tips Afternic pricing for domain clearances: $0 - $299 range. How to get most of your xxx range sales.

[twiki]

I've been clearing a lot of domains lately, trimming some of the fat out.

This gave me the idea to suggest other NP members some pricing points for clearance domains, or low xxx range domains, based on my experience.

There are two definite winners: $199 and $75.

Now let's see how all these worked out.

First off, when time goes by and your domains get to the last 1-2 months or so, now it's the time to either renew and keep the price up, or to set clearance prices.

Unfortunately for me things like NameLiquidate didn't work. But I got great results from tweaking Afternic pricing for discounting domains. (Side note I'm selling .coms so this might not work the same for another tld, just test.) So maybe you want to follow this pricing guide instead.

Here is what to do with your .coms BIN prices, to clear out faster and for more:

1) $299 BIN is the absolute top level when clearing domains to go. I'd use this price only for domains with definite value but which you want to clear for whatever reason (such as trimming down the portfolio). I use $299 with $150 as minimum.

2) $199 BIN is the definite winner. If you have domains with retail price below 1K or with lower demand, but still clearly valuable, this is the price point that brought me most bang for the buck. Use $100 as min offer, not less.

3) $149 never worked for me = not recommended. I only made a sale in this price point.

4) $100 is a whole lot of discussion.

I always get this from people when I have anything in the $99 - $199 range, they always like to bid $100. I call this type of buyer the fixed $100 lowballer. Fixed because they have a set mind, they pay $100 and never more. If you try to up them, they get aggravated and leave (also get awaken from their impulse buy).

So if you get an $100 make offer, if it's good for you, TAKE IT. Don't try to negotiate, it never works, and you'll likely scare them off. (again I'm doing .coms so it might be different for other tlds)

5) $99 is a very good option for certain domains that aren't worth more then that. I saw this selling far better than $100. Never use $100 as BIN; always use $99 instead. Since money in clearing domains is highly influenced by conversion ratio, the $99 choice is obvious.

6) $75 is another great pricing level. My second favorite clearance price, actually. I use this for the lower value domains, ones that I might not clear fast for $99.

Here is the deal with it, it's all psychological.

$50 is a terrible price point as it brings very few sales, as buyers see the domain as being rubbish and the price actually influences their perception. $99 is sometimes too high for buyers, especially those who want to resell it later. $75 is in the middle and it suggests value while it still seems affordable. It's balanced.

At this price point you normally find mostly crap on GD and Afternic, so if you have a rather decent domain for this price level, the chance is you're going to flip it before it expires.

7) $50 = again this is the worst choice, I do not recommend it. Not only you make very little money, it also casts a bad light on your domain's value; and it is actually much worse than $75. Use it only if your domain is definitely bad, and never going to be sold for more than this, if at all.

Now with the above price points, especially $199 and $75, I got thousands $ from my clearances and made the whole expiring lot profitable - as they paid for themselves so I just let the others expire. Any other strategy has brought me less than $200 for a lot of effort, while i made such only by selling one domain at $199, using the above pricing insight.

Good luck with your sales, and use these pricing points! And please share your experience as well.

 

[twiki]

One more thing (update), these days I've repriced everything and listed with Afternic based on the above strategy.

Since then (about a week or more), I'm getting about 2 x $75 sales per day, one $199 or $99 each other day. It runs very well and I'm getting in profit with the clearance so everything else sold retail gets to be 100% profit.

 

[twiki]

tnx but these are way above avg results imo that most can only dream of non scrappy names...I must be dropping above avg names. which begs the question..well..maybe u should be renewing them... if they get 100$ interest then they should get more money too. imo

I've had the same results. It's called "A race to the bottom". Aggressive pricing gives you market share at the expense of cutting the throat of your competition.

Since there are only so many buyers in a given period, whoever prices lower will have more attention.

I believe prices are very distorted and a lot of sellers are enjoying the bubble.

But if we keep pushing prices down, the market might become more rational and stop overpaying $XXXXX for names that have decent alternatives in $XX range.

Some valid points here, but let me explain. A race to the bottom is not what I was suggesting.

All my keeper domains are priced above 1k. Even those that naysayers would say they're worth peanuts, such as a .net or .co or whatever. If a domain is worth 1k+, I don't let it expire. I renew it. I also renew domains that are worth perhaps a few hundreds, BUT the chance to sell is very high. Ones that I know they will definitely sell within the next 1-2 years albeit for a lower price. If you are sure a domain will sell in the next couple years, even in the hundreds, dropping it is absurd.

Okay. Now what I am personally clearing are domains like these:

1. Lowever value domains, that I bought for tests. I call this my discovery layer. Such as an .info, a blue collar domain, all sorts of things to test various niches I'm not entirely familiar with. These domains were not supposed to be sold at xxxx range anyway. (note, I never made losses with these overall). Newbie domains fit this point as well.
   
