Are you going to put together a large group of us to split advertising expenses in WSJ - and have some of our BEST domains listed in an ad in that publication...
When would the next deadline be for us to participate ??
What would be the release date for that publication ??
If KRL isn't doing this any longer.... What about Gene ??
Anyone else interested ??
Personally I think if you offer a domain to sale to an end-user, you are at an immediate negotiating disadvantage. One thing I tried was to go to the website of a prospective buyer, find a bug or typo and send a friendly email to them saying "by the way you have an error..." from the email address of mydomain with a signature.
I didn't sell it (yet - this was only 2 weeks ago) but i did see from my logs that they clicked through to the site - twice - , so they are now aware it exists. The site has a message on it suggesting that the domain is no longer being used too, but not actually offering it for sale
One of my prospects actually posted my letter on his very famous blog, and calling me a typosquatter. That post still haunts me to this day in Google...
I made my best sales when the buyer came to me in the first place. They then already know that they want the domain.
However, when we approach potential buyers we need to educate them that they need the domain. I think a good thing with sales letters is to write a unique one for each prospect (to avoid being called spammer), and let them know in what ways owning the domain would improve their business compared to not owning the domain. Let them know the benefits in their situation. Therefore, you need to think like the client.
Examples of benefits are:
- easy to remember
- recognizability
- shortness means less chance for typos (= losing clients to the competition)
- trust: a nice domain increases trust in his company
- etc!
Examples of benefits are:
- easy to remember
- recognizability
- shortness means less chance for typos (= losing clients to the competition)
- trust: a nice domain increases trust in his company
- etc!
Hope this helps,
spietreser
Also... to keep the domain away from their competition.
How could I be really assured that if the buyer will offer me xx,xxx,xxxx or so for domain? Wont he/she RIP me off during the payment time ?
Then I wouldnt have a clue even to get back my money or the domain ...
Someone enlighten me on this !
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
Never, ever, transfer the domain before you see any money. That way you won't get burned. If the buyer doesn't agree, then use an escrow service like Escrow.com, or Sedo / Afternic / etc. If the buyer doesn't want that, and not even wire transfer, then there is something fishy.
Fact is that YOU have the domain they want. If they really want it then they'll have to agree to your terms.
But end users dont necessarily have to be sedo, afternic,so on ...
It could be an individual , who isnt a hardcore domainer and needs a doamin cos he likes it .... So do you suggest Escrow.com best for these type of people ?
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
Sedo and Afternic are companies that handle escrow services as well. They are not end users but middle man so to speak, they will put the domains up on their website and if someone...a individual likes the domain they can buy it through Sedo or Afternic by opening a account with them and complete the purchase process if it's a fixed price. Or they can make offers for a domain and when a offer is accepted the buyer needs to pay Sedo or Afternic who puts the funds into escrow.
When the money is received by Sedo and placed in escrow you the seller will receive a follow up email with instructions how to transfer the domain to the buyer.
When the transfer is complete, the WHOIS reflects the buyer as the new owner the funds in escrow will be released to you.
So do you suggest doing a bulk whois and contacting them individually by email as the best mode for sales?
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
For contacting potential end users i would suggest depending on the type of niche the domain relates to browse i.e. the net/yellow pages for finding prospect buyers.
Say for instance you have the domain, NewYorkRealEstate.com, i would find and contact as many businesses/individuals involved with Real estate by looking up their contact info on their current website or sending a letter/fax.
You would only want to contact relevant businesses & individuals (realtors) to market your domain to and not every email address you can find or get your hands on.
If English is your native language and your a fluent speaker and you're comfortable with - cold calling - then calling prospect buyers is in some cases more effective.
But i would not reconmend it if you're inexperienced. But if English is your native language and you speak it effortlessly it's one barrier less you would be confronted with. The next step would be to do your research on cold calling techniques, common associated pitfalls, etc.
