discuss As a Domainer, have you ever been accused of extortion or being a scum bag?

[deez007]

Hey Folks

I think this is probably something that happens every now and then to a lot of domainers.

I have had the experience not so long ago as well. Now obviously if you are squatting on a trademarked domain or squatting on a brand then you have no reason or right to complain. However when you have a valid domain name and you approach a potential end users and you get accused of trying to extort money from them, how have you handled the issue? I think most of the time, its because people are simply to ignorant to understand the complexities of domain trading and cant not rationalize the value of a domain name.

I would normally to try and "educate" them but I didn't even bother, it's not worth it. I simply replied back that it is their opinion and they are entitled to it and I am entitled not to give a crap.

What approach to you guys take when dealing with one of these dumb@sses?

 

[dna]

I would suggest that you stop annoying these so called "potential end users" as you are clearly bothering people who don't want to talk to some stranger who wants to sell them something. These people are not dumb@sses and the person that you need to educate is yourself.

 

[DU]

Most neighborhoods and stored have signs "No Soliciting" for a reason.
When you cold-call or spam them via their electronic doorway why shouldn't they be annoyed?

You're not offering a service you're looking to extort profit from them.

You can call it investing or whatever you want. They can call you what they want. You knocked on the door.

My opinion just upsets "domain investors" so I'll stop here.

 

[deez007]

I would suggest that you stop annoying these so called "potential end users" as you are clearly bothering people who don't want to talk to some stranger who wants to sell them something. These people are not dumb@sses and the person that you need to educate is yourself.

You have read my post and made you own assumptions without bothering to ask a few questions.

For instance:

What made this guy a potential end user?

Well, he made a post locally REQUESTING online marketers / web designers to forward him a quote to setup a classifieds site. He highlighted what he was looking for with regards to layout, design and gave examples of what he would like the site to look like and he also wanted them to provide advice on what names are available that have not been registered yet.

So what did I do?

I merely sent him a message with one of my domains which was a PERFECT fit! - He agreed is was a perfect fit and I left the table open for him to make an offer. His offer was super low, the equivalent of about $50, I replied back saying I was looking at around $600. Then he replied back saying it was extortion...

 

[deez007]

Most neighborhoods and stored have signs "No Soliciting" for a reason.
When you cold-call or spam them via their electronic doorway why shouldn't they be annoyed?

You're not offering a service you're looking to extort profit from them.

You can call it investing or whatever you want. They can call you what they want. You knocked on the door.

My opinion just upsets "domain investors" so I'll stop here.

I didn't send anyone an unsolicited email nor was I cold calling.

 

[equity78]

Most neighborhoods and stored have signs "No Soliciting" for a reason.
When you cold-call or spam them via their electronic doorway why shouldn't they be annoyed?

You're not offering a service you're looking to extort profit from them.

You can call it investing or whatever you want. They can call you what they want. You knocked on the door.

My opinion just upsets "domain investors" so I'll stop here.

Where I will agree with most of your points DU. I will say the word extort is wrong unless he contacted them about a name they have a tm on or something very similar. If Google was young and someone offered them search.com, I would not consider that extortion which last I checked is illegal. Now you are right you are not offering a service per se, you are trying to generate income for yourself. I just don't believe it's extortion. Now if someone emailed you DefaltUser.com when your business was on DefaultUser.com, I would agree that's dirty.

 

[deez007]

Where I will agree with most of your points DU. I will say the word extort is wrong unless he contacted them about a name they have a tm on or something very similar. If Google was young and someone offered them search.com, I would not consider that extortion which last I checked is illegal. Now you are right you are not offering a service per se, you are trying to generate income for yourself. I just don't believe it's extortion. Now if someone emailed you DefaltUser.com when your business was on DefaultUser.com, I would agree that's dirty.

Yep, that's exactly what I think. I mean basically the way I see it is almost the same as us selling property (vacant land) in a prime location. Domains are merely virtual real estate or land. People can buy it and build on it. It's the same when a property investor buys a plot of land..then keeps it and sells it a little while later for a profit. He didn't provide any services but he profited from the deal. Surely we can not consider that to be extortion. Same principle with domains, the only difference is the actual commodity that is being traded.

 

[Kate]

On the occasion I have had to deal with beggars and tirekickers, but:

• I don't do outbound
• when you are a corporation, maybe people are less likely to call you names than if you were an individual

Domainers receive a lot of awful domain spam from scammers and other domainers (makes me almost ashamed sometimes), so I can perfectly understand that end users look down on us, even for the wrong reasons.

 

[DU]

Where I will agree with most of your points DU. I will say the word extort is wrong unless he contacted them about a name they have a tm on or something very similar. If Google was young and someone offered them search.com, I would not consider that extortion which last I checked is illegal. Now you are right you are not offering a service per se, you are trying to generate income for yourself. I just don't believe it's extortion. Now if someone emailed you DefaltUser.com when your business was on DefaultUser.com, I would agree that's dirty.

