strategy How to Find Potential End Users?

[shilmy]

Hi,

Do any of you has regularly sell your domain to end users? If so, do you mind share with me in this thread on how find potential end users for your domain?

Regards,
Sjarief

 

[Gene]

Is it always a necessary that we should use our own domain mail service to get the customer. Does the use of gmail or yahoo make a lot of difference?

If you provide lots of information about yourself, like full name & address, phone number, etc. then it shouldn't make any difference which email service you use. But if you are not providing all this information, then the potential buyer will be highly suspicious of you as a trustworthy seller if you're using a generic email address.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Is it always a necessary that we should use our own domain mail service to get the customer. Does the use of gmail or yahoo make a lot of difference?

I personally have the first impression of many using gmail, hotmail, or yahoo mail for business, as unprofessional and tend to be suspicious. They tend to be thought of as disposable email addresses, and it could be seen as trying to hide behind a free email address. Personally, I think anyone who can't afford $70 a year for a domain and a hosting account for the email as possibly an amateur or a fly-by-night who may not be around long, or a potential scammer or spammer. Although many reputable people do use free email addresses, I think it pays to use a real identifiable address with the name of the business in the domain. If you don't have anything to hide, don't act like you might.

 

[Pound]

I have a question. I was contacted last week by an obvious end user (he even told me why he wanted my domain so much). He sent me an email saying "I am interested in this domain - is it for sale?". I then replied saying that it wasn't for sale but would be happy to listen to offers. He then replied saying that the most he could offer was $4000. Therefore I replied saying that I could offer the domain to him for $4300 and he replied to say "is it okay if I think about this". I then sent an email saying yes, but if I haven't heard within one week then I will assume that you do not wish to pursue the matter further.

This was 1.5 weeks ago - $4k would have been an amazing sale for this pretty average domain. How can I send him an email now to reinstate the negotiations?

 

[Damion]

First, i would be a little more patient, wait for Friday to come to send an email, mentioning that due to a second party that was interested for the same domain at the time you got word from him, for around the same approx amount that was been offered, and them no longer wishing to pursuit the acquisition due to the acquisition of another domain that they deemed more appropriate for their endeavors, you would be willing to accept the latest offer in last received email.

Should you not receive any responses then you have to assume there is no interest anymore. That happens.

But if i where you, i would give the person a direct call, explaining that you had another offer on the table but with that offer gone you are willing to complete the sale for 4K.

That is if you have enough information to retrieve his contact info.

All the best!

 

[DNK.it]

Hi all, this is my first post here :red:
This is a great thread and I would want to ask some questions about 4 letter domains. How can I find a potential end user for that kind of domains? If you have a keyword or a combination of keywords domain it's relatively easy to search for that keywords in SEs, but with a combination or 4 letters all I can do is search for acronyms and then use SEs.
For example acronyms for egpq are: Energy Group Quebec, Electronic Group Quebec etc. but in most cases this keywords are associated in SEs with a trademark company with their own name and the acronym egpq seem not to be the best choice.

 

[DomainMagnate]

Just read the whole thread, there were about 2-3 rather useful posts with tips. I like the ebay auction idea also. It's probably the best.

I've recently been trying to sell few of my higher value domains to end users. Sent a bunch of various emails and not much luck so far. But that might just be because it's hard to find end users for these.

Gotta tell you it's hard work, but besides I think it's way overrated. No one will pay you 5-6 figures for a domain because your end user email was that great, not even 4 figures. They are either interested - and in that case they'll contact you and send the offer even without you emailing them first, or they are not.


~MG

 

[fierne]

Great post, thanks a lot,buddy!

I just got an inquriy about one of my best domains!

 

[rodash]

I basically only sell to the so called "end users" or at least I sell at the so called "end user prices"

Basically what hat I do is:

1) Look for simillar domains and extensions & Conduct searches in SEs for related websites.

2) With this I compile a Email list of potential interest buyers (based on website or WHOIS contacts).

3) Then I set the name on auction (no FSBO).

4) Right after setting up the domain auction I send out a mail to each identified potential buyer, and inform them about the auction.
(1 by 1 and personalized for each buyer)

Important in my experience is, that if you want to attend a decent sales price is to set up the auction BEFORE you mail the potential buyers. This has the effect, that it puts indirect pressue on buyers (bid now or you never have a chance again)
A FSBO mail to a potential buyer has not much effect, or you just receive a bunch of real low offers.

PS:
It is advisable, to evaluate trademark conflicts before you send mails

Another point of view. I adopted this exact same approach with a single-word dot com name I owned about 12 months ago. I did two months research until I had a shortlist of prospective buyers. I then emailed out to what I thought were several hundred highly relevant potential buyers, plus I did an actual worldwide postal mail-out that cost me about $700. I set the domain name on its own site and set out the terms and conditions for an auction on eBay. I published on the website what I consider to be an excellent presentation extolling the merits of why you would want to buy the domain name. I insisted on registration for the auction so I would only get qualified buyers. I set what I believed was a very modest starting price for the name. It was all done very professionally.

I did not get one bid.

I've also tried other approaches over the years and I have come to the conclusion that unless you have a very sought after name it is extremely difficult to sell a name at this point in time. There are just so many alternative names that people can buy and unless someone is fixated on your name it becomes quite hard.

I think you can usually gauge your chances by looking at how many approaches you have had over the past 3-5 years. I have had what I consider to be good names for in excess of 10 years and have not received one email re some of these names. That clearly suggests to me that this industry is just starting and has possibly 20-30 years to go before it matures to the point whereby you can quickly and easily sell a good two-word dot com for a significant amount. Leasing your names is also years away. That won't happen until name brokers become involved and we haven't really seen them established in the industry yet.

You are going to have a lot of luck to sell your names through your own initiatives. Your best chance at this point in time is through the auction and sales houses. The DDN system would have been great but it looks like the registrars have killed that by demanding huge commissions (it was initially proposed that 2% commissions would apply).

If anyone has a strategy that really works I'd love to know it.



.

 

[End User King]

If I may share something...

I've recently begun selling LLLL.orgs with great success to semimajor corps.
LLLL.orgs is a great market. I've done more an 10 $80 sales off a $6.95 purchase. These isn't the XXXX-XX,XXXX sales that most domainers strive for, but is enough to continue to save and hold out for stronger key terms and give me a lil more shopping me.

Hint: Check the drops!

Now that you know the secret, I must kill you.

 

[Wyatt]

This is an awesome thread.

The main question I have is;

How do you get potential end users to contact you? I see posts about people contacted them interested to buy a domain... but how? Are these people they know? Did they find them on whois or something?

Please explain. Thanks

 

[Dotplanners]

contacting end users

Another point of view. I adopted this exact same approach with a single-word dot com name I owned about 12 months ago. I did two months research until I had a shortlist of prospective buyers. I then emailed out to what I thought were several hundred highly relevant potential buyers, plus I did an actual worldwide postal mail-out that cost me about $700. I set the domain name on its own site and set out the terms and conditions for an auction on eBay. I published on the website what I consider to be an excellent presentation extolling the merits of why you would want to buy the domain name. I insisted on registration for the auction so I would only get qualified buyers. I set what I believed was a very modest starting price for the name. It was all done very professionally.

I did not get one bid.

I've also tried other approaches over the years and I have come to the conclusion that unless you have a very sought after name it is extremely difficult to sell a name at this point in time. There are just so many alternative names that people can buy and unless someone is fixated on your name it becomes quite hard.

I think you can usually gauge your chances by looking at how many approaches you have had over the past 3-5 years. I have had what I consider to be good names for in excess of 10 years and have not received one email re some of these names. That clearly suggests to me that this industry is just starting and has possibly 20-30 years to go before it matures to the point whereby you can quickly and easily sell a good two-word dot com for a significant amount. Leasing your names is also years away. That won't happen until name brokers become involved and we haven't really seen them established in the industry yet.

You are going to have a lot of luck to sell your names through your own initiatives. Your best chance at this point in time is through the auction and sales houses. The DDN system would have been great but it looks like the registrars have killed that by demanding huge commissions (it was initially proposed that 2% commissions would apply).

If anyone has a strategy that really works I'd love to know it.



.

After years of sending out all sorts of beautifully written emails (I was once a copy writer for a Madison Avenue Ad agency), I finally stopped sending emails and started getting the PHONE numbers of the companies, either their marketing dept (for large corporations) or just the person in charge of online promotions for the business. I asked for names and phone numbers of the correct person to contact. I then CALLED these people, gave them my phone number and email address, asked for their direct email address, and asked if I could send them more information on the value of owning their keyword specific domain name for their products/services.

It's a lot of work, but it gets better results. Talking to someone, then sincerely giving them all the info you know for the value of a domain and how it applies to that specific company ( I have a huge list of "why buy domains" comments and bullet points I use) is very helpful in closing a sale that gets you the price you want. Sometimes you have to WORK for the deal. Just sending out tons of emails, no matter how well written, doesn't mean those emails will ever reach the person authorized to buy the domain from you for the company.

Do your due diligence, find out about your buyers, tell them your BIN price, and you're accepting all offers, but the BIN price is an immediate sale.

I sell about $5,000 - $10,000 a month this way, and these are NOT premium domains. Just simple keyword domains that describe niche categories for the buyers. Lots more secrets are in my files, but I'm a domain consultant, can't give it all away for free or my kids don't make it through college!

 

[ce77]

I just regged a domain yesterday and emailed an end user.
They replied with great interest wanting traffic stats and an asking price.
Do you have any advice since I have had only 1 view so far? Would you reply asking them to make an offer?
Thanks.

 

[Wyatt]

I just regged a domain yesterday and emailed an end user.
They replied with great interest wanting traffic stats and an asking price.
Do you have any advice since I have had only 1 view so far? Would you reply asking them to make an offer?
Thanks.

Somehow mention that the domain is new and has no traffic so far, but try to say something along the lines of: "surely this domain will recieve x hits blah blah blah" or whatever. And if they ask for an asking price, try and give them one as well.

 

[ce77]

Somehow mention that the domain is new and has no traffic so far, but try to say something along the lines of: "surely this domain will recieve x hits blah blah blah" or whatever. And if they ask for an asking price, try and give them one as well.

Thanks!! That's basically what I did.
I emailed 8 companies, and it was the first one who responded. I gave him a set buy-it-now price and the opportunity to make an offer. So far he has only offered a trade for a far less relevant domain that I wouldn't pay $5 for, so I professionally told him thanks, but I am taking money offers only. From the looks of his site and expensive products, I have no doubt that he can afford a substantial price, but I am having doubts he wants to pay anything for it as he sounds kind of cocky and wants to play games, so I will be contacting more companies. I'll keep you posted. This could get interesting.

 

[lux13]

is a good option

 

[hyped]

In regard to using a more professional email address, for those of you that aren't aware, you can host email for all of your domains for free with Google.

Just go to http://www.google.com/a/ and sign up. You'll only need to create an account, verify domain ownership via dns settings, and then add mx records.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[Posterboy]

I use Ebay to buy / sell my domains. Seems to work ok. Only thing is that you have to pay a listing fee if you're selling.

 

[Sameh]

I use Ebay to buy / sell my domains. Seems to work ok. Only thing is that you have to pay a listing fee if you're selling.

You can find many good domains for cheaper prices here on NamePros. better than eBay trust me.

SCAM : 0% over here. not like eBay.

 

[smak786110]

those who want Professional looking emails...I can provide them at very cheap rates...
$50 PER YEAR... Unlimited Email accounts...50mb space...

 

[bentong]

those who want Professional looking emails...I can provide them at very cheap rates...
$50 PER YEAR... Unlimited Email accounts...50mb space...

Members here own a number of domains and definitely know what is a reasonable rate. They can setup any email they want with their own names

 

[RWAC]

Excellent thread, just read it through entirely, some information overload now, but managed to pull out some great tips.

Many thanks to everyone that has contributed so far.

Oh dear, here is that dreaded European ending ....

Best regards

Mark

 

[dezinerite]

This is a very useful thread, thanks a lot for the valuable info~!

 

[DnPresident]

email

I agree that the phone would be much better. For emails, this may be a good start with some tweaking:


Mr.Knife Man

My name is David Crutcher, I am part owner of Twilight Research. We are the internet domain name company controlling thousands of Premium domain names. I am writing you because of the close relationship between one of our domain names and your business in Handmade Kitchen Knives. One of the Premium names we control HandmadeKitchenKnives.com is currently for sale.

Your 'Handmade Kitchen Knives' Combined with the matching Internet Domain Name HandmadeKitchenKnives.com should not only increase sales greatly but is likely to give you the advantage of completely controlling the market.

For more information about HandmadeKitchenKnives.com please feel free to contact me.

Thanks you for your attention.

dave c
xxx-xxx-xxxx
[email protected]

537 West Second St
xxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxx

 

[socalcardude]

Gapa

I need some advice. I started a website in 1994 called GAPA.Com and sold automotive parts online for 10 years until some big competitors got into the market and I closed it down in 2004. Since then it has been sitting until recently when my son designed a bare bones eBay affiliate site to drive the existing traffic (700 unique visitors per month) to eBay’s automotive parts pages.

Anyway, we have decided to research the idea of selling it and I have no idea where to start.

Any ideas?

 

[steveteva]

In the past I alredy tried to use that method, contact potential buyers and always end with a no reply or thank you, no sales were made even with excellent domain names.

But the best way to sell I found is to have a parked page with full information including phone number because that's the way serious buyers contact you.

I sold for over 10 thousand dollar last year by phone (they contacted me).