A while back I was contacted by someone who owned a web site that was direct competition of one of my own. He was offering to sell the site to me at some absurd price because it included the domain name, site, database, decals, etc. Since I already had a similar site, so all I was interested in was redirecting the domain name to my own site. He wouldn’t part with just the domain name, even though I made an extremely fair offer. He hadn’t monetized the site, then didn’t even park the domain when he took the site down. I noticed that he let the domain name expire and that it had originally been purchased through GoDaddy.com. I watched TDNAM.com for a while to see if it would pop up and never saw it.
I had pretty much forgotten about the domain name until today when, on a whim, I searched for it on GoDaddy.com and found that it was available. So, I snatched it up and, using promo code “OYH7″ it was mine for under $8. Patience paid off in this case. Not only is some direct competition gone, but I got his domain name and didn’t have to pay a premium for it.
Let this be a lesson to those of you who have a domain name no longer in use – if someone makes a fair offer, take it, especially if you’re not going to do anything with it. Squatting only works if you’re willing to sell.
