The $50,000 fortnight
When dealing with some people online it is instantaneous, questions asked /answers given = job done.
I sometimes have to take note, sit back and realise that companies that I approach to buy domains can & have lots to do in their normal roles. I made an offer on a domain that was not in use and is over 10 years old, they replied 2 days later to say the head of IT had checked with one of their directors and yes they would be prepared to sell it for the price I had suggested ($2k /£1k).
I accepted and let them know what paperwork would need to be done then received nothing at their end for 5 days..argh!!, I really wanted this domain as well, then suddenly 5 days later I get the transfer forms to complete by email (pdf). I complete them and email them back within 30 minutes along with my cover letter. I get an immediate reply asking for payment details- I give them my card details to charge and then…..nothing…. for days….. I really want this domain!
Kind of feel like a young boy waiting for Christmas and I know I should back off and seem less needy, it’s hard though, I really want this domain. Then a long 6 days after I give them my card details finally they charge my card the £1k, phew progress, now just need to wait for the forms to be sent to Nominet and watch the whois waiting for it to update, again at times like this I find myself lacking in patience and the UK domain transfer process doesn’t help.
3
days later the domain details get updated and I get to breathe and rejoice. TVs.co.uk is now mine, a nice LLL.co.uk which is also the main word we use for televisions and for the next few years it is future proof as it can cover LCD’s Plasma’s and the up and coming Laser TV’s, as with many electrical goods the prices have come down a great deal and I would guess that most of you reading this had more than 2 of them in your home? The worry is that one day TVs and PCs will merge so I need to make hay while the sun shines and make sure this domains ranks well and performs with big income numbers in the next 2-3 years.
In the short term I will get some basic articles up and introduce the domain to the search engines and work on ranking it and getting it trusted, so for an investment of $2000 and then having to wait 2 weeks it has been stressful but rewarding, I asked a few of my peers as to it’s value just as a domain and the value is put at around $50,000 right now. I am sure with improved traffic and some good rankings I can make this into a large success story. There was no haggling on the price and the company that owned the domain were easy to find and contact so again anyone else in the world could have done this if they had the stamina to take lots of no’s and rejection along the way to finding the gems, although I have since found out they were offered more money earlier in the year but were unresponsive.
Sounds like I had the rub of the green with this one and they were worn down by the time I emailed they just got fed up and sold, I also have some domains as good as this one that I have been told to come back in 2-3 months time as they may be available then.
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Congratulations on the purchase. Please keep us posted with your progress in making the domain/site even more valuable.
Very very nice, massive congratulations, shows that diligence does pay off.
Cheers Al, I needed a boost with my Adsense being down of late so this was the tonic I needed, enjoy lapland!
Fantastic buy. I red your previous post about this and was waiting for the disclosure. I bet if you put it on NamePros you could get at least $5k fast. But my advice is to keep it, invest some money and make it a shop and in few years you’ll be very glad. It has great branding potential for the UK market and as we all know plasmas aren’t cheap
Thanks Adrian, I have been offered $10k for a fast flip/profit but it’s too nice to not have a go at developing and ranking.
Definitely keep it… Such a nice domain. We’ve seen how lll.com has shot up so even if tv’s are no more, you’ve still got a lll.co.uk.
nice work
Definitely shows what is possible if you are willing to keep at it.
Hi Scott
Thats a great domain, and and excellent price as well.
It will be interesting to see how you develop it, keep us posted on the progress
Wow! Great news. I’m jealous! How did you originally come across the domain?
I’ll take it off your hands for $1500
I was just checking a whole bunch of lll.co.uk’s and contacting any I liked that were not in use.
Congratulations on that find. I have been shopping for some cheap older domains and have had little success lately. But every time you make a deal like this it gives me encouragement.
Keep with it Joey, I sometimes get disillusioned too but it’s great to get the odd payout and share a success story.
sounds like a bargain, with the UK moving to digital too I’m sure you can make the most of it
Awesome. Congratulations on a very shrewd business deal my friend. I can’t beleive the original owners agreed at such a rate.
One thing that you should mention to your readers is that you offered them a price that the IT guy took straight to the director, that price probably enticed the director who than accepted. If in turn you had just emailed asking for a sale price chances are you might not have gotten a response.
Thanks Mubin, I think that is a very valid point, probably more important than anything is to give a specific price that can be sanctioned rather than offering a ballpark general x,xxx.
Great domain purchase, nice to get rewarded for being in the right place and being patient. You have done many great deals and I continue to be impressed with them. So far the only web profit I can report is that I am getting really close to my first web dollar, and still my most profitable point is my inventacar.com parked domain. I am thinking of what kind of site I could build around it, and yet realizing if it is not simple it probably won’t happen.
I there, my name is Dave and I am 29 years of age and reside in Canada. I have been reading your web page for about 3 months now. I am very interested in the online property business as well as other online business ventures . Could you please offer some advice on how to get started, or refer me to some articles. Thank you so much for your time.
Dave
Hi Dave, there are lots of different ways to do it like developing from scratch, minisites, buying to sell, buying to develop. Most of my experiences have been document on this blog so perhaps checkout the sitemap and read further back on the subject.
Hi Scott, I love your stories that we can all look up to. I know you have many domains that you purchase just to fix up and resell. When you resell, do people just come to you and make an offer, or do you sell at auction, etc? Nice inspiration!
Ryan
I have had the odd person come to me, I prefer to sell to an end user, not an auction - another webmaster would pay 12-24 times monthly income however a business in that niche can often justify a better price and pay more as they can possibly sell products or services rather than monetise by Adsense so looking for a real end user rather than a webmaster often pays better for myself.
I miss the fresh posts! Hope you guys are enjoying your holiday.
There is not a lot happening just now mate, winding down and going to either re-charge or de-charge the batteries
Congratulations on the purchase.Thats a great domain, and and excellent price as well.
Merry x’mas
So tell me, I picked up RSSMarketingSecrets.com for next to nothing, what do you think I can get for it?
I haven’t done anything with it. though.
I would say $10-$100 unless you know of a reason why it would be worth more, a potential customer could just as easily register RSSMarketingSecret.com which is available.
Thats a nice domain name. Congratulations!
Hey Scott
Firstly congrats for the domain. It’s a really nice one and would be a great success story.
I tried contacting people for a domain I really like and got no response (2 months now) and to be honest now I gave up.
anyway nice one
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