Written on March 23rd, 2007 at 07:03 am by Darren Rowse
ProBlogger.com Sold
I’ve been wait to write this post for almost 3 years - I just bought ProBlogger.com.
The day I first came up with the idea of starting a blog called ProBlogger I started it as an extension on another blog domain. A few months later when I decided it was a topic that needed it’s own purpose built blog I found that Problogger.com was already taken (it was a holding page for a blogging community from memory) and so I was forced to buy up ProBlogger.net.
Since that time I’ve attempted to purchase ProBlogger.com. on a number of occasions - but in each instance the owner either was asking for an amount which was too much for my budget or had plans of their own to develop it.
I had numerous watch systems up on the domain in case it ever expired and every year in February I held my breath hoping that it would. However each year on the day it expired it was renewed - until this year….
That was the day that I started getting emails from ProBlogger.net readers telling me that the .com version was expired. I must have had at least 15-30 emails a day from readers telling me this (an indication of how much type in traffic my brand had been driving to the domain). In fact the domain has already got an Alexa ranking simply from this (around the 150,000 mark - higher than many developed blogs get after concerted effort).
Auction 1 - As part of the expiration process at GoDaddy (where the domain had been hosted) they then put domains up for auction - two weeks before the current owners can actually renew it for the last time (why they do it before their last chance for renew is a mystery to me).
So the GoDaddy auction took a week and ended a couple of weeks back. The price got too high for my liking (it was over $7000 USD) and someone else got the right to buy it if the renewal didn’t happen.
Luckily for me the previous owners did renew it (this was a real roller coaster for me) and then decided to sell the domain on ebay. My heart sank and leaped all at once - another auction to endure, but also another opportunity to buy the domain I’d been looking to secure for years.
Auction 2 - The ebay auction was nowhere near as active as the previous one and remained at the starting bid for a week. It was only in the last day or two that bids were placed. It was a reserve price auction and while the auction took place I talked to the representative of the owner.
The last few minutes of the auction were hot but at its end it hadn’t reached the reserve price. I had the highest bid ($4050 - the ebay page is here) and immediately contacted the owner’s rep to see if we could come to a mutually agreeable figure.
Negotiations - Of course this all happened just a few hours before our flight left Melbourne for the USA so it wasn’t an easy negotiation in terms of time zones - but I’m happy to announce that in the last day the final price was negotiated and payments and transfers have been made.
I’m not going to disclose the price - but it was higher than $4050 and lower than the original auction of $7000 USD. It was a little more than my budget and hope for a purchase price but in terms of having the control of the brand and some of my future hopes for ProBlogger I’m satisfied with what we negotiated.
At this point ProBlogger.com will simply forward to ProBlogger.net (and it’ll help increase traffic from type-ins slightly) - however I do have hopes to use the .com site for an additional ProBlogger branded online experience/feature.
I guess the whole experience has been a learning one for me. Get the domain you want early - think ahead - if you’re confident of your brand go for it earlier than later etc.
PS: thanks to the many many readers who emailed me to let me know the domain was up for grabs over the last month. I appreciate your support in the process!
107 Responses to “ProBlogger.com Sold”
Peter Andersen
March 23rd, 2007 8:18 am
Congratulations!
Must feel great to finally get your hands on the .com version :)
All the best
Peter Andersen
March 23rd, 2007 8:19 am
Oh… Me again.
Just wanted to add the following:
Seeing the title “Problogger.com Sold” in my reader, made my heart leap a couple of beats. Only after reading it several times did I realize that you had NOT sold Problogger.net.
Thank God:)
Jeremy Steele
March 23rd, 2007 8:21 am
Make a store out of it -
“Coming soon - ProBlogger.com t-shirts, coffee mugs, chocolate bars, keyboards, mouse pads, and pop tarts with the problogger logo”
Alex
March 23rd, 2007 8:33 am
Congrats!
I was wondering why you use .net instead of .com. My question is now answered!
Christa
March 23rd, 2007 8:34 am
LoL good one, Can anyone tell me whats the plugin to have all your links highlighted in orange like this blog??
Wendy Piersall
March 23rd, 2007 8:45 am
WoooooHooooo!
