How Do I Buy a Domain Name Currently Owned by Someone Else?

Once you’ve located a domain name that you’d like to acquire, consider evaluating the status. For example, if there is a fully operating business or developed website on the domain name, it is unlikely that the owner will sell. However, if you find that the website is not developed or it is parked, you’ll need to get in touch with the current domain owner. Whois and historic Whois data can be very helpful in finding out who to contact and how. You can use DomainTools Whois to find this data.
Before you draft your inquiry, be sure to understand the domain value up front by doing a valuation. Keep in mind that there are many automated domain sale/purchase bots, which means you should word your inquiry in a way that draws attention to the owner so they know that you are a serious buyer. There isn’t necessarily a “correct” way to undertake a domain name purchase, but consider the status of the domain name and your situation when deciding which approach works best.
Here are different approaches you can take if you’re interested in buying a domain name currently owned by someone else:
– Casual Inquiry. This tactic is helpful in cases where a domain name is not being used for an active site. Without mentioning any interest in buying it, you can inquire what the future plans are for the domain name. There are a few issues that may arise with a casual inquiry. First, the owner may not take your inquiry seriously because it’s worded so casually. Second, you may receive an inflated price response from the owner as a way to see if the request for information was real.
– Low-ball Initial Offer. This tactic is helpful in cases where the domain name is not in use. Be specific about your interest in the domain name and mention a suggested price that is a bit lower than what you’re willing to offer. If the dollar amount is tempting enough and the seller does not have a specific use for the domain name, you may get a favorable response back. However, if the seller asks for a higher price, you’ve left yourself with some room to negotiate.
– Attractive Offer. This tactic is useful if you have a strong desire to secure a particular domain name and you are able to spend a large sum of money. By sending an inquiry backed up by 1) your credentials, 2) a high opening offer, and 3) a very specific date in which you need to secure the domain name, you may be able to close the deal quickly. The downside to submitting a high offer is that you will not have the chance to acquire the domain name at a lower price. On the other hand, most domain owners are unlikely to turn down a very good offer and you may spend less time in the negotiation process than if you had started with a lower bid and arbitrated back and forth on a final price.
– Wait and See. Another option is to wait and see if the domain expires.The current owner may decide not to renew the domain and you can leverage the service of a domain monitor (like DomainTools’ Domain Monitor) to keep tabs on domain status. If the domain name is not renewed, it will then go into pending delete status and could later be picked up in a drop catch auction. Drop catching is when a domain name is snapped up by companies such as snapnames.com who backorder domains as soon as they become available to re-register.
Once the negotiation is over and you’re settled on the price for the domain, what’s left is the closing process. You’ll want to ensure that the domain name is transferred to you and that the seller receives payment.
To ensure that the deal goes smoothly, here is a quick checklist to follow:
– Solidify terms of the deal. It’s good practice to send an email that summarizes the specific terms of the deal, it helps to clarify terms that may have been scattered across numerous emails. For higher value domains that are greater than $5,000, buyers should execute a short acquisition agreement to make the deal legally binding.
– Determine a payment method for the domain. Generally for a larger transaction, you’ll want to use an escrow service such as agreed.com. The benefit of using an escrow service is that they function as a mediator. You send payment to the escrow service, and the seller then transfers domain control. The money is passed to the respective parties once everything is settled. Escrow services may have certain restrictions around the type of payment that can be made. However, even if you don’t use an escrow service, circumstances may dictate the form of payment that you will need to make – such as corporate check, banker’s draft, or instant payment such as Paypal.
– Transfer control of the domain. If you are leveraging an escrow service, which is recommended in most cases, you will be given instructions on how and when to transfer control of the domain.
The transfer process will depend on which registrar the domain is currently registered with, and as the buyer, where you will want the the domain to transfer to. The process for handling domain transfers is slightly different for each registrar. However, the transfer process will usually take shape in one of the following forms:
– If the domain name is registered with a registrar that accommodates a free ‘instant transfer’ process, then all you need to do is open an account with the registrar (if you do not already have an account with one) and request that the seller ‘push’ the domain into the account that you created.
– You will need to request the domain’s authorization code (also referred to as an auth code or an EEP code) from the registrar. Authorization codes are basically a password for the domain, serving as an extra security measure.
– If the domain name is registered with a registrar that makes intra-registrar transfers complicated or impossible, you can initiate a transfer from your favorite registrar and ask the seller to confirm the transfer when the email transfer confirmation arrives. The email confirmation usually goes to the administrative contact on the domain record as a security precaution to ensure validity of the domain name transfer.
– Some registrars require a paper trail approach that may require a completed or signed transfer or a notarized letter authorizing the transfer. While most .com/.net./org registrars have bypassed faxed or snail-mailed documentation, there are still a few registrars that require that type of physical documentation before proceeding with a transaction (such is the case with UK transfers).
Note: Once a transfer has taken place, the domain name can not be transferred again for a number of days, unless it’s being transferred back to the previous registrar.
– Confirm the transfer & Finish the Transaction. Be sure to confirm the status of the transaction with the seller once the transaction has completed. In addition to sending payment on time and in full (if you are the buyer), it’s a good idea to send a final email thanking the other party for making the transaction a smooth one.
Lastly, be sure to update your Whois information after the purchase/sale, and set your domain to auto-renew and lock it for your protection.

