Long story short, here's a juice of what i understand from this thread: Email domain marketing for dummies, Vol.1
- Study the right field that fits your domain, and focus the market sector you're looking to deal with.
- Get a list of possible end users looking for:
a) People who advertise on overture (view advertisers->max bids) or adsense (sponsored links) on that keyword(s).
b) Google search for similar websites
c) Owners of similar domains but worst in quality then your.
Take the e-mail adresses from the whois of the respective site-owners.
- Set up the email account of the domain you're willing to sell, something like info@domaintosell.com or yourrealnamesurname@domaintosell.com or postmaster@domaintosell.com
- Set up a private auction on eBay with a complete description of the domain name and, eventually, a reserve price. I'd suggest to keep up the auction for not more then 7 days.
- Write a short, polite and well written email, personalized for each possible customer, where you mark him the existence of this domain on auction, and the time it will be end to induce a bit of pressure and let the potential buyer to check the auction immediatly, rather then let him wait few days and forget it.
Don't mention the value of the domain, he will check it when he will met the reserve price in the auction.
End the email with your real Name, your domainer website (if you have one) adress and your telephone number.
Write the DN is on sale in the subject line, something like "Domain DomainToSell.com is being auctioned". There's no reason to hide the email behind an eye-catching subject. If the buyer is interested it will open it for sure.
- Wait for the bids to come with lot of patience.
well.. I think rather than we contacting them formally asking them to sell it'd be better if they take the first step. We would definitely have an edge in the negotiation process.
Is there any method you guys handle to let the possible end-users know that the domain is available for sale (indirectly) so that they make the first move?
__________________ All offers from me are valid for 24 Hrs unless otherwise noted.
I'd like to thank all the contributors to this thread, I've had my hands on a great selection of keyword-based domains for a while now but didn't know where to start in terms of shifting them to end-users so I've been stuck in the "stick it on eBay and cross my fingers" game - there's a few I've already got on eBay if anyone's interested (last chance before I change my selling strategy!)
You also can buy the data about the TOP 1000 Domain names for examle from Alexa or from www.BriteHits.com to and get website working in the same industry as you are they would be happy to buy your domain and your visitors
Last edited by ogonovsky : 03-12-2006 at 07:01 PM.
My biggest hurdle when contacting end-users is the price. If I ask $250, they might pay it gladly and willingly, but if I ask $1750 they may also pay.
How do you know how much is too much to ask? How do you price domains when you're offering them to one end-user? How does one determine worth of a specifically-targeted domain name?
What I've been doing is sending a letter through regular postal mail to both the Administrative contact and the Technical contact listed in the whois info. I send them priority mail, which tends to stand out a little more in the stack of mail. Of course, this doesn't work if the contact info is a proxy company.
I haven't read all of these, so please excuse me if I overstate. I've sold many domains (none over early $xxx but then again, I've never owned any worthy of higher). Let me give you a few hints for selling your domain:
I've read it mentioned that you shouldn't send email bulk. This is true. Many of the reasons given are accurate ie if you send bulk emails, people will think you're spamming them. Something was mentioned before but I don't think it was explained the way I would have, so I'm going to do it here. If you send the emails one-by-one, it'll be tedious and not worth wasting your time over, right? Well, I vouch for the first part. You need to make the potential buyers feel as though you are talking directly to them. If you send a mass email, potential buyers will get the feeling that the email wasn't sincere and that you are only trying to get another bidder/player in the game. That's all you're really doing but they don't need to know that. In fact, they shouldn't. In the email, NEVER use "Dear sir/madam," etc. unless there's no other option. Personalize! If you know the buyer's name is Bob Smith, start it out with something similar to, "Dear Bob Smith." If the potential buyer has site.com and if you think your domain would work well with the potential buyer's site, don't add something to your email like "This will work as a great addition for your site." Use "This will work as a great addition for site.com." This is among the most important things to learn -- Let the potential buyer feel as though you are being sincere and not looking at him/her as a last resort.
The email address you send the email from isn't important, is it? As long as it sends, nothing else matters, right? This mindset will see all your researching go to waste. Spammers and frauds send emails from free providers, such as Hotmail. To distinguish yourself as a real, legit individual with a real, legit offer, use an email address from another domain you own, something that makes it stand out. If a person gets an email from hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. they just might dismiss your email as trash and delete it without reading it. MAKE SURE THE USERNAME doesn't contain numbers or underscores (the latter is okay at times but should still be avoided), as these also will make people dismiss the emails as spam the second they see the address it was sent from.
I will offer one more piece of advice: If they don't need to know something, don't tell them. I am not suggesting that you refrain from telling them vital information (I just said the opposite!). The biggest example I can give here is your intentions for selling. I don't think the potential buyers need to know why you are selling. If you tell them, let's say, "I'm broke and I can't pay my bills, etc" then there are chances that they might try to sucker you into selling your domain directly to them, avoiding an auction or the chance to entertain additional bids, at perhaps 25% less or worse -- even as low as 10% -- of its value. If they don't need to know something, don't tell tem.
