Domain Brokers...?

[Mike]

Does anyone know whether there is a domain broker service that connects a motivated seller with the END USER? Someone that accepts a domain for brokering, does the appropriate research, contacts end users, offers the domain for sale, establishes a minimum price with the seller and takes a % of the sales?
Unlike Sedo, TDnam or others, which are simply auction services, is there anyone that actually does the classic footwork of finding the enduser(s) and connecting them with the opportunity to buy the domain?

This may be a relatively "complicated" description of what i have in mind and is probably done, if so, can anyone point me in the direction?

thanks

 

[Damion]

You make the assumption that 6-12 domains are sold each day on Afternic and Sedo, how can you tell this is actually the domain sales volume?

By looking at the front page where it's indicated which domains has been sold?

It could very well be that the domains you see that have been indicated as recently sold by Afternic and Sedo on the front page is only a selection of the lot of that particular day.

Unless representatives from Afternic and other representatives from Sedo can concur that the domains listed as recent domain sales are the only sales of that day, there is no question of assumptions.

I think it's even safe to say that the domains you see listed as recent domain sales on Sedo (I can't speak for Afternic) is not the complete sales volume as you think it is.

This because i have had some sales at Sedo which did not show in the recent sales showcase at any point.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Yes, Damion,

I am sure they do have sales that are not reported, such as high profile domains. Plus some sellers want to have the sale not reported. It stands to reason they want to show they are selling many names so thats why they have sales area.

Now if I had a drive in resturant chain and I had two or four million burgers in my stores I would not be very pleased if I heard only a half or a dozen combined had sold in any given day. Thats just my point, even if they are selling some to folks who want to remain private, don't you think most are reported in the daily sales area?

Are you implying they are doing a great job and selling names in vast quanity and they don't need to improve getting end users to come in and pick up the slow sales and really improve that so our names are selling like hotcakes?.

Imo if they were doing that we would not see so many domainers trying to make a few bucks selling names here for a couple bucks. The truth is very few names in ratio to the amount of names available are getting sold as they are merely inventoried and not marketed.

 

[tjoseph]

Lol! Here is a better analogy: Let's say you have a rock store with a million rocks in stock. A few hundred of those rocks are gemstones and the rest are no better than the rocks you could walk outside and pick up off the ground for free. How many rocks are you going to sell a day?

Tom

 

[Mike]

Lol! Here is a better analogy: Let's say you have a rock store with a million rocks in stock. A few hundred of those rocks are gemstones and the rest are no better than the rocks you could walk outside and pick up off the ground for free. How many rocks are you going to sell a day?
Tom

Now that would depend on the amount of people that you have in the rolodex inside your store, to contact and potentially sell the, what you call "sidewalk" gravel, to. Meaning, not all domains are either million dollar sales along the lines of vodka.com, there are domains out there that are NOT a no-brainer to sell. These domains require leg work, research, conversation, social skills, salesman ship and the POTENTIAL to know that it just depends on the end-user that you find that thinks that your initial "gravel" is actually gold.
So much about analogies.

 

[cache]

I think another focus is to sign up the large domain sellers, charging them something like management fees (or advertising fees, similar to mutual funds' 12b-1 fees)

 

[goodkarmaco]

I still want to say to Damion he is right to wonder how many really are sold?

I do know that not to many are reported to the most prestigious magazine for domainers, the Domain Journal. Sure we look with demure eyes at the sales there, but really its not many when millions and millions of domains are standing in line waitng to get chinged.

My view is when years ago the auction offices shifted their stragety from being fired up to "sell domains" to the present scenario which seems to be parking of domains and earning revenue selling ad on services, appraisals, etc. Parking names does not mean much profit for the average domainer because some houses take 90 % percent of the click money, and one company charges us for the right to sell them, calling that a membership fee.

Who cares if they sold names at a fast clip. But my view is they do not. I know they make some sales, but extract the sales by resellers looking to flip domains and I don't think much traffic is coming into the auction houses by actual end users.

Instead of thwarting the core meaning of domaining and they got back to the vision of high profits accrued thru domain selling we would earn much more money.

The auction houses should purchase ads on a consistant basis to bring end users looking for every kind of domain, then domain sales would increase.

Until the auction houses post anything different I can only make the assuption they do not sale many names in ratio to the ones they have for sale. Even given some sales are to remain private they are displaying that these are "the domains" sold on this day.

