Friday, June 24  

Buying Domains Names - Consider This

Buying Domains Names - Consider This

Hello. Hope you are well and behaving.

In a local newspaper here on Tuesday a front-page story ran regarding a Cayman Islands company that had purchased many.com domain names of towns close to where I live.

The names - such as Murwillumbah.com - we're being offered for sale for $25,000 - $30,000.

The local Chambers of Commerce and various community groups expressed their outrage at what many saw was an illegal attempt to profit from names of their towns.

We sent out this Media Release (it's a PDF file) and I was quoted in a follow up article yesterday (Thursday). What I essentially say in the release was this:

• A domain name is only worth the web site behind it.
• If you have a great domain name and a bad web site it won't be successful.
• If you have a bad domain name and a fantastic web site (informative, entertaining & ever-changing) and it is well-marketed, then the site will be successful.
• People generally find web site through search engines, links and print media - not by guesisng what the domain name might be.
• Companies selling these .com domain names at hugely inflated prices are hoping some sucker comes along who doesn't understand the above.

Two- (2) other issues here worth pointing out:

1. ICANN - the private sector, non-profit corporation created in 1998 to assume responsibility for that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation - has a dispute resolution policy whereby they frown on people or companies buying domain names for the express purpose of reselling them for a profit.

If you (or you town) have a legitimate claim to a name then you can ask ICANN to remove the domain from the owner and give it to you. BUT........ if the owner of the domain demonstrates that they are using the domain name legitimately, then it's highly unlikely you'll win the case.

What many of the people selling domain names for big profits do is set up a one- (1) page web site, pop on some Google Adsense advertisements and WHAM! They've created a web site behind the domain name and the purpose of that site is to generate income and thus meet much of the criteria established by ICANN to be allowed to keep that domain name (even though your claim to the domain name might be legitimate).

2. .com.au domain names cannot be resold. And the very simple reason for that is because when you register a .com.au domain name you don't actually buy it, you simply license the right to use the domain name. And you can't onsell that (you can in exceptional circumstances such as the death of a business owner, sale of the business who have the domain name, etc). For more info check out the policy here.

If you have any questions please contact us.

Regards

Brendon