[Case Study] Selling MedicalMarijuana.nl (Follow Along With Me)

[Pierre Barnard]

Hi guys,

Last week I started a poll here on NamePros asking where I should list the domain MedicalMarijuana.nl on auction. Here is the link to that thread and a summary of the poll results:

Original Poll Thread

As 53.8% of voters was in favour of listing on Sedo, I decided, why not do a follow-along as it could benefit all forum members.

1. Objectives for this Follow-Along (Case Study) includes:

- Gain insights into Sedo Auctions. (I never listed a domain on Sedo before)
- Give back to the domaining community, as I really learnt alot from you.
- Try to make a little profit.
- Have some FUN!

2. Domain Statistics:

Name: MedicalMarijuana.nl
Category: Health -- Drugs and Medications

Estibot Valuation: $60 USD
Sedo Valuation: 2758 EUR (approx $3013 USD)

Other Extensions: All majors taken.

Broad Match Monthly Searches: 827,790
Cost Per Click: $2.06 USD

Exact Match Monthly Searches: 40,713
Cost Per Click: $0.10 USD

Registrar: GoDaddy
First Registration Date: 2013/07/08
Expiry Date: 2017/09/27


3. General

@CJ6 pointed out that Nine US states will vote for or against permitting recreational or medical use of marijuana on 8 Nov. 2016. I think the best time might be to start the auction before the voting as there might be a sense of anticipation, which could possibly increase the interest. Or not

I will attempt to post daily feedback to this thread as things progress.

Please let me know if you have any more information regarding the domain, so we can provide as much accurate information as possible.

Hope most of you find some value with this case study!

 

[deez007]

Cool thread dude....

Will be keeping an eye on it

 

[Pierre Barnard]

Thanks @deez007

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 1

So I scheduled the auction on Sedo which was quick and painless. It seems all "Direct Ordered" Auctions are for 7 days and costs 59 USD/GBP/EUR.

Decisions Made:

1. I opted for the EUR currency option as the domain is a European ccTLD.
2. I asked for the auction to start Today at 16:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time), because I wanted it to end in the afternoon (in Europe), midweek if possible (something I learnt from Flippa stats).
3. I tried to write a useful Offer Description, but not too long to be boring. I should probably have put more "stats" like searches etc, will see if I can edit it later.
4. I opted for a 150 EUR Reserve. No specific reason.

Donation Decision:

A few days ago, I read a thread about a old member having some financial problems and about to lose his house. That was before my time here, but I believe us domainers should stick together and besides, I know how it feels to have no money and still support your family. SO, I decided to donate 15% of whatever is raised above 100 EUR to this individual. If someone can please provide me with the thread link.

I need your Help:

Here is the Auction Link:
https://sedo.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=e&trackingRequestId=&trackingOrigin=&auction_id=212315&origin=&tracked=null&language=e#TB_inline?height=600&width=400&inlineId=descriptionbox

Please share everywhere you can and I will do the same for your auctions, just PM me with the links. I have a dedicated Twitter channel with atleast 400 domain related followers (its not a Whole lot, but I'm getting there).
I really want this expirement to succeed.

Thanks guys!

 

[skyz21]

Best of luck with the sale man!

 

[SamQuino]

Nice project... Pls keep me posted... thanks and good luck!

 

[Pierre Barnard]

Thanks @skyz21 and @SamQuino

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 2

Hi guys, so we are on Day 2.

Current Bid: 0
Estimated Time Left: 6 days 1 hours 47 min
Visitors: 135

I don't think it is going to bad based on the number of visitors so far.

What I miss from the Sedo Auction format is the ability to see "Auction Watchers" as on Flippa. Although the number of watchers do not always relate to bids (or a sale), it gives an indication of the auction interest.

Competition Alert

I am giving away a free domain as part of this case study. Please see thread link below for your change to win it!

Competition Link

See you on Day 3...

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 3

Hi guys, so we are on Day 3.

To be honest, not much has changed, except a few more visitors. I am advertising currently on my Twitter Channel, but I doubt if too many people are actually seeing it. At least I am up to just over 500 followers.

Current Bid: 0
Estimated Time Left: 5 days 3 hours 20 min
Visitors: 204

Competition Alert

I am giving away a free domain as part of this case study. Please see thread link below for your change to win it!