Darren that Rocks! Great job - I’m so happy for you!! :D
Jeremy Steele
March 23rd, 2007 8:47 am
To make the links orange just edit your blog’s theme’s CSS file (assuming you use a content management system like WordPress), if you use blogger.com then you will have to mess around with the layout settings.
Christa
March 23rd, 2007 8:51 am
hmm I dont know much about CSS, is there a java code or script I can just insert in my template?
shawn
March 23rd, 2007 8:54 am
Hi Christa,
I don’t use Wordpress so I might be wrong, but I bet the links light up in orange due to the stylesheet (CSS) used rather than a plug in. I hope that helps.
Rod
March 23rd, 2007 8:56 am
Congratulations, Darren.
Max
March 23rd, 2007 9:07 am
Well done!
BTW Christa, to make the links orange, it uses CSS. I incorporate this on my blog, http://www.maxblog.co.uk. Here is the important piece of code to make the background come up.
#divname ul li a:hover {
color: #fff;
background: #333333;
}
Max
Henry
March 23rd, 2007 9:08 am
Congratulations Darren!
It feels like problogger.net has finally found its twin brother problogger.com. :)
Shane
March 23rd, 2007 9:14 am
Darren, I think you should devote the entire .com site to A VIDEO PROBLOGGER SITE. Just think Tubetorial and you have your concept. Basically, take everything you do on the .net site and create video versions for the .com page using a teleprompter if you like. I only speak for myself, but I’m sure others would love to see this, too. We don’t care if it’s a professional level production. Just crank them out and post. (You’d get to use all your digital cameras you talk about on your other blog )
Regards.
Shane
Rob
March 23rd, 2007 9:16 am
Congrats Darren! I’ve been watching that domain sit undeveloped for the last year. I’m glad it is going to a good home.
Chad
March 23rd, 2007 9:22 am
I did a double take when I first read it too. I thought you sold this site.
Congrats on getting the .com
I know I have typed in the .com by mistake a few times. :)
James
March 23rd, 2007 9:24 am
Congrats! I think this was a VERY smart purchase!
Josh
March 23rd, 2007 9:50 am
Congrats! Domain buying can be a frustrating experience. I know I visited the .com a couple times accidentally when I first started visiting your blog. Glad to know you will get all your traffic now.
macgoo
March 23rd, 2007 9:51 am
Ha ha.I just got here by typing problogger.com! I am on my home computer and it wasn’t in my cache. As I hit enter I went “oh no, wrong one” and then to my surprise the correct site come up. Then think how stunned I was when I read the first post. lol. Top stuff Darren!
San
March 23rd, 2007 9:54 am
Congratulations Darren. I am so happy for you. Hope next is problogger.org for philanthropy!
katta
March 23rd, 2007 9:57 am
whoa–just a few days ago i typed in the dot com address by accident and thought to myself how unfortunate it was that you didn’t have that domain. so congrats!!
Michael Rew
March 23rd, 2007 9:58 am
This episode illustrates the necessity of reserving a .com, .net, and .org versions of a desired domain, all at the same time, if it can be done.
Rehuel
March 23rd, 2007 10:10 am
So what’s next? will you completely convert the site to the .com domain and park the .net on top of it, or will you keep it like this?
Hope this comment is not too far down not to be answered :(
Chee Kui
March 23rd, 2007 10:16 am
Lol.. I almost forgot that you’ve been using .net all this while. When I saw the RSS feed topic screamed Problogger.com sold, I thought you have decided to sell this blog out. :p
Congrats for finally getting the .com version of this domain name, yea, me myself have been typing problogger.com several times before this. Oh well :p
Mark Evans
March 23rd, 2007 10:29 am
Darren,
Fantastic news. Glad to see Problogger.com and Mr. Problogger are finally reunited!
cheers, Mark
b5media - Darren Finally Buys Problogger.com
March 23rd, 2007 10:30 am
[…] It only took him three years but Darren Rowse (aka Mr. Problogger) has finally acquired Problogger.com. You can check out how it happened here. Congrats! […]
Dave Starr --- ROI Guy
March 23rd, 2007 11:03 am
Good work, Darren. All of us can learn from your patience. In all the skills needed to make a blog/on line property grow, patience and strategy are the two that seem the hardest to acquire … for me, anyway.
