Bulk domain buying - why is this legal?

Why should it be illegal? It's how capitalism works. You can't make things illegal because they "make things hard for you".

Do yourself a favor and stop trying to use keyword names and you'll be much better off...

When you stick to brandable names instead of generic words, things become much, much easier.

Keep in mind there is 3rd party software active on many domain seller sites that will temporarily register a domain if you search for it and then leave the site without purchasing.

This has gone on for years and yet so many people don't understand it.

Use a site like nameboy.com (there are quite a few similar sites) to enter keywords and SEE what is available without identifying what you are interested in.

Nothing to do with "bulk buying" - there are domains available but you have to be creative to find one you can brand.

Yeah, I agree. It's shady, it's dirty and it's bad.

But unfortunately I can't see it becoming illegal any time soon. These people obviously are making money with this scheme.

One solution would be to make URLs much more expensive to buy but, frankly, that's a case where the remedy is worse than the disease.

LOL - you mean charge $60-80 like in the "good old days" when domain selling was new? Can you imagine the screaming you'd hear today about those prices?

There are a lot of "shady things" online and offline - in the case of third party software on domain sites...it's a simple matter to avoid the problem. If you find the domain you want, register it. If you leave to "think about it" you create your own problem.

My very thoughts exactly, but about something else: I want water front properties in great cities, but, darn it, all of them are taken and the owners want hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to give them to me.

Dirty scoundrels.

Do they not know how much enjoyment I'd get out of drinking my morning cup of coffee overlooking the beach on Martha's Vineyard? How much I'd enjoy myself with the money I'd get from renting a few such properties?

Capitalism isn't always right. Take my comparison with tickets scalpers. Are they smart businessmen taking full advantage of capitalism? Perhaps! But it's unethical, and that can be the start of a law.

And I'm not even looking for keyword names. I'm talking about literally every combination of 2 words I come up with, it's all occupied by domain "investors".

I wouldn't mind someone buying a property on the waterfront and using it, or selling it. Same with domains. You got sports.com? Awesome, use it, or sell it if you don't have a good use for it! But don't make a script buying every word in the dictionary (or combination of 2-3 words even).

There's a difference between making an investment, and just grabbing everything, leaving nothing for anyone else.


The internet shouldn't be owned by a few companies. Every start-up should have their chance to register a name. A good name. And it's a shame there are so many good names out there that are available, not being used, but unfortunately cost thousands of dollars.

If you block these start-ups, you're blocking the economy. Sounds a bit dramatic, but I really believe it's true.

And we're not talking about some luxury item here. We're talking about the right for everyone to start their own company.

"Good domain names" are subjective. Worry more about creating content that visitors want and building backlinks that will increase your site's rankings in the SERP. The domain name is just a small piece of the pie.

I'd say it's a rather big piece of the pie. If you can't get a good domain name, you can't get a good name. Kickstarter is kickstarter.com, not startupproducts292web.com

If you're serious about your business, getting a good name is step 1.

It's just like buying up real estate. You can buy as much of it as you want. This only forces you to get creative with your domain name. In internet marketing, you need to think outside of the box a lot of times.

It feels more like buying up ALL the real estate for $5 / each, leaving only the dirty shacks.

"Fortunately" real estate is a bit more expensive, so buying all is nearly impossible. And if it was possible, people wouldn't take it and revolt.

Capitalism has its limits.

Why not start doing what they are doing on this side? Instant of resenting them for trying to make money off you, start making money yourself.

Not slating you or anything but I don't see why domain buying should be illegal.

Hi,
Quality domains are hard to find if you don't find a domain related to your niche in .com you can go for .net or other TLDs to make your presence online.

I prefer to start an honest business, providing services to other people and helping other companies.

I could never sleep at night running a "business" like this, extorting people and blocking start-ups.

Some people would do anything to get rich. I guess I'm not that kind of person. Maybe I'm an idiot, but well... I am who I am.

