⚡️ How do you get a domain that's already taken?
We've all been there. You try to register a domain, but it's already taken.
Fortunately there are a few ways to still get the domain name you want. I've bought 100's of domains over the years.
Sharing my tricks below 🔽
You basically have these three options. I'll go over them in detail.
💰 Buy it – Pay a fair price for it
📆 Backorder it – Hope it doesn't get renewed
👿 Sue – Take legal action
💰 Buy it – Is it for sale?
Visit the domain. Is it put up for sale? Reach out to the owner. You can usually negotiate a lower price than listed.
Also check out dan.com and sedo.com to see if it's listed there for a lower price.
Sometimes it makes sense to hide your identity when reaching out. E.g. when you have a profitable business and you're concerned that might inflate the asking price.
In that case you can use a broker like domainagents.com – they also help identify the current owner.
☝️ Example: learnswift.com was listed for sale by hugedomains.com – I purchased it within an hour of Apple announcing their new programming language called Swift. I got it for a nice price.
💰 Buy it – Is it unused?
If the domain name does not resolve or you get a blank page, that's great! The owner is probably not using it and might want to sell it.
Check who owns it (use who.is) and reach out. Make an offer. We'll get into pricing later.
☝️ Example: betalist.com was unused. It took two long years, but I eventually negotiated to buy it for $1,000 and upgraded from betali.st
💰 Buy it – Is it used?
This might be tricky. Figure out how active the site is. Use similarweb.com to check traffic, search the URL on Twitter, etc.
Reach out to the owner to see if they want to sell it.
☝️ Example: startup.jobs was being used by another job site, but it didn't seem super active so I reached out. We agreed on a price and the rest is history.
🤑 Figuring out the right price
A tool like namebio.com can help you figure out what prices similar domains where sold for in the past.
But ultimately it comes down to what the domain is worth to you versus the current owner.
🤝 Negotiating
Read this book: amazon.com/Never-Split-Difference-Negotiating-Depended/dp/0062407805
TL;DR let them go first. Start at 60% of the price you aim to pay.
🔐 Secure transfer with escrow
Negotiated a price? I recommend Escrow.com or DAN.com to handle the payment & domain transfer. Especially for higher purchase prices.
You pay a small fee, but they make sure you don't get scammed.
📆 Backorder it
Can't reach the owner? Don't want to pay a premium price? Backordering is your next best option. It's my secret to getting some of my most valuable domains for very low prices.
👇 Here's how it works…
Every day thousands of domains are not being renewed. They expire and become available for registration. However, if it's a valuable domain name you need to be fast.
Backordering services register the domain name the second it becomes available! ⚡️
Sometimes even faster. They often partner with domain registrars which means the domain name doesn't even come up for registration. The backorder service picks it up immediately.
☝️ Example: I bid $20,000 for wip.co which got declined. Ended up getting it a few months later for only $1,200 through a backorder. Owner didn't renew it 🤷♂️
You can backorder through a variety of services. The most popular one is snapnames.com but it's not always the best. Research who the current domain registrar is (use who.is) and what backorder service has the highest success rate for them.
Typically you only pay if and when they successfully backorder the domain for you. About $80. So there's no risk. If multiple people backordered the same domain, it goes into auction.
👿 Take legal action
In some very specific cases it might make sense to take legal action against a registered domain name. And get it that way.
But the reason I include it in this thread is primarily to advise against it…
You can file an 'UDRP' if a domain name infringes on your trademark. But there are some very specific conditions in order for it to succeed. If you get it wrong, you risk getting countersued for 'reverse domain hijacking'.
Even many lawyers get this wrong, so be cautious.
If you do seriously consider taking legal steps send me a DM and I'll introduce you to a lawyer specialized in domain names.
👋 That concludes the thread. If you have any questions feel free to reply or email me privately at marc@hey.com
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Marc Köhlbrugge
@marckohlbrugge
Follow along as I build https://traits.xyz https://wip.co https://startup.jobs https://betalist.com https://buildinpublic.com https://pay.game and more