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discuss Some Say; "Good Domains Sell Themseves"

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ThatNameGuy

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Since I became a member of Namepros just four months ago, I've heard several members say; "Good Domains Sell Themselves" to which I say Bulloney!

For anyone to truly be successful in this business, one needs to aggressively and passionately market their own domains, ie., ABS or Always Be Selling.

There are plenty of good domain names that will never sell simply because they never get exposure, or very little at best. "Average" domains, which most domainers own, can be sold profitably with the right expsoure.

The best advice I can recommend is to identify what industry your domain represents; ie, healthcare, financial, sports and entertainment, social real estate etc., and market your domain directly to potential buyers in that industry. To simply list it on any site, and hope that someone will come along and buy it is ludicrous. Yet this is the way I've been told to sell....how sad:xf.frown:

Wake Up domainers! It's time to realize how screwed up this industry is, and do something about it. I'm doing my part, how about you?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Elevator...maybe its a matter of semantics, but unless you put a for sale sign in front of your house, I don't care how "good" a house you have, it isn't going to sell. Also, unless you run adds and actively promote the sale of your "good" house, you still may not sell it. Make sense? ie, even "good" domains don't sell themselves.

The 4L I sold this month for $15K net, was not posted for sale. Sedo broker was hired to contact me, ask if it is for sale, negotiate etc. So, yes, good names can sell without any "for sale" sign. However, just posting across marketplaces might increase the odds of a sale for a good name at a fair price from under 0.5%/year to 1%-2% range (for a popular tld).
 
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I agree that good names sell themselves. There are over 1 billion domain names. The vast majority of them are worthless. Think about all the domain names that you see for sale and then take the time to realize how few names you actually buy. The ones you buy stand out some way. On the flip side the great names have value to a greater number of people. More bidders. The name sells itself.
 
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The 4L I sold this month for $15K net, was not posted for sale. Sedo broker was hired to contact me, ask if it is for sale, negotiate etc. So, yes, good names can sell without any "for sale" sign. However, just posting across marketplaces might increase the odds of a sale for a good name at a fair price from under 0.5%/year to 1%-2% range (for a popular tld).
 
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I actively inquire about names that are not for sale. If I waited for them to list the name I couldn't afford them. If you only buy what is offered for sale you're missing out on names you probably would really like to own.
 
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There are no 'good' domains. What you think is a 'good domain', may be average or of no interest to others. There are domains which are 'good' for ones business. If you find that 'one person' who needs your domain, your domain becomes a valuable asset.

If someone wants a specific name, they will find it. If you have it, they will come to you. You don't have to do outbound, just play the waiting game.
 
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I can applaud your determination and aggressive sales can work I sold new cars for years. However the idea is to have what someone wants bad enough to pay. A domain of the right merit is better than a feeder domain to help an existing site owner. With a domain you either have exactly what someone wants or a choice. By reaching out to potential buyers you either have something of an improvement or a domain capable of supplying feeder traffic
with strong keywords. The highest price is achieved when you receive an offer from a landing page so the merit of the domain is what in fact draws the customer. Over all your strategy creates turn over but you might also sell a domain to fast for good margin missing a mass margin if domain is of true quality.
 
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There are no 'good' domains. What you think is a 'good domain', may be average or of no interest to others. There are domains which are 'good' for ones business. If you find that 'one person' who needs your domain, your domain becomes a valuable asset.

If someone wants a specific name, they will find it. If you have it, they will come to you. You don't have to do outbound, just play the waiting game.
BrandMart...I'm 70 years old young, and according to my gene pool, my waiting game is just 25 years:xf.wink: While some of my domains may sell just hanging out, others will be introduced to end users who don't even know they exist. I luv to use the expression, "I wasn't born yesterday", and it's 50 years of experience, success, and yes failure that tells me the exact opposite of the statement "good names sell themselves" .

