How long does it take to acquire a domain name?

While many domain name acquisitions can take days, some can take years.

Below is a collection of Tweets by Founders and Brands after (finally) acquiring their desired domain name along with some factors which influence the odds of a successful acquisition.

Who Owns The Domain?

Price is just one factor in a domain name acquisition.

Most words are taken and many in use by companies with similar names. There are dozens of companies who have Tesla in their name for example. Unfortunately for Elon Musk, one of these companies already owned Tesla.com and it took him over a decade and $11M to acquire the domain.

A good article titled Dot.Complex was published on Quartz by one of our contributors to help explain this complexity of naming.

Existing Use

Many great domains already (a) resolve to an existing company and/or (b) are used for email.

One of the biggest mistaken assumptions when acquiring a domain is that if no website exists then the domain is not in use.

Email is use. And changing email after years of use is often a whole lot harder than moving a website to another domain name.

Price

Money matters but (very often) comparable sales data doesn’t.

Don’t get stuck on asking “how much is the domain name worth?”.

Ask yourself “how much is the domain name worth to you?”.

There is a reason why tech companies own many of the world’s finest domain names. They often understand this approach more than traditional companies do.

Other Factors

Sometimes the stars line up and you can have a desired domain the next day. However, many premium acquisitions not only involve the factors above but also a number of X factors. These X factors include:

  • The owner’s relative value of money
  • How you approach the owner (strategy is vital)
  • How accommodating you are (such as offering a transition period for email)
  • Your personality – seriously. The moment you start telling someone why a great domain isn’t worth much the quicker you lose getting it.
  • How flexible or creative your offer is? Cash is king but sometimes donations and stock help also.

Buying a domain name is a very unique experience. Ask any broker around long enough and they will all tell you the same thing. Some people don’t like money, some just don’t want to sell, others are a little wacky and many like to play the game.