Where are they now? A look at domains sold in the past.
POSTED BY Rick Latona IN Web Sites

From time to time, if you follow the domainer message boards, you'll see posts about domains that have been sold and what the new owner has done with them. This is my post on the subject.

For the purpose of this exercise, let's look at only names that have sold over two years ago as the recent ones haven't had enough time to develop properly if that is what the buyer intends.

I've seen very few turn into interesting products. Here's one that does peek my curiosity. Look at ideposit.com. It's a system that allows you to scan checks in remotely through a machine on your desk. With it, you don't have to make trips to the bank. It's obvious why this would be handy but probably especially so for the domainer working in remote locations from their actual bank. I could see people scanning checks like this to deposit them in their account offshore, for example.

There are the fair share of brochure websites that are a product of my sales. Typical ones would be InvestmentBrokers.com or GoSleep.com.

My personal favorites are the developed sites I've sold, many of which haven't been updated since I sold them. Soundboards.com comes to mind.

The trend, as far as I can see, is that none of the names I have sold have gone on to become massive Internet companies. It's a sobering thought really. A vast majority of the names are still parked by the new owners or are simple sites which I doubt make very much like Bogey.com.

Even the sites that were developed out nicely, don't get more traffic than this blog, according to Alexa.com anyway. Look at iFares.com, mybanks.com or GreenWithEnvy.com.

Then, of course, there are those names you sell which are now dead links or even better, they still point at your name servers! This is much more common than one would think.

In summary, I have no regrets and will continue to sell most names, and keep and develop the ones I have a personal vision for. There are the dissapointments now and again but they are the result of me realizing I could have gotten more for them, not that I should have kept them.

  • http://elliotsblog.com Elliot Silver

    I am still glad we were able to come to terms on Lowell.com :)

  • http://www.ricklatona.com/ Rick Latona

    I would have mentioned some of the geos which are being developed into nice sites but as it has been less than 2 years, I decided to exclude them.

  • http://GeoOwners.com Tim Davids

    agree on the "they still point at your name servers!" I have had 2 going for more than 6 months each and making about 3% on my "old" investments...whatta country :)

  • http://www.greentaxi.com Conor Neu

    They still point at your name servers?! What a deal!

    I imagine this is a topic that few people write about, but could occur quite often, or at least more often that is discussed in public. I'm impressed you're posting on it. That's free money!

  • http://basketsofcheer.com Tony Lam, DMD

    Am I the only one that thinks that this post might be counterproductive to what Rick is doing? Reading this wouldn't encourage me to buy domains at retail. I love the frankness and information though.

  • Solaras

    I still remember back then when I was 17 years old, I don't even know what a Nameserver is. and I believe its the same with most people out there. Simply grab a random person on the street and ask them about nameservers, they won't be able to answer. lol

  • http://www.henniemeijer.com hennie meijer

    The tone of this article is that you made good deals selling the domains and that most new owners did not capitalise on the domains(suggesting gross incompetence by new owners). Personally if I would sell a domain I would be a lot happier seeing messages like the one from Mr Silver. This would be better for the whole "domainingidustry" as well.
    This article basicly should deter people from buying these domains for big prices as it is not as easy to capitalise on them unless 100 % determined(like mr Silver)
    Regretting an occasional sale because you could have gotten a little bit more is like saying:
    I want to get 99 % of the value out of the domain and the new owner can get a peanut.
    It is a way of doing business, but longterm you should be happier if new owners are happy too.
    I guess your trackrecord proves otherwise and squeezing the last penny out of someone you negotiate with is the way to go.

  • http://www.domainsugar.com Germ

    Several of my old domains are still pointing at my nameservers. I used to make a point of deleting every name I sold from my parking accounts, it seemed proper. Then I forgot one until one day a news story ended up sending a bunch of traffic to it. I noticed that.

    I've sometimes had a hard time adding new names I bought to my parking accounts because the seller never deleted them from the same company. I've been asked to "show proof" that it's my domain (as if the whois wasn't enough).

    So there's the rub. Is it unethical to keep names you've sold active at a parking company?

    Lately, I've been keeping them in until the nameservers are changed (some for more than a year now) or the parking company deletes them for the new owner (never happened yet).

    However, I ALWAYS remove the for sale link or listings. I wouldn't want to see a name I just purchased listed for sale at afternic or sedo (which I have).

    I'm thinking the best practice is to cut all ties with it, but it's also crossed my mind that the buyer left it alone on purpose in certain instances. Maybe to not draw attention to his new acquisition. I dunno, but it's come up far more often than I ever thought it would.

  • http://toomanysecrets.com/domainers-bad-repuation/ Domainers have a bad reputation

    [...] is a lively discussion going on at Rick Latona’s blog this week about domain’s being sold and what the buyers do with [...]

  • http://toomanysecrets.com Too Many Secrets

    I think it is completely immoral of you guys to take advantage of the domain buyers who left domains pointing to your DNS.

    Do the honest thing and remove the entries.

    - Richard.

  • http://namethat.com Mike

    after each sale, the seller should delete the name from his/her account and not profit from any parking revenues.

    what if the revenues are material and the buyer, after realizing the issue, sues seller for lost revenue? could be a major headache that i would avoid.

  • http://www.domainsugar.com Germ

    I agree Mike.

    In the end, a few pennies could turn out to be quite expensive. Even if nothing ever happens I've always found it's best to do what you think is proper even if no one else seems to care.

    Being a techie, changing my nameservers is always the very first thing I do once I have control of domain. I mean, that's why you paid good money for it right? To use it.

    Also, if a buyer never changes the nameservers, it's a pretty good indication they might not know how or why to do so. If you offer related services, it could be a good reason to contact them again and offer to help them out.

    BTW, this comment string just spurred a post on a new blog I read, "Too many Secrets". He calls this "immoral". I love his blog so far, but I think "immoral" is bit much. Still, I'll be addressing this in my privacy policy going forward and make it a priority to scan my past sales for this issue and contact the new owners to make sure they are aware they need to change their nameservers.

  • Lda

    Time for those proofreaders you spoke of recently ....

    peek my curiosity / pique my curiosity.

  • http://www.adstrategist.com Bruno Silva

    How Come?

    It's on buyers interest that he edits those nameservers. He has everything to do it, not the seller, so there's no way he'll ever win any legal action against the seller...

  • http://www.Siddur.org Jordan

    Somebody used Bogey.com for a golf site?!?!? I'm no golfer, but isn't that a negative image? Isn't birdie the good bit and bogey the bad? I would have thought Bogey better for a Humphrey Bogart tribute site.

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