Once you have a potential buyer, investigate what it costs them to advertise in their trade publication. For example, it they are a winery, call the Wine Spectator and ask how much a typical winery display ad costs. (e.g., $10,000 for a half-page). Name your price, and compare it to the cost of advertising.
I don't like your letter at all.
First, you write as if you are selling it to a person who is a domain investor like yourself. You need to put yourself in the end-user's perspective. The definition of an end-user (of anything; coins, stamps, comic books, art masterpieces, etc.) is: someone who intends to die owning the name. Why are you suggesting that names are a good investment? If names are so sure to rise, why don't you just hang on to them yourself? If someone intends to die owning something, he does not care what he can sell it for in five years!
Also weird is the bit about it being "more useful to you than to me".
Also unhappy are the hyperactive words like "rare opportunity."
Hire someone to write your copy for you, or hire an editor to proofread your prose. Your letter has errors in word usage, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling that make it seem unprofessional. Also, the writing is weak even when correct. (For example, cut extraneous words like "currently").
1.
Park your page. See whose ads appear.
2.
Google your domain name as a phrase or keyword. If you are selling TopHotrods.com, google "hotrods"; if selling WinesOfChile.com, google "wines of Chile"
3.
Visit the web-site of each of your parked page's advertisers, and of the first few pages of the Google hits, and of the paid advertisers in the sidebar of the Google search results page.
4.
Find the contact e-mail link at each site. Click it. Type the keyword phrase (not the domain name) into the subject field. For example: "Top Hotrods" or "Wines of Chile".
5.
Paste the body of your e-mail from your boilerplate file. This is what I use:
My name is Jordan Lee Wagner, and I am the owner of the internet domain: TopHotrods.com. I am writing to you because I am offering this domain for sale, and wonder if American Street Rod would be interested in acquiring this domain. Please feel free to contact me if you have interest in acquiring this domain, or if this information sparks any questions. Thanks for your attention.
Jordan Lee Wagner
617-953-6787
JLWagner@NRHQ.com
6.
Make sure to edit the "American Street Rods" to change it to the current prospect's business name.
7.
Use your e-mail client's special SEND DROP-DOWN button so you can select your return address. Think about which one you want the prospect to see.
I might use NewtonResidential.com, WebJew.org, or NRHQ.com, etc. etc., depending on what kind of business I'm engaged in. (They all forward to my Comcast inbox). You could also initially use the domain being sold as your return address.
8.
You'll have to perform this paste-and-edit e-mail routine between 20 and 50 times. That should get you between one and three positive responses; and also between one and three thanks-but-not-interested responses.
9.
Do research on the three positive respondents to see where they would advertise in print. (If they are publicly traded, get their annual reports; Quicken research them; etc. Can you relate the acquisition of this name to the achievement of their publicly stated major goals?)
In any case, find out how much a couple of big display ads would cost in their industry's most popular magazines (e.g., Wine Spectator). When you quote a price, compare your asking price to the cost of an ad.
10.
Pick ONE prospect to contact first; and start with a big price (e.g., a full page display ad in a major publication costs $25,000). If this seems daunting to the first prospect, try asking half that from the next prospect, but invite the first prospect to make SOME offer, as you DO not intend to die owning it.
---J.
