Can I register and create a business with the sole intention of using it to sell a bunch of web-domains as a bundle via selling the entire business?

[JejuIslandKR]

This is a long and complex post, with three questions, and any good help would be appreciated.



Question 1

I live in England, and, at present, I do not own a business.

I own a bunch of web-domains (aka "domain names" - for example, cubancigars.com is a web-domain: an address for a website comprising some letters, plus a few dots, which costs about 13 US Dollars a year to own) - (I do not own cubancigars.com by the way - I am just using it as an example). I would like to sell my bunch of domains as a bundle, in one transaction (as opposed to selling the domains individually). However, despite me searching the internet high and low, I have found that there is no service which would allow me to sell more than one domain at a time.

One day, I had a thought: perhaps, if I created a business/company, and subsequently somehow listed all my domains as some kind of "assets" which are property of the business, then, if I subsequently sold the business, then the domains would be sold along with the business, in one fell swoop. I have absolutely zero knowledge, or experience, of running a business in the UK, and, thus, I have no idea if this would be possible

So, my first question is to ask if this would be possible.



Question 2

I have another question, too

You see.....the business would literally only be registered with the view to sell it as soon as possible should a buyer meet my asking price.

So, my plan would be to: register the business; quickly make all my web-domains assets of the business; then list the business for sale on some website; then sell the business.

My second quesion is to ask if this would even be legal, because, firstly, I assume that it would perhaps be illegal to register a business in the UK with no plan for the business to make a regular day-to-day income prior to the sale of the business (the business would be formed solely with the intent to sell it ASAP); and, secondly, I would be listing items as assets of the company, not for usual reasons a business-owner would, but, rather, to make for a convenient sale of a bunch of domains.

I would pay tax on the money I get from selling the business, if need be, so it's not like I would be of any detriment to the world by selling my business. But I don't know if my plan would ultimately be legal.



Question 3

How would one go about listing web-domains as assets of a UK company?

 

[fisicx]

Whilst it’s theoretically possible to do as you suggest it’s not going to happen. People aren’t going to be interested in buying a bunch of random domain names.

If each domain had a self sustaining business attached then there might be some interest but even then, each would be brought as a single unit.

As an aside, you don’t own a domain name. You just have a license to use the domain name for the period of registration. You won’t be selling anything, you just transfer the license.

 

[Socio South West]

Back in the dark ages of the internet (pre2001) when everyone was scrabbling to get the most suitable domains, and suffixes were quite limited I received seemingly endless cold calls offering me all sorts of domains relating to my business at that time.

However, with the proliferation of suffixes and people discovering that the addition of judicious dots and dashes would get them a suitable domain this died a death.

What you propose is a bit like buying a job lot at auction - there may be a couple of gems in there, but the majority will be dross that will be impossible to sell.

I don't see this as a basis for a business at all: My advice would be to draw up a list of the domains, set a price as a package and see what happens: My guess at best is very little....

 

[JejuIslandKR]

I'd like to explain why I want to sell my domains as a bundle, and also why there are situations where selling domains as a bundle is a good idea, because there are a lot of people in the world who think there would never be any reason to sell domains in a bundle. So, for those who assume I am new to buying and selling domains, I am not, and I have been a domain "investor" for around 14 years. As for why I want to sell them as a bundle, well.....these are not a "bunch of random domain" - they are a "set" of domains, if you will, and are all "based on" a certain emerging technology. So, here I will give you a hypothetical example: there is a new-ish technology I'm sure a lot of you will be familiar with: blockchain technology. If I am not mistaken, blockchain tech is basically the underlying technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well ****** wallets and NFTs, and this tech is being heralded as being able to revolutionise how data is stored in basically most of the worlds major industries (healthcare, banking, ecommerce etc). Now, let's say that, hypothetically, someone was able to register all of the following web-domains:

blockchaintechnology.com
blockchaintech.com
blockchainexplorer.com
blockchaindomains.com
blockchaindomain.com
blockchaingames.com
blockchaingame.com
blockchainjobs.com
blockchainseurity.com
blockchainstocks.com
blockchainwebsite.com
blockchainonline.com