I tried, but other TLD's are still useless at the moment. I have a website setup without a .com and I lose a very high percentage of returning visitors and referrals because they all go to the .com. Kickstarter.app just wouldn't have been as successful as kickstarter.com.

Throwing away half your customers from the start by not having the .com, I'm sorry but that's not the best way to start your business.

Just spent literally less than 5 minutes and identified 4 brandable domains right out of the gate:

• houcklandscaping.com
• exetekmarketing.com
• wazzlepop.com
• fowlerholdings.com

It's 6:19am. I woke up at 6:05. I've been awake for less than 15 minutes and I can find this stuff. It's really not that hard at all.

I don't really know what you're trying to prove with those names. :-)

Finding a good name takes a lot of hard work and research. You need to know your audience, product, competition, work out marketing etc... there's so many things that come into play.

Could you start a brand "wazzlepop" and be successful with it? Yes. But if kickstarter was named wazzlepop, it for sure would have been a lot harder, and the chance that we would have known the name wazzlepop today would have been very small.

You have a customer (hair salon for old people) looking for a new name: wazzlepop!
The next day you have a customer (B2B IT consulting) looking for a new name: wozzlepap!

I'm sorry but that's not the way to go...

If your point is that you don't need a good name to have a successful business, I agree. But if you're saying there is no difference between having a stupid name and a good name that appeals to your audience, I strongly disagree.

If you don't see how important a name is, well... you're throwing away a lot of money ;-)

Warriorforum, ebay, amazon, ... are all strong names. If you feel ebay could have worked with the name woozlewazzle.com, I think you're very, very wrong. Perhaps in the early days of the internet, when a good idea meant insta-cash, it wasn't all that important. Nowadays, there's so much competition, you really need every edge you can get.

And do you think the bigger companies launch a new product without sending the name through multiple test panels?

Names matter. A lot.

I don't know about where you're from, but here in Europe we try to make it as easy as possible for people to start their company. We have reduced taxes, reduced paperwork, government assistance etc... why? Because start-ups are a very important part of the economy. If you add an extra $10 000 start-up fee for the domain name, don't you think this negatively impacts this?

And even if you feel this has no impact on the economy. Being worth the investment doesn't make the practice ethical.

I'm now about to spend a few thousand $ on a domain name. Yes, it's worth it for me. But it feels very wrong.

Warriorforum is a strong name because it connects a group of people, "marketing warriors", makes them feel connected. It makes them feel strong, as warriors. And also it's a forum, for those warriors. It's a very strong name.

And I'm not even looking for keywords. Yes, I would like if my name has something to do with my business. And I would like if my name appeals to my customers. I would like a cool name that's short, easy to remember, and just has the right "feeling" to it.

It's not that easy... I've been working on this for 2 months with 4 people. And when you finally get that shortlist of 10:

- 2 are actually used by companies
- 2 are for sale for 100k or more
- 3 are 20k
- 3 are 5k

None of my options are available. So what choice do I have? I can settle for a cheesy name destined to fail, or I can cough up at least 5k. Or I can delay my product launch and keep working on the name, which is usually a bad idea as well.

Perhaps me and my team aren't creative geniuses, but those are the options I see for us.

The alternative? 2 domains are in use, 8 are available for start-ups like mine. The economy will grow, lives will get better, everyone gets a piece of the cake. A true American dream. But I guess capitalism tends to get in the way, people get greedy and want everything for them self, no matter the cost on society.

I'd say it takes more in the way of creative thinking and flexibility.

You are going at it from the wrong direction. You can sit around day after day and "brainstorm" names and domains only to find all are in use. Much better to find keyword RELATED or BRANDABLE domain names and then brainstorm WHICH OF THOSE WILL WORK FOR YOU.

....or pay 5k, 20k or 100k

I've noticed people who work too hard to "find a domain" often end up with cutesy or "meaningful" domains names that are non-descriptive and easy to forget. Go for a punchy name and then BRAND it.

