Bidding on a typo by mistake.

[Kuffy]

Whilst relaxing over a morning coffee, I've been cruising through some of the day's offerings in the $1 expired names lists. I spotted one which I thought was virtualxxxxxx.com ( xxxxxx represents a popular sport). Having done my research, I thought - "that's too good to be true", but I bid on it anyway. When I read the confirmation message which had the name in much larger print, I noticed that the "i" was missing in virtual. It was too good to be true.

So the message is - don't talk to partners about frozen alligators whilst you are bidding/buying domain names.

So now what do I do? I can't cancel the bid.

• I could put some advertising on it, and see if I can pick up some revenue.
• I can cite it as an example of a mistake in various postings and places, and use it for traffic generation
• I can list it fr sale here on Name Pros, and let somebody else do the work.

What would you do in this situation?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

What would you do in this situation?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/domain-hangman-guess-the-domain-win-the-domain.1009554/

 

[Kuffy]

That's an interesting thread, but would people guess the name with a missing letter?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

That's an interesting thread, but would people guess the name with a missing letter?

People guess made up brandables, so yes, eventually somebody will guess it with enough letters.

Clues, such as reg date, or registrar help get accurate answers.

Note -- crafty domainers have an advantage using domain tricks. I would hope as the game goes on, more domainers will realize these tricks, and apply them to not only hangman, but their domain research regiment.

 

[dordomai]

Whilst relaxing over a morning coffee, I've been cruising through some of the day's offerings in the $1 expired names lists. I spotted one which I thought was virtualxxxxxx.com ( xxxxxx represents a popular sport). Having done my research, I thought - "that's too good to be true", but I bid on it anyway. When I read the confirmation message which had the name in much larger print, I noticed that the "i" was missing in virtual. It was too good to be true.

So the message is - don't talk to partners about frozen alligators whilst you are bidding/buying domain names.

So now what do I do? I can't cancel the bid.

• I could put some advertising on it, and see if I can pick up some revenue.
• I can cite it as an example of a mistake in various postings and places, and use it for traffic generation
• I can list it fr sale here on Name Pros, and let somebody else do the work.

What would you do in this situation?

you lost time,money.. i would not lose more time over this. just let it drop if it has no value.

there is no need to try to make every purchase profitable.

 

[Kuffy]

you lost time,money.. i would not lose more time over this. just let it drop if it has no value.

I'm retired, so I can give it a bit of time. It's a resource, so I can give it a bit of effort it it doesn't involve any more expense.

I started a round in that hangman game btw - not this name of course.

 

[dordomai]

I'm retired, so I can give it a bit of time. It's a resource, so I can give it a bit of effort it it doesn't involve any more expense.

I started a round in that hangman game btw - not this name of course.

yes but you could spend the time on some domains that are more profitable.

 

[Kuffy]

yes but you could spend the time on some domains that are more profitable.

If you don't have money problems, then the quality of life and health are more important that the pursuit of profit.

 

[Kuffy]

Well, I guess that was predictable - the name was transferred into my account this morning.
The name is VrtualGolf.com, and the correct name would have made a great site.

When I think of all the great names I've bid on, and that were renewed at the last minute, I realise that you seem to get all your mistakes, and only a very few of the great opportunities.

I suspect the first thing to do is to host it, and see if it gets any traffic, but |I've probably distorted the results by posting about it.

 

[dordomai]

If you don't have money problems, then the quality of life and health are more important that the pursuit of profit.

is it really as fun to work on VrtualGolf.com as on a real domain?

 

[CJ6]

Yep, I made the same mistake before. Paid, learned, and moved on.

 

[Kuffy]

is it really as fun to work on VrtualGolf.com as on a real domain?

It's an attitude to life. If you succeed at everything you attempt, then you aren't trying hard enough, and you are frightened of failure.

I made a mistake by registering some xyz and info names for a project I started. I decided to withdraw from the project, and those names are surplus, and I need to walk away from them.

VrtualGolf.com is a "real" domain, and it is an asset that I have purchased in error. I suspect that it is not a million dollar name. I like to try to learn from my mistakes, so I think it is worth spending a few minutes on it, even if it is just to discover if these names do receive any traffic.

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

Park it for 30 days and contact the real owner with parking traffic screenshots and ask lowest price.

If you are lucky it may sell or at least you will get some bucks by ads

 

[dordomai]

VrtualGolf.com is a "real" domain, and it is an asset that I have purchased in error..

it is not an asset most likely. It is a liability. it cost you time, money, comes with theoretical legal risks which are probably not relevant.

You could register many domains like this one for less than what you paid for it.
not everything that you pay money for has value.

This domain does not have any value if significant traffic is not there, which is likely.

it is also ugly, 1 word typo brands can be OK but random two word typos suck.

 

[Kuffy]

It isn't a liability - I don't have to feed it, spend money on it, or paint it. It isn't on auto-renew, so It's unlikely to be renewed by me. I have a hosing plan that allows me to host 1,000 addon domains, so hosting won't cost me anything as I've only got around 600 names. I doubt if conventional parking will produce enought to recover the acquisition cost, even though it was less that $10.

I admit it may be a mistake, but remember, it came from an expired list, so somebody paid to register it in the first place. Actually I've just noticed that it was reg'd in 2015 and renewed, so maybe there is more to this name than meets the "i".

 

[stewmath]

if it was in the $1 expired list i presume it didnt cost you alot, maybe $10 including the renewal.

Id put it down to a life lesson and just park it.

 

[Kuffy]

I'm tempted to turn it into a domain mistakes for sale site.

 

[Kuffy]

if it was in the $1 expired list i presume it didnt cost you alot, maybe $10 including the renewal.

Id put it down to a life lesson and just park it.

I decided to have a bit of fun with it, and I've just put together a quick logo - do you think this makes the point?

 

[Corey]

Hmmm...can’t reach this page

 

[Kuffy]

Hmmm...can’t reach this page

Which page is that? The link was just an embedded jpeg image.

I have put together a 1 minute lander - vrtualgolf.com, but I didn't think it was worth mentioning that at the moment.

 

[Corey]

Hmmm...can’t reach this page
Try this

• Make sure you’ve got the right web address: http://vrtualgolf.com

 

[Kuffy]

It should be working, and I've just installed an auto-SSL certificate on the site, so https should work as well. I've just checked that, and it looks as if it is only working on the sub-domain - https://www.vrtualgolf.kat1.com/ http works well for me though.

Thanks for alerting me to this. I'll hve to check it out tomorrow.

I had a quick look, and I think I gave myself a problem by settng up the hosting before I changed the DNS. I check tomorrow to see if it has updated, If it hasn't, I'll delete it and re-install, that will probably be the quickest and easiest option.
Thanks for alerting me to this.