2. Bad ones. Domains that I discovered have a flaw and worth much less, registered perhaps in haste.
3. Low demand ones. Domains that have value but I discovered demand is too low and I risk renewing them for too long and never selling, perhaps. These amount for losses so it makes sense to cut your losses.

These domains were never supposed to be sold for say 2k+. They might be good for a few hundreds though, but I'm accelerating the sale with a well thought pricing strategy.

Who said it's a race to the bottom? These are actually sold as they should be sold, nearby range, just faster. They won't push down the market. With value normal domains I do not recommend this. Yesterday for example I declined $500 offers for a couple $1.5k domains. Others maybe have taken that. I wont - my min price is for us to get introduced, not the price I intend to sell at.

So don't race to the bottom please. Thank you.

 

[twiki]

Afternic needs to update their platform which hasn't changed in more than a decade. It is NOT user friendly.

Making mass price changes for dozens of domains at the same price level say from $750 to $599 or $500 to $349 is not possible. One has to manually go through their portfolio page by page and find each domain they want to change and change it individually (or possibly 2-3 on the same page). If one could sort domains by price, pricing updates would be much easier. I have suggested this before and do not understand why it is so difficult to implement.

You can do this easily via export and import of domain list. It is found under the "Add domains" on the right.

Can be edited in Excel or you can write your own tools if you want. I use Excel and it's quite fast.

Edit: Make sure you use the 'reconcile' option when uploading your domain list, otherwise it does not update prices.

 

[twiki]

WARNING: DON'T UNDERSELL YOURSELF EARLY!!

I've seen several domainers who got the wrong ideas after reading this post. They have just started selling their domains early, and low. This is bad, don't do it!

This post is a strategy for CLEARANCE revenue, not a profitable everyday sales strategy. On the contrary!

Not only you're leaving money on the table, you also drag the whole market down by selling low.

The buyers are just waiting for this and salivating already. No. Have them pay the full price.

A business pays way more for their garbage or electricity than they'd want to pay for their domains. One month wage for a single employee is far more than they want to pay for a .com domain.

We have to stand by our pricing which is already dragged WAY TOO DOWN by newbie domainers who don't know what they are doing and selling their domain for snack money.

It is to be used only as a last resort.

 

[twiki]

This is pretty solid. I was thinking of other ways to make some decent money off of the domains I plan to let go instead of turning to Dropcatch.

I use NameLiquidate, but something tells me that this is way more profitable. Do you promote your clearance as well or you just set it and forget it?

Set and forget. Don't have time for promotion.

However I drive my domain traffic to Afternic sales pages (similar to ns3/ns4 but you also see the bin/make offer boxes). Have a custom lander and buy button sends them to Afternic. So this parking is the only promotion I do. (Example here)

However I adjust prices like once per month. As expiring time comes closer, I decrease certain prices and yes they do sell after that.

Edit: You can also park with Dan if you want (or Epik etc) but make sure you list on Afternic with above pricing points.

 

[twiki]

This does not apply to all names

Obviously, haven't said it does. There isn't a one size fits all in most fields.

It is however, a strategy to be tried out i similar conditions as described. [ Edit: to be more specific, I sell only 2-word .coms made out of 1) niche word, and 2) quality/location/action word ]

 

[alcy]

One more thing (update), these days I've repriced everything and listed with Afternic based on the above strategy.

Since then (about a week or more), I'm getting about 2 x $75 sales per day, one $199 or $99 each other day. It runs very well and I'm getting in profit with the clearance so everything else sold retail gets to be 100% profit.

tnx but these are way above avg results imo that most can only dream of non scrappy names...I must be dropping above avg names. which begs the question..well..maybe u should be renewing them... if they get 100$ interest then they should get more money too. imo

 

[twiki]

Nice!

Have you thought about renewing some of them for another year just to see if they clear with some of your better domain names that you decide to try out or just leave it alone?

Sure, but I'm getting far better domains lately and I don't want to stretch more, already at 4k domains. Some are just being let go and I'm getting newer ones, better and often at discount. So it makes sense.

I renew some, but the ones worth keeping for several years.

 

[twiki]

Regarding point 6. What do you put for your minum offer for the $75 DNs? Do you make $75 min offer and $99 BIN? I'm not sure if there's a way to leave out the min offer on listings! Thanks!

I'm using $75 BIN with $50 min offer. Sometimes min offer is used, but most times they pay $75 straight off.

 

[twiki]

Thank you : )

Never thank on the forum, use the "Thank" feature under the comment. In this way you don't clutter it with thanks, and the one that you liked gets a like point.

 

[Zarkoza]

Afternic needs to update their platform which hasn't changed in more than a decade. It is NOT user friendly.

