discuss Confidentiality SUCKS

[MapleDots]

Confidentiality Sucks

I have had 3 big sales at 75k each and in each case I signed a confidentiality clause which prohibited me from talking about the domain.

In retrospect I find this really hampers my domaining business because I cannot give examples of my big sales to prospective client. Since I specialize in a unique targeted part of the market I rely on sales statistics to justify prices.

So here is my dilema...

I am in the midst of closing my biggest sale to date and it is well over the 200k mark. The problem is they want me to sign a confidentiality clause. I swore I would never sign another one and I am sticking to my guns. I turned them down flat and said no deal.

Now I know you are all thinking that was pretty stupid but I don't think so. First off, I don't think I will lose the deal and secondly I need my sales stats to target other sales.

The biggest players in the business regularly publish their sales statistics and they become like gods in the industry. They sell a domain based on the fact they got huge money for previous sales.

Looking for some feedback here from anyone who has had some larger sales.

 

[MapleDots]

From www.domainking.com

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
bought porno.com for $42,000 in 1997 and sold it in 2015 for $8.88 million, cash, which was the fourth-highest reported domain sale in the history of the Internet. It was also the largest single domain transaction that Escrow.com has ever handled.

In the 18 years that I owned the domain name, it earned approximately $15 million, without ever having adult content! I simply sold the traffic to the highest bidder.

In 2003, I made among the very first seven-figure domain name sales when I sold men.com for $1.3 million. It was reported around the world and was featured on CNN, as well as all major news media outlets. It was a big deal, and it was the sale that proved that domains would go up faster in value than any other commodity ever known to mankind. That domain cost me $15,000.

In 2008, I sold Candy.com for $3 million, plus a 12.5% equity stake, to a candy company that had been in business for 35 years. They wanted to be the leader in their industry.

In 2009, I sold Punchbowl.com to MyPunchbowl.com for cash and stock in the company.

In 2004, I sold iReport.com to CNN for $750,000.

In late 2016 I announced another deal for Teem.com, in which there is a cash and an equity component. They Re-Branded from EventBoard.com

Want to see more of my sales?

These kind of deals are regularly documented in domain industry journals and media, including this article in The Domains.

Furthermore, in the 20 years we have been online, more than 650 million visitors have come to our sites via direct type-ins, and that does not include traffic created from our partnerships.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Publishing his previous sales helps him justify prices for current sales.
I don't see him signing any non disclosure documents

 

[Want2learn]

@MapleDots i definitely think we have some similar views on the subject! By any chance are you familiar with the Myers Briggs Personality sorter?

Human metrics dot com is where I go to test. They are free. 70 question A or B test.

Anyways I'd bet 1 month Name Pros subscription you have the letter N which is iNtuition

Have no idea if you are outgoing or not. Am guessing you are organized. Not sure if you are sensitive or not.

I'll go ENFJ

Outgoing-ish
iNtuitive
Feeling
Judging

Have you decided what you will do?

 

[Justin Matmor]

If your sold domains are truely premium, the market knows what they are worth, and you will be regarded as a credible broker - regardless if you publish the price or not.

What's wrong with publishing the names that you sell and add "price undisclosed due to confidentiality". This will imply that the price was high.

 

[Ategy]

Interesting discussion guys .. it's actually pretty simple though ..

In the domain industry: Reputation + Popularity = LIQUIDITY!

The more people look up to you and follow you, the more likely they are to check out your portfolio or more importantly one of your auctions. People will be more likely to buy one of your domains hoping the domain will repeat your previous $75k or $200k sale (even if you really always should judge domains individually). but at the end of the day if you've sold domains in the $xxx,xxx range, then you are doing something right and are likely to be at least above average at procuring domains.

That being said .. a $200k sale does sound good .. but unless we know the purchase price then the sale price is irrelevant when it comes to revealing the extend of your domaining superpowers .. lol. (Not talking about you specifically .. but just in general .. giving feedback to a (new) domainer based on how good their "portfolio" is is completely pointless unless you know both the purchase price and renewal costs (if premium).

At the end of the day all the big boys can afford to say no to some offers specifically because all they need to do is send out a newsletter discounting a few domains and they'll very likely get a few liquid wholesale buyers .. so they never need to worry about paying the rent so to speak.

On that note .. I've just sold 8 domains at $8,888,888 each ... so .. follow me!