(I don't own any of these domains - I'm just speaking hypothetically)

Now, let us say that, hypothetically, each of these domains are worth exactly $25k each. So 12 x $25 = $300k. So, if I was to sell all of thee domains as a bundle, I would not be able to charge much more more than $300k, right? Well, I think that I would be able to charge way more, providing I advertised the bundle to the right seller - which I could do just by sending him/her an email, or a letter. So, let's say, there was a multi-billionaire called Elon Branson-Bezos, who had just launched a blockchain-based company, and was clearly willing to spend crazy money on trying to "corner" the blockchain market as he believes that blockchain would be an absolutely massive industry in the future. If I sent this guy a letter saying "hey bitch, look at all these domains I've got, muh****a", Elon Braonson-Bezos would see this letter and almost fall off his chair, thinking to himself "blimey....if I had all those domains, I would have the perfect domains to start numerous businesses - thus helping me corner the global blockchain market - which would make me even more rich". Bottom line: I think I could get the right buyer to pay significantly more than $300k for this bundle as the domains, as a bundle, would represent a boost to someone's chances to corner a market as it would contain ideal domains for starting a bunch of separate businesses which would all exist within the same realm - in this case blockchain - and, with web-domains being non-fungible (only one person can own the domain blockchainjobs.com, for example) the bundle would represent a "rare" opportunity to obtain a bnundle of valuable blockchain-related digital assets.

I hope I am able to make people understand what I am trying to say here. It's a kind of not-well-understood phenomena when it comes to selling non-fungible digital assets.

 

[fisicx]

Your explanation doesn’t change the fact that your business idea isn’t viable.

If selling domain bundles were a good idea someone would be doing just that.

Your domain names are virtually worthless as there are way too many alternatives available.

 

[Shopclicks]

I think you might be under the impression that exact-match domains have some sort of advantage over any other domain. This is not the case anymore.

There are also hundreds of TLD's to choose from for practically any domain name.

You might get lucky with one of the .com's from any list but the vast majority are worthless.

 

[Mark T Jones]

To return to square 1

There is no legal reason why you can't do this - set up a company and give it ago

I can't imagine that anyone would be prepared to pay good money for domains these days - but I've been wrong before.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

Whilst it’s theoretically possible to do as you suggest it’s not going to happen. People aren’t going to be interested in buying a bunch of random domain names.

If each domain had a self sustaining business attached then there might be some interest but even then, each would be brought as a single unit.

As an aside, you don’t own a domain name. You just have a license to use the domain name for the period of registration. You won’t be selling anything, you just transfer the license.

"Whilst it’s theoretically possible to do as you suggest"
Thank you for your response. The above sentence was music to my ears.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

To return to square 1

There is no legal reason why you can't do this - set up a company and give it ago

I can't imagine that anyone would be prepared to pay good money for domains these days - but I've been wrong before.

Thank you for your response. Your reply has given me lots of encouragement.

 

[RandyMarsh]

To return to the question:
Yes, you can do that.
It is fairly cheap to do: you will need to pay to register a limited company, submit annual accounts, etc. which is all fairly cheap and simple for a business that doesn't really do anything, though it will be quite a painful process for someone with no business experience doing it for the first time.
It doesn't particularly offer any advantages though: you still have to market your domain names to potential buyers and as you say, there are no sites doing the marketing for you. So. you haven't really gained anything by adding the domains to a business.