The rest should be second-nature. NEVER, EVER lie to them! Always keep a professional disposition. If you ask for $1,000 and someone offers you only $50, don't say something along the lines of "Get a life, freak! I'm not selling this for $50, you sorry-ass prick!" Instead, politely say, "Thank you for your offer but I am looking for something in a higher price range." Common sense is the biggest key to a sale -- not finding bidders or potential buyers. Use common sense and you might be able to make a sale with only one email sent. Remember -- You can send 1 email and make $10,000 from it and you can send 10,000 emails and not get a $1 offer. Know how to approach buyers and the rest will play out adequately. Act like a scammer or a noob--even if you are one--and you'll scare away bidders and all hopes of getting a sale. Remember: Common sense first, locating buyers second. Do this and I guarantee you'll see results. In this game of domain investment, you gotta play all your cards right. Know how to play them before doing anything with what you have. Remember: First impressions count. Mess up once and you might not get another chance with the same buyer. Be smart and you'll see rewards. Be stupid and see nothing. The former sounds better, doesn't it?
Thatīs how I do my emails - personalize them itīs tedious but far more effective.
Very true that 1 email may bring a $10,000 sale yet 10,000 emails may not bring an offer. Never be discouraged, it could be the next one you send that brings the offer.
Damion, I put in my subject line, the domain name or the keywords of the domain. If the keywords reflect the business of the potential end user there is a chance it will grab his interest to open it.
Very true. Also remember that whatever you use, it shouldn't sound spammy. A subject like, "Domain.com is for sale!!" will likely be deleted without being opened. A lot of spammers use enticing subjects like "I thought you'd like this" etc. So whatever you use, be careful -- the spammers out there, those miserable bastards, made good subjects totally worthless. You need to be creative, but because of the techniques spammers use, it's hard to find a good tactic to implement. Just be creative -- you might find something that'd unlock every door you find
How in earth do i know which subject lines are spammer like? I just get hardly any spam in my email!
I am going to send the mails from my own ISP so that is something in the right direction then i had intended before.
I'll just go for the domain name in the subject line and nothing more.
If this is a good idea?
Would this be best? Or do i need to ad something more?
Like said before if you ad ''For sale!'' it looks spammy and maybe even not get read.
I think the subject line is best as just the keywords of the domain if they are appropriate to the person you are targeting. For example if your domain was BelgianChocolate.com and you are contacting manufacturers or wholesalers of chocolate, they are quite likely to open an email with subject line Belgian Chocolate because it`s the business they are in.
I always add at the end of my emails, If this correspondance has arrived at the wrong department, please pass it on to the appropriate staff member and if this matter is of know interest to you I appologise for this unsolicited intrusion.
I find this polite ending results in many acknowledgements of the email even if they are not interested and every acknowledgement is positive as you then know your email was at least read.
For anyone thinking how can i write or what makes a interesting subject line i found this article very interesting and if you have been asking yourself what to keep in mind for when writing a subject line to your list of prespects then you will find it interesting as well.
Also, it's "apologize" in the US, and "apologise" in the UK. I think it's good form if you happen to know where your recipient is, to use local spelling. (Although I admit this is one of the lesser issues...)
I have tried sending very short emails and have also tried sending very informative emails and am not sure which is best. The problem is that the response/success rate to this sort of marketing is so small and unpredictable that it is hard to analyze your results.
I have a lot of domains like Restaurant/US city.com and Florist/US City.com domains and have tried marketing them to Restaurants and Florists in the relevant cities.
Small businesses such as these are likely to be small and family operated, often by older people who struggle to understand the way the internet works and why their website is bringing little benefit to them. In many cases there website has been thrown together by some unscrupulous webmaster who has thrown together a pretty looking site, but has taken no effort to provide a good domain or made any effort to optimise the site for search engines. It is also often, all to clear, that the webmaster has done little to explain anything to the business owner. The proof to this is the amount of small businesses that have abandoned their websites.
For this reason, I tend to write a rather long email, explaining why the purchase of my domain would make sense, helping them to understand that it can be redirected to their existing site or that the overture rich keywords, specific to their business and town can be optimised to bring much more new traffic to their site. I explain in detail the rise in īLocal Search` is replacing Yellow Pages and also explain that because there are hundreds of other Restaurants/Florists in their town, it would make sense to acquire the domain before their competition does.
I have received several replies thanking me for the information and explanations even though they donīt want to buy the domain.
Iīm not sure this long email approach works for every domain but I think it is good for small mom n pop local businesses.
I agree, with the smaller businesses it would definately help, and also to keep it clear as possible. No talk about SERP's and that kind of abrevations.
Can you imagine the look on the face of that elderly old woman selling flowers in her little store asking her husband with a screeky voice ''Joe what in *&%^$ name is a SERP??''
Joe - Oh that's another word for serpent *shrug*
Elderly woman - My god are they trying to sell us a snake?
Joe - Maybe so, unbelievable.
Email deleted, end of story
For bigger businesses i would definately keep it short and to the point as Wanda has described before.
My god are they trying to sell us a snake?