Ken Palm, iTime, and Domain Name Tasting
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2008-08-25 00:47:27 - Graham EllisHave you come across "domain name tasting" - try before you buy from ICANN. It is the practice of registering a domain name (and placing pay-per-click ads on it for a few days) to gauge whether the ads will make more than the annual cost of the domain. Read more about it here (link opens in separate window). Apparently, "domain name tasting" has developed from a five day grace period on domain registration which allows people to turn in domains that they have registered by mistake.
How did I come across Domain Name Tasting? From researching a Ken Palm of i-Time Marketing, Falcon, Colorado ... or of flkdomaindiscovery.com or of thepreferredurl.com or of Davenport, Iowa.
Ken wrote to me on Monday, offering to sell me phpquiz.com for 7. He wrote to me on Tuesday, with something he had forgotten to mention. On Thursday, he sent me a reminder and a nice link I could buy through. Saturday, and he tells me about a limited period discount he's offering. And on Sunday he writes "Make me an offer" ... |
I don't actually want to register phpquiz.com - we already have www.phpquiz.co.uk, but something in Ken's emails - his extravagant claims for the domain - made me have a look into him and I discovered what appears to be a "scam", where he tastes a domain for a few days, during which time he tries to sell it to interested parties in exactly the way he has tried to sell to us. I understand that if you are REALLY interested in a domain that Ken Palm is looking to sell, are willing to take a very slight risk and wait a few days for him to return it, you'll be able to register it for or so. I learned that from here and here
An Update - shortly after writing this entry, I was contacted by David Harper, who has also had a similar set of emails from Ken Palm. David has written a far more detailed account here which will fill you in on this scam in much more detail - David, thank you for letting me know about your page (and thanks for the link too ;-) )