Idea: make all your domains point to a website that offers them for sale as a bundle with a simple contact form. Then start looking for a gullible billionaire. Elon is a good start because he seems to make randomly stupid business decisions.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

To return to the question:
Yes, you can do that.
It is fairly cheap to do: you will need to pay to register a limited company, submit annual accounts, etc. which is all fairly cheap and simple for a business that doesn't really do anything, though it will be quite a painful process for someone with no business experience doing it for the first time.
It doesn't particularly offer any advantages though: you still have to market your domain names to potential buyers and as you say, there are no sites doing the marketing for you. So. you haven't really gained anything by adding the domains to a business.

Idea: make all your domains point to a website that offers them for sale as a bundle with a simple contact form. Then start looking for a gullible billionaire. Elon is a good start because he seems to make randomly stupid business decisions.

Thank you for the useful info. Much appreciated.

 

[Daybooks]

Addressing your customers in the way that you describe in a subsequent post is unprofessional.

Notwithstanding, what you describe would not be illegal. However it may be necessary to establish whether you are trading or investing as there can be differences accounting for taxation. Whether the activity is deemed trading or investing may be based on reality rather than intention so consider and plan carefully.

IFM40260 - Eligibility criteria: trade versus investment - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK

www.gov.uk

Also consider how you will extract any profit. You want to know the answer to that today not when you come to do so.

 

[DoolallyTap]

This chap has convinced himself this is a good way to go so really is not very interested in anyone's opinion. He does not need to do this via a Ltd Co. he can just list on eBay or similar.

 

[fisicx]

"Whilst it’s theoretically possible to do as you suggest"
Thank you for your response. The above sentence was music to my ears.

But the rest of my post tells you why you don't want to do this. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[Paul Carmen]

Yes, you can register a limited company and transfer/sell these as assets to the new business.

But, unless these domains have existing sites on them, that rank well with loads of traffic, they are next to worthless. There is no advantage to having tens, hundreds or thousands of domains, as you'd need nearly as many websites.

301 redirecting a few domains to the homepage/hub or product/service pages on a website can be good for SEO, if the sites rank and have existed for a while. Redirecting loads of non ranking sites is really spammy and may get you a Google penalty.

Based on what you're saying, you don't have a business opportunity, you have a number of domains worth maybe a few pounds each. So there is no major business opportunity.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

I think you might be under the impression that exact-match domains have some sort of advantage over any other domain. This is not the case anymore.

There are also hundreds of TLD's to choose from for practically any domain name.

You might get lucky with one of the .com's from any list but the vast majority are worthless.

Thanks for your input

 

[JejuIslandKR]

Addressing your customers in the way that you describe in a subsequent post is unprofessional.

Notwithstanding, what you describe would not be illegal. However it may be necessary to establish whether you are trading or investing as there can be differences accounting for taxation. Whether the activity is deemed trading or investing may be based on reality rather than intention so consider and plan carefully.


Also consider how you will extract any profit. You want to know the answer to that today not when you come to do so.

Ty for your help

 

[JejuIslandKR]

Yes, you can register a limited company and transfer/sell these as assets to the new business.

But, unless these domains have existing sites on them, that rank well with loads of traffic, they are next to worthless. There is no advantage to having tens, hundreds or thousands of domains, as you'd need nearly as many websites.

301 redirecting a few domains to the homepage/hub or product/service pages on a website can be good for SEO, if the sites rank and have existed for a while. Redirecting loads of non ranking sites is really spammy and may get you a Google penalty.

Based on what you're saying, you don't have a business opportunity, you have a number of domains worth maybe a few pounds each. So there is no major business opportunity.

Ok, ty for the help

 

[JejuIslandKR]

But the rest of my post tells you why you don't want to do this. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Yes, I know what you mean, but I own some good domains that would be attractive to the right buyer. And the value of them is quite high, as in, more than 6 figures. Ty for your help, though.

 

[Nathanto]

I own some good domains that would be attractive to the right buyer. And the value of them is quite high, as in, more than 6 figures.

To be blunt I think you need a reality check!

I have been buying and selling domain names for almost 30 years on and off and in all that time have only ever sold one for more than six figures (and that had a profitable business running on it.)