Making mass price changes for dozens of domains at the same price level say from $750 to $599 or $500 to $349 is not possible. One has to manually go through their portfolio page by page and find each domain they want to change and change it individually (or possibly 2-3 on the same page). If one could sort domains by price, pricing updates would be much easier. I have suggested this before and do not understand why it is so difficult to implement.

You can mass price on Afternic. Set your Domains Per Page to 50. Then Checkmark Select all, then you'll see in the grey Buy Now section you can put any price you want and it will add it to all your domains. Hit save and you're good to go.

 

[twiki]

Thanks @twiki
Have you checked who is picking them up? End users or other domainers? How many domains you are currently listing at the mentioned price points? Do you think 299 would work as well?

From what I have seen, end users.

How many I list: Unimportant, what counts is your overall domain quality. But for your curiosity I have about 1k+ domains in clearance currently (lots of different bits of things). This is why I'm getting like a sale per day or each 2 days or so (varies).

If you have say 100+ domains and they have definite value (even if in the lower xxx range), pricing correctly might accelerate them selling before renewal time.

Edit: Domainers will probably pay like $50 or something, but I haven't got that or haven't observed.

 

[twiki]

Thanks Twiki!

Have you thought of $199 BIN and $75 MIN?

Or even BIN $199, Reserve $99, and $75 MIN?

I dont' use reserve, but I am currently using $199 with $75 min as a blanket clearance setting in order to save time with setting individual prices for clearance domains.

Still, if you are able to set prices exactly as I suggested, you will get better results than this. A $75 bin has a much faster sale than someone making offer of $75. Most buyers don't make offers like that so you're losing money on the table.

 

[garptrader]

Afternic needs to update their platform which hasn't changed in more than a decade. It is NOT user friendly.

Making mass price changes for dozens of domains at the same price level say from $750 to $599 or $500 to $349 is not possible. One has to manually go through their portfolio page by page and find each domain they want to change and change it individually (or possibly 2-3 on the same page). If one could sort domains by price, pricing updates would be much easier. I have suggested this before and do not understand why it is so difficult to implement.

 

[Zarkoza]

I dont' use reserve, but I am currently using $199 with $75 min as a blanket clearance setting in order to save time with setting individual prices for clearance domains.

Still, if you are able to set prices exactly as I suggested, you will get better results than this. A $75 bin has a much faster sale than someone making offer of $75. Most buyers don't make offers like that so you're losing money on the table.

Thank you : )

 

[twiki]

You can mass price on Afternic. Set your Domains Per Page to 50. Then Checkmark Select all, then you'll see in the grey Buy Now section you can put any price you want and it will add it to all your domains. Hit save and you're good to go. Show attachment 171306

If you have more than 50 listed it's not feasible anymore. I have a few thousands.

Fortunately you can fast Excel the list of domains, sort, copy-paste prices and upload back. Takes minutes for the whole list.

 

[freety85]

Some valid points here, but let me explain. A race to the bottom is not what I was suggesting.

All my keeper domains are priced above 1k. Even those that naysayers would say they're worth peanuts, such as a .net or .co or whatever. If a domain is worth 1k+, I don't let it expire. I renew it. I also renew domains that are worth perhaps a few hundreds, BUT the chance to sell is very high. Ones that I know they will definitely sell within the next 1-2 years albeit for a lower price. If you are sure a domain will sell in the next couple years, even in the hundreds, dropping it is absurd.

Okay. Now what I am personally clearing are domains like these:

1. Lowever value domains, that I bought for tests. I call this my discovery layer. Such as an .info, a blue collar domain, all sorts of things to test various niches I'm not entirely familiar with. These domains were not supposed to be sold at xxxx range anyway. (note, I never made losses with these overall). Newbie domains fit this point as well.
   
2. Bad ones. Domains that I discovered have a flaw and worth much less, registered perhaps in haste.
3. Low demand ones. Domains that have value but I discovered demand is too low and I risk renewing them for too long and never selling, perhaps. These amount for losses so it makes sense to cut your losses.

These domains were never supposed to be sold for say 2k+. They might be good for a few hundreds though, but I'm accelerating the sale with a well thought pricing strategy.

Who said it's a race to the bottom? These are actually sold as they should be sold, nearby range, just faster. They won't push down the market. With value normal domains I do not recommend this. Yesterday for example I declined $500 offers for a couple $1.5k domains. Others maybe have taken that. I wont - my min price is for us to get introduced, not the price I intend to sell at.

So don't race to the bottom please. Thank you.

Thanks @twiki for sharing your experience.
You said you liquidate bad names, lower value names and the low demand ones/not trendy.

Have you checked who is picking them up? End users or other domainers? How many domains you are currently listing at the mentioned price points? Do you think 299 would work as well?

