At the end of November 2011, I learned that Marijuana.com had been purchased by WeedMaps Media, Inc., an entity of the publicly traded General Cannabis, Inc. The reported acquisition price was $4.20 million.

At the beginning of the year, additional details emerged about the transaction, and Mike Berkens reported (via George Kirikos) that there was more to the transaction. According to Berkens, “the down payment was only $125,000. The balance is payable under a promissory note for $4,125,000. The promissory note calls for 69 payments of 60,658.55 each starting on January 18, 2012.”

This morning, I learned a bit more about the transaction, and the news will benefit other domain owners who wish to purchase a domain name and pay over an extended period of time.

The Marijuana.com deal was consummated using the Domain Name Holding transaction at Escrow.com. This escrow service is designed for high dollar transactions (generally $75,000 and higher), where the buyer and seller agree to hold the domain name or names in escrow while the buyer makes scheduled payments. This type of transaction had been available before in private, but now it is publicly available.

The minimum term to do a deal like this is three months, and payments can be made for up to 5 years, although it could possibly be lengthened by speaking directly with Escrow.com.

I asked Justin Hartfield, co-founder of WeedMaps, why his company chose to use Escrow.com for the deal, and he said, “they were one of the few escrow companies that offered domain holding at a reasonable price. They are also one of the largest and local to our company — just down the street.” Escrow.com is the recommended escrow service for large Ebay transactions and Cars.com purchases.

To set up a sale or acquisition with Escrow.com using a Domain Name Holding transaction, you can select Domain Name Holding as they type of transaction and then select the holding period. After Escrow.com has signed contracts and secured the first payment with the escrow fee, they request control of the domain.  All domain names are held in the company’s secure account at Go Daddy with privacy for the entire term.

In my business, there have been many times where a domain name is priced beyond the means of a buyer. Offering payment terms is a tool for domain owners to help close a deal, and with a respected company like Escrow.com offering the service, it might help you close a deal.

Escrow.com posted a video on its Facebook page that explains how the escrow process works. Surprisingly, I’ve had to explain the process to a number of buyers and sellers, so this might be a good video to use as a reference if are working with someone that hasn’t used an escrow service before.

I previously posted some links to articles about the strong reputation of Escrow.com, which can be used to allay any fears someone has about doing a high dollar transaction. I think this video and other educational material from the company could be beneficial for you to read and send to buyers or sellers.

One thing I immediately noticed when viewing the video is that a new Escrow.com logo and color scheme are used, and you can also see the Escrow.com this on the company’s YouTube page. I like the colors, and I look forward to seeing an updated Escrow.com website.

I take my iPad just about everywhere when I am away from home. It’s one of those things that I didn’t realize I need to have until I actually had one. Now you have a chance to win a free iPad 2 courtesy of Escrow.com.

Escrow.com is currently running a Facebook-based contest, and one lucky winner will receive a new Apple iPad 2. To enter, visit the Escrow.com Facebook page and post about something you bought or sold using Escrow.com or something you bought or sold but wished you had used Escrow.com. For a second entry in this contest, you can post a picture of the aforementioned item.

If you’ve used Escrow.com for a domain purchase or sale, post it. There’s no need to post the price, so all you need to do is post the item. I think I am going to enter the contest and post a screenshot of DogWalker.com, since I bought the domain name using Escrow.com.

Entries must be posted by May 22, 2011, and the drawing will be held on May 23, 2011. Limit one normal and one picture entry per person. Employees and family of employees are not eligible. Winner chosen by a random drawing.

When I visited Escrow.com this morning, I was surprised to see the message, “Bad Request (Invalid Hostname).” According to Escrow.com Customer Service Manager, Andee Hill, the company has been experiencing a Denial of Service (DOS) attack on its servers. I have been assured that customer information and transactions have not been compromised.

According to Hill, “Escrow.com has experienced an attack on the bandwidth of our servers. This attack only creates the inability to access our site; it does not compromise any customer or company information. We are working diligently to resolve this issue promptly.”

The technical support team is working diligently to resolve this, and the company expects to be back online shortly. If customers have any questions or need some assistance, they can call customer support at 1.888.511.8600 (in the US and Canada) or 1.949.635.3800 (International). Customers may also email support:  support@escrow.com.

I thought about this for a few days, and want to share my top ten domain tools and websites that are beneficial to my business. While this does include a few news websites, I consider them tools because the information provided is used to bolster my business.

These are in alphabetical order.

• DNJournal.com (Weekly sales reports)
• DNSalePrice.com
• DomainBoardroom.com
• Domaining.com (News Feeds)
• DomainTools.com (Whois Lookups, Whois History, Reverse IP, Domain Monitor)
• Escrow.com
• Estibot
• FreshDrop.net
• GoDaddy (Bulk Domain Checker)
• Google (Adwords Keyword Tool)

What are your favorite tools/websites?