Is this domain for sale?
“Hey. I see you’re the owner of that piece of land over there”, says the stranger, with the pulled down hat and covered face.
NOT!
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Is it for sale?”, he asks, gruffly, almost as if to disguise his voice.
“No, sorry.”
“I’ll give you $250 for it.”
“Huh? No, it’s not for sale.”
“I don’t have a lot of money. I need it for this great business I want to build. Will you take $500?”
“No, it’s not for sale.”
A few days later, he shows up again. “My partner says I should offer you $1,000.”
“Please tell your partner that it is not for sale.”
Another week goes by. “My investors are going out on a limb and want me to pay you $5,000.”
“For what, the land? It’s still not for sale.”
That happens about once a month week. Except that they are trying to buy one of my domain names.
And I don’t know how many of these strangers are the same person, just coming back with different disguises. I’ve had people who want one or the other domain for some new business idea. I’ve had people who want to use one for their new band. I had another who wanted me to donate one to their non-profit, but wasn’t allowed to tell me what they were doing. I had another who wanted one as a gift for his son. Yet another was trying to add it to a group of other unspecified domain names so that they could create a sentence with all the words (presumably for a marketing promotion run by a larger company). Mostly I get students or so they say, who are working on a project that requires one of my domain names.
They all need to learn something. If you’re coming to me, who has owned these domains for almost 20 years, and you want to buy a domain, then you need to come up with a more compelling story to get me interested.
Don’t tell me that I should give away a perfectly good domain so that you can build what will make you a billionaire. I could care less.
Don’t tell me that I should donate my domain name unless your new business is going to bring health or peace to the masses and you can prove it.
Don’t write to me from seemingly temporary or new email addresses, without a real name attached, because not knowing that you’re some entrepreneur (who has or has no money) won’t make a difference in whether I will sell you my domain.
And if the only thing you have to offer is money, please, don’t bother me for anything less than 6-figures (USD). Because I’ve already turned down a couple of those.
(I might, however, rent you a domain for 5-figures.)
CriticalMusings 