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Follow My 20 dollar to a Baller Challenge

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Jelani Abdus-Salaam

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So, before I start I wanted to say thanks to everyone in the community who have welcomed me.

I know I am young to the domain game, but everyday I learn something new and I have been reading blogs nonstop. I know that doesn't make me an expert by any means, but I like a challenge, so I decided to to partake in Ali's 20 dollar to a baller challenge. I thought it would be cool if I started a thread following my journey.

I intend to post the domains I buy, the domains I sell, and my thought process throughout the challenge. This will not only give myself insight by sharing, but also give the community a chance to offer their input so not only I grow as an investor but those who read can grow as well.

Each day I will try to post, kind of like a micro blog. So please give insight, and any information you believe will be beneficial!
 
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Day 1:

I bought my first domain - arizonafleet.com via GD Auction

Waiting for GoDaddy to put the domain in my account so I can begin my selling. I picked this domain name after speaking with AbdulBasit who believed it was a low quality domain but not the worst one to buy. I bought the domain for 21 USD, after entering a discount code CJCRMN35. It took off some money so I did not pay full price for it.

Estibot valuation: 260 USD
 
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Good luck, I expect to be interesting, keep us posted ;):$:
 
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Got to ask why that name. I live in Arizona and the only "fleet" I can think of is a fleet of cars and there is not much business except 2 that could use the domain. If you reach out to them and they decline then I see it as a very hard sell to anyone else UNLESS a new startup comes into town and I dont see any on the horizon
 
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Good luck, can't wait for updates. :)
 
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Day 4000:

After still not being able to find a customer for ArizonaFleet domain, Jelani found a company for naval transportation, named it Arizona Fleet and became one of richest ship owners in the world.
 
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Got to ask why that name. I live in Arizona and the only "fleet" I can think of is a fleet of cars and there is not much business except 2 that could use the domain. If you reach out to them and they decline then I see it as a very hard sell to anyone else UNLESS a new startup comes into town and I dont see any on the horizon
Only time will tell ;)

Day 4000:

After still not being able to find a customer for ArizonaFleet domain, Jelani found a company for naval transportation, named it Arizona Fleet and became one of richest ship owners in the world.

hahaha only in a perfect world, my decision to buy arizonafleet is apart of the learning process...it may be a bad decision it may not. Only time will tell.
 
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I believe the first step states to keep a fixed price of $100 here at Namepros and sell it for $40 after negotiating. Now that you have revealed that you have bought the domain name, the value of the domain name and how an expert domainer like Abdul Basit thinks that the domain name is a "low quality domain", you have made a huge mistake. You have eliminated Namepros users and have narrowed it down to just business owners.
Don't worry, that is where the big bucks come in but it is a time consuming process.

Go to Zfbot.com

Step 1: Type in "ArizonaFleet".
Step 2: Encircle the "or" option that indicates starts with "or" ends with.
Step 3: Find the best 25-30 established businesses.
Step 4: Whois their email.
Step 5: Send Emails and personalize them. Don't spam.
Step 6: Wait for reply "How much"
Step 7: Don't be greedy or fall in love with the domain. Quot a price around 350 and agree if they're paying even 150.
Step 8: Collect the funds via paypal or escrow and then only post it here. No deal is ever completed without money in your hand.
Step 9: Buy me a Beer. ;)

Remember this is a time consuming process but totally worth it. Next time don't post the name you buy until you have sold it. What if somebody Googles A/R/I/Z/O/N/A/Fleet.com and find this thread and the fact that you bought it for $20 and are asking 400 for it?

Don't worry. We all make mistakes. I still make them every now and then. Just don't give up. Domaining is not all kittens and rainbows.

Best of luck!
 
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I believe the first step states to keep a fixed price of $100 here at Namepros and sell it for $40 after negotiating. Now that you have revealed that you have bought the domain name, the value of the domain name and how an expert domainer like Abdul Basit thinks that the domain name is a "low quality domain", you have made a huge mistake. You have eliminated Namepros users and have narrowed it down to just business owners.
Don't worry, that is where the big bucks come in but it is a time consuming process.