 

[MapleDots]

but unless we know the purchase price then the sale price is irrelevant

Purchase price was a hand reg that I had the foresight to register.

 

[MapleDots]

All will be divulged if I can get past the non-disclosure agreement.

 

[MapleDots]

Sorry, I cannot talk about the previous sales, I have agreements in place.

The latest one was a hand reg that deeply resonated with me. Keep in mind a sale is only a sale when it closes. The broker has contacted me with the terms and I have turned down the confidentiality clause. There were some other conditions which will take some time but I don't think the removal of the clause endangers the sale. That is why I am confident and looking forward to announcing the sale.

 

[MapleDots]

I'll refer you back to post #1 in this topic
Hold tight, I'll disclose the details when I can, that is the whole point of the topic.

In the meantime if you don't believe me I am quite ok with that.

Maybe one day I'll let you in on the history I have with (hover/domain direct) and how many domains I actually owned. Pick up the phone and call Ross at Hover, his guys wrote the custom script that helped me pick out and register the domains. I was a hover guide on their forum in those days.

 

[MapleDots]

Don't worry I won't forget you, I will take great pleasure if I can come back and post the details of my sale when it concludes. For no other reason than to show you that mine is bigger than yours.

Edit: I removed the account screen shot, thought better of it.

If you want to see it I can show you via PM, I can even show you the transaction amounts but not the domain names.

Will that do for evidence?

 

[MapleDots]

Yup believe it or not we have a bank called Canadian Tire in Canada, they started off selling tires.

https://ctfs.com/en.html

I use them for my domaining account because they are a virtual bank and I can easily move money.

 

[DomainVP]

In addressing the overall point @MapleDots is making, I do believe that it is easier to sell at higher prices once you have the public reputation of someone who cannot be negotiated with for less than five-figures.

There are other ways to get buyers to make higher offers though, but it all comes down to what works best for each individual.

 

[MapleDots]

Now being back on topic let me state a real scenario so it is understood.

Hypethetical

I sell MapleOne.com for 10k
I also own MapleOne.net and MapleOne.ca

Next buyer comes along and offers me 1k for the .net
I would like to give him details about who I sold MapleOne.com to and at what price. That would justify me getting closer to say 8k for it instead of the 1k.

Now take that one step forward and say I owned Maple1.com, Maple1.net and Maple1.ca (which I do)
Now I can also use the 10k sale of MapleOne.com to try and increase prices on those domains.

So some of you still think I am talking about reputation when what I am really talking about is the value of my remaining domains. If I can show sales with cold hard facts I can probably get more money for similar domains.

When I said the big players were revered like gods I was talking about what I have observed on namepros. Because they had the million dollar sales they automatically command bigger sale prices for their other domains. People figure they must have the magic touch and really know what they are talking about. The previously published sales are helping them get bigger paydays.

How the heck are they getting big guys around the non disclosure contracts?
Everyone is insisting on non disclosure when they buy a domain. Don't know, maybe its because I deal with companies instead of individuals.

A lot of my domains are so similar that if I can openly post my sales history I might be able to get a higher price on some of my other domains.

Example.... I have the matching .ca of the .com I am in the midst of selling. The company said I had to throw that in and I said no because they are not from Canada. I insisted they give me a release on the .ca and that they would not come after me if they trademark the .com. All of this is at the lawyer along with the fact that I do not wish to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It is self preservation, it increases the value of my domains and probably a ton of similar ones sitting at huge domains. As soon as the data is published people will go out looking for similar names. That is good for me because I already own the similar names.

 

[Ategy]

... what I am really talking about is the value of my remaining domains. If I can show sales with cold hard facts I can probably get more money for similar domains.
A lot of my domains are so similar that if I can openly post my sales history I might be able to get a higher price on some of my other domains.

When I said the big players were revered like gods I was talking about what I have observed on namepros. Because they had the million dollar sales they automatically command bigger sale prices for their other domains ...

Yeah .. these are two completely different things .. the similar domains part certainly would have an effect whether or not you were able to show similar prices.

That being said .. if you sold a .com for $10k .. then generally speaking the .net would be valued at $500 to $1000. Although today in 2017 from what I've got from my research, is that .net's are soft even at 5%-10% of .com prices.


How do you find .ca's compare to .com? About the same as .net?

 

[MapleDots]

How do you find .ca's compare to .com? About the same as .net?

