Since I do a lot of research on domain names, it is often I start discovering patterns. These patterns layout after time of and become more clear simply seeing certain things. Well, I am about to share some of these patterns and who is using them.
Domain Buying Services
Mainly corporate domain buying services, I’m sure have been doing this for sometime but as far as I can tell, the activity has increased lately.
The hidden domain name purchase
Real life example: LocalRegister.com
LocalRegister.com was owned by eCorp and the domain name sold for $10,000 at Sedo.com. I wrote and had thought LocalRegister.com was acquired the day Amazon launched its product recently, but I had suspected the domain had “sold” around May/June 2013. In fact, on June 6, 2013 whois went into privacy and the domain transferred from Moniker to GoDaddy but the only visible thing in whois, showed domain name servers, which remained the same as prior to the sale.
August 13, 2014 Amazon launched the Local Register service and that day, Amazon was reveal in whois. The domain also transferred out of GoDaddy to ComLaude (brand protection company).
Chad, the seller posted a comment in my article that they had sold the domain about 12 months prior to Amazon launching.
The hiding:
Left DNS remaining the same as prior to the sale, so the domain resolved as it did prior.
Whois privacy at a large domain name registrar, not at a brand protection registrar.
That isn’t the strongest example but I have seen many domains, and if you follow my DotWeekly Discoveries series, I often explain domains appeared to have sold X date and it’s often a year or more ago. Often with little or no changes to whois.
The hidden domain registration
Although many companies are using domain buying services and corporate domain name registrar services like MarkMonitor and CSCGlobal.com, these services are registering domain names away from them and with large domain registrars like GoDaddy, eNom and more. Then, the domain names are put under whois privacy and sit. Sometimes for only a month, sometimes two but at times I have seen a year or more.
They often register only the .com domain but I have seen all three of the most popular .com / .net / .org registered at the same time. Again, most of the time, it’s only the .com . Then shortly before the client is about to use the domain name, the corporate domain service will register the domain name in .net / .org form at MarkMonitor for an example. Often within days or weeks, you will see the matching .com arrive at the corporate registrar and reveal who the real original registrant was.
Further tricks
Register the domain under privacy at a large domain registrar like GoDaddy. THEN, list the domain name for sale via Sedo. They often list it with a price, but never reply to any offers made on the domain. I have seen this often and they are simply trying to blend in.
Real Example: WhisperTap.com / ReadersTap.com Registered in 2011 under privacy at GoDaddy, just recently in late 2014 moved to MarkMonitor. (again, I see a large amount of movements like this, so I am often right when “somebody else” didn’t own it.)
Register and park the domain. I have come up with several patterns of this. It is often the same registrar and same parking service but there is one thing I noticed in whois with these domains but I’m not going to reveal this. Currently, there are over 1,500 domains using this method and I know them, monitor them etc!
Conclusion
I can understand why domain buying services are doing this, because companies are not sure if they are going full scale on things in the future but often register domain names in advance to match ideas. Often these domains are left to expire and little is lost. If the idea pans out, they own the domain in advance and transfer it in from hiding and register other TLD’s if available.
Price increase / reduced inventory
If the hand is tipped, this will often result in these companies paying up to five figures to acquire these domain names, sometimes more! If they need the domain because the foundation has been laid, the price paid for the exact match domains is vital.
As a domain seller, you should always assume “your perfect buyer” is contacting you, but in the end it shouldn’t matter if this is huge company A or medium guy B. Ask for the price you will be happy with no matter who you are selling to. If they do not agree with your offering price, don’t feel bad about it and move on. If the domain sells what you ask for, be happy and enjoy it! Domain sales happen every day, for a lot of money but it’s not always YOU who is the seller!
Good find! Now, I’ll be trying to figure out the giveaway in the whois that signals, this is, “a hidden domain.”
🙂 I didn’t post any of the domains in this article if that helps. I’m sure I have listed some before though. The connection would be hard to pin point unless you see 5-10 domains and you will automatically notice the connection. Specific Registrar / Specific Name Servers / Specific Email Address (sometimes listed for sale, not always).
Thanks Jamie for the great information!
Am I the only one here to point out that the domain name is incorrect?
Thanks for pointing that out JackyJack! I’m not sure why I was thinking “Live” instead of “Local” when I wrote the article. I have adjusted the domains from LiveRegister.com to LocalRegister.com 😉