Go to ZFBot

Step 1: Type in "ArizonaFleet".
Step 2: Encircle the "or" option that indicates starts with "or" ends with.
Step 3: Find the best 25-30 established businesses.
Step 4: Whois their email.
Step 5: Send Emails and personalize them. Don't spam.
Step 6: Wait for reply "How much"
Step 7: Don't be greedy or fall in love with the domain. Quot a price around 350 and agree if they're paying even 150.
Step 8: Collect the funds via paypal or escrow and then only post it here. No deal is ever completed without money in your hand.
Step 9: Buy me a Beer. ;)

Remember this is a time consuming process but totally worth it. Next time don't post the name you buy until you have sold it. What if somebody Googles A/R/I/Z/O/N/A/Fleet.com and find this thread and the fact that you bought it for $20 and are asking 400 for it?

Don't worry. We all make mistakes. I still make them every now and then. Just don't give up. Domaining is not all kittens and rainbows.

Best of luck!
Wow, thank you so much for this comment, still waiting for GoDaddy to give me the domain name. How long does this usually take?
 
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Wow, thank you so much for this comment, still waiting for GoDaddy to give me the domain name. How long does this usually take?

Around a week but you can start approaching end users.
 
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Here comes an update post! Expect it to be long and hopefully, helpful!

After I started this post I had no idea the journey I would be a part of selling my first domain! However, I am happy to say that tonight I closed the deal. This post will take you through the initial contact of the customer to the final sale. Lots of weeks and negotiating went into this one!

On Apr 16, I humbly messaged @tweetsgonewild. I asked him if he could help me with finding an end user and he agreed. I have to say, I can not thank them enough! They deserve as much credit as possible when it came to this sale.

Anyway, I researched companies on zfbot that had arizonafleet in their name. Most of the companies had either been parked or were dead, however, two companies seemed viable. I did some research on both companies by doing a simple google search, and a whois check. Unfortunately, one of the companies had their information on private so I could not get a direct email or person of contact. However, the second company I was able to get the owner's full name and personal email. I did a bit of research on the company and the owner and found out the company was a trucking service that was family owned. So I figured they may want to buy this domain name. Their current domain name was "arizonafleetservice".

I sent a simple email:

Hi xxxxxxx,

My name is Jelani, I found out about your company via GoDaddy, since I am the owner of arizonafleet.com.

I saw your company is a trucking service, with the URL arizonafleetservice.com so I wanted to contact you directly with the opportunity to purchase arizonafleet.com. I believe owning both domains could help your business profoundly.

If you are interested in purchasing this domain please let me know. I look forward to your response!

Best,
Jelani

I did not know if they would respond, but I added MailTrack on my email account just to track if they read the email and how many times if so. A few hours later he responded with "I may have interest". I messaged @tweetsgonewild and told him what the owner had said. He advised that I try this example from a Zandibot post: No 3: https://www.namepros.com/blog/daily-dose-outbound-techniques.863492/

So I wrote something up that would help him see the value in owning the domain "Arizonafleet.com"

He didn't care about the fluff and just wanted to know the numbers. I told him I would want to sell the domain for $400 USD. He did not respond to that initial offer. So I waited 4 days and responded with this:

Hi xxxxxxxx,

I'm really motivated to make this sale with you. So I decided to lower the price to $250. The domain name has one more year on it, so it would expire in 2017.

Also, the domain name will safely be put into your GoDaddy account by me switching over ownership to you. In terms of payment we can work through PayPal, or Escrow which is an easy and safe option.

Please let me know if you are still interested.

Best,


I wanted to convey to him the value of the domain name and that I am a serious seller willing to work with him.

He responded a day later and said "What is your bottom dollar on this"

I told him the final price I could do was $225. I wanted to be firm with my pricing strategy as I figured he was still interested, regardless of the price I quoted him earlier. He countered with $125. I told him the lowest I can do is $200.

He said that since he is not the final decision maker in this process, he would reach back to me. I waited a week and followed up. No response.

I waited 3 more days and let him know I would accept his counter offer of $125. I did not want to lose value on this transaction, so instead of losing the sale completely, I accepted. Since he used GoDaddy it was an easy transfer of the domain name. He paid via PayPal and the sale was complete.

The final sale was $125 and after PayPal took their cut I was left with 121.07. The final profit was around $104. Now, I intend to put my initial investment back into my account and use the rest to buy more domains.

