How to Negotiate your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (3/5)

The third part of our Cybersquatting Guide explains the tips that you need to know in order to successfully negotiate with the speculator. If you don't have read the other parts, we strongly advise you to read them here:

• Top 5 Domain Name Scams - Cybersquatting Guide (1/5)
• ICANN Procedure - Cybersquatting Guide (2/5)
• How to Recover Your Domain Name in Court - Cybersquatting Guide (4/5)
• 20 Advices to Secure your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide (5/5)

How to Negotiate your Domain Name - Cybersquatting Guide

If you are not comfortable with the UDRP procedure, you can still contact the current registrant and start to discuss about the price of “your” domain name. Before you contact them, you should think about the real value of your brand’s name and the amount that you are willing to spend to take it back.

1. Is the Domain Name Valuable for You?

• Will the loss of your domain name impact your business?
• Will you lose money if you don’t have the domain name?
• Is the domain name a part of your digital strategy?
• Could you change your domain name without affecting your Brand's name ?
• Is your brand already known and well established ?

You need to answer the questions if you really want to know if it’s worthy or not to invest some time and money to take back your domain name. if you think you the loss of your domain name won't affect you, then do not waste time to take it back and look for a new one.

2. What is your Domain Name Worth to the Speculator?

Someone has taken your domain name and there are some reasons behind this situation. For the new owner of “your” domain name, the main goal is to earn a pretty nice amount of money by displaying advertising on of the website and also by selling the domain name.

To establish the value of the domain name the speculator will take in consideration two things:

• The first one is your domain name value, if you have a domain name which includes some very expensive keywords in a given market or if you brand is very well known then don’t be surprised if the speculator ask a huge amount.
• The second thing to take in consideration is the remuneration he gets with either advertising with a PPC or PPM campaign or affiliate program. In this situation, you need to establish the monthly traffic and as it is your website few days or weeks ago, it mustn’t be difficult to establish an accurate estimation.

3. What is the Goal of the “Owner” of my Website?

Well, obviously the new owner wants to make money from it and if it’s possible he want to make a deal very fast. Of course, selling the domain name to one buyer is one of his goals but selling your old domain to you is its main goal!

As most of them, do not want to keep the domain name for years while earnings few hundred dollars with the advertising campaign, they will try to get in touch with you as fast as possible to close the deal.

4. How to Lower the Price of the Deal?

Like any transaction, you will need to negotiate with the vendor but in order to have a relatively good price; you need to follow the following advices:

1. This situation is exactly a brinkmanship game, it means that if the deal happens both parties will gain mutually from it but if the deal doesn’t happen then both parties will lose. Knowing this will help you to understand the vendor's strategy.

2. If you are not comfortable with this deal, especially because you feel that he has stolen your domain name, you can hire a negotiator specialized in domain name trades. They know how to handle this situation properly without involving any personal feelings.

3. Be calm, polite and professional during all the process of the deal. Avoid involving your feelings into this deal and most importantly DO NOT insult, yield or express your thoughts about what he did. If you do so, it may ends the negotiation for a while or...forever.

4. Even if the situation you are involved seems to look alike a Mad Max one where no rules and policies exist anymore, keep in mind that from their point of view the situation is 100% legal. You forget to extend your domain name, they bought it, you need it back so they propose you a deal. Do not try to argue about this when you are exchanging with them.

5. The first price he will ask you is most of the time 5, 10 or even 20 times the price they are willing to accept. Do not worry and be surprised if they do so during the first round of negotiation.

6. Do not act or feel them like you are totally desperate and not know how to deal with the situation. It means that you shouldn’t reply their emails as soon as possible, take time to respond on phone, so they will feel that you are not giving a lot of importance to the situation.

The fourth part of the guide is dedicated to the court procedure.