot of other people.
So I mean, you know, if I go on eBay,
I'm going to get something right away.
Why in this scenario, to have to wait a little bit longer?
- Well, if you're trying to buy a domain name,
it has value to you to begin with, right?
So names are valuable.
Some names are worth millions of dollars.
So there's a lot of security around the name,
you don't want to, you know, build your business on a name
and all of a sudden it just disappears out your account.
So because of the different security mechanisms
that they have,
it needs both parties to kind of,
you know, do a handshake and say,
we're okay with moving this name.
There's a lock on the name,
you have to give a specific code for the name in many cases
for that transfer to happen.
And if it goes between two companies,
they both have to verify that information as well.
There's third parties that look into this
and make sure that when you transfer a name,
all the security protocols are met.
So it makes your name you know, a lot safer.
- So that's great.
That was a ton of really valuable information.
But let's say that I don't necessarily want to do it myself.
Is there anyone that I can get
to help out with this process?
- Yeah, and that's probably a good idea.
There is a lot of things that you have to keep in mind.
So if you get a broker, they have buyer brokers.
GoDaddy has the domain broker service
and there's other buyer brokers that are out there
that you can contact.
They do this all the time.
They understand all the transfers,
you know how to make that smooth,
they understand what to do with money.
They've been negotiating for names
so they know a fair market value
and they can give you a little bit of education about,
hey, this name you're going after,
it should cost you about X amount of money.
And that's a reasonable value, you know,
What do you want to do?
Do you want to offer that upfront?
They can negotiate in volume, because many times,
if they're buying names from the same person
over and over again,
they have a good relationship with them.
And they know that they're going to continue
to bring them deals.
So that's going to help you.
And they also can help with anonymity.
You know, if you're trying to buy a name,
and you're a big company,
or they think that you're a famous person,
or whatever the case may be,
they're going to see, wow, you know,
that person wants my name, it must be really valuable.
Let me charge more money.
So having the broker act on your behalf,
it's going to help with anonymity
and kind of keep the negotiations
going in a way that's going to benefit you as a buyer.
And another thing is, you know,
it helps you focus on your main business that you know,
you don't have to spend all this time
worrying about all the details.
And with somebody else negotiating,
it keeps all the emotion out of it.
So you can just, you know,
say here's what I'm willing to pay,
you deal with all the negotiations,
and I'm going to sit back and wait for you to get that done.
- Well, thank you so much Joe, that was really helpful.
And now you know how
to buy a domain that someone else already owns.
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