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kmonk

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Hi friends,
I am new into the forum, I have never sold or a domain, I have been reading threads and I am sure I will get familiar with acronyms, techniques, and tools.
Not sure if some of you do something similar at what I have been doing for almost a month now.
I am specifically targetting expired domains that have recent archive.org and cold calling their previous owner, there are many ways I have been able to find phone numbers, some by facebook page, yelp, or google maps business info.
Right now I have exactly 50 domains available for previous owners to register back and restore their website, I managed to use my CC (almost maxed out) and invest in this journey.
So far only 6 domains have been restored, the one with most profit was a Wordpress site that I found who developed it and the programmer was very kind to give me a full backup.
All the restored sites are now in my hosting so I will be contacting the costumer next year for annual manteinance fee.
Problem here is I have invested more in the new domains than the return I have gotten so far.
Any advice as if I should buy more domains, or on how to pitch customers into makeing them need their website restored ASAP?
Also I am not sure if what I am doing has any name, its not flipping nor reselling only restoring websites.
I will keep on reading all interested threads.
Thank you!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Even though they are dead websites that you bring back to life, you are still infringing on someone's intellectual property. Not quite Russian roulette but similar.
 
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Even though they are dead websites that you bring back to life, you still infringing on someone's intellectual property. Not quite Russian roulette but similar.
Yes, I agree, the legal part is quite fuzzy to me right now. I am trying to introduce my self once I find the owner as polite and ethical to them. Some have said they are not interested so I parked those with a php script that has helped me reduce time spent in uploading files for each domain I get a no.
Thank you!
 
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Welcome to NP! Happy Domaining! :)
 
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Welcome kmonk - glad to have you!
 
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Welcome on-board!
 
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Your approach isn't giving you the best chances at a sale unless the domain names themselves are desirable names.

I also agree that you're walking a very shaky path (both ethically and legally) by contacting the previous owners directly... you're essentially hoping to be able to hold the domain hostage and receive a big payout from a desperate business owner.

I'd take a break from buying names and do a lot of reading and learning. There is no quick road to making money in this business. If that's what you're counting on, get out now.
 
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Welcome! Interesting strategy, let us know how it goes.
 
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Welcome! Interesting strategy, let us know how it goes.
The legal part is something I am not very familiar with yet, a few of the domains are just regular keywords so that as I have seen can be resold to somebody else. I will keep on reading because I don't want to get filled with names that I won't get a cent. I also use ahrefs to know the value for somebody else and not the owner but so far I have only passed and restored names to previous owners.
It might be that I am running too fast, registering almost 2 names per day with all the work that involves talking and reaching into customers.
Thank you
 
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The legal part is something I am not very familiar with yet, a few of the domains are just regular keywords so that as I have seen can be resold to somebody else. I will keep on reading because I don't want to get filled with names that I won't get a cent. I also use ahrefs to know the value for somebody else and not the owner but so far I have only passed and restored names to previous owners.
It might be that I am running too fast, registering almost 2 names per day with all the work that involves talking and reaching into customers.
Thank you

Been there done that.
Not worth the effort my friend.
 
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Your approach isn't giving you the best chances at a sale unless the domain names themselves are desirable names.

I also agree that you're walking a very shaky path (both ethically and legally) by contacting the previous owners directly... you're essentially hoping to be able to hold the domain hostage and receive a big payout from a desperate business owner.

I'd take a break from buying names and do a lot of reading and learning. There is no quick road to making money in this business. If that's what you're counting on, get out now.

Thank you for your response. I'm more into learning, I think I know the value of it, that's why I joined nP.
More than a decade ago I was just finding names with high paying CPC in AdSense but never renewed them, not brands, or brandable names, just one-word names that paid well.

As per your advice, I have lowered down purchasing for restoring, and now more to the value of the name itself to avoid legal and of course ethical and moral questions.
Thanks again.
 
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Welcome and all the best. Keep reading NP to learn.
 
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Welcome to NP. As @Joe Nichols pointed out- what you're doing doesn't seem ethical, it's potentially problematic legally since they still have intellectual property and it's also the sort of thing that gives domainers in general a bad name. IMO, it's kind of hard not to look at it as taking advantage of mistakes business owners made and basically using their misfortune in order to try and extort them. It does happen sometimes that business owners who made a mistake and dropped a name contact people who bought their expired domains and a sale can happen as a result, but to buy domains deliberately for that purpose and initiate contact with the owners while dangling the domain in front of their eyes... not a good way to go. I hope you'll choose a better domaining path in the future.
 
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Welcome to NP. ;)

Interesting case and thoughts. Have fun and good luck with finding the path, that feels right.
 
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Welcome to NP. As @Joe Nichols pointed out- what you're doing doesn't seem ethical, it's potentially problematic legally since they still have intellectual property and it's also the sort of thing that gives domainers in general a bad name. IMO, it's kind of hard not to look at it as taking advantage of mistakes business owners made and basically using their misfortune in order to try and extort them. It does happen sometimes that business owners who made a mistake and dropped a name contact people who bought their expired domains and a sale can happen as a result, but to buy domains deliberately for that purpose and initiate contact with the owners while dangling the domain in front of their eyes... not a good way to go. I hope you'll choose a better domaining path in the future.

Thank you for your message, it is exactly what I was looking for, constructive criticism. Even though it makes me seem very evil and unethical but customers were very happy once I helped them restore a website they invested on design and programming just for a few bucks, I was even able to do a face to face business appointment to develop an App. All my domains are ccTLD so my main interest is to restore not to hijack and resell.
Indeed reading your reply makes me rethink what I am doing right now. I stopped buying names and working with the clients that did want to restore their website, I sold 1 more since I posted the original message. Most of the names I have are not brand names that is why I bought them at first. I also do an ahrefs check to see the value of them.
 
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Thank you for your message, it is exactly what I was looking for, constructive criticism. Even though it makes me seem very evil and unethical but customers were very happy once I helped them restore a website they invested on design and programming just for a few bucks, I was even able to do a face to face business appointment to develop an App. All my domains are ccTLD so my main interest is to restore not to hijack and resell.
Indeed reading your reply makes me rethink what I am doing right now. I stopped buying names and working with the clients that did want to restore their website, I sold 1 more since I posted the original message. Most of the names I have are not brand names that is why I bought them at first. I also do an ahrefs check to see the value of them.
Out of curiosity, what are you selling these names for once you find businesses that want to re-acquire them?

How successful are you (rough percentage would be fine) at selecting names that the previous owners actually want to re-acquire?
 
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