.us Finding end-users for your .US domains

[oldtimer]

Finding end-users for your .US domains

Have you had much success in selling .US domains directly to end-users, please share some of the methods that you have used that have given you good results.

When you approach end-user directly do you feel the need to have to educate them about the potentials of .US domains, how far do you go to convince them that they are better off getting a .US domain, please share a sample email that you have sent to end-users that has produced the best results (exclude the name of the end-user and the domain name).

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[DotUSDomains]

Let them come to you,

After trying many times to send nice emails stating why they should own the .us i got fed up.

now if someones intrested in a name i also send another list of names i Own,
Of the same niche, it's done well a few times, where i had an end user after 1 name, i sold them 5 at the 1 time.

I also just sold a name you sold me a few years back To an end user, judging by the price paid.

with names like Mortgage.us / forsale.us you dont need anything other than a valid email IMHO!

Wait for those who contact you, there the 1's ready to pay more.

especially with .us as they are hard to convince end users to buy unless, there very very patriotic (< always mention this)

 

[oldtimer]

Let them come to you,

After trying many times to send nice emails stating why they should own the .us i got fed up.

now if someones intrested in a name i also send another list of names i Own,
Of the same niche, it's done well a few times, where i had an end user after 1 name, i sold them 5 at the 1 time.

I also just sold a name you sold me a few years back To an end user, judging by the price paid.

with names like Mortgage.us / forsale.us you dont need anything other than a valid email IMHO!

Wait for those who contact you, there the 1's ready to pay more.

especially with .us as they are hard to convince end users to buy unless, there very very patriotic (< always mention this)

You might be right about waiting for end-users to make the first approach when it comes to top tire domains, but I also have a bunch of second tier .US domains which I am trying to sell, such as StormShelters(.)US or ClassicTrucks(.)US , I just sold a golf related .US domain on Sedo, but those sales are too far in between, I like to be able to sell a domain or two per week since I am trying to trim my portfolio and have decided to concentrate more on my top domains and couple of geo related niches that I am interested in.

PS: good to know that you did okay with the names that you bought from me in the past.

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[Greg]

I have sent end user letters out for just a couple .us domains and was in negotiations for a purchase but then suddenly the buyer said that he was not marketing to the United States so it made no sense owning the name.

Here is my response:

Hello Again,

The .us cctld is reserved for American based businesses but can still be
marketed internationally. It is true that any type in traffic that you
receive will generally be USA based but since the domain names are exact
matches of heavily searched keywords you should enjoy higher SERP rankings even for international traffic. A well optimized landing page will dominate the SERP’s and still send traffic to xxxxxxxxxx.com. It
is for that reason I will be unable to accept any offer under $200 for any of these names.

I thank you for your time in considering these domain names perhaps in the future we may have another opportunity to conduct business.

Thank you,

Greg

I think the end user letter helps plant a seed in their head that may end up with a future sale. That's why I moved most of my names back to Sedo. I am in the process of gathering enduser possibilities for almost all of my .us domains and am marketing about 2 domains per week. I just started this process so maybe I will have some positive information on this subject in the coming weeks.

 

[oldtimer]

I am also going to become more active in exploring the end-user possibilities for my domains, I have set different strategies depending on the value and quality of the domains; when it comes to lower value domains one of the ways that I am considering in addition to the usual methods (finding end-users through google) is to check in the yellow pages and local business directories for small businesses that don’t have a web presence yet. There is a huge untapped market there since there is a good percentage of local businesses that still don’t have a website and as such it might be easier to convince them of the value and potentials of .US domains.

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[mhdoc]

At least a couple of the big internet marketing guys are currently promoting internet support for local businesses as the next great opportunity. Jim Cockrum is one, I forget the others.

With a little research you might be able to find where these people hang out and mention your domains there. I'm sure that right now they just go to GoDaddy and look for something available.

 

[donrich]

Dot US domain to me is a gold mine plz don't mined the damages the dot COM has done to dot US.

With time poeple will fall inlove with dot US!

Please guys what do you think about ipodtouch.us?