For anyone into the “domaining” aspect of the business there are some valuable lessons here also. I’m not even close to being an expert, but I know some real experts, and there are several better strategies to get value out of a potentially “hot” property than the one used. Good for Darren, good, but not quite as good, perhaps, for the original owner.
@ => Rehuel: Read Darren’s post, I think he pretty much explains what’s next, in so far as it’s wise to reveal the secret sauce recipe.
Farnoosh
March 23rd, 2007 11:21 am
Hi Darren, congratulations! I am really excited for you …you are an inspiration and I hope to start a great blog like yours one day. (I do have a small suggestion as I am a grammar police of our beloved English language - The word “it’s” is composed of “it + is” and is not what you want to say - instead you need to say its - without the apostrophe - because it is a possessive pronoun. For instance, I found its wings - referring to a bird’s wings - but it’s a beautiful day - same as it is a beautiful day. This is the first subject I am going to blog about but for now, watching out for perfection in high quality blogs. Hope you do not mind the brazen comments! :)
Cheers from USA….and keep on blogging!
Farnoosh
Rehuel
March 23rd, 2007 11:25 am
Thanks Dave, I totally misread that paragraph. Thanks for sending me back to read ;o)
Andy Beal
March 23rd, 2007 11:39 am
Congrats, I’m glad it’s in the hands of the person who already owns the Problogger brand.
Koby
March 23rd, 2007 11:40 am
That is totally awesome. Congrats, and I can’t wait to see what you have in store for ProBlogger.com
Eli James
March 23rd, 2007 11:59 am
I was shouting NO when I saw your post. I thought this blog had been sold to someone else, which made MY heart beat faster. But - whew - it was just a domain.
Congrats, Darren. At long last you have your hands on the domain that you want.
Martin Lindsey
March 23rd, 2007 12:06 pm
Congrats man! I always wondered why you were using the .net extension. Way to go.
Chuck
March 23rd, 2007 12:16 pm
I had the exact same reaction as everyone else. I thought you sold it for a tidy sum and were taking your bat and glove and heading home! LOL…
Christa, I’ve found that, if you don’t have a decent idea of how to use CSS, sometimes the best thing to do is to hire (or trade out) with someone who does. Blogs aren’t like web pages, where it’s easy too experiment (at least, not for me). CSS is beyond my skill set, and I’ve really messed some things up by not knowing what I was doing.
Even though Max provided the code, blogs are usually broken into sections using containers and div tags…and you might be fishing around for quite a bit if you start guessing your way through.
Best of luck with it, though!
ShoeMoney
March 23rd, 2007 12:20 pm
congrats man!
Bob
March 23rd, 2007 12:34 pm
Congratulations on getting your domain!
iqbal
March 23rd, 2007 12:36 pm
hi
Congratulations. what will you do with problogger.net and all the traffic coming to it.Presently I am working on my new site and you’re right that we should have our own domain name.
All the best.
Matt Huggins
March 23rd, 2007 12:50 pm
Congratulations, Darren!
egon
March 23rd, 2007 12:53 pm
I’m having a similar problem .When I started my blog, I wanted the name AutomoBlog, but the .com was already taken, so I had to go with http://www.AutomoBlog.net and I sort of wished I would have waited and thought of a different name, but I’ll wait until it expires or something.
Anyway, congrats!
Darnell Clayton
March 23rd, 2007 1:03 pm
Congrats Darren!
You have just inspired me to seek after a dot com as well!
I know how it feels, and perhaps all I need to do is wait a little longer as well.
Congradulations on your purchase! It was well worth it!
PS
You should keep the ProBlogger.net as a network/knowledge base (as I often visit the site not only for your content, but the “wisdom of the crowds” in the comment section).
Turn ProBlogger.com into an “online Book” or something. Or even better, a site where “V” can blog on. :-p
Tamar Weinberg
March 23rd, 2007 1:22 pm
Great news, Darren! Congratulations! I still think of “Problogger.net” as your brand, but it’s great to finally have both! :)
WallstreetFighter
March 23rd, 2007 1:23 pm
I actually was the bidder under you. It would have been the third domain I bought for someone and handed it over. I was smart enough (or lucky enough) to keep all extensions of all my domains and buy the ones of popular names and give them back. Not to make a profit but to make the people that I enjoy realize the value of their dot coms and how much traffic is going to squatters. I don’t know you personally but I knew you were smart enough to pay me back the 2 grand I would have spent to get the name. Congratulations
Shane @ wallstreetfighter.com
Edward
March 23rd, 2007 1:35 pm
Felicitaciones !
