discuss Do You Run Your Own Domain Portfolio Website?

[DanBingham]

If so -

Is it working for you?
What are the benefits?
Did you DIY?

If not,

Why?

Interested to know your thoughts....

 

[Josytal]

If so -
Is it working for you?
What are the benefits?
Did you DIY?
If not,
Why?
Interested to know your thoughts....

Yes, not only have I been running my own marketplace for two years, but also developed a stunning software for myself and for others to do so.

Benefits.
I can write a whole book on this, but let me just pinpoint most important benefits. All based on first-hand experience. Not hearsay.

1. You get more organized.
2. Additional, indispensable business management experience
3. Improved negotiation skill
4.
5.
6.
7.

 

[DanBingham]

also developed a stunning software for myself and for others to do so.

Looks good!

 

[Name Trader]

Most buyers prefer to pay 25% more and buy the domain from Afteric/GoDaddy. So the website provides a showcase only for 99% of the time. It doesn't pay for itself, unless somebody sees a domain available and buys it at Afternic/GoDaddy (which I wouldn't know about). They pay the 25% more to remain anonymous, and to have the "security" of buying from a large recognized company. I've had buyers refuse to pay my asking price, but when the negotiations go sour, I put the domain on Afternic at twice my asking price, and they go right ahead and buy the domain at twice the price. Go figure.

Your own website is just one more tool in your sales arsenal.

 

[Josytal]

Looks good!

Thanks.
Unfortunately I couldn't finish listing my points above. 30 minutes elapsed and was booted out.
Too bad!

 

[EZPZYO]

If so -

Is it working for you?
What are the benefits?
Did you DIY?

If not,

Why?

Interested to know your thoughts....

Is it working for you? YES
What are the benefits?

• Visibility/Publicity/Backlinks
• Better oppertunities to learn & earn
• Open Communication, with no middle man involvement. Establish rapport with buyer(s) learn about their industry and future plans.
• Traffic sources/stats for pricing strategies.

Did you DIY? YES

If not,

Why? N/A

 

[Josytal]

Most buyers prefer to pay 25% more and buy the domain from Afteric/GoDaddy. So the website provides a showcase only for 99% of the time. It doesn't pay for itself, unless somebody sees a domain available and buys it at Afternic/GoDaddy (which I wouldn't know about). They pay the 25% more to remain anonymous, and to have the "security" of buying from a large recognized company. I've had buyers refuse to pay my asking price, but when the negotiations go sour, I put the domain on Afternic at twice my asking price, and they go right ahead and buy the domain at twice the price. Go figure.

Your own website is just one more tool in your sales arsenal.

Augmenting the efforts of your partners to close deals is also a benefit. I say partners, because when you list your domains for sale on third-party marketplace(s), you're entering into mutually beneficial partnership agreement.

It's possible, but for your website, those buyers who later go to your partners to facilitate purchase would not have known about your domain in the first place. Unknowingly to you, your domain landing page might have served as the first POS (point of sale) with full information about the domain generously presented. You can call it exposure, if you like.

P.S.
You should be able to implement simple codes to gather metrics on outgoing visitors from your domain landing page: traffic source, country, time spent on the page, next destination, etc.

 

[Josytal]

Looks good!

You can learn more about it here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/your-own-marketplace.1113102/#post-7008512

 

[Name Trader]

Benefits.
I can write a whole book on this, but let me just pinpoint most important benefits. All based on first-hand experience. Not hearsay.

1. You get more organized.
2. Additional, indispensable business management experience
3. Improved negotiation skill
4.
5.
6.
7.

I agree with@Josytal with the first 3. It would be interesting to see his full list. I don't use a spreadsheet anymore (although it holds more data). I use my website to manage my domains.

@DefinitelyDomains - Yes, I did DIY.

 

[Domain Redux]

Interesting thread and glad I found this!

I started seriously looking into domaining as a way to make some secondary income aside from my day job as a web designer and developer back in June. As a beginner (and still consider myself to be), I bought up a little over a dozen of the newly introduced .dev extensions back in March and have currently only managed to make one sale from that group. That definitely wasn't the best decision in hindsight as .com is most desirable. I will say that the sale was for a small profit, but nonetheless a sale which was exciting! And honestly, I thought it was kind of a joke domain name (as well as being .dev), but somebody found value and turns out they are also developing it—pretty neat! I hope their venture turns successful.

