Check the News Before You Reply

Have you ever received more than one email offer or inquiry on a domain name in a short period of time and not know why? I am sure most people search for the domain’s key term(s) in Google to see what people might be looking to find, but that might not get you the most relevant information.

Before you reply to the inquiry, check Google News and Google Blog Search for the term(s) both quoted and unquoted. While News and Blog results are generally listed in the standard Google results first, they may not appear at the top of the results, rendering the fresh information useless. If someone is trying to buy a domain name from you because a television network just announced a show with the same name as your domain name, you should know this before you respond.

If you receive more than one inquiry on a single domain name, especially if it’s irregular that you receive inquiries on this particular domain name, you should assume it’s not coincidental. Having the most updated information is critical when determining how to reply to an inquiry, and Google’s information, like their News and Blog Search, can help you filter through the crap.

How Do I Reply to a Domain Offer? It”s a bit strange to me, but there are a...
Double Check Your Spelling When Bidding on Domain Auctions This should go without saying, but it’s always important to...
Kyodo News, Top Japanese News Site, Needs to Forward WWW to Website I am sure many of you are watching this sad...

Written by Elliot Silver on February 4, 2009
Posted in: Advice

Comments (5)

Gazzip

February 4th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

I’v set up Google news alerts for “the keywords” of some of my domains, makes it easier to keep up with whats going on related to your domain.

It’s good for new up and coming terms, products etc and can sometimes offer an insight to who “may” be making an offer.

Elliot Silver

February 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Good idea. The thing is that this would be impossible for people who have hundreds of domain names. It’s always a good idea to search for the terms anyway, and in addition to the USPTO, searching News and Blogs is smart, too.

Rob Sequin

February 4th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Now you can put a Google news feed in a block on your site

http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch/

Domain Name Media

February 4th, 2009 at 12:33 pm

Did this happen to you recently? If so, I’m curious what the domain was. I would think most offers that come in this manner are from opportunistic domainers that aren’t going to offer much though. If the offer was coming in from the company that the buzz was related to, you’d be hearing from them before the news hit the blog circuit. Still, it is a good thing to be aware of. Nice post.

February 4th, 2009 at 1:52 pm