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Has anyone used undeveloped.com to sell domains? They claim to be able to increase a domainers sales by 54%.
Hi Reza @Undeveloped, can we do some customization to landing pages or can you at least provide such options like NameSilo? See the pic below, can we make this change to highlight the domain name clearly? "The domain name" string before the domain name doesn't look good IMO.Show attachment 81765
Hi Reza @Undeveloped, can we do some customization to landing pages or can you at least provide such options like NameSilo? See the pic below, can we make this change to highlight the domain name clearly? "The domain name" string before the domain name doesn't look good IMO.Show attachment 81765
I have had a bit too many non-payers recently. I know it is impossible to avoid, but it is pretty annoying because the name cannot be re-listed for sale for quite a while.
@Undeveloped Have you considered asking buyers for a credit card pre-charge of e.g. $1 before they can make an offer? Or is some other kind of verification feasible?
Same happened with me. If I made every sale that the buyer walked away............. wow. It adds up! There has to be a way to mitigate these bad events.
Perhaps its time to start treating domains sales like home sales (at least how they are treated here in the USA). ?
If I list my house for sale today, and someone wants to make an offer on it they need to present a check for 5% of my asking price. The broker holds that money in escrow. Its called an Earnest Payment or Earnest Money I've heard it called too. If I accept the proposal from the buyer then money in escrow is used toward the purchase. Part of the proposal states how the earnest money is to be handled. What happens of the buyer backs out. What happens to it if the seller backs out. Usually if the buyer backs out then the money is kept as damages, and usually goes 100% to the seller. This happened to me when I sold a house some years ago. Buyer had to put down what amounted to $3,000. He backed out of the sale 3 days later and the real estate agent presented me with a check for $3K to deposit for "damages". In that time another buyer could have wanted my house but it was no longer listed and visible as "for sale".
Since domains differ than real property after that point so it probably has to be done a bit differently, but the general idea is the same. I am thinking out loud but we have to talk about these offers that waste our time. Time is wasted on the sellers part as well as the venue (Undeveloped) in this case. And, its not just with Undeveloped as it happens everywhere. But if Undeveloped were to come up with a way to protect sellers and put the onus on buyers to place a firm offer, they'd probably be the first in the domain industry to do this (that I am aware of). It would be very cool.
If non-serious buyers knew they were going to lose their deposit they wouldnt make any offer in the first place. A serious buyer is going to plop down something to "hold" the domain throughout the negotiation for it, or for its outright purchase.
Some interesting ideas there!
I would also like to stress that it is of course not only a problem at Undeveloped. But Undeveloped could really stand out if they developed something in this area.
Great discussion guys! By design we opted for the most frictionless process to get as many as legit buyers in the funnel, but that inherently also increases the number of leads getting in that aren't serious.
@Embrand when in doubt if your buyer is legit please ask via support for our guys to re-list the domain. Meanwhile, the payment link will remain active for the (not-paying) buyer.
Pre-charging $1 will increase the barrier of entry to greatly for the buyer, you'll lose more sales than increasing the number. Same goes for the model you propose Agame, I'm afraid we'd lose too many buyers by opting for a model like that.
Here's a solution to the problem you both mention that we're working on in our Lab:
We're soon introducing the Web Coin on Undeveloped. Sellers will get Web Coins every month and the distribution will be based on the sales volume you've had with us. The more Web Coins you hold in your account the more you get from Undeveloped.
For example when you've unlocked enough coins in your account, automatically your commission rate decreases from 9% to 8%.
Now for buyers we're experimenting with assigning a reputation score on buyers. We're also building in incentives for buyers to become repetitive buyers with us so we can track their activity better as well.
Besides that other verification models will be implemented, including Linkedin connect so you can see clearly which leads are verified.
We'll continuously keep looking for other betters ways of solving these issues that you guys raise. Your feedback helps us to keep track of this so keep sharing it with us!
Kind regards,
Reza
I might have missed it but does anyone know if the 1-800# got removed from all pages? And for some reason my domains don't show others for sale from my portfolio anymore even though it's applied.
Not sure if this question was already asked, but do names on Undeveloped receive any kind of extra exposure that other landing pages don't receive?
I noticed there were some names on the homepage in different categories that undeveloped features but I wasn't sure if Undeveloped advertises the name's anywhere else?
That sounds very interesting! Those are certainly novel ideas. Thanks for sharing.
for years now I have required a potential incoming buyer to provide a link to their linkedin profile and or facebook just to recieve pricing information... if they don't have either or a verifiable email history on the net... I don't bother with them... I go find my buyers so I know who mine are at the get go...
more than 85% of inquires coming in are either fake people or time wasters... lifes too short for that crap...
I am not refering to undeveloped.com -- simply stating how I work for the past 20 years - private sales and some through escrow.com -- sedo -- and paypal (smile)
Yes, far too many time wasters. So what you do sounds like a great idea. Do some potential buyers get offended, or are they okay with it?
Isn't there some danger that there might be confusion of purchasing a company that has something in common with the name, as opposed to just the domain name? I prefer the existing wording at Undeveloped that makes clear that it is the domain name, and not some larger package, that you are buying.
when told to provide links to verify their identity as a means of establishing
they are a real person - not a time wasting tire kicker - and that they are
sincere and seriously interested in further information -- some you never
hear from again - but 99.9% of those that you never hear from again
were time wasters anyway -- the eMail addresses they were using
wasn't to be found anywhere on the net OR - a known spammer or flake....
every sale I've had in the past 10+ years that came TO me first -- understood the necessity
for getting into the process to acquire the info needed to proceed with a purchase...
Great ideas! I wonder if there is an automated way to connect an offer form to a linkedin account for verification... I love the idea, plus it builds contacts, possible future leads, rapport, and your network.
seems like Undeveloped.com could have an option for the potential buyer and seller to fill in their Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter Usernames/Profile URLs when the register with Undeveloped.com prior to making an inquiry to purchase. I don't have a problem as a seller providing that information for the buyer at the get go.
Everyone could be on a level playing field. The whales have peons inquire anyhoo... not like the ceo will approach you directly most of the time... those not wanting to be upfront - are not going to be a match anyway... helps weed them out...
The phone number was removed from all landers a couple of months ago. If you send me a domain that's listed in your account I can check but we don't observe any issues on our end.
Undeveloped means a domain not yet developed. If you don't know the meaning of a brand, you can ask
Thanks I will contact support to see what happened.
Also just sold a name on there yesterday, looking good so far. Just have to wait to finish the transaction and get paid, !