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How To Purchase a Registered Internet
Domain Name
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To
purchase an Internet domain name that is already
registered, you should first check to see whether
it is being offered for sale though a broker or
auction. If it is listed for sale, you should follow
the instruction for making an offering, which varies
depending on sale venue, i.e., whether it is an
auction, catalog listing, or private placement.
The leading sites are: AfterNIC,
DomainMart,
and Sedo.
If
the desired domain name is not listed for sale,
you have three alternative approaches. To simplify
the selection, first clarify to yourself exactly
how much you want the Internet domain name. Below
is a table to assist you with the selection process.
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How Much Do You Want It?
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Options
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Must Have
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Direct Contact
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Want to Have
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Direct Contact, Wanted
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Nice to Have
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Secure If Expires
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Alternatives
(1)
Direct
Contact
This
method involves communicating with the administrative
contact of the domain name, which can be obtained
by performing a Whois search.
You
will be able to reach the administrative contact
by either retaining a broker/agent such as DomainMart
or acting on your own behalf. This decision depends
on three variables:
(a)
your negotiation skill;
(b)
your comfort level in communicating in the
language of the seller, if the admin contact is
a non-English speaker;
and
(c)
your knowledge about the market value of
the domain name and its value to you.
Wanted
listings can be either public information or private
placements. DomainMart,
for example, prefers the latter primarily because
of heightened interest from both buyers and sellers.
Here
are some reasons for you to choose this option
over Direct Contact:
(a)
You do not want to reveal strong interest to seller
for fear of adverse asking price.
(b)
You are interested in a large number of
alternative domain names.
(
c) You have no urgency to acquire the domain name.
Whatever
the situation, as in the Direct Contact option,
you need to know the market value of the domain
name and its value to you.
One
of the current limitations of this approach is that
there is no single dominant Wanted list. DomainMart
is currently working on creating such a list through
an affiliate-networked market for domain names.
(3)
Waiting for Expiration
A
third alternative is to try to secure the domain
name after it expires and is returned to the pool
of publicly available domain names. You can try
to do this on your own; however, it makes sense
to subscribe to one of the professional services
due to the low service cost.
Remember, this approach
is practical only if you feel it would be nice
to have a given domain name. From an owner’s
perspective, the domain name is left to expire
because
(a)
the owner does not think it is worth the
annual renewal fee of $10-$35;
(b)
the owner was not aware of the expiration
date because the administrative contact e-mail
is not active, though most registrars and service
providers send e-mail notifications; or
A
number of people who choose this alternative end
up using the domain name either as a doorway to
their main site or as a porn site if the domain
had a reasonable traffic referral from search
engines.
If a domain name is worth considerable money,
there will be a lot of people interested in acquiring
it. In that case, the chances of securing the
domain name will be very small,
so
you as a buyer should try to acquire it through
one of the other two alternatives.
(4) Keep
in mind that leasing
is sometimes a better option than buying.
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