 

[oldtimer]

With time poeple will fall inlove with dot US!

.US is certainly getting a lot more attention from domainers than it did before, hopefully the general public will also become more interested in this extension in the near future.

Please guys what do you think about ipodtouch.us?

Its better if you ask this quoestion in the appraisal section, but in general I think that its best to stay away from names that might have any trademark issues especially since there are still a lot of generic product names that are available in .US which probably make a better investment in the long run.

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[oldtimer]

In my opinion every .US domainer should play the role of a salesperson, everyone of us should take an active part in promoting this extension to end-users, not just by trying to sell a domain, but we should try to sell the whole concept of .US as America’s one and only ccTLD.

There are so many potential advantages that .US has over other traditional extensions that end-users might not be aware of, which if brought to their attention can make all the difference in their decision to buy a .US domain.

The more .US domains that are sold to and are developed by end-users the better it will be for the overall standing of this extension, and ultimately the better it will be for all of us who have invested in .US domains. Even if end-users don’t buy a domain right away, but by educating them about all the advantages of having .US domains you can help raise the level of awareness of this extension among the general public and overtime you can help make .US more popular with small businesses. We should not underestimate what .US domainers can do as a group to promote this extension, and we should not allow ourselves to be discouraged by all the naysayers who always seem to want to hold us back; well lets face it they are looking after their own interest and want to kill any potential competition before it can take a foothold, but despite all their efforts the tides are already turning and things are starting to look up for US


So by sharing useful tips and by showing others how to find end-users for their .US domains we can have a hand in raising the level of popularity of this extension which will be beneficial to all of us in the long run.


Every .US domainer should play an active part in promoting this extension,

Remember you must first sell the extension, before you can sell your domain.

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[Greg]

I just received this response from a non-profit organization:

Thank you. We already have "www.The Same Keyword I am Selling".org and are happy with it

Time to compose my response, any help?

Greg

 

[mhdoc]

I just received this response from a non-profit organization:



Time to compose my response, any help?

Greg

I like .us, but I have a hard time thinking of a reason why a non profit that already has the .org would want it.

 

[Greg]

I like .us, but I have a hard time thinking of a reason why a non profit that already has the .org would want it.

That is what I was thinking also. I think no means "no right now but I know where to find you if I change my mind".

At least I know that they received my email

 

[oldtimer]

Here are some advantages of owning .US domains that can be pointed out to end-users:


.US is geo targeted to US customers and is perfect for small businesses

.US shows your patriotism and gives your business credibility

.US is an affordable alternative that doesn’t look second rate, as the matter of fact it shows your customers that you take pride in your business.

.US ranks well in search engines and can give you an edge over your competition

.US is the ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) for the United States and as such is a lot more safer and secure than other extensions.

.US conveys trust to your customers and sets you apart from all those shaddy websites around the world that use the other extensions.

.US can make a great investment, even if you don’t use it right away, buying it now means that you won’t worry about your favorite domain ending up in the hands of your competitors.

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[nicedomains]

Nice thread.. I have had zero luck selling .us domains to end user in my experiences so far... and I sell to end users on a semi-regular basis. Besides .com, I have sold .biz, .net, .org, .tv, and even a couple .info to end users but no luck with .us so far. I do actively look for endusers, place them for sale in sedo and afternic marketplaces and I must have hope for the extension because I keep an eye out for good ones.

Problem is most people in the US have no idea .us exists.. nothing like other countries where ccTLD is the main extension in use. I was talking to my dad last week about .us, he had no idea it existed. Of course he knows what .net org and even biz and info are... but .us? I rarely see it in use here in the states.

 

[DotUSDomains]

Here are some advantages of owning .US domains that can be pointed out to end-users:


.US is geo targeted to US customers and is perfect for small businesses

.US shows your patriotism and gives your business credibility

.US is an affordable alternative that doesn’t look second rate, as the matter of fact it shows your customers that you take pride in your business.

.US ranks well in search engines and can give you an edge over your competition

.US is the ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) for the United States and as such is a lot more safer and secure than other extensions.