It sucks, but I think it is better than regulating it.

If you regulate how long someone can have a domain and not develop it it or buy it to just flip, what will be next?

I have made $33,000 USD on a website domain. Yes in I just sold the name.

But Oh boy that person, was stalking me, and kept saying NO!...I actually thought for a while he was one of the powers that be who were trying to give me a emotiion wedgie, LOL

Very stressful, but that name was a 5 letter .COM.... so I should have sold him that for more. LOL.

THis does take time and effort, and there are now tools that can help you scrap a name for like $100 bucks, but I have to warn you, if you are not ready to put in hard yards, do not get involved with this niche. LOL. It can cause hair loss, and heart damage. Helmets with chinstraps are required. LOL

Highly entertaining thread over the past couple days Seems like business owners trying to educate employees on how business actually works ... and struggling to get them to comprehend. The people who want to start a business can't see the forest because they prefer to complain about all of the trees.

Nope - it is unlikely a member of this forum can become a big fish in domaining. There is still money to be made by creative individuals who buy and sell names, but big domain owners are huge global corporations. You mentioned Sports.com. Doing a comp on Namebio.com shows the minimum bid on that SLD.TLD will be seven figures (if ever sold). The way I think about that name and price is: If I currently own a company (or can create a business) which is able to amortize off the cost of that asset through annual profits, then I can own it.

Who are the biggest domain name owners? That would be Amazon, Google, Apple, GoDaddy, CBS, etc. They and other large corporations hold huge portfolios, and not just the gTLDs (e.g. .com) or ccTLDs (e.g. .co.uk). Take Amazon as an example, type giftcards.cash into your browser and see where it takes you ... or wearable.fitness , shoes.discount , buy.camp , outlet.toys . etc. They have these and, likely, thousands more.

The list of .com domain names owned by large companies is extensive. Conde Naste has Brides.com, Glamour.com, Style.com, Portfolio.com, Gourmet.com and more. CBS holds Auctions.com, Builder.com, Chat.com, News.com, Online.com, Radio.com, TV.com, Upload.com and more. ... and it's not just the names (SLD) anymore, corporations are creating extensions.

Amazon now owns the domain name extensions .buy .pay .book and more. I don't know how many were approved by ICANN, but Amazon applied for 76 different TLDs. With an application fee of $185,000 each, hard work alone will never get you there. This is how a big fish operates - don't compete. Control the market.

This discussion has nothing to do with where people are from - there are successful business owners in every country who are willing and able to take responsibility for themselves. This has everything to do with not understanding how business operates and how to compete in a global marketplace.

Creativity and an understanding of business can set someone on the right path. Refusing to see the forest for all the trees, then arguing for ignorance is always detrimental to progress. Success comes from understanding and learning to overcome obstacles, not from stopping forward progress to complain.

Its not illegal, this will sounds bad, but first WIN. and take everything, I know its sad and I has the same problem as you, but remember that those domains have expiration date and they cant keep it for a long time because it costs a lot of money and they will sell it or it will expire so it will be free for everyone.

My A/B testing shows me this discussion shows a lot about the difference between Europe and the USA. I have posted this on another forum and responses there were very different.

Americans don't like the government getting involved, even if it's for their own good. But in Europe this is very common to happen, and is very accepted. A lot of people somehow seem offended by my opinion, because I want to touch their precious free market. There are no such feelings in Europe (or a lot less at least).

And let me be clear, this is a discussion, which is very different from complaining. I posted here to get opinions from other people on the issue. Yes, I also have stated my opinion, which is a likely occurance in a discussion. ;-) I have been respectful for every opinion and thanked everyone for sharing their view. Which is something I can't say of every poster in this thread, unfortunately.

Domains can be renewed forever, and are very cheap... they can buy 1000 domains and only sell 1 and still make profit. So I don't see this changing soon.