Also, contact the other business’s like yourself and advise them of who is ripping you off.

Be tough!

Contracts don’t help either. Tried that also. It’s too time consuming when you deal with thousands of buyers and sellers. The amount of time you spend going back and forth with paperwork is too costly. Utlimately if someone is going to screw you, they don’t care about having signed a contract anyways.

The only other option is to charge a Listing Fee, as opposed to a Sales Commission, but I understand what effect that would have on your bottom line…UGH!

Am I just missing it or is each name NOT catalogued following its ‘Day in the Spotlight’ for a possible future sale. Seems like sellers would get more bang for their buck and sales would likely increase. I may have just missed that link…?

Maybe a simple exclusivity contract for a short period (a pair of weeks after the newsletter issue) should be the solution. But this will not refrain unscrupulous sellers that may wait the end of this period to sell directly.

I was also thinking to obligate sellers to use whois privacy and no signs of ownership in the associated site but again unscrupulous people may wait to bypass you.

So finally the only that really works it’s this trust relationship you established and hope people understand it cost you resources to maintain such service and as normal you must generate some profit to can continue to provide it.

It’s not politically correct but publicly show the people that abused your service may seriously refrain others to do the same. But how to get sure this guy is really guilty (see first point)?

It’s complicated to find the best solution

My 2 cents.

I think it’s the sellers responsibility to honor the agreement/commission.

If you don’t ask for exclusivity then you cant cry wolf. We get your email but I probably read it 4 times a month. I suspect with the overload of lists many are in the same boat. If we send an email to a name that happens to be on your list why should we care? Honestly, its up to you to hold the seller accountable, not the buyers.

Granted we haven’t done this but in theory – who cares except you?

Good business is about getting good value for your dollar. You can use words all day long to describe the efforts placed to combat this kind of stuff but it sounds like begging and pleading to me.

Hold your sellers accountable. Only way to do this.

I have no idea whats on your list 90% of the time and when we email potential sellers I never ask

“Excuse me sir. Before we talk about selling your domain do you happen to have the name listed anywhere else”

Again, not just your venue – any venue. A buyer doesn’t care if they have a seller willing and waiting to sell.

Put the correct pieces in place and you wont have this problem.

Alan