.US conveys trust to your customers and sets you apart from all those shaddy websites around the world that use the other extensions.

.US can make a great investment, even if you don’t use it right away, buying it now means that you won’t worry about your favorite domain ending up in the hands of your competitors.

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I'd like to start a petition for oldtimer to get a job at neustar as the manager (or the idea man) of the .us namespace.

 

[oldtimer]

The point is that we as .US domainers can play an important role in how fast the general public and small businesses become aware of the existence of this extension. It would be nice to have some support from NeuStar, but that doesn’t mean that we should just wait and do nothing ourselves, if all .US domainers combine their efforts together and start a six month campaign to promote this extension we can accelerate the acceptance of .US by a factor of ten, so that we won’t have to wait another eight years for .US to become known to the public.

A promotional campaign by .US domainers can include many different marketing ideas and strategies and can go far beyond just sending out emails, ideally all this could be done in an organized manner through establishing a .US Domain Owners Association (as has been suggested by me several times in the past), but in the meantime we should do our best to promote this extension on an individual basis.

If for whatever reason NeuStar is unable or unwilling to promote .US , the very least that they can do is to support .US domainers so that we can make things happen ourselves.

We should petition NeuStar to help us with establishing the .US Domain Owners Association and to provide some financial support for the promotional and marketing campaigns that are going to be done by this Association.

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[Jaco]

Your job as a reseller isn't to make apologetics for anything. It's to locate reasonable prospects, pitch, and keep pitching until you find the person willing to buy.

Registrars don't promote extensions. Businesses using that extension is what promotes the extension. The problem with 'new' extensions is that before they have time to saturate, domain speculators scarf up all the most relevant keywords. No saturation = no use = no mindshare = little resale interest from end-users for an 'alternative' extension.

The US is probably the only country where our ccTLD was hamstrung like a boutique, come-lately gTLD/sTLD.

 

[oldtimer]

Your job as a reseller isn't to make apologetics for anything. It's to locate reasonable prospects, pitch, and keep pitching until you find the person willing to buy.

Jaco, you might think of yourself as just a reseller, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a say in what is being done for the .US name space as a whole. We should encourage everyone's participation and input in making .US more popular.

Registrars don't promote extensions. Businesses using that extension is what promotes the extension.

NeuStar is the Registry for .US and according to their contract they are required to promote the use of the usTLD.

The problem with 'new' extensions is that before they have time to saturate, domain speculators scarf up all the most relevant keywords. No saturation = no use = no mindshare = little resale interest from end-users for an 'alternative' extension.

Now I agree with you that many of the top keyword domains have gone to domain investors and speculators, but most of these people are open to offers and if a company really wants a top tire domain the opportunity still exists for them to buy it in the aftermarket.

The US is probably the only country where our ccTLD was hamstrung like a boutique, come-lately gTLD/sTLD.

We can't undo what has happened in the past, but we can go beyond just being a reseller by having a say in what is happening now, and the best way to do that is to get organized as a group under a .US Domain Owners Association.

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[HeyNow]

It would be nice to have some support from NeuStar,[/B]-

Neustar is a registry. A registry is ONLY tasked with providing a stable platform for a TLD, period. Their job isn't marketing the extension to the public. Their job is not trying to beat other registries. Their job is to make sure their respective extension (.us in this case) works reliably day after day after day. For domainers to think otherwise is just folly. To garner pacification from domainers, Neustar and other registries attend the domainer conventions, trotting out spokespersons who tell domainers what they want to hear, BS like, "we have a new marketing campaign coming soon," "lots of activity behind the scenes," etc. Of course Neustar and all other registries don't want their repsective TLDs to fall the way of .coop or .museum, losing lots of cash in order to provide stability.

Don't ever expect registries to expensively promote their repective TLDs. It's not going to happen.

 

[oldtimer]

Don't ever expect registries to expensively promote their repective TLDs. It's not going to happen.

That’s even more reason that we should think about establishing a .US Domain Owners Association that can take on some of the responsibilities of promoting the .US namespace.

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