I want to share some good news from Drew and Anna Rosener on the birth of their baby girl, Mila Sofia Rosener. Mila was born very early this morning, weighing 7 Pounds 12 Ounces. Mom and baby are doing well.

Here’s wishing the two of them lots of smiles, happy times, dirty diapers, and good health!

If you need to get in touch with someone from Media Options in the next few days, be in touch with Tess Diaz at:  tess @ mediaoptions.com.

Congratulations to the Rosener Family!

Earlier this month, I wrote an article about the Pelicans.com domain name. Pelicans.com was owned by a band called “The Pelicans,” and they listed the domain name for sale with domain brokerage Media Options with a $125,000 asking price.

I wondered whether the NBA’s New Orleans basketball team would purchase Pelicans.com because the team nickname was changing from Hornets to Pelicans next season. It would make sense to own the exact match domain name, especially since the league already owns so many other .com exact match team names.

Very recently, the registrant information for Pelicans.com changed, and it’s now … → Read More

This is a guest Post by Andrew Rosener, CEO at Media Options. Andrew’s company has sold millions of dollars worth of domain name assets in the last few years. I asked Andrew to write about the differences between working with a large domain name brokerage and an independent domain broker.

It seems that the pool of domain brokers is getting bigger every week, which can only be seen as a good sign that the market still has a lot more meat on the bone.  But as more newcomers, both brokers and investors alike, come into the domain market it becomes ever more important to analyze the various characteristics that make a good fit between you, your domain name (or the domain you want to acquire) and the domain broker; sometimes good things come in small packages!

There is a very clear distinction between a large corporate domain brokerage firm and an independent domain broker.  Both can be great and highly effective, but from my experience they are effective for different things and purposes.

While a larger brokerage firm may have a great reach or larger general audience, that reach and audience may not be touching the niche places that your domain name needs to go.  If you are targeting the domain investor and small business market with a domain that is probably not worth the time and effort necessary for a domain broker to actually reach out to end users by phone, mailing and other forms of personal contact, then a large marketplace is probably the right fit for you and your domain.

If you have a premium domain name that you absolutely want to hold out for a super premium price on and you have no problem with waiting and have no financial need to sell, then a large marketplace is probably the right fit for you – that’s a timing game.  It’s important to remember that you will almost always get a higher price when a buyer comes knocking on your door then you will in a proactive sale and that is something to keep in mind when thinking about and discussing the value of your domain name with a broker.

Your domain might be worth $50,000 market value, but that doesn’t mean that a buyer who has made up their mind to use that brand wouldn’t perhaps pay $100,000 under the right circumstances and if they approach you to buy your domain instead of you approaching them.  But one price provides liquidity (broker) and the other is like a lottery ticket (large marketplace).

Where an independent and professional domain broker plays a critical and valuable role is with high value domains which need to be brought to the attention of specific qualified and potential buyers.  That requires spending a lot of time on each individual domain taken under brokerage agreement.  At MediaOptions for example, we are a boutique brokerage firm with limited resources that need to be used to their maximum efficiency to give our clients the highest possible chance of selling their domain name for the best possible price.  That means that we want to spend our time working on high value domain names which are priced accurately and we feel confident that we can sell them for $100,000 or more in order to use our time and resources efficiently.

We can only manage 10 – 20 high value brokered domains at any given time, but each of those is given personal attention by an independent domain broker and presented directly to the decision makers at the appropriate end users.  A large marketplace will have hundreds, if not thousands, of domains under brokerage contract at any given time; it’s a numbers game (albeit, one that works well).  That gives their in bound leads more variety and choice, but it may not put your domain name in front of it’s best and highest purpose buyer.

One more thing to take into consideration when choosing between a large domain brokerage firm and an independent domain broker is flexibility.  Sometimes it takes some bobbing and weaving, wheeling and dealing to get a domain deal done.  Whether it’s co-broker partnerships, creative financing, alternative deal structures or reducing the brokerage fee under the right circumstances, these are all things that can mean the difference between a deal or no deal.  An independent domain broker can make those spot decisions where a larger entity has to run it up the flagpole before moving ahead.

The domain industry is still a bit like the wild wild west and sometimes it pays to be a cowboy!

I’ve been working with Go Daddy’s Brad Larson for a number of years, and he’s always been able to help me when I need something done. When Brad is out of the office, I generally speak with another Executive Accounts manager who fills in without any hitches. Go Daddy has done a great job of hiring and training representatives to be responsive and knowledgeable about domain names and related topics.

When Brad has been unavailable, Tess Diaz was one of my goto people for assistance at Godaddy. She was able to answer questions and offer customer support, as if she was my dedicated account representative. She has been a friendly and dependable voice when I need assistance.

I just received word that Tess has been hired by Media Options in a Business Development role. Tess will be working with Media Options’ clients as well as helping to build out some of the web company’s properties.

I spoke with Andrew Rosener about the hire, and interestingly, it was Tess who got Andrew involved in the domain industry in the first place. According to Andrew, I was just buying domain names for fun until Tess told me about the whole industry that was out there just waiting for me.”

Clearly Andrew has made the most of his time in the industry, as he has built one of the leading domain na e brokerages practically on his own.

I think hiring Tess will help Andrew grow his business, and I look forward to working with Tess on my acquisitions and sales.

Press Release is below: … → Read More