I am so thankful for this first sale. Not only did it show me how to reach an end user, but it taught me patience. For the next domain I am going to be really specific and do way more research!

I hope to continue these updates as they come! Thanks for following and I hope this post finds you well.
 
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I think this is the best thread I have come across so far in my time on NP.
Incredibly informative. Thank you.
Congratulations to you on your first sale. All the best for the future.
 
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I think this is the best thread I have come across so far in my time on NP.
Incredibly informative. Thank you.
Congratulations to you on your first sale. All the best for the future.

Thank you @MichaelSWUK! Please watch the thread so when new updates come you will know.
 
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This is great stuff, @Zandibot . Congrats to you Jelani!
 
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This is great stuff, @Zandibot . Congrats to you Jelani!
Thank you Candace! I follow your domain recaps and Its interesting to see the comparisons from day to day!
 
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Here comes an update post! Expect it to be long and hopefully, helpful!

After I started this post I had no idea the journey I would be a part of selling my first domain! However, I am happy to say that tonight I closed the deal. This post will take you through the initial contact of the customer to the final sale. Lots of weeks and negotiating went into this one!

On Apr 16, I humbly messaged @tweetsgonewild. I asked him if he could help me with finding an end user and he agreed. I have to say, I can not thank them enough! They deserve as much credit as possible when it came to this sale.

Anyway, I researched companies on zfbot that had arizonafleet in their name. Most of the companies had either been parked or were dead, however, two companies seemed viable. I did some research on both companies by doing a simple google search, and a whois check. Unfortunately, one of the companies had their information on private so I could not get a direct email or person of contact. However, the second company I was able to get the owner's full name and personal email. I did a bit of research on the company and the owner and found out the company was a trucking service that was family owned. So I figured they may want to buy this domain name. Their current domain name was "arizonafleetservice".

I sent a simple email:

Hi xxxxxxx,

My name is Jelani, I found out about your company via GoDaddy, since I am the owner of arizonafleet.com.

I saw your company is a trucking service, with the URL arizonafleetservice.com so I wanted to contact you directly with the opportunity to purchase arizonafleet.com. I believe owning both domains could help your business profoundly.

If you are interested in purchasing this domain please let me know. I look forward to your response!

Best,
Jelani

I did not know if they would respond, but I added MailTrack on my email account just to track if they read the email and how many times if so. A few hours later he responded with "I may have interest". I messaged @tweetsgonewild and told him what the owner had said. He advised that I try this example from a Zandibot post: No 3: https://www.namepros.com/blog/daily-dose-outbound-techniques.863492/

So I wrote something up that would help him see the value in owning the domain "Arizonafleet.com"

He didn't care about the fluff and just wanted to know the numbers. I told him I would want to sell the domain for $400 USD. He did not respond to that initial offer. So I waited 4 days and responded with this:

Hi xxxxxxxx,

I'm really motivated to make this sale with you. So I decided to lower the price to $250. The domain name has one more year on it, so it would expire in 2017.

Also, the domain name will safely be put into your GoDaddy account by me switching over ownership to you. In terms of payment we can work through PayPal, or Escrow which is an easy and safe option.

Please let me know if you are still interested.

Best,


I wanted to convey to him the value of the domain name and that I am a serious seller willing to work with him.

He responded a day later and said "What is your bottom dollar on this"

I told him the final price I could do was $225. I wanted to be firm with my pricing strategy as I figured he was still interested, regardless of the price I quoted him earlier. He countered with $125. I told him the lowest I can do is $200.

He said that since he is not the final decision maker in this process, he would reach back to me. I waited a week and followed up. No response.

I waited 3 more days and let him know I would accept his counter offer of $125. I did not want to lose value on this transaction, so instead of losing the sale completely, I accepted. Since he used GoDaddy it was an easy transfer of the domain name. He paid via PayPal and the sale was complete.

The final sale was $125 and after PayPal took their cut I was left with 121.07. The final profit was around $104. Now, I intend to put my initial investment back into my account and use the rest to buy more domains.

I am so thankful for this first sale. Not only did it show me how to reach an end user, but it taught me patience. For the next domain I am going to be really specific and do way more research!

I hope to continue these updates as they come! Thanks for following and I hope this post finds you well.

Congrats! The journey is only beginning ;)
 
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