UPDATE: Toby Clements Announces VIP Newsletter for $1,000/Year

I received an email from Toby Clements this morning announcing a change in his popular domain sales newsletter. In response to a friend that asked to see his list of domain names before sending the email newsletter to his 15,000 subscribers, Clements opted to create a VIP subscription newsletter.

The VIP list will cost subscribers $1,000 per year, and it will be limited to a maximum of 50 subscribers.

Clements went on to explain, “This VIP group will get our newsletter by 6pm ET the day before the launch. It will have all the names and prices, therefore you will have the shot of buying the names quicker than most… If you are a regular buyer of mine then there is no question that you have missed deals being we sell names so quickly. This simple solution can help fix that problem. You will still need to be quick, but only quicker than 49 other people rather than over 15,000 of them.”

*** Update ***

It appears Toby has decided against this:

This morning we announced plans to offer an exclusive pre release membership. We have had an astounding amount of feedback on this membership and after much discussion have decided not to follow through with this. Most of you have voiced your opinions on why it is and isn’t a good idea and after weighing all opinions we feel it is better for all of our subscribers to not implement this membership.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

21 COMMENTS

  1. Seriously? Buying a domain from the list is earning Toby a commission. And he wants to charge you for the list on top of this? And the list never has reseller prices, it is almost always end user prices. Jeez…

  2. As I pointed out to Toby already, whenever I look at this list in the future I will always have in the back of my mind that 50 people with enough $$ lying around to pay 1k just to receive the list early already passed over what I’m looking at. That wouldn’t prevent me buying a name I wanted to develop, but in terms of “domain investment” it would be really hard to justify a buy under those conditions.

  3. It’s already what we are proposing at Domaining.com for a pair of years:
    The premium membership ($200/year) allows you to watch new domains submitted in CAX.com powerede marketplaces 24 hours before the crowd. The result has been that a strong percentage of the domains purchased at BIN happen the first 24H.
    We have 198 premium members, ~5% of our paid members.
    I ignore how much will pay $1,000/year but the rate makes sense if inventory is good, because a single good domain purchase will be enough to save the fee.

  4. i can’t see any domain worthy of paying for a list to see it before others do, then having to pay for the domain too.

    maybe if that $1k went towards the purchase price, then there would be some equity in that investment.

    otherwise it’s a sucker move for newbs and an expensive one for those who can afford it.

    when/if you support these actions, then you lend support to setting a precedent for the future, where all dropcatchers and domainmarketplaces may start charging just to view domains for sale.

    what happened to the old way of buying, where you just contact the owner?

    the way i see it, there are too many middlemen cropping up between the domain and the money for me.

    but good luck to the Pick and Shovel sellers….i ain’t mad at ya, and that includes you too Francois!

    🙂

  5. According to him, some were willing to pay a fee to get the e-mails first before anyone else. Everyone on his list are not domainers. There are end users as well. Good luck to him.

  6. It should work better if he makes it a for-pay list at a cheaper price. I wouldn’t buy it anyway, cause the domains there are at an end-user with deep pockets level. But maybe he could make more money.

  7. Why pest?
    Tobby is not saying he will charge any fee to receive his newsletter. Of what I understood, all remains the same.

    What Tobby is proposing here it’s an extra.
    Most companies propose services with extra, or premium memberships for those who want more.

    An extra means there is no obligation to purchase it!

    If you feel Tobby ofetn proposes good deals in his newsletter and you want to maximize your purchase chances then it’s up to you to subscribe to the VIP membership.

    Few times in the past when the newsletter was still under Latona ownership I came too late to buy names. Trust me, I will have certainly paid an extra fee in order this not happen again. Now I admit these past months I did not found anything enough appealing for motivate me to join the VIP club, but I know if I start seeing again great names featured I will certainly consider his membership suggestionto maximize my chances to make good deals.

  8. This seems a bit desperate to me.

    The logic is flawed if you pay to play this game. The only beneficiary is Toby and NO ONE else.

    The 20 people who might pay the $1000 bucks are still competing with one another

    Has Toby become master seller of names that truly remarkable deals are happening daily or weekly?

    I don’t think so

    I only see this doing more harm than good when it comes time to get listings VS the other newsletters.

  9. I decided to unsubscribe from his newsletter after receiving this. I’m sure I won’t be missed, but neither will his newsletter…

  10. The names being shopped in the newsletter, have been shopped on numerous avenues previously, Sure some might shell out $1k, but if you want a domain, you know where to find the info to make an offer. This is not rocket science.

  11. That was quick :

    “This morning we announced plans to offer an exclusive pre release membership. We have had an astounding amount of feedback on this membership and after much discussion have decided not to follow through with this. Most of you have voiced your opinions on why it is and isn’t a good idea and after weighing all opinions we feel it is better for all of our subscribers to not implement this membership.”

  12. Toby is following well in the Rick Latona way of “how can I take more money from domainers this week”…

    It killed Rick’s businesses, it won’t do you well either Toby.

    • @ Troy

      There have been a number of times where I make a decision I think is brilliant, and after additional thought and input from friends and colleagues, I’ve decided that the idea is likely not as good as I thought. I think Toby realized the potential ramifications of such a set up and nipped it in the bud.

      Smart move and good to handle it quickly.

  13. I personally sold many domains through Toby’s newsletter. For Sellers its a gained advantage. Toby’s acceptance rate of a domain submitted by the users is less than 4% .

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