Since then, I've done my research and asked around for advice. A lot of people suggested creating my own space that allows me to control my own content rather than being restricted by an established marketplace (e.g. DAN, GoDaddy, Afternic, Uniregistry, etc.). As a result, I launched DomainRedux.com back in mid-late July.

Domain Redux is still in its infancy, so it's hard to tell what the outlook will be. DR gains small traffic through direct searches, organic searches, referrals and social media (feel free to follow me on Twitter), but hasn't managed to break its first sale yet. I've also listed my domains across a handful of different marketplaces, but if the URL is searched, the user will be redirected to a specific sales lander for that domain on my marketplace. I've only allowed the user the option to purchase via Escrow if the domain hasn't been approved via Squadhelp. I'm concerned that it's due to DR not being an established, reputable vendor or because I only have Escrow as the sole option.

I'm wondering if I should revert to Afternic since the majority of my domains are available for fast transfer and because Afternic is recognized as a reputable marketplace. Feel free to chime in if you've found more luck by redirecting to an established vendor.

I understand that domaining is most times a marathon and a game of patience, but for those of you that have been playing for a long time, maybe you can shed some insight on your experience.

Thanks and best of luck to all of you!

 

[Kpett]

I've run Domain Direct Services for about 3 years now. I created the website through Wordpress and have made many sales. I still get too many tire kickers offering WAY below market value for great domains ... but I've also had some that have started with a way-low offer and come up quite a bit to an acceptable deal. There are many pros and cons to listing domains as "Make Offer" vs. "Buy Now" pricing ... I've just found the Make Offer to work better for me ... but my domains are also all on Afternic and I've been redirecting the URLs over to Afternic as I've been getting better sales there - even after the fee. Buyers do seem more comfortable paying to Afternic than using Paypal directly to me or going through the Escrow route and negotiating who pays the Escrow fee (but I've done that too!) and waiting and waiting and waiting.

I like having a website and a web presence, even if most of my sales are now through Afternic.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

Yes, not only have I been running my own marketplace for two years, but also developed a stunning software for myself and for others to do so.

Benefits.
I can write a whole book on this, but let me just pinpoint most important benefits. All based on first-hand experience. Not hearsay.

1. You get more organized.
2. Additional, indispensable business management experience
3. Improved negotiation skill
4.
5.
6.
7.

Not bad. BE isn't as nice as the FE. You could save me a lot of work. PM me the licence details on self-hosted.

 

[Domain Redux]

There are many pros and cons to listing domains as "Make Offer" vs. "Buy Now" pricing ... I've just found the Make Offer to work better for me ...

Interesting that you've found more success through Make Offer. You've got some great names available!

Would you recommend also adding the option of say Afternic (noting: reputable + fast transfer option) and/or DAN (noting: reputable + great for payment installments/rent-to-own option) on your website's domain specific landers? I imagine it can't hurt, but just gives the potential buyer more choices (which may confuse/deter them?).

 

[Kpett]

@usadomainer - if they are on my website, I don't want to re-direct them somewhere else - so that's where I have the "Make Offer" comment form, and I can negotiate from there. I even had one buyer have me put the domain on GoDaddy with a Buy Now price 20% higher than our agreed-to amount because he felt safest buying through GoDaddy. You never know. But most of my domain names' type-in traffic goes directly to Afternic now.

 

[Domain Redux]

Appreciate the insight, @Kpett.

I've got an Escrow BIN option with some details below the call-to-action on how it works. At the bottom of each page, there's a contact form where I guess someone could utilize to make an offer.

I may have to play with forwarding traffic to Afternic then in the next month or so if my current trend stays the same.

Thanks!

 

[Kpett]

I looked at your site @usadomainer - I think you may need to rethink how you approach the escrow.com part. If someone sees the BIN and hits "Buy Now" you then tell them they have to pay an additional fee for "domain concierge" - this could turn off a buyer. I would just add a little more to my price and then tell the potential buyer that all domain concierge costs are covered by Domain Redux. Just a thought. Good luck!

 

[Domain Redux]

I was thinking the same, @Kpett. Apparently the inspection period means nothing, so leaving it at 1 day is the way to go. Glad there were only two single input values to change in the HTML, so an easy find + replace all did the trick.

 

[Josytal]

It would be interesting to see his full list.

Sorry @stub , couldn't complete the list. I was doing some other side stuff while editing. 30 minutes elapsed and was rightly booted out.
Next time, perhaps.

