I believe strongly in networking, creating contacts and relationships when the opportunity presents itself. And this story is no exception.

Recently I received an email from a person who wanted to acquire one of the domains that I own, it’s actually a really awesome domain name, but this isn’t about how cool the domain name is, it’s about how I came to give it to this person.

I’ll be honest, the first thing that came to mind when I got the email was; “How much is this domain worth to this person?”  It’s not about greed, it’s a common practice in the the world of internet marketing. You want a domain, someone else owns it… you offer money for it.

In taking a closer look at the email, I noticed that this person was involved in more than just web deisgn. This intrigued me. Among the many things I do to keep bread on the table is Voice Acting, and I wanted to see if I could create a connection that could be profitable in the long run for this company and myself.

I picked up the phone and called.  In my opinion any communication that is important, and I felt this was important should be done in person, or at least on the phone.  After talking with the person for a while, I told them that I would be happy to just release it to them if they would consider me for any future voice acting projects that they might have. I think I shocked this person, they were very happy.  And that was good…

They then told me about a need they had for some web design coding work… so I passed that information on to a friend of mine who had recently lost his job, an amazing programmer… I hope that works out for both of them.

Something so simple as being kind and letting someone have a domain that was “sitting on my shelf” and serving no purpose has created a new network connection and possible future work.  If I would have gone the route of negotiating a sale of the domain I might have gotten a few hundred dollars for it, or maybe even a couple of thousand dollars… but I would never have made a terrific impression, nor would I have put a deposit in the Karma bank.

I may never hear from this person again (although I think I will), and even so, it would be ok because I did something that made me feel good, I made their day, helped out my programmer friend, and I got a great story out of it.