Selling my first .AI domain name, and it’s looking like a different deal than I’ve done before

[domainking131]

I’ve never sold a .AI domain name. I have sold .COMs in the past (sold Movon.com last month), and lately .IO domains have been doing okay for me (sold Arthur.io last month) but I’ve never sold a .AI domain name…but I think I might this month. It’s going to be a different deal than I’ve done before, but one that I’m actually feeling pretty good about.

The potential buyer is a pretty badass software developer that wants to use the domain for a open source project they are working on. My price expectations were out of their budget to start, but they threw out a cool idea, what if they included a little “thank you” at the bottom of their site to me for providing the domain name. Maybe it sounds silly but I’m a huge supporter of open source so while it definitely doesn’t represent any monetary gain to me, I like to feel like I helped contribute to some cool open source software. Okay, contribute is probably a big overstatement since I’m not writing any code, but I think the .AI name I’m looking at selling is pretty kick-ass so I think it will honestly turn this project into a really solid brand.

In return, I’m lowering my price about 75% off my original asking price. Yes, I’m taking a price hit for something as silly as some recognition for helping an open source project, but I’m actually pretty excited about the whole thing. Now you might be thinking, “Morgan, now that you’re writing about this the buyer is going to read this” And that’s fine by me, he knows I’m an open source fan and that I want to reduce the price to help him out, so I think that should be a-okay. Of course, these could be famous last words and I might write next week about the deal I lost because I wrote a blog post about it before it closed.


Source

What do you think?
Would you do something like this?

 

[JackD]

I would. Get the exposure from a really solid brand and still get 75% of my asking price, yep sounds like a sweet deal.

 

[Parth]

Domainking131, your post reads as though you're giving a huge discount! - "I’m lowering my price about 75% off my original asking price." That's a significant discount for a techie who has the skill set for a very lucrative career. Did you check to see if he has angel investors lined up? I understand how appealing it can be to have your site mentioned which might drive more traffic your way, but how will adblockers, ghostery, noscript, and the like effect that? Are they going to mention you on every page or just one? That matters too. And what if they bundle their open source software with a toolbar or something else? That could damage your reputation. Open source does not mean that this group will not make money from their software.

You might have already addressed these issues and received satisfactory answers. If it were me, I probably wouldn't go for the deal, but I don't have all the information that you do either. Maybe it could be lucrative.