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advice Mike Mann Selling Strategies

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MrOriginal

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Has Mike Mann ever written about how he goes about finding buyers for all of his domain sales? While many at this point are probably on reputation from his DomainMarket site, I'm sure he does a lot of hustling as well.

I will always see his recent sells around here and always am surprised by how much money he earns for domains I wouldn't even register for $100; such as:

TheHealingTree.com $20,000. Purch 9/23/11 $120.
PortobelloAmerica.com $9,888. Purch 4/9/17 $70.

He is clearly doing something different and managing to find some of the best possible buyers to get this kind of cash for these kind of domains... how is he doing it? How is he finding these clearly hyper-targeted buyers who pay top dollar?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
He drops a lot of domains each year that don't sell. The average domainer can't have 100,000+ domains in there portfolio, then sell like 1,000 of them per year at high prices. Better, to stick with a portfolio of 100 domains if your the average domainer...
 
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Has it been your experience that "end users" ever find their way to Sedo? If so, I'd appreciate knowing how they find their way? Thanks

99% of all my domain sales are to end users, although i sell very little, My sales have come inbound from Sedo, one good sale was a fortune 500 company, I received a email as well as phone call from Sedo , the company had hired a broker from sedo, I also sold a .org domain that the buyer had searched through sedo, all though they contacted me directly through my whois, they found my domain name on sedo.

How do they find Sedo. I dunno, but i really like what has happened for me via sedo through the years.
 
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Mike sells high? Yeah Yeah, he also isn't scared to spend and is very aggressive in his purchases, the ones he keeps closed lip on the sales. However he isn't aggressive when you are on the other end of the phone and he is after something you have, quite the opposite. That's half of his strategy right there.
 
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Mike Mann sold his domain company BuyDomains.com for about 45 million USD, so he can command the prices he desires, I've tried to buy domains from him, but he didn't budge on his asking price. He and other domainers like Rick Schwartz, Berkins enjoy life and get six figure offers on domains most of us would accept 5 figures. More power to them.
 
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Mike Mann sold his domain company BuyDomains.com for about 45 million USD, so he can command the prices he desires, I've tried to buy domains from him, but he didn't budge on his asking price. He and other domainers like Rick Schwartz, Berkins enjoy life and get six figure offers on domains most of us would accept 5 figures. More power to them.

Agreed 100% , Also to say, Mike Mann wasn't given anything, he worked for it, the same with Rick Schwartz, They have earned every penny they have made, as well as few i know here at NamePros that were willing to work 12+ hour days to establish their business, Shuffling sales and inventory so they could make it another week. and it wasn't, and isn't a picnic in doing so, I have seen it first hand. I tried it first hand, and i bailed on the full time domaining after 6 weeks., You either have it, or you don't IMO

The people that say the domain industry is a ponze, rigged and all that stuff, You are so-so wrong, If you are talented enough to make a sole living domaining, You are one tough cookie, It takes far more work that many even have a clue to. The operative word being "Work"
 
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Alex Jones 101 class

Sedo is an 100% legit , honest company, I have been doing business with them for over 15 years, buying and some selling, Of all the domain name companies i know, i can honestly say, Sedo is still the best after all these years. at least for me.
That does not mean anything. You are a simple customer like everyone else. The user's theory was not about simple customers, but about for those who run the show.
 
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That does not mean anything. You are a simple customer like everyone else. The user's theory was not about simple customers, but about for those who run the show.

So who runs the show you speak about??

I run my own show, i sell if i feel like selling, which most of the time i don't, if Mike Mann or Rick Schwartz has a domain i want, and i can afford it, i will buy it, the same goes for anyone else, i buy what i like, not what i intend to sell.

I really don't think Sedo has a preference as to where their money comes from, they will accept everyones money equal i would think, I damn sure would. They are running a business, not a casino.
 
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But is Mike having fun? Fun is where it's at.....making money is secondary:xf.grin:
 
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He drops a lot of domains each year that don't sell. The average domainer can't have 100,000+ domains in there portfolio, then sell like 1,000 of them per year at high prices. Better, to stick with a portfolio of 100 domains if your the average domainer...

how do u know he drops a lot of names each year... when we often hear guys like him been holding their sold names for years...

or is this like yer opinion?
 
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But is Mike having fun? Fun is where it's at.....making money is secondary:xf.grin:

or maybe mm is just having fun making money... ;)
 
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So who runs the show you speak about??

I run my own show, i sell if i feel like selling, which most of the time i don't, if Mike Mann or Rick Schwartz has a domain i want, and i can afford it, i will buy it, the same goes for anyone else, i buy what i like, not what i intend to sell.

