Domain Leasing?

[Mike]

NP'er rsequin posted a link to a company specializing in "renting out" domains.

Has anyone ever heard of them or done business with these folks?
They go under the name of LeaseThis.com.
I'm not sure if its truly newsworthy, or indeed really to be considered news at all. However, if this opens a chance to escape the ever fluctuating PPC model, i'm all for it.

Anyone have any knowledge about these guys?

Again, thanks to rsequin that pointed it out!

 

[tricolorro]

Please feel free to post any questions to this thread and I will personally answer them over the next 2 days.-JB
Jonathan Boswell
LeaseThis.com
CEO

Hi Jonathan,

Will your program be focusing exclusibely on .com domains?

Thanks.
Patrick

 

[Lasher]

Personally I'm very excited by this development. I don't have 1 word .COM domains pulling in 5,000 uniques a day, but I do have a good amount of domains that would be ideal for a small business in their category and give them a small but steady flow of traffic. I'm not going to sell most of them for the xxx-low xxxx they are able to offer and they're not going to pay what I am asking. If I can lease the domain for a significant multiple of what it makes parked/reg fees and retain ownership of the domain, I'm willing to sacrifice the potential lost sale while the domain is being leased.

Of course there's a whole grey area around this, I'm sure some spammers will try to use them as 'disposable domains' and I'm sure leasethis have thought that through. There's bound to be growing pains, but as long as they're growing pains and not running-on-the-spot cramps, I'm all good with that

Btw, signed up yesterday and got a reply today, will let you know how it goes.

Derek.

 

[Mike]

Welcome to NP, Jonathan.

Few questions here:

- as a domain owner, do i have to have a minimum amount of domains in my portfolio to be eligible to join LeaseThis. (Minimum amount of domains made publicly available for lease through your company.)

- Thanks for your email to me earlier today; i understand that the payout is 60:40 in favor of the domain owner, with improvement based on the amount of domains contributed to the lease programs. What are the increments of domains contributed that shift the allocated payout percentage?

- Is there a minimum amount that domains can be rented for? e.g, Minimum rental amount per month is: $xx/domain

- How will the payout take place? Check, Paypal, direct wire and in what time frame?

- What information will you need from a domain owner, how will submitted domains be verified to actually belong to the person that offers it for lease?

- What are the security measures in place to protect the domain owner and the leasing party? Given the fiasco that GoDaddy seems to be creating at this time, accuracy and security may be a tremendous concern of domain owners.

- Is there an internal interface that lets the domain owner check on the stats of the domain, or will it be completely hands off once the domain is rented?

These are just a few quick questions, i'm sure there will be a tons of other questions coming your way by the ever watchful eye of the NP community.

I'm looking forward to the answers, and best of luck with the company, in sight of the PPC situation, your concept may just be the way out of the dark ages.

Thanks,

Mike <[email protected]>

 

[newton]

Can you please tell me what is in place stop lessee's severely abusing domains?

 

[Carlton]

... Given the fiasco that GoDaddy seems to be creating at this time ...

Good questions Mike (gjsys). What does your statement above mean? I'm not privy to what happened with GoDaddy. Feel free to PM if you prefer. Thanks.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

I got approved but don't see how to add domains.

 

[sker]

Did you see the dnjournal article on LeaseThis.com ?

sorry i came late.

i ownder why the CEO of leasethis.com recommends us to park names with Trafficz.com,because Ammar Kubba is the Co-Founder,also the Founder of TrafficZ.

V

 

[Mike]

Good questions Mike (gjsys). What does your statement above mean? I'm not privy to what happened with GoDaddy. Feel free to PM if you prefer. Thanks.

This is what i'm referring to: http://www.namepros.com/legal-issues-and-disputes/284914-f-ed-again-by-godaddy-tdnam.html

It throws valid concerns of domain safety on the table. I hope that LeaseThis.com has a measurable security protocol in place.

 

[Broker]

That link doesnt have anything to do with domain leaseing? I understand the concern over safety however.

That said, I have two domains at leasethis.com and awaiting for email to price them.

 

[duceman]

This is what i'm referring to: http://www.namepros.com/legal-issues-and-disputes/284914-f-ed-again-by-godaddy-tdnam.html

It throws valid concerns of domain safety on the table. I hope that LeaseThis.com has a measurable security protocol in place.

As long as you have them locked at your registrar it doesn't make a difference where the domain is pointed or who the host is. The who-is info does not change to the best of my knowledge. If you have to relinquish your control of the registered owner then this will fail.

I don't see this program making it easier for cyber-jacking. The security issue is just with if you trust your registrar or not. My rule of thumb is " If the domain is worth $### move it to Moniker"

 

[Damion]

Hello there and thank you to gjsys for making me aware of this thread and to Damion for your accurate answers in my absence. You all have covered some very important questions and concerns that we had at LeaseThis.com when we first got started on this project in February of last year.

Just to recap LeaseThis.com is very much a win-win for everyone involved. We work to make domain owners happy by generating the best possible income for their domain as well as delivering quality visitors to advertisers. As a company we work hard to make both sides happy.

Please feel free to post any questions to this thread and I will personally answer them over the next 2 days. After that I will check-in from time to time, but will have Kristine, Travis, or Kevin check-in to NamePros on a regular basis.

Talk to you all tomorrow.
-JB

Jonathan Boswell
LeaseThis.com
CEO

Thank you for stopping by Jonathan!

I have a question related to advertisers:

I've submitted a small portfolio of Real estate domains that do not relate to the regions of the U.S. so i am wondering...

Does the current portfolio of advertisers only originate from the U.S. or other regions/countries as well?

