Interviews provide insights directly from those involved in domain name sales, acquisitions and the industry. Nothing can quite replace hearing domain industry influencers speak in their own words.
While several of the well known domain industry blogs and podcasts serve up interviews weekly, I went looking for great interviews right here on NamePros. The results certainly did not disappoint me, with many fantastic interviews. In this article I share my favourites.
Was I expecting to find an interview on negotiation with a retired FBI crisis negotiator? No, but there is one! We have heard lots about Elon Musk acquiring the domain name
14 Interviews with Impact and Insights
There are many deserving interviews, but these are my favourites from past issues of the NamePros Blog.
Ask Me Anything
NamePros also has a segment called Ask Me Anything (AMA). The idea is that someone agrees to field a series of questions from the NamePros community, essentially a group-conducted interview. There are existing AMA threads with Nikul Sangvi, Shane Cultra, NetworkPearl, Page Howe, James Iles, and a few others. I hope some other members of our community will be willing to host an AMA session to expand the collection.
Share Your Opinions
A sincere thank you to all who created these NamePros interviews, both those willing to be interviewed, and the interviewers. A special shout-out to James Iles who conducted the majority of these interviews.
While several of the well known domain industry blogs and podcasts serve up interviews weekly, I went looking for great interviews right here on NamePros. The results certainly did not disappoint me, with many fantastic interviews. In this article I share my favourites.
Was I expecting to find an interview on negotiation with a retired FBI crisis negotiator? No, but there is one! We have heard lots about Elon Musk acquiring the domain name
Tesla.com
, but what about an interview with the domain investor who sold that domain name? Yes, that is right here at NamePros.14 Interviews with Impact and Insights
There are many deserving interviews, but these are my favourites from past issues of the NamePros Blog.
- This interview with Frank Schilling, conducted by DN.com in 2016, is particularly timely, given the recent Uniregistry acquisition by GoDaddy. The interview includes an interesting anecdote on how he sold 10 related domains as a package, for ten times the price he had assumed.
- James Booth of Booth Domains, now Phenom, is highly successful in domain investing and brokering, and he shares his background and a top tip in this interview with James Iles. It was part of the Expert Exchange series.
- Daniel Chen, CEO of
190.com
, has been described as one of the most influential domain investors in China. At the time of this 2016 interview with James Iles, Daniel Chen had been seriously investing for only about a year, but already had amassed an impressive portfolio at190.com
. - This short interview by James Iles is with domain name investor Mr. Stuart Grossman who sold the name
tesla.com
to Tesla Motors. - We probably don’t do enough interviews with highly successful domain investors who are also very active on NamePros. One such person is Brad Mugford owner of
DataCube.com
. In researching this article I stumbled upon a great interview that Eric Lyon conducted with Brad Mugford in 2012. In case you did not know, Brad operates his domain site on one of the 100 oldest.com
registrations. - It is worthwhile to read interviews from both domain buyer and domain seller perspectives. Fortunately, James Iles has conducted a number of interviews with domain buyers, including this one with the buyer of
37.com
that sold for $2.1 million. - Brent Oxley founded HostGator while he was a university student, and ultimately sold it for a reported $225 million. He acquired and sold some great domain names over the years. In this Inside Interview with James Iles, he talks with about the $500,000 acquisition of
Give.com
. - At NamesCon 2019, I interviewed Dr. Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of the domain name system. One of my favourite quotes from that interview was the following.
”One of my principles was to keep it as simple as possible but have room for growth. It has grown in a number of ways, some of which I foresaw and some of which I didn’t. I always say if you design a system and can imagine all of the possible uses, it really is not very interesting.
- Some interviews are full of practical advice that you can put right into practice. No place is that better demonstrated than the four-part series that James Iles conducted with Mike Robertson, Director of Business Development at Fabulous. Among many other sales, he sold
BTC.com
for $1 million. In part one Mike shares this advice:“All opening emails should include an email signature. It's an opportunity to build trust and confidence with potential buyers you are approaching.” - The second part of the interview with Mike Robertson looks at finding potential buyers, and Mike shares five techniques he uses, and you can readily adapt, to compile a complete list of potential buyers. He also shares why he does not usually list names on marketplaces.
- In the third part of the interview, Mike Robertson shares valuable common sense advice on contacting potential buyers. For example,
”When composing the initial email to send to prospective buyers, I like to keep it short, direct, informative and have an action point.”
- Finally, in part four Mike Robertson and James Iles discuss negotiating and closing deals. Many important points were covered during the interview, such as this important one on timing.
”Understand when might be the best time to approach an end user. Sometimes companies are more willing to negotiate at the start of the year when new marketing budgets are typically set. On the other end of the spectrum, at year’s end, companies may have unused budgets. Another good time is when a company receives funding.”
- Many major domain name sales are part of company upgrades. James Iles has conducted numerous interviews around name upgrades, such as this one with Greg Warzecha, founder, and CEO of User following the $150,000 sale of
user.com
. - Negotiations for major sales can sometimes get tense, but that is nothing compared to negotiating in a hostage situation. NamePros Blog has an interview with a former FBI hostage negotiator, and the author of a book on the negotiation process. In 2016 Keith DeBoer conducted this fascinating interview with Chris Voss on the art of negotiation. It has a wealth of directly applicable insights for those negotiating domain name sales, such as don’t plan to meet in the middle.
Ask Me Anything
NamePros also has a segment called Ask Me Anything (AMA). The idea is that someone agrees to field a series of questions from the NamePros community, essentially a group-conducted interview. There are existing AMA threads with Nikul Sangvi, Shane Cultra, NetworkPearl, Page Howe, James Iles, and a few others. I hope some other members of our community will be willing to host an AMA session to expand the collection.
Share Your Opinions
- So what is your favourite interview from this list, and why?
- What have you learned from an interview that changed how you invest in domain names?
- What interview that I did not mention do you think deserves inclusion? Please include a link to the interview, along with your comment.
- Who would you like to see interviewed, from those who have not yet been featured on the NamePros Blog?
A sincere thank you to all who created these NamePros interviews, both those willing to be interviewed, and the interviewers. A special shout-out to James Iles who conducted the majority of these interviews.
Last edited: