I'm proposing a project that I hope will excite the less advanced domainers in this forum.
You may not know that each November is National Novel Writing Month [here in the U.S.]. Some private citizens started this project in 1999, when 21 would-be writers took part. In November 2004, more than 42,000 writers tried, and about 6,000 finished a novel!
Having a deadline and a community of kindred spirits really makes the work fly.
Let's do the same thing with domain sales!
I (like many of you, I imagine?) have been dabbling in domain speculation, buying or reg'ing names on the cheap and mainly trying to market them to resellers for small profits. But that's not a great way to get rich.
This month, I pledge that I will take at least one of my lazily Sedo-parked domains and make a substantial effort to find potential end users, approach them, and persuade them to drop some real dollars.
I hereby proclaim the month of February: End User Sales Month! Who's with me??
If you want to join in, please post your plans here. (There's also a great thread on this topic here.) You can reveal the domain name[s] now, or else at the end of the month. Let's share our ideas, frustrations, and (hopefully) triumphs!
Cheers,
randomo
P.S. For the record, I started writing a novel about a week into November, having just learned about National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as they call it). I was making good headway for a few days but suddenly got hit with a large work project that required most of my free time. Maybe next year I'll finish one! (Learn more about these good [and charitable] folks at www.nanowrimo.org.)
My original plan was to contact the owners of the .net version of the same domains. So far I have contacted the .net owner of these two domains, did not generate much interest. I am not sure where else I would find the end users, where do you think my next plan?
I have recieved substantial reseller prices for my Poker.Pk and Bank.Pk. However, I think its time to go hunting for those online casinos . Will post results soon.
I recently learned that a lot of these people don't know that they want something (or that they should be wanting something) in this respect until you contact them and offer them a good domain name for their business. Quite a percentage of companies (even relatively big ones) don't have a real domain name portfolio strategy.
End Users are often so busy running their business they simply don't have time to waste like us domainers, searching for possible names.
Other end users are completly ignorant about the reseller market.
If you want to sell something, you sometimes need to wave it in their face, thats why the supermarkets keep the candy at ther checkout.
One thing I always do every week is to read through DNjournals sales results and contact the new owners of domains containing similar or related keywords to my domains.
I have yet to achieve a sale using this stratergy, but I am confident I will get lucky using this stratergy.
Why? Because you have the opportunity to offer your Domain to an end user, as a better alternative, before he develops his original purchase.
I think the general theme of this thread is that... we should all select just one of our domains this month, and make a 101%, 25 hour a day, eight day a week, super human effort, to contact, market and sell our selected domain, to an end user by 11.59 pm on the 28th of February!!!
I have only been domaining for a just over a year and although suffering from a terrible registration addiction, I have systematically sat down every Wednesday afternoon, and made an effort to contact at least 100 end users for a particular domain.
The reason I do this on a Wednesday is because I find a domain that has just sold, listed on DNjournal, with similar keywords to one of mine and this gives me inspiration, confidence and hard evidence to my potential targets that my domain has value.
This technique paid off in November when I sold ArcadeGamesWarehouse.com for $375.00 after just 16 emails.
I always receive at least 50% replies to my marketing efforts, (usually saying, "Thanks But Not Interested") but this is still positive as you know your correspondance was read.
I always include a link to my site http://www.DNhit.com where I have most of my domains listed, and this gives them the opportunity to see what else I have to offer.
I think we should turn Randomos excellent idea of 'End User Sales Month' into some type of competition.
Maybe RJ can throw in one of his best domains as a prize!!!
If we all achieve an end user sale this month we are lifting the DN business to further heights.
Choose your domain and list it below, then get out there and sell it this month!!!
... and I'll chip in commissions for a good price on LargeScreens.TV, WideScreens.TV, & PlasmaScreens.TV.
I like your enthusiasm!
I figured we should each try to market at least one domain to end users this month. Someone who hasn't tried this before will probably get excited about the process and try to do it with other domains too!
I've only ever made a substantial effort to sell one domain this way -- researching the most likely potential buyers, then alerting them to an auction. Well, to my disappointment and genuine surprise, it didn't sell. But that one failure will be a distant memory by the end of End User Sales Month, when money from other sales efforts will come rolling in!
Cheers,
randomo
P.S. I'll probably set up a rudimentary website for End User Sales Month, so we can track who's taking part, who has closed sales, etc.
__________________
If your name (or a friend's name) is Billy, Drew, Fiona, Jared, Lindsay, Lindsey, Margaret, Piet, or Theresa - I have a domain for you!
I have just reg'd EUSM.info to be the Official Website of End User Sales Month. I'm traveling at the moment but will put something on that site in a few days.
Tell your domain friends to join EUSM -- the more, the merrier!
Cheers,
randomo
__________________
If your name (or a friend's name) is Billy, Drew, Fiona, Jared, Lindsay, Lindsey, Margaret, Piet, or Theresa - I have a domain for you!
Let me know if you want to become a "registered" EUSM participant -- or, if you already are, tell me what progress you are making toward your sales! I can post this information on the site, to give you glory and inspire others!
Good luck,
randomo
__________________
If your name (or a friend's name) is Billy, Drew, Fiona, Jared, Lindsay, Lindsey, Margaret, Piet, or Theresa - I have a domain for you!
I'm working on selling PanamaWarehouse this month. The Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama handles Billions of Imports/Exports to The Americas every month, and all those goods are stored in thousands of 'Warehouses' in the free trade zone. I have compiled a database of over 2,700 companies operating in the Panama Free Zone and am now contacting them all.
What do you think I can achieve for PanamaWarehouse.com ???
Please add PanamaWarehouse.com to EUSM please.
Or joining together to place some classified advertising in 'Home Business' (1/12 of a page for 6 issues/1 year - $340).
I also here that College/University newspapers rates are very low.
I'm sure Home Business and The College Newspapers could be a great source to find 'End Users' before they set up in business.
Don't forget that most university students have the knowledge and the free college resources to develop websites. In addition they all need a ource of income to fund them through their studies and hosting a website beats washing dishes at McDonalds!!!
I suddenly wonder if i would manage to sell bigsales.us to and end user...
i'm not that experienced and actually , i don't quite know where to begin looking for end-users,
i once mailed to the owner of bigsales.com but never got a reply , althought i was very polite and to the point in my email.
but hey...
i'll give it a go, i have time on my hands now.
anyone wanna help me with some advise , go ahead, lol, i'm not gonna stop you
