NamePros Blog

Bob Hawkes · Jun 8, 2026

On the morning of May 6, 2026 Rick Schwartz, The Domain King®, posted this,

The End of an Era…Domain King Retires from Domain Acquisitions to Focus on Empire Building. I registered my first domain in December 1995. But it wasn’t until May 1996 that I started hunting for them. Mining...

Bob Hawkes · Feb 9, 2026

Getting pricing right is one of the most challenging aspects of successful domain name investing. Doron Vermaat has been highly successful with his own portfolio, and has, through Efty, helped many other investors be successful.

When I heard Doron share ideas on aspirational pricing...

Bob Hawkes · Aug 27, 2025

It is challenging to be successful in the domain name business, and even harder to find consistent success. When that happens relatively early in a domain name journey, it is even more remarkable.

In mid-July, Michael Rader shared a multiyear summary of his domain name sales data...

Bob Hawkes · Mar 12, 2025

Imagine owning the very first .com domain name registered! The first .com domain name, symbolics.com, was registered 40 years ago, on March 15, 1985. The domain name is currently owned by Aron Meystedt, who also happens to be a long-time NamePros member.

Photo on left courtesy...

Bob Hawkes · Jan 15, 2025

When you want to know how many extensions a term is registered in, many investors turn to dotDB. This is a helfpful metric to gauge interest in a term. The dotDB site has been frequently mentioned in various analysis and research articles on the NamePros Blog over the years.

I used dotDB...

Bob Hawkes · May 16, 2024

Interested in technical innovations, the early days of domain extension planning, website development, a 7-figure domain name sale, or creative media applications? Then let me introduce you to Simon Higgs.

Simon Higgs, @Particle here on NamePros, has had a diverse, distinguished, and...

Bob Hawkes · Apr 20, 2023

Introduction

As I was getting started in domain investing, one of the voices offering sound advice was @JudgeMind. While not quite as active currently in NamePros, when he does contribute, I always know it will be well thought out and based on a decade plus of domain investing...

Bob Hawkes · Mar 1, 2023

Sten Lillieström challenged some common assumptions about domain names and brands in the first part of the interview. This week, I ask him questions around the theme of how to create an effective and distinctive brand name.

Creating A Great Name

Let’s focus on how to create...

Bob Hawkes · Feb 24, 2023

I am delighted for the opportunity to interview Sten Lillieström, a creative domain name investor interested in the brandable side of domain name investing. Sten, handle @trelgor, has been a NamePros member for more than a decade, and has achieved Top Member status.

During 2022 Sten had...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 8, 2022

Artificial intelligence plays critical roles in many sectors and applications. Up to now, AI has probably been under-utilized in much of the domain name world.

Over the past week, many domain investors have delighted in posing questions and requests to the newly-released OpenAI...

Bob Hawkes · Jun 20, 2022

There are many ways to acquire domain names: expiring or other auctions, purchases from investors, closeouts, expired names, drop catching, hand registrations, etc.

One acquisition method that is often overlooked is private acquisition. That is, seeking underused domain names by directly...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 10, 2021

Dennis Tinerino is an accomplished domain investor as well as editor and founder of the Domain Smoke newsletter.

He recently sold the domain name ETH.Paris for $50,000 at Dan. He had held the domain name for only 25 days.

That sale ties for the 4th highest sale of the exact term...

Bob Hawkes · Oct 20, 2021

At the recent NamesCon conference Dan sponsored domain awards in five categories. The winner of the award for Community-Driven Domainer of the Year was Leanne McMahon, @PixelCorp.

Even though she has only been in domain investing a fairly short period of time...

Bob Hawkes · Jun 3, 2021

Taking domain investing from a side-hustle to a full-time job is probably the dream of many domain investors. A few months ago investor Keith DeBoer announced that he was making domains his full-time job. Now that a bit of time has passed, I caught up with Keith to get his insights on the...

Bob Hawkes · Dec 9, 2020

There is an elegance to single word domains. Few valuable single word domains are available to be registered in most extensions, and it can be challenging to find those that are unregistered. Steven Tey encountered that, and said to himself ‘there must be a tool that makes it easy to find...

Bob Hawkes · Aug 26, 2020

In August 2016 many in the domain industry were bidding in expired auctions, searching the closeout lists, creating brandable names, speculating in new or repurposed extensions, and chasing elusive single word or very short .com names. Joseph Ciprut was taking a somewhat different...