Thanks for the exposure BrandMart....I'm Greatful:xf.grin:
 
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Domain investors view domains as potential brands and/or a means of generating leads for a business. The challenge domain investors face is that the general public does not place much value on domain names. There is generally speaking a huge value perception gap between what domain investors view a domain's worth and what the potential domain buyer is looking to spend on a domain name. Most end users view domains as a $50 or less commodity. How would most of us react to a price quote of $XXXX or higher for a haircut or to have someone cut our front yard or for a pair of tickets to a movie? So many small businesses and developers when faced with the domain they want being priced multiples of what they believe they should pay for a domain name opt for a low-quality option - alt TLDs, hyphenated domains, four-word domains or maybe even a nTLD. Outbound marketing to individuals who do not value domain names as brands or tools for lead generation is not going to generate favorable results. While the published outlier sales are an interesting read, being more realistic with pricing is going to increase one's odds of generating portfolio turn.
 
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From my own experience in selling to end users the best position for you to be in is getting an inbound inquiry as others have mentioned you have the upper hand, they are approaching you to buy your asset. It's also incredibly hard for enough offers to come in regularly enough and sell at a net profit factoring in renewals, acquisition costs, time spent etc. but that's another matter, most portfolio owners i'm positive are in the red.

Having done outbound I can say you do good sales from it if you find the right company/person but for me I have always felt on the back foot as it's me reaching out to them. Just one domain as an example I sold trackersoftware com very recently with outbound at what was a reasonable price (lowish 4 figures net) but had the buyer contacted me I would have quoted much higher and been far less accommodating with price.

I believe there are those who don't feel that way with outbound but on a personal level I always feel at a disadvantage for negotiations and I thus don't like doing it. I like doing it even less for lower value names (reg fee type names) as long term I don't feel it's sustainable without burning out to sell those $350 type names, too much hard work for the effort involved.

That's my experience anyway.
 
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Domain investors view domains as potential brands and/or a means of generating leads for a business. The challenge domain investors face is that the general public does not place much value on domain names. There is generally speaking a huge value perception gap between what domain investors view a domain's worth and what the potential domain buyer is looking to spend on a domain name. Most end users view domains as a $50 or less commodity. How would most of us react to a price quote of $XXXX or higher for a haircut or to have someone cut our front yard or for a pair of tickets to a movie? So many small businesses and developers when faced with the domain they want being priced multiples of what they believe they should pay for a domain name opt for a low-quality option - alt TLDs, hyphenated domains, four-word domains or maybe even a nTLD. Outbound marketing to individuals who do not value domain names as brands or tools for lead generation is not going to generate favorable results. While the published outlier sales are an interesting read, being more realistic with pricing is going to increase one's odds of generating portfolio turn.
Garp...thanks for sharing. Many of my domains aren't meant for the small business owner. They're meant more for leaders in the finance inudstry, the healthcare industry and the residential and commercial real estate industries. These industries can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for domains, and I plan to exploit those industries to the best of my ability. Most of my domains are more suitable for lead generation, and I'm willing to let them try it for a monthly fee with an option to buy. Take a domain like refund.loans or even taxrefund.loans, I'd be willing to work a sweet deal with an H & R Block, a Jackson Hewitt or a Liberty Tax Service (actually Liberty Tax is headquartered here in Va. Beach, and I'm pretty sure I have a good chance to get to the founder John Hewitt who was the Co-Founder of Jackson Hewitt, and the the founder of Liberty Tax).....damn, I just thought of that:xf.grin:....and to think, they're right here in my backyard:xf.wink:.

Finally, I will say to you, many of the small Mom and Pop type businesses may not be able to afford 10K for a domain, but they can afford $25, $50 or maybe even $100 a month for a domain that generates leads and ultimately sales. They're not looking for me, but I'll be looking for them. Stay tuned, and thanks for again.
 
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Garp...thanks for sharing. Many of my domains aren't meant for the small business owner. They're meant more for leaders in the finance inudstry, the healthcare industry and the residential and commercial real estate industries. These industries can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for domains, and I plan to exploit those industries to the best of my ability. Most of my domains are more suitable for lead generation, and I'm willing to let them try it for a monthly fee with an option to buy....Finally, I will say to you, many of the small Mom and Pop type businesses may not be able to afford 10K for a domain, but they can afford $25, $50 or maybe even $100 a month for a domain that generates leads and ultimately sales....

