I thank you for your comments
@4pm. They demonstrate that my personal brand is obviously totally unclear and needs more work. My brand is to sell value domains to those in sectors not currently well served by domainers in a price range that data has illustrated they might be willing to consider. It is not the brand all, or perhaps even many, should have, but it is the brand
I am trying to establish.
I just want to increase my sell through rate from the approx 10% of last few years to maybe 15% through more effective branding, and hopefully marginally increase prices. I wondered if a clearer brand would help.
You criticize that I only price a few domains at above $1000. I disagree.
This level of self-esteem is totally not acceptable
Let me give an example. I live in a high-density older area of the city with a relatively high proportion of seniors. We have a few dozen shops and services in our core area. One of these stores to me has perfect branding. People know what to expect and get it. The store offers great value on most items. They have a fairly broad selection. The people who work there are incredibly friendly and helpful - when they see someone struggling with a walker they rush to help, they offer to find things for you, they bend down or reach up to get items, they always tell you to have a nice day. They are genuinely sad if you came for something and could not find it. They probably don't have a branding consultant
but they have perfectly managed to figure out who they want to be and to authentically be exactly that, the heart of any branding. Now they have nothing in their store more than maybe $25. Does that mean the price defines their self-esteem? Not in my eyes.
Not far away I can enter the tourist area, and the branding is very different. Up class in presentation and prices. Their sales staff are more formal, friendly but reserved. They too brand effectively, but very differently. Do I respect them more because their prices are higher? No (not necessarily less either - just each are being authentic to who they are).
I want to be the friendly, helpful person to offer groups, especially those not well served currently such as artists, academics, one-person companies, and especially non-profits, a domain name in the price they can currently afford. I think within our domain community we need to serve all sectors, we don't all need to chase the business only market for 4 figure and up sales.
But let's talk prices. You indicate that anything below $1000 is not appropriate or acceptable. I disagree.
A figure which is even most hobbyist domainers won't bother pricing/selling their names for.
I know that many would agree with you, but I've looked at a lot of data over the past two years and I think the emphasis on the major sales masks our perceptions. Every day for months I calculate the median NameBio sales price, and summarize them on a weekly basis. The most recent week saw a range from $199 to $240 over the 7 days (predominantly .com sales), the week before it ranged from $205 to $240, the week before that the daily medians went from $208 to $302. If you want to look at more I put
links to all my weekly summaries for 2019 here. Yes NameBio is a mix of wholesale and retail sales, but the median sales price of a .com sale is a few hundred dollars. (if you included the real domainer to domaoner sales by adding the under $100 sales the median would move to less than $25 - these have been excluded from the above data). If you analyze the sold domains thread on NPs you also see a lot of sales below your $1000 figure. But the key point is the current domain system is resulting in most not buying any domain at all!
The vast majority of businesses and organizations globally are not buying any domain name currently. They choose a FB, Wix, etc. business page, or no online presence. For example
the number of active current users on Wix is about 65x the total number of domain sales ever recorded in the NameBio database. Those that do choose, in most cases select what they can hand register.
I absolutely know that there is a market, a growable one, for 4, 5 and more figure sales to businesses. Many NPs members are doing well with domains for that market. But I think there is also a market, one that our industry is not serving effectively, for domains that are better than hand-registered and priced in the $120 to $1200 range. With the right throughput ratio, and smart acquisitions, I feel that can be profitable.
Finally though, hopefully this price discussion will not divert the main branding emphasis of the thread, and I would like to get commentary on that.
a question for everyone. Do you know of cases, your own or other domainers, where a major reset of the personal brand seemed to make a statistically significant difference in either sales or offers or at least inquiries?
I am not in any way disputing that it is portfolio and selling efforts that are the major determination, as
@4pm states, but asking do people know of cases where a rebranding say increased number of offers by 25%. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments. They demonstrate that I am still struggling to get across the personal brand I have and want to establish. More work required.
Bob