T joseph,

Some companies are succesful at cold calls working the phone. Today though I think web traffic, print media, broadcast and radio will perform better.

Have you ever seen a auction house place a ad in your favorite magazine?

How about your trade magazines, do you see the industry reaching out to business owners, such as car automotive, Insurance, travel, or the recreation industry?


They simply don't go after end users by any sort of advertising budget. Not sure if that works as I know in my business I have to spend money to advertise and reach my customers.

The average domainer Imo thinks people know how to buy a domain. That business owners know they can buy a great name that may be able to take their company national. That names are availble in all categories by the thousands, with prices ranging form hundreds to millions. No they do not know those things.

Untill they do know those things we will never see our names selling like hotcakes to end users.

 

[rokoroko]

thinking about it a while ago I have registered in the mid 06

DnsBrokerage.com
DnsBrokering.com

 

[Damion]

Have you ever seen a auction house place a ad in your favorite magazine?

This is a very good point made by Roderick, i have never seen an ad from Sedo anywhere in any print media.
You should think that Sedo would be more involved with advertisements on newspapers and such.

I mean the turn over is quite substantial but advertisement is purely based on Adwords from what i have seen.

For example, 2 major daily free newspapers that are being passed around to public transportation users in the Netherlands called "Metro" and "Spits" and in overall have a userbase combined of 3 million people.

All these people bring these newspapers to work, leave in the cafeteria, it's all over the place...
Business owners read these as well, marketing agencies will read these as well, etc.

The ad cost for a small ad is about €300 Euro and going up from that point on.
Why i don't see any ads from Sedo is a mystery to me since there is so much awareness to be gained from an advertisement in these newspapers.

With a well placed ad with good copy i think there is a lot to be gained from it and with that said us domainers gain a lot as well.

I mean the number above is about roughly 20% of the whole Dutch population.


I do think that the auction houses can make more effort to create awareness fort their business to the general public, it would also make the domaining industry less notorious in the sense of the link to cybersquating and such...

I also feel that like Roderick said there is not enough motivation to reach potential prospects by directly contacting them after doing research to reach strong prospects with certain domains.

There are a lot of strong domains in the inventory of the auction houses and there is a substantial amount of turn over being generated from which a certain percentage should and could be spend on proper of-line advertisement and to cover expenses for directly contacting potentially strong prospects.

 

[Kate]

...
I am sure they do have sales that are not reported, such as high profile domains. Plus some sellers want to have the sale not reported. It stands to reason they want to show they are selling many names so thats why they have sales area.

Indeed many sales take place under the radar screens and are never reported.
Still some buyers are eager to publicize their purchase.
It's not hard to understand why: the big domain sales will often make it into the newspapers and the other media. That's considerable exposure and basically "free" advertising. I'm sure that some sales are more publicity stunts than genuine corporate investments.
After all that's economical advertising.
Try to get frontpage advertising in the large newspapers and national TV channels even for $500000 !

...
This is a very good point made by Roderick, i have never seen an ad from Sedo anywhere in any print media.
You should think that Sedo would be more involved with advertisements on newspapers and such.

...

Why i don't see any ads from Sedo is a mystery to me since there is so much awareness to be gained from an advertisement in these newspapers.

I also feel that like Roderick said there is not enough motivation to reach potential prospects by directly contacting them after doing research to reach strong prospects with certain domains.

As said above it is simply not profitable for a broker to pitch low-end domains. Most brokers will usually take a 10% fee (with a minimum). No point in dealing with $$$ domains.

When I say broker a domain it's not just list the domain on a website and wait.
It means conduct some research into a specific industry that you may not be familiar with.
It means identifying the major players in that particular industry.
It means placing targeted phone calls.
It means writing carefully crafted letters and follow up.
It means advertising where the industry meets: industry fairs, dedicated magazines etc.
All that involves time, money and dedication.

From my experience advertising in mainstream newspapers is not the best way to reach a qualified audience of potential buyers. Awareness is a different thing that you do for your own purpose.
But you can get good results by advertising in the right publications and being in the right place at the right moment.
For an example of my ads check the last issue of Flight International magazine :]

 

[Mike]

This is a very good point made by Roderick, i have never seen an ad from Sedo anywhere in any print media.
You should think that Sedo would be more involved with advertisements on newspapers and such.

I mean the turn over is quite substantial but advertisement is purely based on Adwords from what i have seen.

