How and why we acquired our .com domain • Hacker News Board

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#51

Post by advaitruia » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:49 PM UTC

advaitruia wrote: post #4

mtmail wrote: post #3

That is a great and very transparent write-up, I'd say the best I've read in years. Usually companies don't disclose the final price. My dream .com domain name is squatted by somebody in Korea owning 10.000s of domains. One year they forgot to pay their registration, 'whois' printed 'overdue' (can't remember the exact words). I tried to register, backorder, everything. Nothing worked sadly.

Thank you! Took me a long time to actually get myself to publish it

Why not reach out to a domain broker to acquire it? Or even reach out yourself?

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#52

Post by sokoloff » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

evanmoran wrote: post #43

Curious for fellow founders with the .com, how many of you defensively buy the .net, .org names as well? I find it hard to resist getting at least those three if I'm settled on a name/brand.

If I'm even thinking about an idea, I'll register all three. The cost is indistinguishable from zero.

I wouldn't defensively buy from a broker or squatter, but for unregistered domains, I think it's a no-brainer to do it.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#53

Post by thrtythreeforty » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:51 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #19

mhink wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They paid $8k for the domain and $4k to the broker. (At least, that's how I'm reading it- I agree it could be worded more clearly.)

Did the broken do more than offer a couple of opinions? That $4k seems steep.

Sounds like the broker got paid for his advice on not poking the bear. That could easily have saved $4k.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#54

Post by garganzol » Wed, May 10, 2023, 6:59 PM UTC

evanmoran wrote: post #43

Curious for fellow founders with the .com, how many of you defensively buy the .net, .org names as well? I find it hard to resist getting at least those three if I'm settled on a name/brand.

Those specific additional domains are useful in their own ways. .net is good for network infrastructure, .org is good for organizational purposes like mapping your office/LAN endpoints into it, so that employees could connect to VPNs and internal services like SCM and build servers.

Other than that, additional domains also give leverage for diversification if you decide to make them publicly visitable one day.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#55

Post by garganzol » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:02 PM UTC

sireat wrote: post #47

canadiantim wrote: post #9

Honestly the key is to be patient. Put it a low-ball offer on a .com you want then wait. They'll reject initially, then they'll contact you again every couple months to see if you're still interested. Keep the low-ball offers going, maybe increasing by very small increments. Eventually you will catch them in a moment where the seller is desperate and then you strike a deal. I got a 6 letters .com domain for $3k down…

I tried looking for myfirstname.com and it is completely inactive and private registration for the last 20 years. I am not even sure how would I go about placing a bid. It is an uncommon name not in English dictionary. Possibly my namesake bought it 20 years ago and has done absolutely nothing (not even placed parking on it). How could I even contact them?

Use a broker for $100.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#56

Post by kruuuder » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:22 PM UTC

I have recently purchased the .com domain for my product. For the past 10 years I have only owned used the .net domain (although for not much more than a landing page as it's an App Store app).

Is there a best practice what to do in this situation today? I'm currently forwarding from .com to the .net domain. Should I forward from .net to the new .com domain instead? Or keep it as it is?

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#57

Post by folli » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:25 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #3

That is a great and very transparent write-up, I'd say the best I've read in years. Usually companies don't disclose the final price. My dream .com domain name is squatted by somebody in Korea owning 10.000s of domains. One year they forgot to pay their registration, 'whois' printed 'overdue' (can't remember the exact words). I tried to register, backorder, everything. Nothing worked sadly.

I was in a similar boat a couple of years ago with sunlocator.com

I created an app with that name, unfortunately the domain was already in possession of a turkish PV company that went out of business. I noticed that the domain will lapse in a couple of months, so I used Snapnames (if I remember correctly) to set up a domain drop catching service.

Meanwhile, I got an email from someone representing the Turkish company who independently asked me if I wanted to buy the domain for a couple of thousand USD. I was getting nervous, but decided to go radiosilent on that matter.

Well it worked, they must have thought I'm out of business as well, or whatever. A couple weeks later the domain dropped and got picked up by Snapnames in my name.

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#58

Post by jonathantf2 » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:29 PM UTC

Domain for a project I used to run was snapped up by a domain squatter, I've contacted a few times but they want 4 figures and I'm not prepared to pay that. Guess I'll just keep watching every few months to see if it's expired?

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#59

Post by vxNsr » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:30 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #30

vxNsr wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, how’d you lose it? Expired cc?

IIRC (it was long ago): Expired card, broke college student, procrastination, and at a time where domain squatting was somewhat new.

Yea expired card is what scares me the most, I think these days theoretically that shouldn’t be a problem because cc companies will proactively send out the new info to companies charging recurring payments (which can be good and bad).

Re: How and why we acquired our .com domain

#60

Post by advaitruia » Wed, May 10, 2023, 7:31 PM UTC

kruuuder wrote: post #56

I have recently purchased the .com domain for my product. For the past 10 years I have only owned used the .net domain (although for not much more than a landing page as it's an App Store app). Is there a best practice what to do in this situation today? I'm currently forwarding from .com to the .net domain. Should I forward from .net to the new .com domain instead? Or keep it as it is?

How much does SEO play a role in your customer acquisition? Do you have a lot of existing backlinks to the .net domain? Do you plan to continue building this product for a long time?

Depending on the answers to these questions, I would evaluate the tradeoffs of migrating. If SEO is not critical or if you already have a certain domain authority / backlinks or dont plan to continue for a long period of time - then it may not make sense to migrate.