Bob Hawkes · Aug 4, 2020

In the first half of 2020 I noticed significant sales being regularly announced by Jason Sheppard. Then, a couple of weeks ago, on successive days he announced sales of two .vc extension domain names, each at a retail price of $4999. The name basic.vc sold July 23, while...

Bob Hawkes · Jun 17, 2020

One of the biggest domain name sales of the week was Jackpot.io that sold for about $48,500. I got in touch with the seller, barman (@ppcbz), to learn more about the sale, his background in domain investing and his plans moving forward. The seller announced the sale on...

Bob Hawkes · Apr 22, 2020

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...

Bob Hawkes · Nov 14, 2019

Over the years domain investors and website developers change DNS settings countless times, and the whole system just works. The field of domain name investment exists because standards were developed to robustly link domain names and internet addresses. This means that names that resonate...

James Iles · Mar 12, 2019

Inside Interview is a series in which we talk to buyers of high-value domain names to discover why they purchased these names, and what they’re doing with them. In this edition, we’re speaking with Jacob Smith, CMO of Packet, a cloud computing company based in New York.

In 2018, Packet made the...

James Iles · Jan 7, 2019

With 2019 just beginning, it’s an opportune time to theorize on the current state of the domain name market and speculate on what might happen in the coming twelve months. To do this, we contacted nine domain industry experts who have a vast amount of data available to form a valid opinion on...

James Iles · Dec 24, 2018

Brent Oxley is an important part of the Internet's history. Back in 2002, Brent founded HostGator, a hosting company that quickly became one of the most popular hosting services in the world with Inc. Magazine ranking HostGator as 21st on its list of fastest growing companies in 2008. By 2012...

James Iles · Dec 18, 2018

In October 2018, UserEngage made the monumental decision to pay $150,000 to acquire the domain User.com in a transaction brokered by Sedo. Since then, UserEngage has rebranded to User.com, putting the memorable four-letter domain to use almost immediately.

In this Inside Interview, we’re going...

James Iles · Oct 16, 2018

Domain name brokers are experts in buying and selling domain names on behalf of their clients, but in which scenarios should you consider hiring a domain broker? In our final installment in this series of Expert Exchange, we ask our assorted panel of domain name brokers to describe the...

James Iles · Sep 26, 2018

As representatives for some of the world’s best domain names, our panel of expert brokers usually have a responsibility to monitor both inbound inquiries and perform outbound sales to actively find a buyer. Both inbound and outbound can produce impressive sales, but is one more effective for...

James Iles · Aug 30, 2018

Many top brokers look after some of the most sought-after domain names on the planet. This means an almost constant stream of inquiries and interest in these domains. The majority of interested parties will not be able to reach the often six-, seven-, or eight-figure prices required to acquire a...

James Iles · Aug 8, 2018

Our panel of expert domain name brokers have collectively closed hundreds of domain name deals worth millions of dollars. They have successfully refined their skills and can now be considered to be some of the best brokers in the industry.

In this edition of Expert Exchange, we’re lucky enough...

James Iles · Aug 1, 2018

In 2017, entrepreneurs Court Cunningham and Phil DeGisi founded Perch, a service that is rapidly transforming how people go about buying their homes. The company, who raised a total of $30 million in funding, are going from strength to strength. One of the company's most prized digital assets...

James Iles · Jul 16, 2018

The influx of interest and funding into the cryptocurrency industry has lead to some of the largest domain sales over the past few years. One of the most recent cryptocurrency related sales was that of Coins.com by Adam Perzow in a seven-figure transaction. Adam, an entrepreneur from Canada, has...

James Iles · Jun 20, 2018

When it comes to selling a domain name, establishing price expectations is an important step. Whether it’s securing an outbound sale or negotiating an inbound inquiry, the price is a vital factor. In this edition of Expert Exchange, we are asking seven top industry brokers about how they handle...

James Iles · May 22, 2018

Typically, end users are the type of buyers that pay the highest prices for domain names. Scrolling through NameBio, you’ll see numerous examples of startups to corporations paying five, six, or seven figures for the best names. End users aren’t necessarily domain experts, and many of them may...

James Iles · Apr 11, 2018

Domain investors that have performed outbound sales will be aware that the ability to contact the appropriate person within an organisation can make or break a sale. While small establishments may only have a single decision maker that you need to connect with to sell a domain name, it can be a...

James Iles · Mar 6, 2018

Just how do you make investors and end users aware that you have put a domain name up for sale? For many investors, promoting their domain names effectively is vital for creating a cash flow for their domaining business. In the first edition of a brand new Q&A Expert Exchange series, we ask a...