Competition Link

See you on Day 4...

 

[Nappy Bunch]

@Pierre Barnard have you done any outbound marketing (apart from twitter) to promote the domain auction? To reach the best price you have to reach out to people who would have an interest in owning the domain name.

Google 'Medical Marijuana Netherlands' to see some of the company's that may be interested in owning it and reach out to let them know about the auction.

If only domainers know about the auction it wont reach a decent price or may not sell at all. You NEED end users.

 

[Pierre Barnard]

@Nappy Bunch Thank you. I haven't, but I will start this actively and hopefully have emails in their inboxes by Monday morning.

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 4 and 5

Hi guys, not much happening right now, so I am combining days 4 and 5.

I have started contacting end-users as mentioned by @Nappy Bunch. Let's hope there is some interest.

Current Bid: 0
Estimated Time Left: 3 days 7 hours 36 min.
Visitors: 279

Competition Alert

I am giving away a free domain as part of this case study. Please see thread link below for your change to win it!

Competition Link

See you on Day 6...

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 6

Hi guys, received few more visitors to the auction but no bids yet.

I was hoping to have at least received one bid so far, hopefully this will still happen.

I have contacted some more end users via email and continue to post on Twitter and FB.

Current Bid: 0
Estimated Time Left: 1 day 15 hours 43 min..
Visitors: 370

Observations

I have noticed the following differences from Flippa auction listings:

- Cannot see "auction watchers", only visitors.
- Cannot edit Auction Description, .
- Cannot edit Reserve Price (even if no bids received yet).
- Cannot add Comments to auction.

I am really hoping to receive my first bid soon.

Competition Link

See you on Day 7...

 

[Pierre Barnard]

DAY 7

Final Day, unfortunately not much has changed. Of all the end-users I contacted, only one replied with "No, thank you".

Current Bid: 0
Estimated Time Left: 0 days 18 hours 20 min.
Visitors: 523

Still holding out for a last hour bid.

See you for the Follow-Along Conclusion tomorrow.

 

[Pierre Barnard]

CONCLUSION

Although I hoped for a last minute bid, the auction ended unsold.

Reserve price not met – Domain didn’t sell. Visitors: Just over 700 when I last checked.

Observations
- I am fairly certain that the name itself is a popular phrase and could potentially sell if it was another TLD.
- At this point I am not sure whether lack of marketing, the NL extension, the marketplace, or a combination of these factors are to blame for the non-sale. I guess time will tell.
- It seems at this point that waiting for an offer for your domain on Sedo (when parked), and then able to auto-push to auction might be the better way to go.

Lessons Learnt
- Start earlier with end-user investigation and E-mail possible buyers from day one.
- List better domains

I could not make a donation to the forum member in need, but will try other fund raising avenues.

Thanks to all who contributed and shared there knowledge in this thread.

Thanks for following along. I hope to do another follow-along soon, this time hopefully more successful!

 

[tvanrijt]

Hi there,

This is a bit "captain hindsight" so sorry for that, but I am Dutch so I thought I would give my 2 cents.

Since we have very loose Marijuana rules around here, there is no real hype around "Medicinal Marijuana" in the Netherlands (.nl). I don't even know if we have such a thing.

I think the keywords are strong, but because of the above are a mismatch with the extension, and therefore hard to sell.

I could be wrong, but that's just my view on it.

Good luck with the domain!

Btw: there is a weekly auction on Catawiki, an auction site with predominantly Dutch domains. You might wanna check that out and contact them to see how they would value the domain. This might get more Dutch viewers.

 

[Omar Negron]

Thanks for the case study in regards to selling on Sedo.

I wrote up a brief blog post as to why selling on Flippa has it's benefits. The link is in my sig.

Thanks for the write up and details!

-Omar

 

[Pierre Barnard]

@tvanrijt Thank you very much for taking time to explain in detail. I believe you are 100% correct. Name and TLD mismatch seems to be the main problem here. Will check out Catawiki thanks. I will definitely consult you in future before listing a .nl domain again!

 

[Pierre Barnard]

Thanks @Omar Negron , I will be sure to check out your blog post.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

interesting thread. Thanks for sharing, and all the info