How to Select the Right Domain Name for Your Business

Selecting an Internet domain name for your business or product should be an integral part of naming the business or product itself. Compelling domain names (with an appropriate TLD) are becoming increasingly more difficult to come up with because domain names are being registered at such a colossal rate. Whether you have an established business or you are looking to start a new business, there are different aspects to consider as you dive into the process of selecting a domain name.
Choosing a domain name for your business or product is a complex exercise because there are many things to consider: the specific purpose of your Web site, the demographics of your intended audience, the appropriate top-level domain(s) (TLD), geographical location, language of your target audience, and visitor sensibilities. One thing quantitative research cannot measure is the emotional connection (or lack of) a brand has with its users. It takes great care to find the correct balance between all the parts of the whole to provide a complete brand experience to site visitors and customers. The choice to make upfront is to either choose a domain name with a specific keyword that lends to search engine optimization (SEO) value because a key part of your business growth strategy is to drive online traffic to your website, or to choose a generic brand name and take on the marketing challenges.
Clearly, being in the position of needing both a domain name and a company name is the best position to be in because you have more flexibility. The overall takeaway is to make sure that you purchase a domain name that matches your company name, and that the domain name has an ideal extension such as .com before you make a commitment. A way of targeting a geographic location without compromising the extension is to target within the keyword part of the domain itself. For example, a dentist based out of Tulsa could use CosmeticDentistryTulsa.com. These domains do extremely well in regards to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but aren’t very popular as brands, even though they are generic in value.
Corporations typically prefer CompanyName.com as the main site, with additional brands having their own site to reflect specific targeted marketing, messaging, etc. For example, General Motors uses GM.COM as its corporate site, yet they have various brand sites such as Chevrolet.com, Cadillac.com, GMC.com and Buick.com.
Service sites like Yahoo, Google and Skype use a central domain name for all global web traffic.However, they use country specific extensions to allow for localization of services. For example, Google uses Google.co.uk, Google.de, Google.fr, Google.ca, Google.co.in, Google.cn for United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, India and China respectively.
So How Do You Choose the Right Domain Name?
There are two key elements that need to work together in order to choose the correct domain name: the keyword and the extension. These need to be considered along with acquisition costs and the marketing budget.
1. Keyword Selection: When you’re promoting a product or a service, the best way to proceed is to choose a related generic keyword or keyword set. Think about the top 5 keywords or terms that come to mind that best describe your company or product. Once you’ve developed that list, you can pair the keywords or add prefixes to see what stands out. Other things to keep in mind are to pick keywords that are easy to remember and easy to type.
For example, if I wanted to target Chinese acupuncture services in Seattle, I want to hone in words like healing, medical, and northwest. I might consider:
www.TheHealingRainGroup.com
www.MedicalAcupunctureSeattle.com
www.HealingNorthwest.com
www.ChineseAcupunctureSeattle.com
or
If I sold handmade scarves and hats made out of specific yarn (in this case, alpaca wool), I want to hone in on what makes the scarf unique in addition to the word scarves. Words like alpaca and handmade will be heavily considered. Domain names that might work well here are:
www.HandMadeAlpacaKnits.com
www.LuxuryAlpacaKnits.com
www.AlpacaHatsScarves.com
www.AlpacaKnitsByHand.com
If the company is to create a very unique identity, a made up word can be used instead of a keyword. Specifically, this is an option to consider when a .com is absolutely necessary but a keyword won’t fit in the budget. The marketing budget required to achieve brand recall for such domain names can be substantial unless the service itself allows the marketing to go viral. You can also consider leveraging a generic keyword in a cheaper extension to ensure it fits the marketing budget. This is a popular strategy used by developers on limited budgets who do not wish to compromise with the quality of the keywords.
For Example:
Haribo (www.haribo.com), the German confectionary producer, developed its company name by combining the name of the company founder and the German home town of the company: Hans Riegel, Bonn.
2. Extension Selection: If you’re looking for a global audience, the best option is a .com domain. A non profit could possibly use a .org. However, if you’re only looking at targeting a specific geographic area, a local extension might be a more appealing and cheaper alternative. Certain extensions lend themselves to great brand value irrespective of their country of origin, by the fact that they are common English words or phrases. Hence a .tv could be used for a video heavy site, a .me for a personal site and a .in for branding as international, interactive or Internet, irrespective of the geographic location.
Note of Caution: Regardless of your choice, remember that once you select a domain name, check to see if it’s too similar with competing domain names, and also check that it’s not in violation of someone else’s trademark by visiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

How Do I Register a Domain Name?

The task of setting up a web site starts with a domain name registration process. ICANN is the group that is charged with granting the necessary authority to register new domain names to a select group of organizations or commercial entities around the world. These companies are called domain “registrars“. They are the “middle men”, essentially, between you, as the domain name registrant, and the World Wide Web. As such, when registering a domain name, you will work with these registrars.
There are numerous accredited registrars to choose from, though there are a few registrars who continue to stand out amongst rivals include GoDaddy and Network Solutions. Some registrars offer straight-forward, quick domain name registration while others offer elaborately comprehensive registration packages that can feature live 24 hour support, full web hosting packages, web site design assistance, and more. As a result, the registration fees tend to match up accordingly, as you can register a website for a year for as little as $10 (and even less in some cases), or can pay upwards of $40 from other companies that offer bundled services such as web hosting, etc.
When speaking to a registrar, you may already have an idea of the specific domain name that you would like to buy. The registrar will be able to assist you in verifying if that domain is available, or you can even use DomainTools to check whether a domain is available. If it is, you can register it. If it is not, you can even use DomainTools’ Domain Suggestion tool to research other possible name alternatives. Suitable alternatives that include, but are not limited to, changing the domain name slightly (example, ‘books.net’ rather than ‘book.net’), or possibly choosing an alternate top level domain (perhaps ‘books.com’ is available, even though ‘books.net’ is taken).
Once you find the domain name you want, basic personal and billing information will need to be provided to the registrar in order to complete registration. Typically, domain name registration is done using a credit card and in some cases it can also be done using Paypal or a checking account. Once payment has been submitted, e-mail is typically sent to confirm registered domain ownership and transaction details.
If you have experience any issues related to your domain record, contact your registrar.