question Adding years to boost sales

[ruudbrowens]

How important is the expiration date in regards to buyers´motivation to grab a name?

From my pov if a good name is expiring in 15 years than the buyer is of course aware of it
that he can´t speculate on a drop soon.

So, grabbing till 2100 or what?

Your opinions please..

 

[ruudbrowens]

The only long regged domains I own are some new gtlds where the registry have offered steep discounts for long registration periods, plus a handful of domains which are not for sale. I have NEVER discussed either the date of registration or the date of expiry for ANY domain inquiry. I think the date of registration is pretty meaningless, and the date of expiry is basically not significant to affect the price.

So you rather renew and renew if you don´t get a sale within a year right? I mean your names for sale only, that you believe in, to get a good sale one day.

Btw, I too would never "discuss" registration or expiration dates, since it´s not "discutable"^^
It could be simply a methode to create extra pressure on a buyer, that´s why it´s quite interesting which importance it has according to successfull sellers.

And last but not least, I guess if we talk about premiums, most are grabbed like 20+ years ago and transferred again and again, but the creation date is still the old one, so there is no need to "discuss" anything. But most of folks don´t have urgently premiums to sell, if they would have, the question about "expiration date pressure" would be completely obsolete.

 

[scithe]

I read stories all the time about domains being bought on Afternic right before and after they renew. So I guess the question is, when was that buyer first looking at the name. I haven't heard anyone mentioning any tools that show major price drops on domains. So I guess someone has to make note of when yourname.com expires and remembers to check a few weeks before the name is set to expire and snag your newly discounted name. And then if you renew for another year, they just decide to pay retail...so perhaps if right off the bat, your domain was registered for 3 years, they'd pay retail sooner instead of waiting for you to renew that first round?

You could calculate which percent of your sales happen right around your renewal date and if it seems like thats when you make the most BIN sales, then maybe it would help.

I've registered a few names for multiple years because I felt pretty strongly about them. I'll even do it for a $.99 xyz domain where I'll pay $6.99 for 2 years at Dynadot right off the bat because I'm cool to hold it and whether I turn $.99 into $300-1k or $6.99 into $300-1k, it's not a big part of my bottom line. But then again, I've done that for maybe a dozen domains at most. With 500-600, I can see how that would greatly increase your costs.

 

[william]

If we were to assume that the potential buyer is educated enough to check expiration date, yet uneducated enough to know that the name goes through a lengthy process before it's actually available for registration - then it is possible that expiration date could have some influence on their decision process. From my own past experience as a buyer, I can say that this type of thinking only applied to names that were expiring within that month or two. I'd assume most businesses want the name now, not months later. So if they're in that sweet spot of knowledge, and your domain is expiring within a month or two, it would be advantageous to renew it. But without being in the buyer's shoes or doing some real experiments, it's impossible to know. None the less, an interesting detail to bring to light. Thanks

 

[King]

If they are checking the expiration date and hoping it drops, they probably aren't willing to pay a high amount anyway. So unless you are selling domains for a few hundred dollars I don't think it will affect a serious buyer's decision as they would want to take the domain ASAP.

 

[poweredbyme]

I try to keep expirations 1+ year ahead. In my opinion something between 18 and 36 months is the optimum. Approx. 2 years is a long time to wait for most of the potential buyers. Waiting is not the only one point, it's also a sign of the value. If the domain is crap, its owner wouldn't invest in its renewals.

 

[lock]

Add a year or two on every enquiry. The longer the expiry the less likely they feel to wait you out.

 

[ruudbrowens]

Approx. 2 years is a long time to wait for most of the potential buyers

Makes sense. A new brand needs a best matched brand name when it kick-offs, and not in 2 years. Experienced 2-word .com or good .io hunters also don´t wait 2-3 years and look if something´s dropped. We also shouldn´t forget within the discussion, If it´s a good name, then the buyer knows it, and the buyer knows that the seller knows it too. If not, there won´t be a deal anyway. And by all means, who drops "good names"? probably dead people who couldn´t renew, or noobs dropping unknowingly. And who grabs "good names"? potential sellers with some knowledge. Hence, I tend to agree, 2-3 years could be quite a good base for good and saleable names. Then looking how´s the market doing and renewing those we have still faith in.

