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I'm James Iles: Q&A (Interactive Interview Session)

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Hey NamePros! I'm James Iles, I'm the lead writer for the NamePros Blog, where I've written about 630 articles since May 2015. I also buy and sell a few domain names and I operate as a broker, working with select startups and established companies regarding domain name strategy.

Away from domains, I have also worked as a photo retoucher (of course, I own PhotoRetoucher.com!) for an established portrait photographer. In my spare time, I'm an amateur runner, doing two 24-hour events this year.

Ask me anything! Post any questions here and I'll do my best to answer them :)
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Hi James.
Loved this thread .
I would like to ask do you believe acquiring domains from Auctions is good or PVT Acquisitions are more successful? as i believe in 90% pvt acquisition and i dont take part in auctions at all .
My total acquisitions are PVT.
Please advise :)
Thanks
 
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any thoughts on a value for ii.fyi and which marketplaces are best suited for such domains

I think the value would be pretty low. I see only 2 sales of .fyi, (web & sex) in the $xxx range. Wouldn’t value this at much at all personally.

Just think - why would an end user (business) want this name? If you can’t answer that then it’s not a good investment (in my opinion)

Source: https://namebio.com/?s==kDOzUTMxEjM
 
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🚩

Are you sure?
No, wait - actually, because you wrote
"probably", I have to ask why you aren't sure?
It seems you think that it is possible that there is another domain name that matches my mentioned criteria better...

Well, from my personal perspective, I don’t think there’s anything more valuable than a one letter .com with possibly the most versatile letter of the alphabet (x).

So I’ll say x.com is my most valuable name
 
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Hi James.
Loved this thread .
I would like to ask do you believe acquiring domains from Auctions is good or PVT Acquisitions are more successful? as i believe in 90% pvt acquisition and i dont take part in auctions at all .
My total acquisitions are PVT.
Please advise :)
Thanks

There are advantages to both! In both cases I think the competition is far higher now than a few years ago.

This is pushing wholesale prices up and investors will have to risk more capital to acquire the better names from auction.

I’ve done both in the past and I still think it’s worthwhile participating in auctions. I really wanted doubledutch.com at NameJet a few weeks ago but the price went to $20k which is more than I’d risk on that kind of name.
 
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Well, from my personal perspective, I don’t think there’s anything more valuable than a one letter .com with possibly the most versatile letter of the alphabet (x).

So I’ll say x.com is my most valuable name

🚩

Thanks for sharing your perspective of what you consider as the most valuable name.

But my question was which domain name would you consider as the highest, the most valuable and the most expensive domain name of all time.

However, for the case that your actual intention was to refer to
all three criteria (highest / most valuable / most expensive) and you just forgot to wrote the 1st (the highest) and the 3th (the most expensive) criteria while writing only the 2nd (most valuable) criteria, then, if I would ignore the fact that the keyword "top" tops the letter "x" in its meaning, I would understand your standpointtt
Bu
t I don't ignore this fact - so I don't agree with you, "x.com" is definitely not the highest, the most valuable and the most expensive domain name of all time in my viewww
 
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Well, from my personal perspective, I don’t think there’s anything more valuable than a one letter .com with possibly the most versatile letter of the alphabet (x).

So I’ll say x.com is my most valuable name
James...of course single letter domains are way out of reach for 99% of investors, but I'm curious why you say (x) is the most versatile letter? I did a Google search "most versatile letter" and it appears (z) is? I know I use the symbol (Rx) in a lot of my domains due to it's connotation, but I also use the small letter (e) preceding other domains like eHomes or eSolar. btw, doesn't the boss at NamePro's go by (Z)? Again, thanks for starting this thread James(y)
 
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One more question, @James Iles.
Can make analysis and appraisal about the market prospect of country name + s (dot) com?
Thank you for letting me know.

Best Kind Regards
BabayS
 
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Can you share more details about the sale of GrabFood.com :)
 
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For end user sales I typically remove all BIN prices from any marketplace and I will usually ask for offers rather than state a price, especially if the name is high four figures or more.

Lower value names (more impulsive buys) in the $4k and under range I am happy to keep a BIN price.

James,

Do you set a minimum offer such as a low $xxxx for higher value names to filter sincere buyers or just simply keep it open?
 
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How can I know if a potential buyer is rich, or bankrupt?

How can I know who to contact?
For example a big company owns all tlds of a keyword, except mine. Then how can I reach to the right person, maybe while taking UDRP risk.

Is it necessary to create a good looking landing page to leave a positive impression?
How about creating a wordpress site.
.....
Answers from other members are welcome as well (ok for me).
 
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James...of course single letter domains are way out of reach for 99% of investors, but I'm curious why you say (x) is the most versatile letter? I did a Google search "most versatile letter" and it appears (z) is? I know I use the symbol (Rx) in a lot of my domains due to it's connotation, but I also use the small letter (e) preceding other domains like eHomes or eSolar. btw, doesn't the boss at NamePro's go by (Z)? Again, thanks for starting this thread James(y)

The letter X has so many uses - either combined with other letters or as a standalone.

X: exchange, x-rated, ten, etc etc.

