One of my favorite things about domaining is the fact that more so than with other industries at least based on my experience, a virtual handshake gets you far.

I am referring to the trust factor, to the fact that a lot of deals in our industry (especially reseller market deals) require nothing more than a virtual handshake.

No fancy contract, no lawyers.

Just good ol’ trust between two parties.

Your reputation as a domainer means a lot, so take it very seriously.

Lots of people became DomainingServers.com customers because of my reputation as a domainer, they knew I’m the type of person who gives it 110%.

Sure, the fact that I managed to bring the price down to $0.98/month was important as well but if it weren’t for my reputation, lots of customers would have preferred to pay 5-10 times more and choose one of the older hosting companies than take a chance with a new player they knew nothing about.

This is just one example but you get the point.

The more attention you pay to your reputation (when blogging in my case or when posting on a forum, commenting on a blog post and so on), the more weight your virtual handshake will have.

If you comment on domaining blogs frequently or have a good reputation on a domaining forum and we ever cross paths, the deal will be a lot smoother.

If I’m the buyer and you’re the seller, I’d gladly send the $ first if you have a good reputation.

The same way, if I’m the seller and you’re the buyer, I won’t mind sending the domain(s) first.

If you have a good reputation, a virtual handshake is enough for me and most domainers feel the same way.

The same principle is valid for other industries but I’d say that (again, based on my experience), domaining is special in that respect. Among domainers, a virtual handshake can be worth more than the world’s most well put together contract 🙂