James Iles · Feb 26, 2018

Fourteen years ago, Craig Clark and his wife Abby founded Pacific Pillows whilst Craig was on active duty in the Marine Corps. Using the PacificPillows.com domain name, the company flourished but by 2010, the company was looking to change their brand. Craig settled on Pillows.com and ultimately...

James Iles · Nov 15, 2017

In August, we published the news that the domain name Monkey.com had been sold in a deal worth $500,000. The sale, verified independently through an Escrow.com sales agreement, listed Daniel Mark Harrison of Monkey Capital as the buyer.

Daniel was scheduled to submit payments at regular...

James Iles · May 1, 2017

Jason Wilk is a serial entrepreneur having founded companies such as Allscreen.TV, a technology platform that was ranked at number twenty-nine on INC 5000’s list of fastest growing companies in 2015. Zealot Networks acquired Allscreen in 2015 and Jason soon started work on his next project...

James Iles · Apr 12, 2017

James Booth has only been a part of the industry for two years, but during that time he has produced some impressive sales figures. Very recently, James has crossed a significant milestone of $10 million in sales. Here, we speak with James about his past two years as a domain name broker and we...

James Iles · Mar 29, 2017

Bill Sweetman is the President of Name Ninja, a company that works with entrepreneurs, global startups and marketers to buy some of the best names available. Unlike most domain name brokers, Bill concentrates solely on acquisition services, something that gives him a unique perspective on the...

James Iles · Jan 20, 2017

With NamesCon 2017 just about to start, it's an excellent opportunity to remember the incredible job that @Edward Zeiden and his team did in producing coverage of last year's NamesCon event.

One of the many video highlights of NamesCon 2016 was the interview that Edward conducted with...

James Iles · Jan 18, 2017

There are relatively few startups who truly appreciate the power of a great domain name, but in this Inside Interview, we are speaking to the CEO of a company that made the decision to create a smart workflow application and house it on an incredibly powerful one-word .COM.

...

Keith DeBoer · Dec 15, 2016

Life is a series of negotiations: whether you’re buying a car, asking for a raise at work or selling a domain name. So I picked up the book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It figuring I could learn something.

The book outlined some eye opening...

James Iles · Nov 16, 2016

In this Inside Interview, we speak with the CEO of a company that really gets the power and value of a three-letter .COM domain name. Recycle Track Systems is a New York based startup that was founded in 2015, and is using innovative real time technology and data analytics to vastly improve...

James Iles · Oct 24, 2016

The Inside Interview series has focused on talking to end users who have acquired high value names. Up until now, we have interviewed 26 people or companies to find out why they acquired a specific domain.

Today, we bring you an Inside Interview that is slightly different. Graham Haynes...

James Iles · Oct 18, 2016

Giuseppe Graziano is one of the domain industry's leading brokers. Through his brokerage company, GGRG.com, Giuseppe has been involved in millions of dollars worth of sales in the short domain name categories that have dominated the market in 2015 and 2016, thanks mainly to the activity of...

James Iles · Sep 26, 2016

Frank Schilling is one of the most recognizable names in the domain name industry. He has built a domain name portfolio that consists of hundreds of thousands of domains, including some of the most valuable digital properties on the Internet. Frank is also CEO of Uniregistry, the domain name...

James Iles · Sep 15, 2016

Matt Mullenweg is one of the most recognizable names in Internet history. As the creator of WordPress, he has revolutionized the way in which websites are made. Estimates show that WordPress powers 25% of all websites on the Internet, which is an incredible feat. Recently, Matt's attention has...

James Iles · Aug 24, 2016

McKay Taylor isn't necessarily a name you will have heard of before, but this domain investor and broker has been quietly selling millions of dollars worth of domain names thanks to his connections all over the world. He's been responsible for some enormous bulk sales since the short domain...

James Iles · Aug 15, 2016

Earlier this year, Skypicker made the momentous decision to change their brand from Skypicker to Kiwi.com. After starting as a two-man team in 2012, Skypicker has grown to be a phenomenally popular travel brand. Thanks to the growth of Skypicker, the company has decided that the name doesn’t...

James Iles · Aug 8, 2016

After being placed on hold during a phone call, Brandon Littlefield started to browse through domain names. After stumbling across BookKeeping.com and realizing it was for sale, Brandon immediately enquired about the name and eventually purchased it for $150,000. Within just two months of...

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