Today we have a guest post from Luke Smorgon. Apart from being a well-known and successful digital entrepreneur at Transpire, Luke is a serious domain investor. He recently experienced a situation that many domain purchasers / investors have experienced in their career – an inadvertent spelling mistake affecting their purchasing decisions. And he has been decent enough to share this blooper with us!
Some lessons in life can cost a lot more than others.
I thought I picked up a tidy bargain on Drop last week with accomodate.com.au.
A nice little domain that fits well into my portfolio of single word verbs.
Unbeknownst to me, something was slightly astray on this one.
I received a concerned call from a close mentor and domain veteran worried I had made a terrible and expensive mistake.
In case you hadn’t picked it up yet (as I certainly hadn’t!) the correct spelling of the word is “accommodate”. Yep, two “m’s” not one.
I’ve never been interested in misspellings and instead focus on domain names which have strong potential to make a strong, memorable, recognisable brand.
Now there is another party who was very interested in this very domain, who placed a bid on Netfleet for $2,700 (but strangely didn’t put a bid on Drop for some reason).
Netfleet Screenshot from 29th November 2019
I only put a bid on Drop, and ‘won’ the domain for $50.
I’d consider this a cheap price for a valuable lesson to always double check your domain name for correct spelling!
I’d love to all celebrate some failures and what we’ve learned, if you care to share a story about when you slipped up?
Luke Smorgon – 4th December 2019
My mistakes have been selling $50-100k names for $10-25k. You can only make the sell decision with the information you have at the time unfortunately.
Lesson: if a name has genuine potential to sell for a much higher price, don’t take the bird in the hand.
Don’t be afraid of losing the sale.
It costs nothing (just renewal costs) to hang on to a domain, and generic domain names are getting rarer and rarer (and hence more valuable).
Land was cheap as chips in Sydney and Melbourne once upon a time…
I have regrets about domain names I didn’t bid higher for and missed tbh
Hey Luke
You dodged a bullet there mate only paying $50 (the person who had the bid on Netfleet owes you a drink as they reeeeeally dodged a bullet at $2700!)
I have done the same with a couple of hand registrations late at night and not checked my spelling thinking I had just picked up a bargain! NOT!! 😁🤣
I think every domain investor has done the same thing at some point.
Great lesson and thanks for sharing. 👍😎
Ed, your first sentence is exactly what I said to Luke! When I looked at the WhoIs, I was so fearful that he was the “unlucky” bidder on Netfleet, and he would have bid a similar amount on Drop. Thankfully not.
I’ve lost track of the number of mistakes I have made whilst bidding on the drops and buying privately.
But I never beat myself up about things for too long – I treat it as a learning curve. 🙂
The other thing I should add is that over time I’ve had some very generous registrars treat me well when I have made a genuine mistake.
As the owner of the correct-spelling version, I must admit I had a teeny tiny little heart attack when I thought my domain was up for grabs on the drop list 🙂
We’ve all bought misspellings by mistake before, wondering why no one else had the “$50” option 🙂
Great post, Luke!
What are your thoughts on registering the American spelling of .com.au’s e.g. ageing (AUS), aging (US) and whisky (AUS), whiskey (US)? Would you still register the US spelling in an Australian market?
Looking at the Netfleet auction result page I would ask too… Why someone would pay $511 for LocalMarketGuide.com.au when LocalMarkets.com.au is listed for sale and could possibly become your nemesis if used for a similar business model.
These below are currently available to register and could certainly impact your purchasing use or resale price of LocalMarketGuide.com.au.
LocalMarketSearch.com.au
LocalMarketAssist.com.au
LocalMarketFind.com.au
As much as a spelling check is vital so to should more research be done to understand your possible business opposition. If LocalMarkets.com.au had of been a similar operating business or could very well become so from it listed for sale, it would impact the resle price or business use of LocalMarketGuide.com.au considerably… Personally, I’d rather negotiate to buy LocalMarkets.com.au and count the $511 as my first discount.
I strongly believe that Lendi.com.au purchased their domain name as it was available for a standard registration fee from the many others who may have considering its spelling to be worthless.
Due diligence can save many pennies and many nights of regret but I do believe you must think outside the box too.
Thank You!