Back in the day there were maybe a few dozen domain name extensions in existence, today there are over 2,000 which means that any name/word/phrase you can think of has hundreds if not thousands of exact match domains people can use.

The idea that today a dozen newly registered and inactive domains are worth more than six figures sterling is simply pie in the sky. I don't say that to be rude but to hopefully stop you from wasting significant amounts of time, money and energy chasing an impossible dream. It's good to be optimistic but you need to temper that with some realism.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

To be blunt I think you need a reality check!

I have been buying and selling domain names for almost 30 years on and off and in all that time have only ever sold one for more than six figures (and that had a profitable business running on it.)

Back in the day there were maybe a few dozen domain name extensions in existence, today there are over 2,000 which means that any name/word/phrase you can think of has hundreds if not thousands of exact match domains people can use.

The idea that today a dozen newly registered and inactive domains are worth more than six figures sterling is simply pie in the sky. I don't say that to be rude but to hopefully stop you from wasting significant amounts of time, money and energy chasing an impossible dream. It's good to be optimistic but you need to temper that with some realism.

Thanks for your input. I appreciate your advice, mate. I am in a difficult situation on this forum as, if I showed the domain names I am referring to, I think people would understand what I am saying, but I am not able to as the whois data associated with them shows sensitive info (contact details etc).

Regarding your message, these are not 'newly registered' domains. They've been acquired one-by-one over the years as their previous owners let them expire.

There is one other thing I want to add: I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, but a few people here have said "but there are now 100's of different domain extension types/tlds, so .coms are less valuable". No true imo, as, .com is king, and, for example the domain DropShipping.com would imo be worth big big bucks, and, conversely, DropShipping.net and DropShipping.cc etc are basically worth very very little in comparison.

 

[fisicx]

There is one other thing I want to add: I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, but a few people here have said "but there are now 100's of different domain extension types/tlds, so .coms are less valuable". No true imo, as, .com is king, and, for example the domain DropShipping.com would imo be worth big big bucks, and, conversely, DropShipping.net and DropShipping.cc etc are basically worth very very little in comparison.

This used to be the case but not anymore. It's taken a few years but the new TLDs are now becoming much more acceptable. DropShipping.com would be valuable if there was an attached website. But as a domain name it's not worth much at all. There are way too many alternatives. dropshipping.co.uk seems to be available for under £100.

You may consider your collected domain names valuable and there may be someone willing to pay a few bob to transfer the license for one or two but selling them as a collection just isn't going to work.

 

[Shopclicks]

No true imo, as, .com is king

Perhaps you can explain to those of us who think you're over-estimating the value of your domains, exactly where the value is in an unused .com?

 

[Nathanto]

Perhaps you can explain to those of us who think you're over-estimating the value of your domains, exactly where the value is in an unused .com?

To be fair to the OP, undeveloped .com domains are sold every single day of the week. However the vast majority are under $1,000 and there may perhaps be a handful every week that are sold for up to $10,000 while above that is definitely the exception rather than the rule.

I think there's only ever been 100 or so "above six figures" domains made public out of hundreds of millions domains bought/sold so it's literally a one in a million chance the OP has...

 

[Nathanto]

No true imo, as, .com is king, and, for example the domain DropShipping.com would imo be worth big big bucks, and, conversely, DropShipping.net and DropShipping.cc etc are basically worth very very little in comparison.

I agree .com is king for a global business and similarly .co.uk is king for a UK business but in these days of belt tightening the issue is that potential buyers will and do simply buy a domain with a different extension if the price of their preferred extension is too high.

If dropshipping.com was $25,000, dropshipping.business was $2,500 and dropshipping.info was $250 then which do you think most start-ups would choose? Of course, one argument is not to care what "most" people would choose as you only need one person to choose your .com and you're happy. The problem is if you set the price too high you may be waiting a very, very long time and risk your domain becoming worthless as technology, fashions and fads move on.

