question Have I just done something wrong?

If it's not your name
..and even if it is, you could face challenges. I own a few but I have never sold one successfully. Because of this I will probably drop them.

No it's not my name.

Ok, sorry to hear. Did you reach out to "everybody" with those names, or did you wait passively for someone to contact you?

Cybersquatting or not, that is not a large enough pool of buyers to really have any resale value.

Brad

I say let people with the same first / last name duke it out over a domain that matches their name.

bmugford said:

Cybersquatting or not, that is not a large enough pool of buyers to really have any resale value.

Brad

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How many people with the exact name would you advise as a minimum?

AGAME said:

I say let people with the same first / last name duke it out over a domain that matches their name.

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Haha, have you got any fun example to share?

People usually buy domains for business, seldom for vanity. Trying to sell domains to private persons is an uphill battle. They are not going to pay much for a domain for a personal blog or vanity E-mail. Ask yourself why was the domain unregistered in the first place ?

Even among domainers, most be using gmail and don't own their name in .com.

Kate said:

People usually buy domains for business, seldom for vanity. Trying to sell domains to private persons is an uphill battle. They are not going to pay much for a domain for a personal blog or vanity E-mail. Ask yourself why was the domain unregistered in the first place ?

Even among domainers, most be using gmail and don't own their name in .com.

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The domain was dropped, and the .net is taken by a guy with this name, so there's at least someone that might want it.

Very important to remember is the a trademark doesn't need to be registered in order to be considered a trademark .. particularly if someone is using their name for business. This conversation was just discussed a few days ago here ... I suggest checking it out ..

https://www.namepros.com/threads/first-and-last-name-domains-are-they-ethical.1063130/

DrJacoby said:

The domain was dropped, and the .net is taken by a guy with this name, so there's at least someone that might want it.

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If you contact people, they will probably react more or less angrily and call you a squatter. Because, frankly, you registered the name for that only reason. It's not as if you had registered a rather generic domain, that you could use if it doesn't sell. The risk/reward ratio doesn't look great.

Kate said:

People usually buy domains for business, seldom for vanity.

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Or both. Real estate agents are huge on owning their first/last name for their sites. @DrJacoby something to consider for who to reach out, and they don't usually trademark their names, either.

Kate said:

If you contact people, they will probably react more or less angrily and call you a squatter. Because, frankly, you registered the name for that only reason. It's not as if you had registered a rather generic domain, that you could use if it doesn't sell. The risk/reward ratio doesn't look great.

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Yes I registered it to make a profit, just like any other investment.

But I understand why people might think it's unethical. Haven't made up my own mind yet... Thanks for your input!

DrJacoby said:

Haha, have you got any fun example to share?

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Yep. My own first and last name dot com. I registered it in Dec-1997 ($70 for 2 years at Network Solutions). I used it primarily for email and for code testing, but nothing other than that. An artist with the same exact name as me complained to Network Solutions and when my renewal was up in Dec-2001 they didnt permit me to renew it. He picked it up and has been using it since. I had sent Network Solutions a nasty email - they never replied to it, probably due to my choice of words/language/etc.

If I could get it back today, I would in a flash.

I never picked up a first/last name dot com because of that experience. Like I said, I'd rather let people with the name duke it out.

HotKey said:

Or both. Real estate agents are huge on owning their first/last name for their sites. @DrJacoby something to consider for who to reach out, and they don't usually trademark their names, either.

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Thanks! Unfortunately none of them seem to be real estate agents, but one of them is a model. Could be a prospect...

Registering a first/last name isn't itself unethical, It's just mostly pointless. unless you were talking hundreds in popularity and it was a very short combo. As mentioned above very few people like the vanity of their own name as a .com email address unless it's also a business used name. those of us that have ever set up their own name .com just as an email address know what a pain in the arse it is for spam filtering, besides peeps have all the options of using just initials/surname.
if it was a famous name you'll probably find yourself in trouble - if it isn't, you'll probably find you can't sell it anyway, So why bother wasting your time

BaileyUK said:

Registering a first/last name isn't itself unethical, It's just mostly pointless. unless you were talking hundreds in popularity and it was a very short combo. As mentioned above very few people like the vanity of their own name as a .com email address unless it's also a business used name. those of us that have ever set up their own name .com just as an email address know what a pain in the arse it is for spam filtering, besides peeps have all the options of using just initials/surname.
if it was a famous name you'll probably find yourself in trouble - if it isn't, you'll probably find you can't sell it anyway, So why bother wasting your time

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I see your point, but I know there are other domainers that see things differently.

As an example, Mike Mann has, in his own words, "been hoarding tens of thousands of people's names".

Bad strategy.

If the name is common, you are hoping one of them would pay you for it. If the name is rare, you chance of get paid is close to zero. Most people don't care for domain names, they already have their social media profiles.

It is a numbers game: the more common name domain names you have, the better chance you have to hit the "jackpot". You may need to have a large investment to see any return. In other words, another domainer's strategy does not necessary work for you.

Thanks for starting this thread and for all the replies. Did you check linkedin?
I have first/last name .com is nickname and has 90 people on linked. On the fence with renewing it.

DrJacoby said:

I see your point, but
As an example, Mike Mann has, in his own words, "been hoarding tens of thousands of people's names".

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I think you'll find these will be first names OR surnames, probably in multiple languages. which often make for good Business names. I couldn't imagine he would waste his time on combinations of both first and second name, unless they were of historical significance

MasterOfMyDomains said:

Thanks for starting this thread and for all the replies. Did you check linkedin?
I have first/last name .com is nickname and has 90 people on linked. On the fence with renewing it.

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I haven't, but I will. Thanks!

BaileyUK said:

I think you'll find these will be first names OR surnames, probably in multiple languages. which often make for good Business names. I couldn't imagine he would waste his time on combinations of both first and second name, unless they were of historical significance

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I think @Willox Perez knows more about it. It was on his blog I read it.

The example Mike Mann gave was JamesGregory.com which he sold for more than $19000.

Over the years, I've picked up (handreg'd) say, 40 first names or last names (no combos) from the drops. I've sold three from low to mid $XXX. All the names have had 70-150 linkedin profiles (in my experience everything above 150 is drop catched, often by HugeDomains). Will let everything I still have drop.

Target audience of 40 people?

Unless you plan to directly market it to some of them it's a complete waste of a reg fee.

That said.... I registered a .ca for a restaurant who had the name plus two more words in a .com.

I targeted him and said why not get a .ca with one word, you are in Canada after all. 1.5k later my 10 dollar reg fee paid off.

If you have a plan... good luck

With no plan... drop it

There's definitely money to be made in this space. But remember most of these people are individuals and not companies so your sale prices will suffer because of that.

Here's my tips:

• Surnames eg. rayers.com as it's usually not specific enough to cause any trademark troubles and you have a big audience. Plus people often call companies after their names.
• Initials eg. jamesr.com as you open up your pool of potential buyers. Lots of designers and photographers use this formula for a nice short domain.