For example, 2 major daily free newspapers that are being passed around to public transportation users in the Netherlands called "Metro" and "Spits" and in overall have a userbase combined of 3 million people.

All these people bring these newspapers to work, leave in the cafeteria, it's all over the place...
Business owners read these as well, marketing agencies will read these as well, etc.

The ad cost for a small ad is about €300 Euro and going up from that point on.
Why i don't see any ads from Sedo is a mystery to me since there is so much awareness to be gained from an advertisement in these newspapers.

With a well placed ad with good copy i think there is a lot to be gained from it and with that said us domainers gain a lot as well.

I mean the number above is about roughly 20% of the whole Dutch population.


I do think that the auction houses can make more effort to create awareness fort their business to the general public, it would also make the domaining industry less notorious in the sense of the link to cybersquating and such...

I also feel that like Roderick said there is not enough motivation to reach potential prospects by directly contacting them after doing research to reach strong prospects with certain domains.

There are a lot of strong domains in the inventory of the auction houses and there is a substantial amount of turn over being generated from which a certain percentage should and could be spend on proper of-line advertisement and to cover expenses for directly contacting potentially strong prospects.

In summary: It's one of the main reasons why GoDaddy is more successful than any other registrar out there. They have understood that the key is in mainstream. Superbowl advertising, print, radio, you name it, they are there. HOWEVER!!! surprisingly enough, when it comes to TDNAM, their own auction house, they completely drop the ball. This leads me to believe that the level of interest to adequately represent the domains of the users is limited at best. Neither Sedo, Snap, TDnam, or any other auction house is actively advertising, or in the event of offering a name for auction, searching for end users. Certainly, the situation changes when there is a domain like the recent vodka.com for sale. If there is a high 6 digit or 7 digit revenue to expect we get the press releases, even CNN gets notified. While it's perfectly clear that only milestones are worth this type of advertising, it shows where the level of interest lies. The efforts to let the public know about a "big" DN come available can and should also not stop for the medium to small ($xxxx) domain. While not all warrant a press release, i am sure that acceptable domains warrant a decent end user search.
As many already said in this thread: *analogy* The auction houses are treating domains and the associated domainers like cattle on a farm. Thousands of cows that they [auctions houses] can milk and only occasionally there will be the big bull that's worthy of advertising. *analogy end*

 

[tjoseph]

It is true that you have to spend money on advertising to make money, but you can't spend more than that advertising will make you. You won't stay in business very long. Do you really think a company the size of Afternic would have the same budget for global brand develepment as Coca Cola? Advertising on that scale costs millions. Yes, Godaddy advertises at the Superbowl. They do that for their new domain registration service. They get 100% of the revenue from the fees for this service, not a 10% commission. The customers they get through this advertising are recurring customers The cost of aquisition for the customer can be absorbed over months and years and doesn't have to be paid for through a single sale unlike selling registered domains to end users for a small commission.

I think there are opportunities in this business for independent brokers that may focus on niche industries. These brokers could sift through all the "sidewalk gravel" and make a list of all the gems for a particular industry or industries. They could develop a qualified prospect list for these industries and market to them. Since this is a new service, someone will have to spend some time and make some mistakes figuring out what works and what doesn't. If you had some good financial domains, you might be inclined to list them with a broker that specializes in marketing to that industry. I wouldn't hire a real estate agent in Nebraska to sell my house in California.

Tom

 

[Ken_]

What if that realestate agent in nebraska had very wealthy contacts searching for a new home in ca you wouldnt give him a call?

 

[tjoseph]

Well, if the Nebraska agent had contacts in California that were ready to buy it would be a different situation. But that is my point, you have a better chance of success if the broker you use knows the market you are selling to. If you are selling a domain in the financial industry and there is a broker that regularly calls, goes to lunch, and golfs with people in the financial industry don't you think he would have a better chance of success selling your domain than someone randomly calling all industries?

Tom

 

[gazzip]

Have you tried www.bigticketdomains.com ?

BTD Provides Complete Domain Services • Domain Brokerage • Management • Appraisals • Acquisitions • Development • Joint Ventures

They send out emails to potential buyers as well as list them for sale on thier website - they also have some really loooooooooooooooooooong names with big tickets !

I see Rick Swartz also has a few on there - Tradeshows.com, Candy.com, Property/Properties.com

May be worth a shot if you have good keyword domains ??

.

 

[Charley]

How many have been sold there? I couldn't track a link.

Have you tried www.bigticketdomains.com ?