 

[twiki]

Cannot edit my post, I see your comment regarding 299 range

$299 is recommended more for actual sales of xxx range than clearance. Chances are better to sell 2 domains at $199 against just 1 at $199 in my experience.

But it is an option still.

 

[Zarkoza]

When you're going to pass 1000 domains, trust me, it's no longer going to be an option.

Alright, I believe you! I don't know if I want to go so far as to buy over a thousand domains, but who knows, if I start making sales, I definitely do intend to invest some of the money I make back into more quality domains. I think I might look into posting up my portfolio here on NamePros as well at some point.

Thanks as always Twiki! You've been great help!

 

[gericsb]

I've been clearing a lot of domains lately, trimming some of the fat out.

This gave me the idea to suggest other NP members some pricing points for clearance domains, or low xxx range domains, based on my experience.

There are two definite winners: $199 and $75.

Now let's see how all these worked out.

First off, when time goes by and your domains get to the last 1-2 months or so, now it's the time to either renew and keep the price up, or to set clearance prices.

Unfortunately for me things like NameLiquidate didn't work. But I got great results from tweaking Afternic pricing for discounting domains. (Side note I'm selling .coms so this might not work the same for another tld, just test.) So maybe you want to follow this pricing guide instead.

Here is what to do with your .coms BIN prices, to clear out faster and for more:

1) $299 BIN is the absolute top level when clearing domains to go. I'd use this price only for domains with definite value but which you want to clear for whatever reason (such as trimming down the portfolio). I use $299 with $150 as minimum.

2) $199 BIN is the definite winner. If you have domains with retail price below 1K or with lower demand, but still clearly valuable, this is the price point that brought me most bang for the buck. Use $100 as min offer, not less.

3) $149 never worked for me = not recommended. I only made a sale in this price point.

4) $100 is a whole lot of discussion.

I always get this from people when I have anything in the $99 - $199 range, they always like to bid $100. I call this type of buyer the fixed $100 lowballer. Fixed because they have a set mind, they pay $100 and never more. If you try to up them, they get aggravated and leave (also get awaken from their impulse buy).

So if you get an $100 make offer, if it's good for you, TAKE IT. Don't try to negotiate, it never works, and you'll likely scare them off. (again I'm doing .coms so it might be different for other tlds)

5) $99 is a very good option for certain domains that aren't worth more then that. I saw this selling far better than $100. Never use $100 as BIN; always use $99 instead. Since money in clearing domains is highly influenced by conversion ratio, the $99 choice is obvious.

6) $75 is another great pricing level. My second favorite clearance price, actually. I use this for the lower value domains, ones that I might not clear fast for $99.

Here is the deal with it, it's all psychological.

$50 is a terrible price point as it brings very few sales, as buyers see the domain as being rubbish and the price actually influences their perception. $99 is sometimes too high for buyers, especially those who want to resell it later. $75 is in the middle and it suggests value while it still seems affordable. It's balanced.

At this price point you normally find mostly crap on GD and Afternic, so if you have a rather decent domain for this price level, the chance is you're going to flip it before it expires.

7) $50 = again this is the worst choice, I do not recommend it. Not only you make very little money, it also casts a bad light on your domain's value; and it is actually much worse than $75. Use it only if your domain is definitely bad, and never going to be sold for more than this, if at all.

Now with the above price points, especially $199 and $75, I got thousands $ from my clearances and made the whole expiring lot profitable - as they paid for themselves so I just let the others expire. Any other strategy has brought me less than $200 for a lot of effort, while i made such only by selling one domain at $199, using the above pricing insight.

Good luck with your sales, and use these pricing points! And please share your experience as well.

Thank you for this!!

The psychology of pricing and sales is such an interesting subject area.

I will keep these levels in mind for future reference.

 

[KTC]

This is pretty solid. I was thinking of other ways to make some decent money off of the domains I plan to let go instead of turning to Dropcatch.

I use NameLiquidate, but something tells me that this is way more profitable. Do you promote your clearance as well or you just set it and forget it?

 

[AboGamil]

This does not apply to all names

 

[AboGamil]

Obviously, haven't said it does. There isn't a one size fits all in most fields.

It is however, a strategy to be tried out i similar conditions as described. [ Edit: to be more specific, I sell only 2-word .coms made out of 1) niche word, and 2) quality/location/action word ]

good step

 

[KTC]

One more thing (update), these days I've repriced everything and listed with Afternic based on the above strategy.

Since then (about a week or more), I'm getting about 2 x $75 sales per day, one $199 or $99 each other day. It runs very well and I'm getting in profit with the clearance so everything else sold retail gets to be 100% profit.

Nice!

Have you thought about renewing some of them for another year just to see if they clear with some of your better domain names that you decide to try out or just leave it alone?