You're right, it's not extortion.
I think this was one of those mind tricks where I was thinking extract but my brain responded to the thread title and replaced it with extort without me realizing. The danger of word misuse.

To be clearer though. I'm not necessarily saying that cold contacting is always wrong (though it is if you do it incorrectly) there are do not mail, do not call lists and regulation on Spam for a good reason. But there's no reason to expect politeness when you're violating someone's allowed right to be left alone.

People need to realize that some people that are being contacted are struggling small businesses. Some of them may look active but be in the process of filing bankruptcy and losing everything. I have called someone once about a domain they had let expire that looked to be a small business - I thought I was being nice but reached a guy who said he couldn't afford to even keep the name. He was broken. Sometimes even trying to help is the wrong thing to do.

But, yes. Here you are totally right to correct me. Thanks.

Yep, that's exactly what I think. I mean basically the way I see it is almost the same as us selling property (vacant land) in a prime location. Domains are merely virtual real estate or land. People can buy it and build on it. It's the same when a property investor buys a plot of land..then keeps it and sells it a little while later for a profit. He didn't provide any services but he profited from the deal. Surely we can not consider that to be extortion. Same principle with domains, the only difference is the actual commodity that is being traded.

There's a huge difference between domains and land based on both attributes and intangibles and I wouldn't ever compare them as businesses. They make for adequate analogies sometimes but here they don't - the method of approach, the method of sale, the risk, the valuation, the legalities, the service are all vastly different. That said, if a land BROKER called me up and offered me a piece of land in Washington because my website had apples on it I'm likely to tell them TGFT.

 

[johname]

Did you make the thread in the break room, or did it get moved to the breakroom?

If you write someone first have to expect these things.

Worst I ever had was a "get a real job..." I a real bad way.

But I am not the king of spamers lol

 

[DU]

What made this guy a potential end user?

Well, he made a post locally REQUESTING online marketers / web designers to forward him a quote to setup a classifieds site. He highlighted what he was looking for with regards to layout, design and gave examples of what he would like the site to look like and he also wanted them to provide advice on what names are available that have not been registered yet.

So what did I do?

I merely sent him a message with one of my domains which was a PERFECT fit! - He agreed is was a perfect fit and I left the table open for him to make an offer. His offer was super low, the equivalent of about $50, I replied back saying I was looking at around $600. Then he replied back saying it was extortion...

This scenario is slightly different than I read from the first post.
1) You were entitled to respond
2) Your price (even not knowing the name) wasn't outlandish

You don't quote his whole post so it sounds like he just doesn't have the capital to pay that much money. He calls it extortion because you've provided a decent name but he can't afford it and "if you hadn't registered it" he could get it for $10.

@Kate always talks about a the false idea that the registrant is all that stood between someone and their domain. Many people don't realize that there is a domaining industry and there would have been a queue of people in between them and the domain in reality. In and of itself if the response didn't contain f and c words it's really not that bad

 

[DU]

Did you make the thread in the break room, or did it get moved to the breakroom?

If you write someone first have to expect these things.

This is way better than other break room threads

 

[deez007]

Did you make the thread in the break room, or did it get moved to the breakroom?

If you write someone first have to expect these things.

Worst I ever had was a "get a real job..." I a real bad way.

But I am not the king of spamers lol

Lol...yeah dude, I posted it in the break room...I thought it would turn into a some funny stories of real life experiences...

 

[johname]

Ok, just asking because this could have been a classic example of a thread being improperly 'demoted' to the breakroom.

 

[Kate]

@Kate always talks about a the false idea that the registrant is all that stood between someone and their domain. Many people don't realize that there is a domaining industry and there would have been a queue of people in between them and the domain in reality.

You are correct. Even if domainers didn't exist, the situation wouldn't be much different. People would still not be able to register the names of their dreams, most of the time.
In a way, domainers might be useful because they provide a supply of domain names that otherwise might not even be available for sale. But it's not something that people realize or are willing to hear.

Also, there is a fine line between outbound marketing and spam. It's clear that some domainers deserve the reception that they get, and I know it because I receive their spam too.

 

[frank-germany]

You are correct. Even if domainers didn't exist, the situation wouldn't be much different. People would still not be able to register the names of their dreams, most of the time.
In a way, domainers might be useful because they provide a supply of domain names that otherwise might not even be available for sale. But it's not something that people realize or are willing to hear. .

100%

if money can supply the domain you would benefit mostly from
you are lucky

I always tell them its not an expenditure but a transit item
as they mabe able to resell it
when they retire

and most probably with a profit