Study Famous Domainers’ Inventories with Reverse WHOIS and WHOIS History

[domain_names]

There are several domainers that we can’t help but look up to because of their success. There’s Frank Schilling, Rick Schwarts, and Mike Mann, to name a few. Their continued success certainly has to do with strategic purchases and impressive inventories.

Do successful domainers have specific criteria when buying domain names? We can study a domain expert’s strategy by looking at his or her inventory. So let’s find out using Reverse WHOIS Search and WHOIS History Search.

Mike Mann
Mike Mann famously sold menu[.]com for US$25,000 in 1998 and founded NameMedia. Although he sold most of his shares, he still has some of the best domains in his inventory, specifically those in the .co domain namespace. To know what domain names are left in his list, here’s what we did:

1. Obtain WHOIS Registrant Details
We ran Mike Mann’s official website mikemann[.]com on WHOIS History Search to see the registrant details before WHOIS redaction and were able to find its registrant name, street address, city, and email address at the time.

2. Get the Registrant’s Domain Inventory
We then used the registrant details as search criteria to build a current reverse WHOIS search report, which gave us eight domain names Mann currently owns. These are:

• biking[.]com[.]co
• brakes[.]com[.]co
• currencyexchange[.]com[.]co
• digitalcameras[.]com[.]co
• exercisevideo[.]com[.]co
• jazzmusic[.]com[.]co
• luxury[.]com[.]co
• weddings[.]com[.]co

We used the same search criteria to build a historic reverse WHOIS search report so we can see what domain names Mann once owned. The tool returned thousands of domains, but you would see several that start with the word “best.”

• besthomehealth[.]com
• bestisyettocome[.]com
• bestmerchantservice[.]com
• bestofbeauty[.]com
• bestofbusiness[.]com
• bestpracticesguide[.]com
• bestpracticestraining[.]com
• bestsuited[.]com

Rick Schwartz
Dubbed as the “Domain King,” Rick Schwartz carefully selected his domain names and focused on those he knew would sell even if he had to buy them at steep prices. He bought men[.]com, for instance, for US$15,000. Six years later, he sold it for US$1.3 million. Schwartz’s other notable sales are adult-themed domain names such as porno[.]com, which sold for a whopping US$8,888,888.

Using the same steps and tools that we used to look at Mann’s inventory, let’s look at Schwartz’s portfolio.

1. Obtain WHOIS Registrant Details
We ran Schwartz’s official website, domainking[.]com on WHOIS History Search to see the registrant details before redaction and here too were able to find his actual registrant name, registrant organization, street address, and email address.

2. Get the Registrant’s Domain Inventory
We then ran the registrant details above through the advanced feature of Reverse WHOIS Search. We got 4,680 domain names, several of which are for the adult and dating industry such as:

• 1800makeout[.]com
• 213sex[.]com
• zbestfetish[.]com
• 1800hotdates[.]com
• 2girl[.]com

He also has 800-themed domain names on his roster such as:

• 800flycheap[.]com
• 800golfing[.]com
• 800orders[.]com
• 800surfing[.]com
• 800vanitynumbers[.]com

Several location-based domain names that start with the word “aco” are also part of Schwartz’s inventory. These could prove lucrative as more states use accountable care organizations (ACOs):

• acoalabama[.]com
• acoalaska[.]com
• acoarizona[.]com
• acoatlanta[.]com
• acoaustin[.]com
• acoboston[.]com
• acochicago[.]com
• acoclaim[.]com
• acoclaims[.]com
• acocleveland[.]com
• acodallas[.]com
• acodirectory[.]com
• acoflorida[.]com
• acogeorgia[.]com
• acohouston[.]com
• acoillinois[.]com
• acolasvegas[.]com

Frank Schilling
Top domain name investor Frank Schilling made headlines this year when he sold Uniregistry and his domain portfolio to GoDaddy. Still, it’s interesting to know what domain names are left under Schilling's name if any. We ran his name on Reverse WHOIS Search and obtained 26 domain names:

• demons[.]net
• der-erfolgs-code[.]info
• dererfolgscode[.]info
• erfolgscode[.]info
• erfolgsdesign[.]info
• erfolgsdesigner[.]info
• existenzschutzversicherung[.]online
• germanbusinessgroup[.]info
• germansuccessacademy[.]com
• gold[.]cards
• jotsy[.]com
• kables[.]com
• ksla[.]ch
• ksli-hno[.]ch
• librastar[.]com
• miniaturen[.]com
• pathologie-bl[.]ch
• reisekrankenversicherung-vergleich[.]online
• spitalliestal[.]ch
• ultro[.]link
• unfallversicherung-vergleich[.]online
• uniregistry[.]at
• uniregistry[.]feedback
• uniregistry[.]jp
• uniregistry[.]pe
• zwl[.]ch

However, if you want to know what kind of domain names Schilling was interested in, you can build a historical reverse WHOIS report using Uniregistry as the registrant organization. Although there are over 350,000 on Schilling’s domain portfolio, you’ll find that the domain investor was interested in a variety of domain names, including those in the guitar space:

• about[.]guitars
• account[.]guitars
• andyteaches[.]guitars
• auction[.]guitars
• contact[.]guitars
• corp[.]guitars
• create[.]guitars
• dev[.]guitars
• diy[.]guitars
• email[.]guitars
• find[.]guitars

Uniregistry also has auction-themed domain names on its portfolio, along with adult-themed domain names.

The Bottom Line
The current and historical inventory of the three domain experts we explored showed some commonalities. They have location-based and adult-themed domain names, and they also invest in new top-level domains (TLDs) such as .guitars.

As a domain name investor, you may have a strategy and criteria when buying domain names. However, it could help to get ideas from other domainers, especially those who have been quite successful in the industry. Reverse WHOIS Search and WHOIS History Search are handy tools that can help you gain insights into what the experts and even your competitors are doing.

This was a promoted post.​

 

[BigTree]

One whois history request cost 1 dollar. I think there are much better deals around.