Someone wants to buy my domain and don't know what to do

[LMG9]

I have owned a domain for a few years now that I use for a personal blog, email purposes and online persona. Recently I have been contacted by a person who wants to buy my domain. He is an accomplished author and has a new book coming out in the next few years. There is also a movie deal with this book that is expected to be released around the same time.

I've been looking all over the web and asked many people and I just don't know what I should expect as a reasonable offer. This site has great personal value to me and I never originally intended to sell it, but I will if the 'price is right', though I don't kow what that is.

At the moment, I've been holding back insisting he make an offer (as per tips on the web). It took over a week and a few email exchanges and he finally gave me a number and it was for $300.

I have paid about $350 in advance to maintain my site for the next few years, so his offer doesn't even cover my costs, not to mention the hours I will have to spend transfering everything, having to figure out how transfering a domain name is even done and the value the domain is to him (he has noted it is of great value and influences book sales.) If I were to keep the site, I can only expect my traffic to significantly increase and I could potentially turn that into revenue if I rebrand my site.

I don't think $300 is a reasonable offer. Other similar naming sites have set prices in the low thousands, but the author specifically noted that he really needs my exact domain (to match the title) because without it, it would negatively impact his book sales (he learned from previous experiences with books that he got the exact domain for vs. books that he didn't get the exact domain for.)

What would be a reasonable amount that I should expect him to pay? Any suggestions on how I should move forward?

 

[Traveler]

I think you made the right call. From all the info you have shared, sound like the name should be worth a lot more than he has offered.

 

[richface]

I am pretty sure he will come back with his tail between his legs and offer you more. When someone sends you a low ball offer next time don't reply. This tactic always work and they increase their offer if there are serious.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I just told him that I'm not interested at selling at this time for that offer and that since he thinks it won't help him with sales than it will be of no loss to him. He has responding saying that if I change my mind I know where to find him. I certainly won't change my mind. 1k USD is chump change.

Keeping it is really better for me in the long run. Either I do what I originally planned with it and make money, rebrand it and make money off of all the new visitors I'll be getting (because of the book/movie) and make money, or get a better offer from the movie studio and make money. All those amounts are much more than 1,000.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Do NOT listen to the below noob. If you start registering a bunch of related names now, you COULD lose all the domains, including your jewel, in a UDRP in a bad faith decision.

As it stands now, you are in a good position because you registered the name before this author wrote his/her book and before the movie deal.

My advice: hang tight, and make sure that your ads (if any) don't relate to the movie or book. Just keep your blog up and DON'T mention the movie or book in your posts.

You're in a good position for a lovely payday, but don't blow it by listening to uninformed newbies.

*

Dont sell it,

Go and register the name name that you have but with movie on the end so you have the monopoly on the book and the movie.

When they release the media company catches on it wil be them that wants to buy it.

Nobody wants to invest 10 million into a movie and not be able to get hold of 10millionmovie.com



D.

Seems 10millionmovie.com is available, i might reg that for future reference...

 

[carob]

*

Do NOT listen to the below noob. If you start registering a bunch of related names now, you COULD lose all the domains, including your jewel, in a UDRP in a bad faith decision.

As it stands now, you are in a good position because you registered the name before this author wrote his/her book and before the movie deal.

My advice: hang tight, and make sure that your ads (if any) don't relate to the movie or book. Just keep your blog up and DON'T mention the movie or book in your posts.

You're in a good position for a lovely payday, but don't blow it by listening to uninformed newbies.

*

Could you explain why you are saying this?

Generally there is not copyright on the name of a book.

Domain names containing the name of a book + the word film or movie could be treated differently for UDRP purposes - is there info on this point? Here's a recent failed domain grab for film title - http://domainnamewire.com/2012/04/04/the-gangster-squad-domain

Also as said it would be a good idea to register now an alternative name for your site so if you do ever want to sell the current domain you already have a new name available for your site. Otherwise you might find all the suitable names taken.

BTW there is a well known letter Groucho Marx sent Warner Brothers about a film title they wanted to stop him using

http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=31

I just don’t understand your attitude. Even if you plan on releasing your picture, I am sure that the average movie fan could learn in time to distinguish between Ingrid Bergman and Harpo. I don’t know whether I could, but I certainly would like to try.