Ad Guru
March 23rd, 2007 1:42 pm
Keep up the great work buddy. You are an inspiration. I am just getting started in the game. And I must say that your site ranks number 1 as my source of inspiration.
RezaFaizal
March 23rd, 2007 1:45 pm
Congratulations….
Thejesh GN
March 23rd, 2007 2:27 pm
congrats
saif
March 23rd, 2007 2:55 pm
Congrats Darren !!!
But the Title “Problogger.com Sold” ; for a second my heart was in my mouth.
Robert Kingston
March 23rd, 2007 3:19 pm
Hey Darren,
Congratulations. You deserve it - and it looks like your subscribers count has increased too.
Rob.
Dean Power
March 23rd, 2007 3:30 pm
You own the “problogger” brand and now you’ve go the the problogger waterfront property. I only wish I had hung onto those problogger.com shares at http://www.alexadex.com. BLOGGER! oh I mean BUGGER!
Nice one geezer
Blogging Secret
March 23rd, 2007 4:26 pm
congratz darren, you are the real problogger boss now, well done. And again, the lesson i learn from here is remember renew before expire! :P
Samsara
March 23rd, 2007 5:51 pm
That’s really great. Now you’re official. Finally.
Seriously, you could stand toe to toe as a .au with any .com any day of the week. But the .com would help me to sleep better at night just cause .com’s are my woogie’s.
I know you’re thrilled!!
vutha
March 23rd, 2007 6:14 pm
Great !
the .com is in your hand, i am one of other supporters. I always open your blog almost everyday because you gave good advice. Before I wounder why you used .net. now it is clear for me. I really want to be good blogger like you.
jack
March 23rd, 2007 6:50 pm
haha.. i also though you are going to sale this problogger.net
i just though to buy it… NOT!! :))
congrats darren!
mr_ombak
March 23rd, 2007 7:05 pm
what a good day in your life darren…!!!!
Side-Line
March 23rd, 2007 7:52 pm
fun story, good luck with the purchase.
ksreddy
March 23rd, 2007 7:54 pm
My hearty congratulations to you.
Now problogger.net will boost to unscalable heights.
Once again I am congratulating you.
Mark
March 23rd, 2007 8:54 pm
Congratulations, thats a lot of Money though. Bet the people you bought it off are happy aswell.
MTO
March 23rd, 2007 9:01 pm
Congratulations, I am in a similar situation with one of my main sites domain. Year after year expecting that undeveloped .com domain to expire and hopefully be able to buy… who knows.
Juuso - Game Producer
March 23rd, 2007 10:06 pm
I was also looking at the title wondering “whaaat?”. Then I realized that you bought .com.
Great to hear you finally got it under your wings. Congratulations!
Shane
March 23rd, 2007 10:09 pm
Really, really excited for you, Darren. Congratulations!
Hsien Lei
March 23rd, 2007 10:10 pm
Wow! What a story! Congratulations, Darren!!! You deserve the King of ProBlogger title all to yourself. :)
Aziz
March 23rd, 2007 11:01 pm
Congrats!
I’m too happy for you… Let me join you in your celebrations :-)
Radomir
March 23rd, 2007 11:59 pm
Congratulations. Now i’ll never go to the wrong site again when in type it in.
Phil Van Treuren
March 24th, 2007 12:17 am
Way to go, Darren! I was wondering when you would grab this one.
Rene Kriest
March 24th, 2007 1:06 am
Congratulations Darren!
Think it this way: at least you could grasp problogger.net.
Imagine any TLD would concerning problogger would have been unavailable for you. ;)
Regards,
René Kriest
Chris M
March 24th, 2007 1:14 am
Congrats Darren!
I know how great that feeling is, when there is a domain you have been waiting for and finally you get it!
I hope it serves you well :)
Regards
Jim Kukral
March 24th, 2007 1:40 am
Congrats Darren.
knupNET
March 24th, 2007 1:52 am
Congrats darren. That is great!!! It will be well worth the money i’m sure.
