Archive for the Internet Development Category

Is it a scam?

March 25, 2008 by kim.milton.

Today I received what looked like an invoice (Domain Listing Service) for two of my Domain names. Each bill was for $75. I’m not sure how Dlscorp.net found my contact information; my current Registrar has my old address listed. I have a lot of domain names, but the only common factors for these two are that I attempted to transfer to the Registrar where my other names are managed and the attempt failed.

Neither of these sites is developed so I know I never requested any listing service. A matter of fact, the service they offer is a waste of money.

The disclaimer is on the back of the bill. Do you read the back of your bills?

I found a lot of sites calling this a scam and the reason I agree is:

  • This document looks like a bill (not a solicitation).
  • There is a reference number and notification date.
  • Payment information states “remit payment on or before April 18, 2008” (there is nothing stating this is a special that expires so it looks like a bill due date)
  • The disclaimer is placed on the back of the advertisement. (The pages are not numbered, but both mailers were folded so that you open to the other side of the form)
  • The text formatting on the front of the advertisement is very standard with bold Capitalized headers followed by normal looking text.
  • The text on the back of the form:
    • Underlined headers for the first two items with content off to the right
    • The third item has bold header information with bold text off to the right
    • The disclaimer has no header with small bold text for the first line. The second and third lines are on the line directly below it capitalized, bold, and centered.
    • The background has a gradient and the disclaimer is at the faded part of the gradient.

It took me three times reading the document before I saw the disclaimer.

Kim

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Expiring Domains

September 6, 2007 by kim.milton.

Over the last year or so I’ve noticed that expired domains seem to stay in limbo land for a long time. Somehow these same domains are snatched up before the average person can purchase them. I decided to research how to purchase expiring domains:

I read How to Snatch an Expired Domain by Mike Davidson

This article helped me a lot! There is one recent change that I know of: Snapnames now starts bidding at $99 for Domains expired from Network Solutions. Even though the starting bid has increased by $39 this is a very good deal. If you use one of the other services there is no guarantee. I have purchased four domains over the last week through Snapnames and watched some cool high end auctions.

This next site Find Your Domain NOW is an article to tickle your curiosity with an Ad.

I like that the owner was able to get second listing with the following Google search (how to buy expired domains). This page didn’t really help me get a domain, but it did help me understand why other people buy them.

At webmasterworld.com in the Domain Names discussion there are a lot of good tidbits.

Webwork seems to have some good information and suggestions.

I read a few more articles but pretty much the Mike Davidson article gave me the bulk of information I needed to be successful in purchasing a good dot com domain. I don’t look at all expiring domains, I look at Registrars that have a relationship with Snapnames and there are plenty of great names to be had.

My recent purchases are:

The total spent to purchase the four domain listed above was $431 (two of the auctions were listed at the old starting bid of $60). Just because they went to auction doesn’t mean I spent an arm and a leg to get them. I was the only bidder in two of the auctions. There were two auctions I didn’t win because I am not a high roller, they went for $12,666 and 4,200. I’ll update you when I buy more Domains. I have about 20 more auctions this month.

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