Bulloney I work in finance / accounting so I am well aware of what companies spend on business travel, IT & legal expenses and even marketing. What businesses can afford to spend and quite often do spend on admin costs or other forms of marketing for some reason just rarely makes it to spending on domain names. I saw an ad in the last year for a SEO/PPC manager with a $250k monthly ad budget yet the domain they were using was obvious reg fee. It was a company here in South Florida but I had never heard of them before.
 
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Funny thing is I recall the company was a medical company in the Boca Raton area but I do not recall what the name of the company was or what domain they were using - it just was not memorable enough...
(despite a $3 million annual ad spend)
 
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Garp...thanks for sharing. Many of my domains aren't meant for the small business owner. They're meant more for leaders in the finance inudstry, the healthcare industry and the residential and commercial real estate industries. These industries can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for domains, and I plan to exploit those industries to the best of my ability. Most of my domains are more suitable for lead generation, and I'm willing to let them try it for a monthly fee with an option to buy. Take a domain like refund.loans or even taxrefund.loans, I'd be willing to work a sweet deal with an H & R Block, a Jackson Hewitt or a Liberty Tax Service (actually Liberty Tax is headquartered here in Va. Beach, and I'm pretty sure I have a good chance to get to the founder John Hewitt who was the Co-Founder of Jackson Hewitt, and the the founder of Liberty Tax).....damn, I just thought of that:xf.grin:....and to think, they're right here in my backyard:xf.wink:.

Finally, I will say to you, many of the small Mom and Pop type businesses may not be able to afford 10K for a domain, but they can afford $25, $50 or maybe even $100 a month for a domain that generates leads and ultimately sales. They're not looking for me, but I'll be looking for them. Stay tuned, and thanks for again.

leaders buy .com only not cheap extensions
 
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I saw an ad in the last year for a SEO/PPC manager with a $250k monthly ad budget yet the domain they were using was obvious reg fee. .

I can understand why they needed a SEO manager. :)
 
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I agree that good domain names sell themselves. The problem is that they don't seem to be too good at valuing themselves, as they all seem to have a low estimate of self worth. $25 seems to be a fairly common value. :)

Lol at the $25
 
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Bulloney,

I would love to hear your success stories in the advice your giving.

Good names do sell themselves, and when the people who seek them are knocking
At YOUR door, you hold more leverage. If your knocking at their door disturbing them, you lose leverage.

Just because they are not knocking at your door, doesn’t mean you can go around giving bad advice. There is something wrong with your domains, so don’t be fooling yourself, because nobody else is fooled by it.

Sure, marketing to direct end users works, if you have something vastly better to offer them that makes them want to waste a lot
Of time, and money to see the worth in reorganizing around that new domain.

This industry is self governing, nothing screwed up about it, if you have a good name, people want it, and if you have a bad name, nobody wants it.

Not sure what we are waking up to, but quality, over quantity is the secret to success. In 2018 quality costs money,Yes for sure.


I’m sure your gtld sales pitches have fallen on deaf ears, for us to be enlightened with this Jerry McGuire manifesto.

What most people I don’t know why, just don’t understand domaining is not easy. This is not about buying a $100 godaddy domain, and selling it the next day for $20000. Those fairytales you see, are few, and far between. It happens but mainly it’s a numbers game. Domainig is homework homework homework, reading, understanding trends, gambling, thinking outside the box, willing to lose it all, no gurantee of any returns. It is very risky, and a lot of hard work.


Lol at the Jerry Maguire manifesto. Not sure he can pull off the "Show me the money" scene, though
 
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There are no 'good' domains. What you think is a 'good domain', may be average or of no interest to others. There are domains which are 'good' for ones business. If you find that 'one person' who needs your domain, your domain becomes a valuable asset.