Gleb Reys
March 24th, 2007 2:32 am
Congratulations, Darren!
I’m sure you have great plans for the .com, and ProBlogger brand had been identified with you and your wonderful blog for the past few years anyway.
Well done!
Gleb
Patrick
March 24th, 2007 3:08 am
Congrats. :)
Joe
March 24th, 2007 4:33 am
Hey Darren,
Congrats, now the next time I mistype .com, you won’t come to visit?
Does this mean I’ll have to go through a years worth of links to .net and change them to .com? ;-)
Really, I’m glad to hear you finally got the .com you wanted.
All the Best with it.
Joe
Charl Norman
March 24th, 2007 4:37 am
Atleast you have a story to tell.. What a ride! Well done..
Homemom3
March 24th, 2007 6:54 am
Congratulations!! I know how it feels to wait each year for those expirations. Glad to hear you finally got it.
Stephanie
March 24th, 2007 7:12 am
Congratulations! That must have been a painful wait. I’m sure lots of people will be interested to see what you do with ProBlogger.com.
John M Weaver
March 24th, 2007 7:36 am
I emailed you about this!
I saw it on auction at Godaddy.com.
Glad to see you picked it up!
John
Brad
March 24th, 2007 11:56 am
Congratulations! I certainly feel your pain about trying to get the perfect domain name. I once had the perfect name for a business I was trying to start (but eventually failed) and I waited too long to buy the domain. Finally, when I was ready to buy, the name was taken! Worse of all, it’s not even being used for anything - just a “place holder” with a bunch of ads on it.
Since then I’ve learned that when I come across a really good domain name, I snatch it up. Keeping the domain is only a small annual fee and I can always unload it if I decide not to use it. But if I do find a need for the domain, then I have it ready to go!
I’m happy you got the .com version of problogger. I definitly feel your pain!
James
March 24th, 2007 1:18 pm
Congratulations Darren!
Whatever the price was, I think in your case it was worth it for you. I have typed the .com in once or twice when I first found you.
Glen
March 24th, 2007 1:19 pm
Congrats on getting .com back
gio
March 24th, 2007 2:05 pm
Congrats Darren! Finally you got your own dot com and i think it was really meant and rightfully yours. :)
Todor Christov
March 24th, 2007 7:55 pm
It’s a breath taking story! Congratulations!
Quais Waseeq
March 24th, 2007 10:24 pm
Congratulations!! I’m sure whatever other use you come up with for ProBlogger.com will a great one as well, so looking forward to it :)
Paul
March 25th, 2007 7:22 am
FYI on domain name renewals at godaddy.
If you don’t update your credit card info and your domain name expires, you’ll have to pay about $80 to renew it. Otherwise you’ll have to get into their auction, or wait 2 or 3 months and hope no one takes it.
Putting the domain names in the auction before expiration probably increases the chance that the same person won’t be able to renew at the low price.
Laura
March 25th, 2007 10:12 am
Lucky you. My original domain was hijacked after the first year I had it and I’ve never had a chance to get it back. They have nothing on it, just offering it for sale. I don’t think anyone but me would want it. Peeves me off each time I think about it. But, I bought the .ca domain and am happy with that.
Hannes Johnson
March 25th, 2007 12:00 pm
Congratulations!
I was wondering why you hadn’t secured ProBlogger.com a long time ago… so many people automatically think “.com” when they try to remember the URL to a domain.
Scott
March 25th, 2007 1:30 pm
Congratulations! While you already owned the Pro Blogger sphere, now you own the ProBlogger dot com. I doubt you’ll ever regret going over your desired budget on this purchase.
Calvin
March 26th, 2007 12:49 am
Congrats Darren!
Continue feeding all the hungry bloggers out here!
Shane
March 26th, 2007 3:01 am
Congrats!
Now I know why you have been using .net instead of the .com.
bnpositive
March 26th, 2007 3:13 am
Congratulations Darren! As someone who helps clients manage their domain names, I too know the frusration that comes with someone having a domain name, not doing anything with it, and asking for an exhorbitant price to purchase it from them. Best of luck to you with the new domain.
Vatu
March 26th, 2007 3:40 am
Congrats darren. That is great!!!
Regards
VATU
http://technobuzz.net/
Siddharth Thakkar
March 26th, 2007 12:27 pm
Congratulations Darren!