Then you would need to overcome the most common barrier people endure doing their cold calling, they feel uncomfortable trying to sell something...
This would be really complex , just to sell maybe a handful domain names in each category or niche .. Just incase none of them are interested in the names, it'd be a waste of time and work.
On the other hand it MAY work.
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
Domaining isn't a easy job and it takes effort to find end users who will buy your domain, although this also depends on the quality of the domain in question.
The only complexity there is - is the amount of work you have to put in. You either monetize your domains successfully through parking or development and passively wait for a buyer to approach you or you take active action to get your domain(s) noticed and accomplish a sale through hard work.
Remember, renewal time is only a year away and you need to have funds to back this up.
If you have a substantial amount of domains this could be a problem if you haven't made enough via parking or development.
And if you can't fund the renewals by other means such as your regular day job then you would be disapointed in yourself you didn't try hard enough to make a couple of sales to fund your upcoming renewals and even have something on the side for development (To create a additional income stream) or to use in your regular life.
You just can't spam millions of people with your domain for sale email if you think that would be less complex?
It's a numbers game and perhaps in the first year you would not sell your domain(s) but maybe the following year you will.
Patience and hard work are key elements in domaining.
I'm not a pro or experienced domainer but these are elements which the pro and hardcore experienced domainers would surely agree with me that are necessary to be active in the domaining business.
That's something you have to accept and is part of the job
Cold call sales are not for everyone. I start with individual targeted emails to prospects that I have identified to be potential buyers. Most of my end user domains are priced at $2000.
I then follow up with a phone call. Although the response rate is low the percentage of domains that I sell after this cold call approach is VERY high.
Yes it is work but it's not a bad job. Say it takes you 40 hours of research, planning, emails, cold calls, followups, escrow etc and you sell a domain for $2000, would it be worth it? By the way, I don't think I ever had to spend 40 hours on any one domain.
This is 8****, owner of XXXcopies.com. I am making this
domain available for acquisition. I am sending this email
to parties who could use a short, simple targeted domain
for their business. If you're interested, just reply with
an offer and if it's accepted I will transfer the domain
to you shortly.
Sincerely,
RonnieW
This method is straight to the point. It also puts you at an advantage especially at the end where you control the game, " if it's acceptable I will transfer the domain to you shortly".
I would suggest at times you use "we" instead of "I", sounds more authentic at times.
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
1.) I agree with RJ, google your keywords and email the businesses with a worse domain name on the right sponsor results. These people generally pay alot more than domainers.
2.)When putting an adwords domain for sale abc under keywords, use "click here to buy abc.com domain for $2000" in description; that way, you won't be paying so much for clicks from people unwilling to pay at that price..
3.) When asking people to send in bids through email (that way you seek a very high bid without fixing a price) in response you can tell them "this bid is the top bid so far, but not yet high enough for me to sell right away, rather I will continue to market the name to see if I can get a higher bid; ultimately, I will sell to the highest bidder timely"
----------------------------------------------------------------
When negotiating with an end user interested,
First Establish that you are willing to negotiate the price.
We all dread that .com name that we sold for XXX when we might have gotten $X,XXX (or $X,XXX instead of $XX,XXX etc )
Start high because you never know, and you can always lower your price later, but you may not be able to raise your price after the bidding battle.
Regards
Last edited by MeekAlvarez.com : 10-16-2006 at 10:48 AM.
Reason: more info
Thanks for all the tips and great information on these posts.
One method I've used in sales letters is establishing the price on the domain being offered to them and that it is open to negotiations. I then will end it saying that if successful sales negotiations do not materialize within a set time (usually 30 days or so, sometimes 2 weeks) that the domain name will proceed to auction and be available to anyone who places the highest bid. I've used this successfully a few times, auctioning it off via ebay and once right here at namepros.
I try and keep it friendly and professional, but also always focusing on the fact that this domain is for sale and will be sold soon to someone.