And if it´s a premium?
Could be a strong signal to the buyer in regards to the end price. Your tought?

 

[ruudbrowens]

Add a year or two on every enquiry. The longer the expiry the less likely they feel to wait you out.

Many years ago, I was waiting in abmush on expired names at 4-5 timeframes a day, you know each
tld has it´s own daily droping-times. What can I say? one thought was an eventual dead of a domainer
who didn´t renew a gold name XD Yes, yes, I was wicked! but let´s be clear, also very naive.
Nobody drops good names and nobody drops any names without a reason, and no domainer dies with a
great folio on hand (if, than mostly with a poor one. So "waiting out" doesn´t work all along.
Only for poor names.

 

[frostify]

I think having a domain reg'd at least 2-3 years out is the best way to go about it, the new owner can always add years later. The name itself is 1000x more important than how much renewal time is left on it.

 

[lock]

Many years ago, I was waiting in abmush on expired names at 4-5 timeframes a day, you know each
tld has it´s own daily droping-times. What can I say? one thought was an eventual dead of a domainer
who didn´t renew a gold name XD Yes, yes, I was wicked! but let´s be clear, also very naive.
Nobody drops good names and nobody drops any names without a reason, and no domainer dies with a
great folio on hand (if, than mostly with a poor one. So "waiting out" doesn´t work all along.
Only for poor names.

This week waited out and registered webmasterexpo and the name before webmasterevents.

 

[ruudbrowens]

This week waited out and registered webmasterexpo and the name before webmasterevents.

I mean the real good names hence the LLL ^^

 

[william]

On the other side of this, is that renewing names for extra 1-2 years on a large portfolio (let's say 1,000 names) can be an additional cost of $8,000 - $20,000. Unless all those 1,000 names are keepers that you plan on keeping until the day you die, you may be throwing out some of this money. You may sell this name to another seller, you may drop them, you may sell them. In each of the instances you are unlikely to make this money back. So by renewing them just "in case" that the buyer may check whois and may want to wait, you are guaranteed to lose money. On the other hand, you are not guaranteed to make this money by adding 1 or 100 years to your domain.

 

[poweredbyme]

Makes sense. A new brand needs a best matched brand name when it kick-offs, and not in 2 years. Experienced 2-word .com or good .io hunters also don´t wait 2-3 years and look if something´s dropped. We also shouldn´t forget within the discussion, If it´s a good name, then the buyer knows it, and the buyer knows that the seller knows it too. If not, there won´t be a deal anyway. And by all means, who drops "good names"? probably dead people who couldn´t renew, or noobs dropping unknowingly. And who grabs "good names"? potential sellers with some knowledge. Hence, I tend to agree, 2-3 years could be quite a good base for good and saleable names. Then looking how´s the market doing and renewing those we have still faith in.

And if it´s a premium?
Could be a strong signal to the buyer in regards to the end price. Your tought?

If it's premium I would renew for 10 years ahead which is the max allowed period. Currently 10 yr renewal will cost around only $100 or less. Whether the domain is worth $100 investment or not, is a good sign of its quality in the eyes of its owner. Expiration date is a good sign of quality but it's not perfectly reliable. However it's highly reliable and useful for estimating hidden asking price, in case the domain is listed without BIN price and negotiations are inevitable.

For example, assume you are interested to buy a domain with no price. One of the first things should be checking its expiration date before making an offer. Assume you made an offer and you received a counter offer or your offer got rejected. In such a situation, expiration date will be very helpful to determine how to react to possible counter offers and rejections.