For example,

Canada?
Europe?
Azia?
Middle East?

Secondly...

I think I'm not alone on this one, i have compiled a extensive list of prospect buyers for the domains i have submitted and which are accepted.
This list could be very helpful to pull in advertisers since all the contact details as much as where obtainable are included.

Is this something you could work with if the domains are interesting enough?
Meaning, that potential advertisers will be approached by LeaseThis?

Once again Thanks for coming to the forum :tu:

 

[goodkarmaco]

I may have done something wrong as after receiving approval I cannot seem to find any place on the site to actually import my domains for leasing.

I cannot find a link anywhere to import my domains. Is it possible I might have signed up and not clicked a certain link such as "domains" and I might have clicked on "lease" domains?

Also the site seems to be only a skeleton at the time and needs much more navigation tools.

many thanks,

Roderick

 

[leasethis]

Great Questions! I've done my best to answer each one. Keep posting other questions and I'll respond again tomorrow night.

Best,
Jonathan

1. Will your program be focusing exclusively on .com domains?

No, we are accepting all valid TLDs. Keep in mind that most advertisers are still overly obsessed with .com, but as the market continues to mature I firmly believe we will see other extensions begin to lease.

2. How will LeaseThis.com handle spammers who are looking to use a leased domain?

Once a lease is agreed to by both parties, we collect payment from the advertiser and the DNS is changed to ns1.leasethis.com and ns2.leasethis.com. If at any point during the month there is abuse by the advertiser, we immediately terminate their lease. And if at any point the domain owner moves the DNS, we offer a full refund to the advertiser.

3. As a domain owner, do I have to have a minimum amount of domains in my portfolio to be eligible to join LeaseThis?

Just one…initially we had a 100 domain minimum, but we are shifting the approval process and lifting that limit.

4. What are the increments of domains contributed that shift the allocated payout percentage?

It is based on total monthly lease amount. For example, someone who leases 100 - $20 domains would be comparable to a person who leases 1 - $2,000 domain. Once someone crosses the $500 per month in leases they should contact us for an increase in rev share.

5. Is there a minimum amount that domains can be rented for? e.g, Minimum rental amount per month is: $xx/domain?

We are offering a “suggested minimum” of $20/month

6. How will the payout take place? Check, Paypal, direct wire and in what time frame?

Any of the above and net 7 from the end of the month of the lease

7. What information will you need from a domain owner, how will submitted domains be verified to actually belong to the person that offers it for lease?

User information will need to match the whois and for private registration email verification will be required. Once a lease is requested we contact the owner and thoroughly verify all elements of ownership. Keep in mind that the DNS will have been switched for 30 days before any payment is issued to a domain owner so collecting money from a fraudulent domain lease is impossible.

8. What are the security measures in place to protect the domain owner and the leasing party?

As described above we collect the money at the beginning of the month and release it at the end of the month to the domain owner. The main security measure in place for the advertiser is that they receive a full refund if the domain owner moves the DNS during the lease. The protection to the domain owner is that the DNS never switches from our servers and you are guaranteed payment.

9. Is there an internal interface that lets the domain owner check on the stats of the domain, or will it be completely hands off once the domain is rented?

The domain owner and lessee will have access to the domain stats for the duration of the lease.

10. Can you please tell me what is in place stop lessee's severely abusing domains?

We have strict guidelines in the contract that prevent a lessee from abuse of a domain or a domain name. Once notified of any abuse we would terminate the lease immediately and still provide payment to the domain owner.

11. I got approved but don't see how to add domains?

Chances are you requested a lessee account. Contact [email protected] and ask her to change your account type.

12. Does the current portfolio of advertisers only originate from the U.S. or other regions/countries as well?

Mostly from the US at this point although in the last 2 weeks I have started getting inquiries from other countries.

13. Will potential advertisers be approached by LeaseThis?

Yes, we have a sales staff that we are continuing to grow. If you have lists of legitimate leads that would be interested in leasing your domains, we are more than happy to follow-up with them.

14. Also the site seems to be only a skeleton at the time and needs much more navigation tools?

We are in Beta and have lots of additional features and some nifty tools already in production. We plan on launching the full version on April 2nd. 2007.

 

[Mike]

Suggestion for the Account Login Interface: Put a "Forgot Password" button in place. I managed to forget my own password, go figure.

Thanks,

Mike <[email protected]>

 

[Damion]

Thanks for answering our questions Jonathan!
To whom should i send an email regarding my submitted domains and the list of prospects i have compiled?

Anyone in particular?

 

[goodkarmaco]

Yes, thanks for the clarifaction Jonathon.

 

[leasethis]

Thanks to all of you for the warm reception.

gjsys, thanks for the suggestion...we'll add that on our next upload (sometime tomorrow evening)...in the meantime contact [email protected] to get your password.

Damion, for now go ahead and contact Kristine with the prospects.

As for the domains, if you have already imported them, then they will be approved by tomorrow night. If you haven't imported them and/or are looking for a quick upload utility we have setup a page on our website just for Domain Owners at:

www.LeaseThis.com/index.php?cmd=Page_Company_Owners

If you have any questions, comments or concerns don't hesitate to post here or contact us at [email protected]

Travis from Customer Support will be taking over this thread tomorrow.

Best of luck to all of you!
Jonathan

 

[Damion]

Thanks Jonathan.

 

[DomainBuyerBroker]

Just sent in about 300 domains. Looking forward to the opportunity. Thanks.

 

[Broker]

Another question, what if someone wants to buy a domain through leasethis? I dont see this on your site, just price setting with option to buy. Whats your cut if any?

thanks!