I really don't think Sedo has a preference as to where their money comes from, they will accept everyones money equal i would think, I damn sure would. They are running a business, not a casino.
No you are not running any show, you are part of a show. Some people run the show some have a big influence.
We are speculating here, but for sure someone or some people are running the show that is how business work, one makes the rules, the other follow them :)
 
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But is Mike having fun? Fun is where it's at.....making money is secondary:xf.grin:

I think there is a lot of truth in this. I don't know the big name sellers at all personally, but they seem disproportionately angry, negative and untrusting (clearly this is an over generalization, and some big names seem and I am pretty sure are incredibly generous, positive, creative and interesting). I really hope that is a persona, and that really are not nearly that intense in daily life.

I do understand that some domainers need to make a living at this, well choose to I guess. I know when that is true you really have to take things more seriously and be more hard nosed re prices etc.

For many on NPs however, this is somewhere between a hobby and a side gig. For us we really should make sure that we are having a fun and interesting time, and if not, probably move on to something else.

So let's not forget about fun and using our 'industry' to help others do something positive! And just in case you want a fun domain, well let me show you.... :xf.grin:

Have a fun, interesting and positive day everyone!
 
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In January 2018 Mike Mann's Domain Market reported selling CryptoWorld.com for a stunning $195,000. Today, 9-mos later WHOIS still says it's for sale at domainmarket.com and resolving to a DM landing page.

Isn't that incredible, after all that time and all that cash domain ownership never changed and the buyer never even bothered to at least park or forward the name to their website!
 
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Has Mike Mann ever written about how he goes about finding buyers for all of his domain sales? While many at this point are probably on reputation from his DomainMarket site, I'm sure he does a lot of hustling as well.

He has a marketplace and the domains them selves drive the traffic to the marketplace.

Look at http://www.customforge.com. It redirects to https://www.domainmarket.com/buynow/customforge.com. And then it promotes all of his other domains. Smart.

He doesn't need to do advertising. People who want his mostly two word .com domains come to him. He then puts a price. Most reject, like all offers we get. But some small percent...maybe 0.01%...will say ok, I buy. or Negotiate.

How many domains he owns? On website is says 300,000. If get 1% sell through rate, then 3,000 domain slaes per year, or 1 per day roughly.

He negotiates probably many more than. Most negotiations fail, like us.

He sells some for $1,788 or $1,988, some for good number, and some big numbers. We always see the big numbers, mostly dont see small ones right? Why not? He's very big ego. Probably not reveal all small sales.

Sure he have fun. We all do. But I rather have fun with $10000 yearly renewal fees and one $XX,000 sale per year then $2,550,000 renewal fees he has.

to each own. good luck!
 
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I think there is a lot of truth in this. I don't know the big name sellers at all personally, but they seem disproportionately angry, negative and untrusting (clearly this is an over generalization, and some big names seem and I am pretty sure are incredibly generous, positive, creative and interesting). I really hope that is a persona, and that really are not nearly that intense in daily life.

I do understand that some domainers need to make a living at this, well choose to I guess. I know when that is true you really have to take things more seriously and be more hard nosed re prices etc.

For many on NPs however, this is somewhere between a hobby and a side gig. For us we really should make sure that we are having a fun and interesting time, and if not, probably move on to something else.

So let's not forget about fun and using our 'industry' to help others do something positive! And just in case you want a fun domain, well let me show you.... :xf.grin:

Have a fun, interesting and positive day everyone!

Excellent point! Side Gig - Hobby for me, Having fun, enjoying your names, and taking in all the pleasures domaining brings is the most important thing to me. It becomes expensive as the renewals roll in, but, everyone has something they love, and it costs money. avid golfers, fishing- some spend 20K a year between their boat and fishing, all hobbies have expenses.

The few i know that make a full time living domaining, enjoy it as equally as i do, they just have to treat it as a complete business, their lively hood depends on it.
 
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No you are not running any show, you are part of a show. Some people run the show some have a big influence.
We are speculating here, but for sure someone or some people are running the show that is how business work, one makes the rules, the other follow them :)

I am running my own show ;) I am not in the business aspect of domaining so to speak, so i call my own shots as far as domaining goes, what i buy or don't buy, and how much i pay for it. I don't follow the herd so to speak, i do my own thing when it comes to domaining.
 
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I'm spoken to him on Linkedin briefly. I wanted to sell him some domains. Told me to just send him my list. so it can't be that he's registering all the domains he sells.

all us tiny domainers do his work for him. And of course he always shows off how he purchased a domain for $120 (probably from auction) and then turn around and sells it for $14,000.

It's sad for the guy who let a domain expire which got sold for $120 but that's the nature of the game.

anyone ever ask Mann to broker their domains?
 
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I am running my own show ;) I am not in the business aspect of domaining so to speak, so i call my own shots as far as domaining goes, what i buy or don't buy, and how much i pay for it. I don't follow the herd so to speak, i do my own thing when it comes to domaining.
There is no such thing as running your own show if you want to have sales. All domain prices / domain market is maintain at this level by a small group of people. You buy or sell domains in the price range made by these people.
You can run your own show only for something unique.
 
