Has anyone leased a domain before?

[MatthewTimothy]

Might be the wrong place to ask this but since it is a web question I was curious if anyone on the forum has leased a domain name before? I know some sign shops don't have much of a web presence but I was just curious if any of you had luck brokering your domains to other print shops.

 

[GVP]

Sounds to me that leasing a domain name is another way of saying "hostage". I can't think of any benefit for the user, save a name they can't get. I certainly wouldn't consider it.

 

[JERHEMI]

Worst idea ever. I can't stand people and "domain brokers" who purchase domains for $10/year or whatever it is then "squat" on them and try to sell them or lease them for hundreds and thousands of dollars. There should be a law against doing such a thing...if you can't provide documentation that the domain is your business name you should not be allowed to purchase it.

 

[CES020]

I worked for a $50 million dollar company years ago. They had IT contractors in all the time for special projects. One of them was to setup a new division of the business. The IT contractor registered the domain name for the company. He used his information. He came back about a year later and demanded a huge amount of money or he would shut the site down. They pushed back on him, only to find out that he registered the domain name himself, using the company IT people as contacts, but not the owner.

In the end, they caved in and paid him a bunch of money. Their site was live, business was booming, and they were attending trade shows in that time frame. If they fought him, he would have shut it down immediately, and then it would have taken a long time for the lawyers to sort it all out.

I personally would never let anyone register a domain for a business I ran.

 

[HDvinyl]

Cybersquatting is not what he is asking.

I have never leased a site, but have sold many on Sedo.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Cybersquatting, the practice of buying up a domain in order to profit from a trademarked name, is prohibited under the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act as well as a set of international guidelines called the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy. (Disputes are usually mediated by theNational Arbitration Forum or the U.N.'s World Intellectual Property Organization.) Both systems were created to protect companies, celebrities, and even Joe Schmoes from having their names exploited online for commercial purposes. To sue someone for cybersquatting, you have to show that they acted in "bad faith," meaning they deliberately registered a certain domain in order to profit off your name. For example, if someone buys JenniferLopez.com and puts ads up to generate income from random visitors, that's considered bad faith. Same with trying to sell the site back to its rightful owner for a hefty profit, as in the case of the presidential library. (An example of "good faith," meanwhile, might be registering Georgewbushlibrary.com as a nonprofit repository for articles about the president.)

Source: Slate.Com

 

[CES020]

Cybersquatting is not what he is asking.

I have never leased a site, but have sold many on Sedo.

But isn't the end result the same thing? If you lease a domain from him, then he has 100% control over shutting your site down with no notice. He may be a great guy and never do that, but he certainly has the ability to do it, which is why I'd never "lease" a website from anyone. If my business is going to get run into the ground, I'd like to be the one driving the bus, not some random stranger in another city.

Just my opinion.

 

[gnemmas]

How many of us are leasing our building? Can the landlord shut us down during the term of the Lease?

The reason for leasing probably is that we can not afford the purchase price. The lease contract has to spell out the duty and obligation of both parties and the rent, the duration, option to renew, etc.

Some will also build an expensive commercial building on a leased land.

Lease is a commonly used contract, just have to make it work for both parties.

I prefer to buy with a mortgage: 1 million dollar building (or domain name), 100,000 down SBA loan, $7,000/mo for 20 years (PITI). You probably could lease the same with $5,000/mo with annual cost of living adjustment. The rent probably will catch up to the mortgage amount at year 10.

Lease is not necessarily bad, make sure the Lease Contract is good.

 

[PanelSaws]

I can't think of a good reason to rent or lease a web domain name. GoDaddy.com sells domain names for $10 a year. Obviously you have to come up with a name that is not already registered.

 

[CES020]

How many of us are leasing our building? Can the landlord shut us down during the term of the Lease?

The reason for leasing probably is that we can not afford the purchase price. The lease contract has to spell out the duty and obligation of both parties and the rent, the duration, option to renew, etc.

Some will also build an expensive commercial building on a leased land.

Lease is a commonly used contract, just have to make it work for both parties.

I prefer to buy with a mortgage: 1 million dollar building (or domain name), 100,000 down SBA loan, $7,000/mo for 20 years (PITI). You probably could lease the same with $5,000/mo with annual cost of living adjustment. The rent probably will catch up to the mortgage amount at year 10.

Lease is not necessarily bad, make sure the Lease Contract is good.

Valid points, but the difference is that if you are leasing a building and running you business and your landlord decides to sell the building for more money, raise your rent, or anything, then you have the ability to pack up your stuff and move to another location.

When you lease a domain name, if they decide when your lease term is up, that they want 500% more than the last time around, what's your option? If you've spent time, effort, and money driving customers to that website, then you've built up the guy that gets the lease next. If you get your own domain name, a new name, then you have to figure out how to get that traffic to your new site, and there isn't going to be an easy way once he takes the domain name back.

I just think it's a very bad practice to not own the domain name for your own business. You might not agree, and that's fine. I just wouldn't do it.

 

[MatthewTimothy]

Some great input but to appease both parties I try to use escrow to handle the money and a contract with the terms. I would never harm someone in that manner because that would be bad in regards to word of mouth and if there was a money issue I would try to work with the person/company as best as possible. Also, Im not trying to gouge anyone. Im considered by many as a designer with many ideas and a lot of these domains were ideas I was branding to possibly sell as a package business or run them myself but with my workload moving me further away from signage into heavier web development I wanted to at least break even on what I've spent money on and figured if someone wanted to lease them they could run a 302 redirect.

That's also why I was asking if anyone has brokered and what their experience was because I know sometimes several companies have multiple domain names going to their site.

 

[HDvinyl]

But isn't the end result the same thing? If you lease a domain from him, then he has 100% control over shutting your site down with no notice. He may be a great guy and never do that, but he certainly has the ability to do it, which is why I'd never "lease" a website from anyone. If my business is going to get run into the ground, I'd like to be the one driving the bus, not some random stranger in another city.

Just my opinion.

Web.com is doing just fine. Yes you can own your domain with web.com, but MANY companies don't.

 

[visual800]

when I went to look for a domain, mine (of course) was not available. A few weeks later I got an email offering me MY domain for several grand. damn that torques me off. I'm like WTH are you doing with this? Yes there should be strickter rules BUT as with everything in this world money comes first, ethics come last and IMO I could care less. You can get your stupid domain name Mr Cybersquatter.

Thinking bout dropping my site anyway it gets no traffic

 

[CES020]

Web.com is doing just fine. Yes you can own your domain with web.com, but MANY companies don't.

Interesting! I had no idea so many companies didn't own their own domain name. My question to you, is would you lease a domain name from an individual for a business you were building?

 

[HDvinyl]

No, but I do OFFER a service like web.com, I just don't call it leasing. I always register the domain in the companies name.