Back to your original question and in my view you are over-thinking it. You do not need to set up a company to sell a portfolio of domains.

While in all honesty I think it's a bad idea to only sell the domains as a package, if that's what you want then simply have all the domains resolve to the same landing page which clearly lists the package and the price. Include your ideal price, invite offers, have multiple contact methods and if you get a bite use a good and cheap escrow service like transpact.com. Job sorted.

 

[DoolallyTap]

You can buy a Ltd company online for as little as £2.50 plus Companies House fee of £50 and can be set up in minutes. These domain names would be intangible assets and you can value them for whatever you like.
I will market your business for sale for a fully paid upfront fee, let's say £50000 for a 6month sales effort.
Alternatively, a business selling agent will make a sensible valuation, ignoring your pipedream price and probably tell you he is not interested unless you pay a fee upfront.

 

[Ozzy]

I agree with the over thinking it comment, way over complicating it, and to be honest I'd just whack the domain names up for sale on a site like Sedo and wait and see if someone bites. They do also do domain valuations, I have purchased and sold domains through that site.

 

[Shopclicks]

I agree .com is king for a global business

The question is .... why? Please explain the advantage.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I agree with the over thinking it comment, way over complicating it, and to be honest I'd just whack the domain names up for sale on a site like Sedo and wait and see if someone bites. They do also do domain valuations, I have purchased and sold domains through that site.

This

The best form of revenge is success

No need to argue on here (I can guarantee that none of us know for sure the value of what you've got)

Get out there and sell it - prove your point.

 

[Nathanto]

The question is .... why? Please explain the advantage.

It's the snowball effect, .com was one of the first domain extensions and unlike say .co.uk or .de was not obviously country specific and so has grown to become the de-facto global domain extension.

The advantage of having a .com is that it's instantly recognisable unlike say .lifestyle or even the confusing plain .uk and humans are creatures of habit so we're more comfortable with what we already know.

Similarly, year after year, the majority of the most expensive domain sales are .com domains which while self-fulfilling does reinforce the perception of their value, worth and benefit to businesses. (New extensions are chipping away at .com's crown but .com will remain the global king for the foreseeable future.)

 

[Shopclicks]

It's the snowball effect, .com was one of the first domain extensions and unlike say .co.uk or .de was not obviously country specific and so has grown to become the de-facto global domain extension.

The advantage of having a .com is that it's instantly recognisable unlike say .lifestyle or even the confusing plain .uk and humans are creatures of habit so we're more comfortable with what we already know.

What you describe is some perceived, intangible global recognition. The fact is the .com is not recognisable, the domain is. Do you think if amazon started using the .co.uk in the U.K. that anything would change? (They already do by the way .... even though they're a global company). Funny that eBay do the same.

Over-thinking and over-valuing.

 

[Nathanto]

What you describe is some perceived, intangible global recognition. The fact is the .com is not recognisable, the domain is. Do you think if amazon started using the .co.uk in the U.K. that anything would change? (They already do by the way .... even though they're a global company). Funny that eBay do the same.

I disagree, the .com IS recognisable as a global domain and the fact that some companies also have and use local .co.uk domains doesn't detract from that.

I've just picked a large global company at random, Shell, and it rather succinctly proves my point. Searching for the company on my desktop produces two results: Shell UK on shell.co.uk and Shell Global on shell.com... perhaps you should call them to advise they've got it all wrong?

(I've genuinely just picked a second company at random, Unilever, and their domain setup is exactly the same...)

 

[Shopclicks]

I've just picked a large global company at random, Shell, and it rather succinctly proves my point. Searching for the company on my desktop produces two results: Shell UK on shell.co.uk and Shell Global on shell.com... perhaps you should call them to advise they've got it all wrong?