Must be a signifanct achievement for you. Wish ya all the luck with the new .com domain.
Oh! And I’ve been guilty of typing in .com instead of .net a few times. That was untill I bookmarked it.
Cheers!
Pat Gundry
March 26th, 2007 12:28 pm
Scared me too! I was afraid my most useful blogging site was going into other hands, almost certainly less generous and less competent hands. But, relief, relief, it’s not happening, and I fervently hope it never happens!
I appreciate the FYI from Paul about being sure one’s credit card info is current on GoDaddy (and elsewhere too). I love GoDaddy because it is so easy to buy and manage my domains there, and because I can set them all to automatically renew.
Long ago, in a galaxy far away, when I was new online, I bought my domains from Network Solutions, where unpleasant experiences came my way. The most unpleasant being that one of my main .com domains was sold to a squatter, and I didn’t realize it for some time. The squatter wanted money, and I didn’t want to pay gouge money, so bought the .net version, and waited, and waited.
I left Network Solutions for GoDaddy and set them all to automatically renew. I eventually got my .com version back when the squatter didn’t renew. I’ll now be creating a prominent reminder to ALWAYS update my credit card info when one expires and another arrives.
monkeyofhope
March 26th, 2007 9:41 pm
Hey Darren, my Congratulations!
I am happy that you have problogger.com The dot-com-domain is worth a lot if you need it. And you need it!
We are happy with you,
Andreas
Richard MacManus
March 27th, 2007 2:30 pm
Congrats Darren! It is worth it, it’s a great domain name.
Patrick
March 27th, 2007 7:40 pm
Congratulations! That must have definitely been an interesting experience waiting for years for something. Can’t wait to see what you do with the place.
Internet Haberleri
March 27th, 2007 8:02 pm
But, problogger.com for +4000 $ is normal price and it’s ur main domain. Congrats Darren
Nils
March 27th, 2007 11:55 pm
Hehe, finally!!
Congrats!
raj
March 28th, 2007 3:24 am
Very nice!! Congrats, Darren. I’m glad you won’t be doing like Topix.net and moving the .net site to .com. I for one and am looking forward to seeing what you do with the .com
DC
March 29th, 2007 5:43 am
Congratulations Darren! I must admit that I have typed problogger.com into the address bar more than once trying to get here…
Kiven
April 3rd, 2007 4:51 pm
Congratulations!
HotStrategies.com » Blog Archive » How to Choose a Good Domain
May 4th, 2007 11:50 pm
[…] having the .NET, you are giving your competitor traffic to the .COM for no reason. Just recenlty, Darren finally bought Problogger.com for a few thousand […]
The Chitika Blog » Blog Archive » Top 5 Mistakes Made When Naming Your Website or Company
May 10th, 2007 4:08 am
[…] But you are setting yourself up for a painful purchase of the corresponding .com name if you become rich and famous in the […]
Marguerite Jasmin
May 31st, 2007 12:59 am
I know this comments come really late but I just noticed that problogger.com has a higher pagerank than problogger.net. How is that possible?
Dipping into the Blogpond » Problogger.com now in “Rightful Hands”
June 5th, 2007 3:22 pm
[…] after some speculation, and a failed auction, it seems Darren Rowse did buy Problogger.com after […]
租車
August 6th, 2007 6:10 pm
Congratulations on getting your domain!
from china
World of Warcraft Maps Guy
September 13th, 2007 4:42 am
Is there a reason you didn’t just obtain a trademark for ProBlogger and then take them to court to obtain the domain name? I suppose it might have ended up costing over $5k and I’m certainly not familiar with Canada’s trademark law.
Coldie
September 13th, 2007 12:53 pm
Congratulations!
ef
December 4th, 2007 6:32 pm
Everything you need to help you find, apply, and get into the right school. School search, admissions tips, test preparation, financial aid, scholarships, school rankings, and more.
Juan Carlos Arzola
August 19th, 2008 5:41 am
Hi Darren,
I own a domain name that you probably will want in the near future … http://www.PROBLOGGER.ME
Get in contact with me so we can talk about it… and by the way…. I am happy that you finally got .COM
Juan Carlos Arzola
http://www.juancarlosarzola.com
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