Real Time Anatomy of a Domain Development Deal Unfolding

Morning Folks!!

It's called a "Meeting of the minds" and when that happens, deals are done.

So here is a deal I made over the weekend with just 3 emails.





Hello,


My name is Xxx Xxxxxx, I have recently looked into starting a xxxxx blog and naturally looked into xxxxxblog.com. I am not looking to buy it as you have made it very clear you aren't in the selling business. However I do believe the domain has a lot of potential to be monetized. It may not become your highest grossing domain due to the nature of the domain, but it clearly has potential. 



(He then goes into a bit of his background which I won't publish here)


If interested, please feel free to email back to discuss more,


Thank you,


My Response:  "Tell me how you see this unfolding and the earnings potential and how that would be split up."

He replies and tells me his plan and why. He states after that:

"One Idea i have, is you maintain sole ownership of the domain, and i have sole ownership of the content(Just in case either of us decide to part ways.) This would exclude the profit made from the content of course. However, this is just an idea, and am very open to hearing your ideas."

I Replied:

"Perfect!

"We split profits 50/50 and we are on our way."


He says:


"I will setup a server tonight, and will let you know where to point the domain."


And so we have our deal memorialized in a very strong contract using email and a very clear meeting of the minds. Short, simple and enough to get any entity off the ground.


This is the type deal my 20 year plan was based on and I have multiple ones in place this year. It's a true Joint Venture. Pure, simple, done. Does it mean it will work? No. But it is an effort to try. It will have a chance. It will be a satellite up in orbit and we will see. I will announce the domain name when it gets online.


My contention for these years has been very clear and the only thing between my vision and the reality of today was TIME. Take that deal to Manhattan! You could not get it! Hey, give me half the Empire Stare Building and we will split the profits. How dumb is that today? Because that is the other side of the mountain. The owner of the domain, I mean the Empire State Building would laugh your ass out-of-town today. But if it was sitting vacant, that would be a good deal for the owner and a good deal for the suitor. THAT my friends is what is coming next IF you have domains that not only would others want, but would invest in as well.


Rick Schwartz



13 thoughts on “Real Time Anatomy of a Domain Development Deal Unfolding

  1. DrDomainer

    I definitely see this the way forward and I starting working on a project
    called MiddleCut.com a little while ago, same deal format you have just mentioned. So this shows me this format can work.

    Reply
  2. Jonathan L

    Congrats! What a great situation ! However, I am always curious and somewhat skeptical as to how sales and profits will be accurately tracked. I suppose with a start up where there is NO history, tracking sales and profits may be easy…. But how do you gain access to the books and how are you assured of accuracy? Alternatively, if you enter into a similar agreement with an exiting business the accounting becomes more complex and or almost guarantees ambiguity and conflict over what is attributed to the new partnership/name and what previously impacted the business’ sales and profits.

    Reply
  3. UFO

    Absolutely agree with all this type of business.

    Effectively its a synergy win win situation. Both of you don’t have much to lose but everything to gain.

    Reply
  4. Kassey

    If I’m not mistaken, you did a similar deal on cruises.mobi some months ago. The developed website looks a bit plain to me, so I’m wondering if there has been any success on this deal. Can you shed some light on it?

    Reply
  5. LSM

    The sorts of endeavors that are serious enough to warrant JV consideration aren’t going to give away some enormous equity stake for the domain alone… but I’m sure every idiot with a wordpress theme would and since ‘domainers’ are so easily baffled and snowed by light development, it seems like a dead end trip.

    Is it a capitalized endeavor? I’m guessing not.
    What does this guy bring to the table? “Content”? Jesus…

    Getting trapped in the ‘equity’ mindset, without having realistic expectations, will probably yield lots of equity in garbage, absolutely no equity in gold.

    Owning 1/2 of 1% of Amazon.com makes you a very wealthy man.
    50% of some random idiots ‘idea’ is a liability more times than not.

    Reply
  6. George from Miami

    I would like to know how you do it better than Rick.
    Go ahead we can’t wait to read it…

    Reply
  7. LSM

    It’s not hard to figure out how to ‘do it better than Rick’ but since I’m not a patient teacher (and since I can safely assume that anyone who can’t figure out without any ‘help’ would be too dumb to learn anyway) don’t expect me to be wasting my time holding your hand. You’re never, ever, ever, ever in a million years, ever, ever going to get a 50% equity stake in a meaningful upstart when all you bring to the table is the domain but sure, every Bangladeshi WordPresser out there is perfectly willing to exploit the tech knowledge gap that many domainers seem to have by offering ‘content’ in exchange for use of a domain that’s worth a lot more than what they have to offer.

    Like I said, though. This is something so simple, it literally requires no elaborate explanation.

    Reply
  8. George from Miami

    Nice try, but you did not answer the question,
    impatient teacher…

    Anyhow, I’ve nothing to figure out.
    I don’t need you holding my hand (Yuck!) at all.
    I make an excellent living doing what I like.

    The point remains, you have to show over here
    that, you are better than Rick.
    Go ahead, prove it.
    Tell us who in the heck are you..?

    Reply
  9. LSM

    The premise of your question is retarded.
    Am I “better than Rick at managing JV inquiries on a portfolio of domains I acquired in the 1990s?”

    Dumb people ask dumb question.
    What I said above stands. If you don’t ‘get it’, then you better keep that job doing what you like since you won’t be making a living at this.

    Reply
    1. George from Miami

      No, “genius”. Dumb people can’t answer questions just like you’re doing.
      Put your money where your mouth is!
      Bye, case closed. No sense kicking a dead horse.

      Reply

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