I don't know how you think that proves your point. The .co.uk appears above the .com in the U.K. and gets the vast majority of the traffic. The only reason the .com is there is because the search query contains the word 'shell'. I'm sure the .com ranks well in countries where they don't have a local tld and in the U.S. It makes perfect sense that Shell would make the .com their global site. I'm guessing that the U.S. is one of their biggest markets.

 

[fisicx]

How do you access a website? Most times it will be via a link in a search engine, social media, email, referral or whatever.

This means the tld is irrelevant. You are just clicking on a link which will land you somewhere on the site. Today I was helping someone in Singapore. I’ve just checked and it’s a .sg. I hadn’t even noticed until now. They are a multinational financial company.

I agree .com is well known but it’s optional. As an aside the original specification for .com was for commercial organisations. That went out the window years ago.

 

[Nathanto]

I don't know how you think that proves your point.

It proves my point because Shell themselves describe the .com as their global website, as do Unilever and I'm sure countless other companies.

I'm not really sure what or why you're arguing the point?

 

[Nathanto]

This means the tld is irrelevant. You are just clicking on a link which will land you somewhere on the site.

I don't agree with that. I can only speak for myself but on my desktop Google results clearly show the domain extension and I generally make a point of looking for the .co.uk as it's much more likely to lead me to the most relevant information I'm looking for.

Nominet did some user testing and research (admittedly some years ago now) and found the same; I can't remember the exact details but it was something like 75% of UK people would prefer to click/visit a .co.uk site than a .com site.

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[fisicx]

I don't agree with that. I can only speak for myself but on my desktop Google results clearly show the domain extension and I generally make a point of looking for the .co.uk as it's much more likely to lead me to the most relevant information I'm looking for.

Nominet did some user testing and research (admittedly some years ago now) and found the same; I can't remember the exact details but it was something like 75% of UK people would prefer to click/visit a .co.uk site than a .com site.

Doesn’t that sort of contradict you statement above about .com?

But if you saw a link in a forum about a topic you were interested in would you care too much about the subdomain and tld?

 

[Nathanto]

Doesn’t that sort of contradict you statement above about .com?

But if you saw a link in a forum about a topic you were interested in would you care too much about the subdomain and tld?

No, no contradiction at all, I normally click the .co.uk precisely because I'm normally interested in the UK-specific version of whatever the site is about rather than their international version.

Obviously with forums it depends on the subject matter. Some like sci-fi stuff I don't care because the subject matter itself is global, other subjects like legal and (not surprisingly) domain forums I do care because I'm only interested in UK-related topics.

 

[RandyMarsh]

I once sold a domain name (with a very basic website attached) for USD4000. I don't know who I sold it to - it was obviously a company with several employees using Yahoo email addresses to avoid revealing their identity. They paid me by PayPal and I transferred the domain to them. They said they had plans to develop the site for a company/brand but they never did anything with it. Ten years later they let the domain lapse and I reregistered it and put the old site back up, just for old time's sake.

 

[JejuIslandKR]

I agree .com is king for a global business and similarly .co.uk is king for a UK business but in these days of belt tightening the issue is that potential buyers will and do simply buy a domain with a different extension if the price of their preferred extension is too high.

If dropshipping.com was $25,000, dropshipping.business was $2,500 and dropshipping.info was $250 then which do you think most start-ups would choose? Of course, one argument is not to care what "most" people would choose as you only need one person to choose your .com and you're happy. The problem is if you set the price too high you may be waiting a very, very long time and risk your domain becoming worthless as technology, fashions and fads move on.

Back to your original question and in my view you are over-thinking it. You do not need to set up a company to sell a portfolio of domains.

While in all honesty I think it's a bad idea to only sell the domains as a package, if that's what you want then simply have all the domains resolve to the same landing page which clearly lists the package and the price. Include your ideal price, invite offers, have multiple contact methods and if you get a bite use a good and cheap escrow service like transpact.com. Job sorted.

Ty for your advice. I will look into transpact.