Amateur gives bad domaining advice

I just read a really interested story over at domainnamewire where Andrew discusses some advice given out by an amateur who believes he has cheated the system somehow.

The interesting thing is that the guy dispenses bad domaining advice on a couple of fronts including legal matters.

The guy, Zack Katz, writes a post explaining “How he got his domain name back from cyber squatters“. In a fit of absolute amateurism, Katz lets his domain name expired so that he can “transfer it to his host easier”.

I was given the domain zackkatz.com for my 17th birthday by my mom…I owned the domain (and let it stagnate) until around 2006, when I wanted to switch hosts. I waited for my domain to expire so that I could transfer it to another host (I was lazy!). Well, it was registered out from under me, and I lost my domain.

He then tried to get the domain name back by throwing threats at the new domain owner, but the domain was eventually sold to an advertising company - the kind that shows ads on the domain - lol the domain was parked.

There was a link on the parking page and Katz made a $10 offer to which the new owner countered with a $150 demand. Katz then made a $100 offer which was accepted - which is a legally binding contract. After having the offer accepted Katz did nothing for a few months.

My domain had a link to “Make an Offer on this Domain,” and I offered them $10…I wanted to see what they were going to do. They wanted $150.00.

I countered with an offer of $100.00, which they accepted. I was not willing to pay $100.00 for my domain back. So I just waited. The offer expired, and they didn’t renew their registration.

So, his advice is to trick the owner into a false sense of security by giving them an offer but never following through.

I believe the last straw for this company was me offering them money, them accepting the offer, and me never taking them up on it.

If you want your stolen [sic] domain back (and don’t want to go through a legal battle), make offers on your website, then let them expire. I believe this was a major contributor to me getting my domain back.

If you want to buy the domain name then by all means make contact and purchase the domain name. But if you plan to lull them into a false sense of security, you are kidding yourself. Domaining-wise, this is the last thing you want to do. You do not under any circumstances want to give hope to someone who owns a domain name you want. If you are hoping they will forget it and let it expire then by all means do not contact them and “fake” a domaining offer. This will only make them keep the domain name as they can see there is demand for it.

And by all means, do not back out of a legally binding agreement as that can hurt you financially.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Domain News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.