Announcement: END USER SALES MONTH 2008!

[randomo]

Hi folks,

Once again (for the third year), I am declaring February to be End User Sales Month!

Tired of flipping domains to other domainers for just a few bucks? Well, then stop doing so much of that, and start finding the buyers who have big plans and big budgets!

If you want to join EUSM, do 2 things:

1. Repeat the following out loud: ""I, [your name here], promise that I will make a real effort this month to find potential end users and to sell them one or more domains for real money."

2. Send me a PM, telling me how many domains you have chosen to offer to end users this month. I will keep a chart showing everyone's progress, at EUSM.info.

Let's go make those big sales!

Cheers,
Dave

 

[Sameh]

Great idea .. I'm in :tu:

I'm already contacting end users
-----------

I, EG.domains, promise that I will make a real effort this month to find potential end users and to sell them one or more domains for real money.

2. Will send PM later after i list the domains i'm willing to use first.

 

[bricio]

ok, so lets start your project with an end-user sale randomo!!!
PM sent!!!

 

[Pred]

Great initiative Dave

I will send you a pm in a bit. I will target 2 to sell to endusers i think

cheers
Pred

repped :sold:

 

[randomo]

Thanks to the first few of you who have joined EUSM. I have added your names to the EUSM website. Plenty of room for more people!

[Congrats to bricio, who is already closing a deal; don't know when it started, but it is finishing during End User Sales Month!]

Here is what I am planning to do with my end-user domains:

1. Send a letter to the person who appears to be that company's marketing manager. In it, I will name the domain and describe the benefits of owning it, but will not yet state a price. I will say that I am going to call that person on a specific day, but that I would be glad to hear from him/her before then.

2. Make the followup call. Come in with a substantial price, justifying it by restating the benefits, and also by saying that I'd like to see the domain in their hands but plan to offer it to other companies in that industry if we can't reach an agreement. If necessary, will be prepared to negotiate down from a great price to a very good price.

That's further than I've gotten with any other end-user sales attempts; I've send letters, faxes, or emails, very few of which were answered. Time to set the deal up properly, then close it!

Good luck/skill everybody,
Dave

 

[Christopher Hunt]

great idea and I sent you a PM as I just actually started this process for the first time w/ one of my domains yesterday (and was pleased to discover this thread today!). I am approaching some major groups on this one, so should be interesting.

Good luck all!

 

[buckshotdots]

great idea

Good motivational tool! One thing can you change the "sales made" from, a check to a nice shiny red star .

I used to manage an area of retail stores and its funny how once people "buy into an idea" eg- "list on the wall for everyone to see" how motivated they got to attain it. Shiny red star or cash incentive or ???, its all about attaining a goal and pride (which is a powerful thing in itself).

I will definitely send you some, just have to decide which ones to submit.

cheers, gary-

 

[Spade]

LoL... I want a motivational speaker to come to my office and say that stuff in person....

 

[Chappy]

Be careful - offering your domains for sale to a Company will be inferred as using the name in Bad Faith. If the Company has any legal sense about them then they could be in a position to take the name off you via UDRP.

 

[randomo]

Be careful - offering your domains for sale to a Company will be inferred as using the name in Bad Faith. If the Company has any legal sense about them then they could be in a position to take the name off you via UDRP.

Thanks for the advice. However, speaking for my own domains at least, they are quite generic - nothing related to any company names, and no listed trademarks for those terms.

(Unlike my first end-user sales effort years ago; I offered the domain CornerKicks-dot-com to a soccer camp that owned CornerKick-dot-com, and they actually did have the term "corner kick" trademarked for internet use! So I had to give it up, didn't want to get involved in legal proceedings ....)

 

[Christopher Hunt]

Thanks for the advice. However, speaking for my own domains at least, they are quite generic - nothing related to any company names, and no listed trademarks for those terms.

(Unlike my first end-user sales effort years ago; I offered the domain CornerKicks-dot-com to a soccer camp that owned CornerKick-dot-com, and they actually did have the term "corner kick" trademarked for internet use! So I had to give it up, didn't want to get involved in legal proceedings ....)

I don't know all of the details of your case, but I doubt cornerkicks would have been taken from you, unless it was proven that you registered that term with the sole intent of selling it to someone. And as long as you were not promoting soccer camps, you would be fine, as their trademark would be limited to their soccer camp not general "internet use" (they would be able to sue anyone showing corner kicks on the internet in that case). You would also be free to offer it for sale as long as you had some modicum of usage happening on the site, i.e. a description or blurb about the corner kick that had nothing to do with their soccer camps mark.