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all us tiny domainers do his work for him. And of course he always shows off how he purchased a domain for $120 (probably from auction) and then turn around and sells it for $14,000.

It is a pure numbers game. The more domains you own, you more inbound leads/sales you are going to generate passively. And a small portion of those will be big-ticket sales. With 350k-400k+ domains, it’s normal for a small % to convert at 5 figures.

Buying at $120 and selling at $14,000 is as impressive as buying at $8 and selling at $928. It’s the ROI that is important, not the sales price. If you can consistently sell at least 1.2%-1.5% of your inventory with that ROI rate (x 116), you’re doing even better than Mike.
 
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There is no such thing as running your own show if you want to have sales. All domain prices / domain market is maintain at this level by a small group of people. You buy or sell domains in the price range made by these people.
You can run your own show only for something unique.

What do you mean? Please exemplify.
 
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I think he's great at targeting.

And he hustles

1. "FromSmartToFinish.com" --- he picked up for $20 in August, and sold for $1788 in Sept.
Well there is a company on "SmartToFinish.com"....If I were the ceo, I'd certainly purchase "FromSmartToFinish.com" for $1788 for brand protection. Why not? I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, at least for some of the domain names he picks up on the cheap, he's most likely figured out (before hand) why he's buying/hand registering them, and he already knows the enduser(s) he's gonna pitch to.
For stuff like "TheHealingTree.com", he held on to it long enough until an enduser came along. Many of us won't have the patience or foresight to hold on to a 'The' domain from 2011 - 2018. He registers domains that make sense to him and holds them.

2. Mike was asking on Linkedin recently for feedback on which tools people use to contact end-users. He gave a list of tools that he may/may not use. Many people, including me (I didn't mind), gave ideas of which tools we use. I think he was testing the waters to see if there were any new tools out there that he/his people weren't already using to contact potential buyers. If you want to make sales, you can't be afraid to contact end users. Moreover, many big time domainers aren't afraid to call; while most average domainers fear calling.. Perhaps, Mike and his people are just doing more than the average domainer is willing to do..

Ask many domain brokers, they'll tell you that they hate outbound. You really can't hate outbound if you're trying to sell your domain names.
 
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MM certainly has buyer contacts, no doubt. He plays the numbers game, true. He can see value in names that few others do. Sells some domains (comparably to the number of the entire portfolio) and drops more (I imagine) to keep the inventory turning. But here are other key factors not mentioned yet that I believe impact his sales and revenue the most:

1. Take a look at his main sales site at domainmarket.com. In particular, the content and design. It screams authority, seriousness, and trust (as opposed to, "Hey, check out my portfolio"). This attracts companies with deep pockets.

I am sure his site also ranks well on Google. So there is organic traffic in addition to any PPC and other forms of advertising he might be engaging.

2. Looks like Mike has other online businesses that have revenue flows that allow him to take a loss in domain sales (vs renewals) some or more months in the year and also be patient in negotiations.

3. He lists his names on mainstream marketplaces but all of his domains resolve to his own marketplace sales pages. This opens up many opportunities to reach the right buyers and fulfill the transactions at his marketplace.

4. There are also other tools at his disposal. He seems to be savvy at using social media. There's also market research into pools of potential buyers. This goes a long way in outbound sales.

It's not one or a few of those things mentioned that's the secret. It is the complete scope of his strategy that many domainers are envying, which can be replicated if one is paying close attention. ;)
 
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There is no such thing as running your own show if you want to have sales. All domain prices / domain market is maintain at this level by a small group of people. You buy or sell domains in the price range made by these people.
You can run your own show only for something unique.
That is why I run my own show, my niche in domaining is not reselling domain names, development and domain holding is my niche, I guess you could say the domain holding part sorta fits in the collector- hobby category, I sell every once in a while, always inbound, I have to like the price I am offered to sell any of my names, my renewal fees are paid in 3/4 by my websites profits most usually, the other 1/4 usually by the sell of a domain name or names. I will sell a name, but for the most part, it has to be on my terms, pricing and ect, Otherwise I don’t sell any.
 
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I happened to end up at Mike Mann's Domain Market when researching a domain name on the weekend. I had never actually looked in detail what he has up for, it would seem, most or all of his domains. The promotion is very effective. While it is boilerplate it feels right, and he right there makes a strong case for both why premium domains are worth it and in particular why you should purchase from them. If you've not looked recently, check it out. I just randomly selected this one cause I like penguins.

https://www.domainmarket.com/buynow/penguinclassic.com

I think we all could learn a lot by looking at what he does. I mean we will never have a portfolio the size of his, but we can apply his model of making the case for premium domains and why we are a good person to deal with in your domain purchase. Yes, he sells a lot because he has a lot to sell. He gets high prices because he demands them. But I think there is another factor - he is a professional at effective domain presentation.

Bob
 
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