If someone wants a specific name, they will find it. If you have it, they will come to you. You don't have to do outbound, just play the waiting game.
 
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I believe there are good domain. Some names are more valuable for a reason. If you have a name that is appealing to only one person, I wouldn't call that a good domain. A domain that appeals to many people and has a commercial value. I would qualify that domain a good name.
 
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leaders buy .com only not cheap extensions
Fella....I'm a leader way beyond your comprehension, and I know BS when it's presented. I guess I'm just blessed that way...now, like I told your buddy Giles STOP STALKING ME!!!!
I believe there are good domain. Some names are more valuable for a reason. If you have a name that is appealing to only one person, I wouldn't call that a good domain. A domain that appeals to many people and has a commercial value. I would qualify that domain a good name.
Barry...I agree, but the question is, does a good domain sell itself? Maybe it's a matter of semantics, but I'm sure there are plenty of good domains that are never sell just because potential end users don't know they exist. I can give you examples of several domains I registered in the last 24 hours that are "good domains" according to your definition, but they need exposure just like your home does, or it may never sell:xf.frown: I'm going to the thread, "Your Reg of the Day" and post these names to see if you would agree. I would post them here, but I'm afraid it would be in violation of NamePro's TOS? Thanks again Barry.
 
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Barry...I agree, but the question is, does a good domain sell itself? Maybe it's a matter of semantics, but I'm sure there are plenty of good domains that are never sell just because potential end users don't know they exist. I can give you examples of several domains I registered in the last 24 hours that are "good domains" according to your definition,

Good domains that sell themselves are not available for hand registration. These are domains that many people think of that is why they are not avialable. Handregs are domains that no one else thought of before that is why it is hard to fnd a buyer for them.
 
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Good domains that sell themselves are not available for hand registration. These are domains that many people think of that is why they are not avialable. Handregs are domains that no one else thought of before that is why it is hard to fnd a buyer for them.
Now we are talking semantics...I've personally hand reg'd some damn good domains that may eventually sell themselves, but I'm not waiting around hoping and praying someone finds them:xf.wink: It may or may not happen. Trust me when I say, it's a total misnomer to say that good domains that are hand registered can't find a buyer. Stay tuned:xf.grin:
 
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Now we are talking semantics...I've personally hand reg'd some damn good domains that may eventually sell themselves, but I'm not waiting around to hope and pray someone finds them:xf.wink: It may or may not happen. Trust me when I say, it's a total misnomer to say that good domains that are hand registered can't find a buyer. Stay tuned:xf.grin:

:) OK. Hope we can see a sales report soon.
 
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:) OK. Hope we can see a sales report soon.
Soon enough my friend...however it depends on what your definition of "soon" is. Mine is, in enough time to cover my nut before my domains start to expire in about nine months. Remember, nine months is enough time for a fetus to mature into an evolving human being outside the womb:xf.wink:
 
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Perhaps an analogy can be made between selling domains and professional employment.

If an inexperienced (student still in school) engineer or computer programmer or accountant, etc randomly sends unsolicited resumes with lofty salary expectations to companies who have no open position for that skillset, that effort is unlikely to produce a favorable result. This is kind of like the newbie hand regging a domain for $10 and then spamming a bunch of end users with "Do you want to buy my domain for $7500."

If a company has an open position and it is posted on Indeed, Monster or Linkedin, experienced professionals looking for an opportunity in that field may submit applications. However, such openings have very tight requirements as to the experience and education they are looking for and how much they are willing to pay any potential new employee. This is kind of like responding to the Domains Wanted Section of NP where people ask for a one-word .COM and have a $100 budget.

Alternatively occasionally an experienced professional with desirably experience will be contacted by recruiters for positions they are trying to fill. It probably helps to have a resume posted on Indeed or a Linkedin profile so recruiters know you are open to new opportunities. Then one can ignore / reject roles which do not offer compensation or otherwise what one is looking for. This could be compared to having a landing page for one's domains allowing interested buyers to contact you but placing a minimum offer to filter out lowball offers. .
 
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