I find in a lot of cases businesses will forward the .com to the .ca

Virtually all U.S. businesses in Canada use a .ca extension. So do a lot of the banks Amazon.ca etc etc

So .ca is hit and miss, the right name can have great value, especially if the .com is taken. I love when someone owns the .com and it is actually in use. It makes the .ca much more desireable. Its hard to get over 5k for a .ca but its been done quite a few times. My big sales have all been .coms but I have had enough smaller sales of .ca's to make a good chunk of change.

Example
BestBuy.ca - Was bought for a small fortune from a car parts company
Walmart.ca
Yahoo.ca
Amazon.ca
Staples.ca
The list goes on and on

 

[MapleDots]

Are those actual examples of YOUR sales? Or were you just speaking generally? lol

HeHe, I wish, those were just examples.

I have two businesses where I own the .com and the .ca and in both cases I use the .ca because that is where the bulk of my business is. Even if you look at my MapleDots.com page you will notice the MapleDots.ca address is the one I use. Any click on the .com takes you to the .ca. I target Canadian Business names so that makes sense for me.

I am just now commissioning the logo for RoyalMaple.com and RoyalMaple.ca
Again it is important when one sells that I can use the other to negotiate price. In sooo many cases I own the .com and the .ca or something similar. A confidentiality agreement stifles my ability to cross market sales data.

Montreal is not too far from me, if you're ever in Ontario let me know, maybe we can meet up.

PS. Be careful of the French names, it's a very small target audience for those. Only used in quebec and if the company does business outside quebec they will automatically need something different. (may I suggest the maple for instance)

 

[MapleDots]

I did not say I just sold 3 under nda, I said I sold 3 under nda but that was over a number of years.

The others were nothing huge, I generally try to hold out for around 5k if I can. I sold MBCanada.ca to someone who sold car parts but he lost the domain to Mercedes Benz Canada because they threatened him.

I continue to own MBCanada*com and hope to sell it to them but am holding out for 75k. I have been threatened on that over the years but I am not intimidated. They use MBUSA in the states and I figure with all the similarities I have value there.

I bought hundreds of LLCanada.com & .ca combinations and sold them over years before I did maples.

 

[Ram G.]

Its inspirational to see someone selling handregs for $75K

 

[MapleDots]

Its inspirational to see someone selling handregs for $75K

Everything was a hand reg at some time. I have hand regs from 2002 in my portfolio, I cannot bear to part with because they are great names.

My biggest one to date was a hand reg that made sense to me, it was calculated and I got lucky.

 

[MapleDots]

OMG I just disclosed, what do you want blood?

Why can't you just wait until I can release the information and just chill until then.

 

[imadoer]

OMG I just disclosed, what do you want blood?

No i want the truth

 

[imadoer]

you said you sold MBCanada.ca but didnt say how much you just said you try to hold out for 5k.

I'm calling bullshit about this thread

 

[imadoer]

ok so you sold one domain for 5k and 1 for 75k then another for 75k and your negotiating for 200k as we speak.. this is a huge jump. from 5k. and looking at your names unless your brokering something i don't belive you

 

[MapleDots]

OMG, yes it's being brokered its a Maple domain - I own 300 maple domains, I got lucky with one really big one, I knew eventually I would. It's our National symbol and it has big demand.

Edit: Actually lucky is not the word..... calculated, it was a calculated gamble.

 

[Ategy]

PS. Be careful of the French names, it's a very small target audience for those. Only used in quebec and if the company does business outside quebec they will automatically need something different. (may I suggest the maple for instance)

Yeah .. but there are other French speaking countries .. .that being said I think under 3% of my portfolio is non-english .. and for those they are very strong keywords .. I have the French equivalent of mortgage, health, work, broker, english, dance, green, bet, sold, links, retirement in .co .. so despite being both French and .co they are extremely strong keywords ... also a few in .com (collectionduchef, mesrabais, plainairs) . I actually have a couple German and Spanish as well in similar quality. But aside from those over 97% are English.

 

[MapleDots]

I would say that unless you're a well-known person in the industry, it's probably better to not say anything unless you can divulge details. There's no point.

Yup, I figured that out. Got up this morning to make my list of 5k sales but figured there will be no end so I used the ignore button instead. Damn handy that thing, I should have used it before.

Assuming I can get past the non disclosure agreement I will post back here with great joy when my sale completes.