It’s used by the biggest companies - iPhone X, Mac OS X, Tesla Model X, SpaceX, Google X etc

X is cool!
 
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One more question, @James Iles.
Can make analysis and appraisal about the market prospect of country name + s (dot) com?
Thank you for letting me know.

Best Kind Regards
BabayS

You mean like Australias.com? I don’t see why this type of name would have any value really.

Do you see any end user attempting to brand on that type of domain? I can’t, therefore I don’t see why they would have any value to an investor :)
 
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Can you share more details about the sale of GrabFood.com :)

There’s not much to share really! The buyer made an offer to Uniregistry through a third party and it took about 6 weeks to actually close the deal.

I bought it for $343 in 2015 on NameJet. It’s all on NameBio :)
 
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James,

Do you set a minimum offer such as a low $xxxx for higher value names to filter sincere buyers or just simply keep it open?

No. I don’t mind fielding inquiries from lower end offers - 90% of the time they don’t go anywhere, but there’s the odd occasion where you’re able to get the buyer’s offer up to an acceptable level.
 
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You mean like Australias.com? I don’t see why this type of name would have any value really.

Do you see any end user attempting to brand on that type of domain? I can’t, therefore I don’t see why they would have any value to an investor :)
Thank you @James Iles
I only have one country name + S...
 
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How can I know if a potential buyer is rich, or bankrupt?

That kind of information is difficult to ascertain. There may be clues such as funding amounts listed on Crunchbase, number of employees, whether their site/blog/social media is updated fairly regularly, etc.

You might also be able to look at accounting records if they're made available. I know in the UK that some accounting PDFs are made available for the public to view via the government's company portal - not sure about the US or other countries.


How can I know who to contact?

Knowing who to contact is difficult and it depends on the size of the company. For small companies, I try to go with the CEO/owner, and for medium companies it would be the CMO or even the CEO. I wouldn't send emails directly to the CEO of a large company since it probably won't be read (or will be read and discarded by an assistant), so finding someone slightly lower down the chain with either the ability to make budget decisions, or the ability to get a purchase approved would be best. For me, it varies from company to company.

Is it necessary to create a good looking landing page to leave a positive impression?

I think a well-designed landing page conveys a sense of trust. But there are plenty of solutions out there already (such as Efty) that would be better than hosting & designing your own pages.
 
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No. I don’t mind fielding inquiries from lower end offers - 90% of the time they don’t go anywhere, but there’s the odd occasion where you’re able to get the buyer’s offer up to an acceptable level.

I have a feeling that you may have some interesting story to share on the 10% to get the buyer offer up to your acceptable level. The negotiation going into it and closing the deal will be amazing.
 
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The first content i read about domaining has been your ebook, mid 2015 :)
 
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Hi James,
I am a new member..I would like to know about Prerelease domain names? How can I get a prerelease domain name? Is prerelease is an auction and the highest bidder wins the domain name? how it works? should I bid on prerelease domain names? If you read my msg please guide me.
Reply back. Thanks.
 
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How can I reach CEO/owner via customer service, such as chat on their web site?
Can saying "please tell your boss that this domain is for sale for this price until this deadline" work? What if I promise to pay 10 percent to that person in case of sale? And ceo/owner doesn't need to reply, if they visit the domain this would be enough.

I'm not talking about 6+ figures domains.Only low 3 to mid 5.

I may be willing to sell for 100 if this is the only option but first I want to know if they would be willing to pay 10K. What to do in this case: Ask 10K (in counteroffer) then they will probably quit, and I can't drop to 1K , because they would think I was a scammer. If I ask 1K, the same thing happens if they can only pay 100, and also I may be missing a 10K sale. For generic domains, value of a domain can be predictable, but for brandables they can vary significantly.
 
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I think we’ll see more rental (rather than lease-to-own) deals occurring too, as investors look to hold on to their names whilst monetising them with end users.

You may be right, but such a trend will be relatively short-lived when domainers start realizing how dangerous it can be to lease or rent a domain. A renter can ruin your domain's reputation/value in more than one way.
 
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I am a newbie, so I am not sure if I am in the right place to ask this question:
I bought some domain names from GoDaddy and I set them with my usual email address. However, later on, I found out that is was highly inconvenient to mix personal emails with business ones. So, I created a different email account only for business and I want to update all my domain names with my new "business" email address. If I do this update, would Godaddy lock my domains and prevent me from selling them for a certain period of time ? If I do not update my email address in my domain names, which are now different from my updated GoDaddy account, would I have problems on selling them ?
 
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You mean like Australias.com? I don’t see why this type of name would have any value really. Do you see any end user attempting to brand on that type of domain? I can’t, therefore I don’t see why they would have any value to an investor :)

Generally speaking I agree with that especially re AustraliaS used as a 1-worder but it can be OK with America (Americas) for example. in particular If the trailing S is added to a country making it a 2 word search phrase, which is also a popular term like 'Americas.Best' for example which has good value, imo.
 
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I have a feeling that you may have some interesting story to share on the 10% to get the buyer offer up to your acceptable level. The negotiation going into it and closing the deal will be amazing.

It’s just a question of conveying the value of the name and your vision for the name within their company (assuming you’re able to research the buyer)
 
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