It should be noted, however, that a respondent's offer to sell does not necessarily prove that its primary purpose in registering the name was to sell the name. Where the respondent had a legitimate prior interest in the domain name, its offer to sell the name for a mutually agreeable price did not establish bad faith. See Avnet, Inc. v. Aviation Network, Inc. (avnet.net) D2000-0046; but see Biofield Corp. v. Kwon (biofield.com) AF-0102.
source - http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/udrp/analysis.html

 

[italiandragon]

The more I read the last UDRP cases and their decisions, the less I want to spam around endusers asking for money.

It`s looking for troubles.

You reg names, you spam people asking for 100 times what you paid = bad faith.

That`s what the Panels are focusing on lately.

 

[Christopher Hunt]

Be careful - offering your domains for sale to a Company will be inferred as using the name in Bad Faith. If the Company has any legal sense about them then they could be in a position to take the name off you via UDRP.

This is true. An offer to sell, or in some cases even simply parking the site, or having it resolve to nothing, or even putting it up for auction, have all been used successfully against the domain holder to infer "bad faith" use.

BUT ...

this is only part of the story. The UDRP states:

a. Applicable Disputes. You are required to submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding in the event that a third party (a "complainant") asserts to the applicable Provider, in compliance with the Rules of Procedure, that

(i) your domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights; and

(ii) you have no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and

(iii) your domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

In the administrative proceeding, the complainant must prove that each of these three elements are present.

//

Note that all 3 parts have to be proven. Thus as long as the name is generic enough to not be confusing in terms of an existing trademark, and the site is not intentionally creating any confusion with its content, and there is some legitimate exisiting content on the site, just offering it up for sale at that point would NOT put the name in jeopardy. (see my earlier post).

The more I read the last UDRP cases and their decisions, the less I want to spam around endusers asking for money.

It`s looking for troubles.

You reg names, you spam people asking for 100 times what you paid = bad faith.

That`s what the Panels are focusing on lately.

another good point. one of the ways that "bad faith" can be found is:

(i) circumstances indicating that you have registered or you have acquired the domain name primarily for the purpose of selling, renting, or otherwise transferring the domain name registration to the complainant who is the owner of the trademark or service mark or to a competitor of that complainant, for valuable consideration in excess of your documented out-of-pocket costs directly related to the domain name; - source UDRP.

It is thus best to never specifically state a sales figure when approaching an end user.

 

[randomo]

I don't know all of the details of your case, but I doubt cornerkicks would have been taken from you, unless it was proven that you registered that term with the sole intent of selling it to someone. And as long as you were not promoting soccer camps, you would be fine, as their trademark would be limited to their soccer camp not general "internet use" (they would be able to sue anyone showing corner kicks on the internet in that case). You would also be free to offer it for sale as long as you had some modicum of usage happening on the site, i.e. a description or blurb about the corner kick that had nothing to do with their soccer camps mark.

Yes, you're probably right. But I was a pretty new domainer, and they had a lawyer who kept calling and threatening me, so I didn't feel I could take that chance ...

(I am a long-time soccer coach who could certainly have put that domain to good use. I learned a lesson: check for trademarks before trying to sell!)

 

[networkmsia]

Good job randomo for starting this thread.

Common guys, Ireport can do it, and so did unet, and so did cruises.co.uk for 6 - 7 figures to end users.

If they can do it, So can WE !!!!!!

Go Go Go

 

[dave9713]

Randomo i'm in with you on this one... time to start shifting some domains big time! :yell:

I'll send you a PM.

Dave

 

[Sameh]

The more I read the last UDRP cases and their decisions, the less I want to spam around endusers asking for money.

It`s looking for troubles.

You reg names, you spam people asking for 100 times what you paid = bad faith.

That`s what the Panels are focusing on lately.

1. Why you call it "spam" ?

2. TMs are not on every single domain!

3. If you not willing to consider selling/contacting end-users .. Trust me domaining will not worth it.

 

[italiandragon]

1. Why you call it "spam" ?

2. TMs are not on every single domain!

3. If you not willing to consider selling/contacting end-users .. Trust me domaining will not worth it.

ok, so I send you the lists and you sell them for me , we split the gain. I got no time to do it myself

 

[Sameh]

ok, so I send you the lists and you sell them for me , we split the gain. I got no time to do it myself

I have my own domains to sell

Also, it's not about sending emails only.

 

[randomo]

OK, I just sent letters to 2 end users!

I didn't name a price ... just described the benefits of owning those domains, and said I would call them on a specific day next week.

What have you done to make progress toward sales today?