You claim that you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without permission. What about “Warner Brothers”? Do you own that too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about the name Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were. We were touring the sticks as the Marx Brothers when Vitaphone was still a gleam in the inventor’s eye, and even before there had been other brothers—the Smith Brothers; the Brothers Karamazov; Dan Brothers, an outfielder with Detroit; and “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (This was originally “Brothers, Can You Spare a Dime?” but this was spreading a dime pretty thin, so they threw out one brother, gave all the money to the other one, and whittled it down to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”) etc

The domain groucho.com pointed to a copy of that letter until it was sold recently.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Because people with loads of money usually have the upper hand in UDRP decisions, and if OP starts regging a bunch of Title-Movie (and related) .coms AFTER receiving the offer, this could be used against him/her in a future URDP decision.

Why would he/she want to take a chance when he/she can just sit back and wait?

It seems clear that OP has no real bonafide interest in Movie domains, given that he/she has a blog.

White it's true that you can't copyright titles, you can trademark your movie and the mark associated with the movie.

You can bet that if a movie company gets involved in a UDRP, it would be fairly easy to show bad faith (offer/counter-offer emails, etc.), even on the domain registered before the book and movie.

But if OP sits tight and refrains from regging a bunch of potentially squatting names, he/she has a good chance of winning any UDRP, although certainly not guaranteed, given some of the the silly decisions as of late.

*

Could you explain why you are saying this?

Generally there is not copyright on the name of a book.

Domain names containing the name of a book + the word film or movie could be treated differently for UDRP purposes - is there info on this point? Here's a recent failed domain grab for film title - http://domainnamewire.com/2012/04/04/the-gangster-squad-domain

Also as said it would be a good idea to register now an alternative name for your site so if you do ever want to sell the current domain you already have a new name available for your site. Otherwise you might find all the suitable names taken.

BTW there is a well known letter Groucho Marx sent Warner Brothers about a film title they wanted to stop him using

http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=31



The domain groucho.com pointed to a copy of that letter until it was sold recently.

 

[DU]

you can trademark your movie and the mark associated with the movie

You *can* trademark the movie title but you have to have a true secondary market - the title alone wouldn't be enough. Big movies today have commercial interests in toys, books, clothes etc. and may have a TM but one shouldn't presume.

The complainant MUST have a TM to meet the first UDRP criteria.

That said - having the xxxmovie.com will, as you say, put you in a bad spot with regards to your intent should they have captured the TM. I would say that it may also have an impact on the normal date recognition because you could potentially argue that your intent changed once you found out about the movie.

Either way - it's just poor to try and profit from movie names, imho.

 

[Archangel]

I've skimmed this tHread. Lemme put something out there for you:

I am an author & have studied the industry well. I'm not agented yet (personal reasons) but I do know that if he sold publishing rights & film rights, he should have over $500,000. Asking him for $3,000-5,000 shouldn't be unrealistic. If he was serious about things, then he definitely has the money.

 

[Geodomain]

some money is better than no money a wise man always told me!

50% of something is better than 100% of Nothing. Not sure if estibot valuate etc would be relevant here without rereading. We used those tools for Geodomain (geodomains geo domain geo domains "place identity" #Geodomain) sites.

Also Its pretty good to get variant spellings and even phrases like we did in the "Cuba Hotels" Cuba.com post and podcast (ask).

 

[WatchDogue]

A number of years ago I co-authored a world-wide though very small marketplace book.

It sold well in the tiny target market and, when domain names later became known and available in the '90s I purchased the subject matter domain (s) and have 'em to date.

When I had past offers to sell, I declined and now, when perhaps would consider selling, real offers have dried up as has the marketplace.

For most names IMO opportunities to sell may knock on the door once or maybe a few times but too soon the knock goes silent.

Keep the line of communications open and pleasant to the author, perhaps another knock with a checkbook in hand will come your way.

Questions for you to ponder:

As the author is accomplished does he have a website for each title, a single website for all of his titles, does the author use domains to " redirect" to another site?

IMO the perceived value of the domain would vary based on perceived/guestimate of use.