Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey discusses Escrow.com and the challenges of starting an escrow company.

Big ticket domainers — and even smaller ones who want safe domain transfers — often turn to Escrow.com for domain name escrow services. The company was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial, but has been privately held since May 2004. I’ve met Escrow.com president and managing director Brandon Abbey at a handful of domain name shows, and have always been curious how the company runs. In the interview that follows, you’ll see that the escrow business is highly regulated. Abbey will tell you (and he’s not joking) that the penalties for not running a tight ship are high: he’d go to jail.

DOMAIN NAME WIRE: It seems that more and more companies are offering escrow services for domains. What makes escrow.com different?

ABBEY: Escrow.com is an escrow company; most other companies offering domain escrow services are not licensed as an escrow company. We have very stringent requirements regarding how we manage our clients’ funds and personal property. All our employees have been through and passed a background check conducted by the California Department of Corporations (DOC). The DOC sets the requirements for bonding; we have a $4M bond. You will notice that some escrow companies do not offer services in California and Arizona. This is because they do not have the appropriate licenses. These companies are not subject to the same stringent regulations we are. If an unlicensed escrow company were to perform escrows for a California buyer or seller they would be in violation of the Financial Code. The potential penalty is a fine, not to exceed $10,000, imprisoned in county jail for up to a year, put in state prison or punished by both fine and imprisonment. Arizona penalties appear to be just as severe and Idaho also requires an escrow license. It is illegal for a California escrow company to earn interest on their clients funds. All money retained by Escrow.com is held in a non-interest bearing trust account at Bank of America. We have our books reconciled every month by one of the most respected accountancy firms in the country, Morton Alan Haas & Co. Funds belonging to our clients are safe.

DOMAIN NAME WIRE: How difficult is it to set up an escrow company? Tell me more about getting “licensed” to run an escrow service.

ABBEY: When the company changed hands in 2004 we did not have an Arizona license. The application process and requirements are not easily met. After much due diligence by the state we obtained application approval and our CFO, Escrow Manager and I flew to Arizona to meet with the Department of Financial Institutions. After an extensive review of our business practices and policies we were granted a license. The licensing entities have the right to conduct an onsite audit of your operation at any time. These audits are paid for by the escrow company including travel and lodging. The barrier to entry is getting higher, especially if you do it right.

DOMAIN NAME WIRE: Can you give me an idea of the volume of domain transactions you handle, either in dollar terms or number of domains? In many ways this is the “silent market” that doesn’t get reported on DNJournal.

ABBEY: This is not information we report. Many of our clients do not want to see their transactions in print. I can only remember a couple of times where both the buyer and seller asked me to verify their transaction publicly.

DOMAIN NAME WIRE: How many resources does Escrow.com commit to preventing fraud? What are some of the steps the company takes to make sure transactions do not involve fraud?

ABBEY: Everyone at Escrow.com is on the lookout for potential fraud. We have been involved in the reporting and takedown of well over a thousand fraudulent escrow websites. In 2007 the Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that there was close to $160M in losses for Internet auction related fraud. Most if not all could have been prevented if the victim used our service. We have built a very close working relationship with the FBI and have assisted them on numerous cases. We have a number of internal checks we go through when approving and releasing funds. Many of these checks are built into the system, but all transactions are reviewed manually by management before closing.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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Unique idea drives hundreds of domain aftermarket sales.

It’s been about six months since I first wrote about PushToAuction.com, a service that lists domain names that people are willing to send to an auction on Sedo with a $60 offer.

The service was active for a couple months before Domain Name Wire’s story, and since launch it has helped sell 426 domain names for $126,901. That’s an average of $298.

The value to sellers is clear: list domain names on the site that you are willing to send to an auction at Sedo if someone bids at least $60. Given the attention paid to Sedo Auctions, good generic domain names are sure to snag more bids before they close.

For example, Bid.info was listed on the site and ended up selling for $2,350.

To decide which domain names are good candidates for PushToAuction.com, read “When Should You Send a Sedo Offer to Auction?”

Buyers also benefit, as they can potentially find a good domain names that can be won on Sedo for low prices.

There are nearly 4,000 domain names listed on PushToAuction and over a dozen with active Sedo auctions. Current auctions that were initiated thanks to PushToAuction.com include RRFD.com ($110), iUnitedStates.com ($110), and BC0.com ($160).

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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New incarnation of EvoLanding to launch in February.

DevHub, a free platform for rapidly developing web sites, will launch to the public later this month.

Mass developing web sites isn’t easy. DevHub makes it easier, but you shouldn’t expect to be able to just press a button to develop 1,000 domain names. Technically DevHub would allow you to do that, but you won’t get long term search engine traffic. It takes a little elbow grease to realize its true potential.

Hence the new name, DevHub, instead of the parking-centric EVOLanding. As DevHub describes it:

DevHub is a web hosted publishing platform and content editor. We bring publishing tools, API integrations, and monetization partners together into an easy to use ecosystem of reusable building blocks for accelerated development.

The company is purposely distancing itself from being just a glorified domain parking service. DevHub takes the pain out of development making it possible for technically challenged people to develop dynamic web sites.

I’ve been playing around with the system and wrote a preview back in November.

Consider a domain name you own related to chess. Within minutes, you can create a basic web site with 5 pages of content including videos of chess tips, a store of chess items, a news feed, etc. Just drag and drop modules such as videos, affiliate links, or pay-per-click ads to the location on the page where you want them. Then enter your own custom content (and that’s important).

DevHub will open to new clients later this month. You can submit your e-mail address at DevHub.com to be notified of its release.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

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