 

[Josytal]

Not bad. BE isn't as nice as the FE. You could save me a lot of work. PM me the licence details on self-hosted.

Sure, I'll additionally PM you details, even though full info is available on DNHat product page

 

[Josytal]

Would you recommend also adding the option of say Afternic (noting: reputable + fast transfer option) and/or DAN (noting: reputable + great for payment installments/rent-to-own option) on your website's domain specific landers? I imagine it can't hurt, but just gives the potential buyer more choices (which may confuse/deter them?).

You can add the options in a smart way.
What is your domain landing page bounce (abandonment) rate?

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

It's really working for me as well.

Few buyers prefer to buy @ afternic for 25% etc + fee (like @stub told above)

 

[Tia Wood]

I custom develop and customize existing solutions for domain portfolio websites so I can lend some insight.

The biggest benefit of running your own domain portfolio website is total control with development. If you have a bigger portfolio (value wise) and targeting bigger companies then this is the way to go. Especially if you have brokers, employees or contractors.

Otherwise, an existing solution such as a ready made script or at a marketplace like Epik, Efty or DAN will do just fine. The biggest benefit of going with these places is going to be promotion for your domains and much lower overhead to get started.

If you have the money to spend on obtaining buyers & marketing and need total development control then run your own.

Otherwise, the other solutions would suffice. Keep in mind you might still need to do your own marketing and buyer outreach.

If anyone needs recommendations on existing solutions, PM me.

 

[lock]

What does your market place do for you? Are you harvesting traffic for them? Do you really like offering commissions for little or zero effort other than your own work. All depends on how you park whether you make your own market place as everything needs to point in right direction if you want to maximise your traffic.

 

[Name Trader]

Interesting thread and glad I found this!

I started seriously looking into domaining as a way to make some secondary income aside from my day job as a web designer and developer back in June. As a beginner (and still consider myself to be), I bought up a little over a dozen of the newly introduced .dev extensions back in March and have currently only managed to make one sale from that group. That definitely wasn't the best decision in hindsight as .com is most desirable. I will say that the sale was for a small profit, but nonetheless a sale which was exciting! And honestly, I thought it was kind of a joke domain name (as well as being .dev), but somebody found value and turns out they are also developing it—pretty neat! I hope their venture turns successful.

Since then, I've done my research and asked around for advice. A lot of people suggested creating my own space that allows me to control my own content rather than being restricted by an established marketplace (e.g. DAN, GoDaddy, Afternic, Uniregistry, etc.). As a result, I launched DomainRedux.com back in mid-late July.

Domain Redux is still in its infancy, so it's hard to tell what the outlook will be. DR gains small traffic through direct searches, organic searches, referrals and social media (feel free to follow me on Twitter), but hasn't managed to break its first sale yet. I've also listed my domains across a handful of different marketplaces, but if the URL is searched, the user will be redirected to a specific sales lander for that domain on my marketplace. I've only allowed the user the option to purchase via Escrow if the domain hasn't been approved via Squadhelp. I'm concerned that it's due to DR not being an established, reputable vendor or because I only have Escrow as the sole option.

I'm wondering if I should revert to Afternic since the majority of my domains are available for fast transfer and because Afternic is recognized as a reputable marketplace. Feel free to chime in if you've found more luck by redirecting to an established vendor.

I understand that domaining is most times a marathon and a game of patience, but for those of you that have been playing for a long time, maybe you can shed some insight on your experience.

Thanks and best of luck to all of you!

All my domains point to my website. Like @Kpett, I don't want to pay commission on referrals to other websites. If the buyer doesn't trust me. They have to find the other listings for themselves. I only use Afternic other than my own website. Because they are large and trusted and include GoDaddy listings. which covers a large portion of the total market place. Most of my domains are make offer there (except those where I have had offers which fell thru), although I'm still trying to get them all priced.

I also used only Escrow.com for my priced domains on my own website. Escrow.com is well trusted, except for their KYC requirements. The Escrow fee is always for the buyer.

 

[domeen]

Owning your own domain sales site is so 2000 or something like that.
What's the point? There is none.

List at afternic + activate fast transfer and you sell a lot more.
If you don´t like to park with afternic, use sedo or something like that.

maybe if you own 100 000+ domains, it has some point.

Or maybe if you sell some country .tld-s. And you need the marketplace to be in specific language