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discuss How far will having your own page get you towards more sales?

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JLJ

NameCaesar.comEstablished Member
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Hey guys!

I wanted to ask you how does your page (for those who have one) help you get leads. I've acquired a domain which I plan to use to make my online portfolio and blog, however I am unsure how I can get the right possible end users or investors/startups to find me. (It's a pretty good brandable in my opinion as well)

Since I have some background on html and css, plus vast photoshop experience, I'm planning on building a mini marketplace with no more than 20 names, making a logo and description for each name and try to target my sales that way, in addition to a blog. I'm into brandables at the moment, and I think it's the niche I'll be learning for at least the rest of the year.

Before I do this however, I wanted to ask if someone has had good and bad experiences following this type of sales model, so here are some questions:

How many leads do you get from your pool of domains, and is 20 a good number for that kind of market?
Do you often find contacts in the industry this way?
Is it a reasonable long term investment? And fulfilling?
How do you use SEO in this kind of market? I could really use some helping links on this one.
And finally could I ask to if you know helpful threads on these subjects in NP or other forums?

Cheers
Jaime
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
I built a site for my domains and for anyone wanting more free exposure. Ive had my site up for about six months and seems Im getting more inquiries from it all the time. I gotten msgs from other users of the site that they too are receiving inquiries here and there.

I built it simply to have my own platform for sales. Im networking alot and hope to be a player in domaining one day.

For now the site is a baby with just over 100 members and 1100 domains submitted. I enjoy the heck out of it.

I get why some domainers might say just park and wait, but I not only like buying and selling but I like being involved at domain conferences etc. I believe end users will come to my marketplace and in time will gain more trust and familiarity. At the same time i continue to make friendships that might prove valuable down the road.

Its really about you, your plan, and where you want to go. Sure, I use Sedo, GD, Afternic, NJ, NP, Flippa and so on, but I also like the small link I created in the industry chain we call domaining.

None of the replys here are bad, just different points of view. Nothing wrong with parking and your own site wont hurt anything. Might even surprise you.

Good luck
 
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It's good to have your own website selling your own names. You can control the sales methods, either through Sedo, GoDaddy or direct sales through Escrow transactions.

I redirect most names under $10000 to Sedo ( as Sedo has $10000 max listing), names over $10000 to Escrow account. So, I can manage and control names sales directly from my Billionaire.Property website and link to other sale platforms. All names have their own sales page.

eg 1NY.com has its own landing page http://www.billionaire.property/#!1nycom/c1jeh and linked to Escrow buy it now transaction page.
 
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I don't necessarily believe that having your marketplace will directly get you more sales. What I do believe however is that by having your own marketplace with its own corporate identity, branding and email address it will position you as a professional entity instead of hobby domainer or simply a random domain owner, therefore indirectly making you more sales and higher sales prices.

My marketplace is NameRockstar.com and I link to it from all of my individual For-Sale landing pages. When I have offers coming in from For-Sale landing pages I can respond from [email protected] instead of the free email address I used previously. It makes me look more professional, authoritative and trustworthy and the best thing is it took me only a few minutes to set up and customize using Efty. (which is my company, full disclaimer).

I agree with others here that it's not a good idea to invest a lot of time and money into building your own marketplace, especially when you're a small portfolio holder or a newbie you are much better off spending that time learning about the industry and the money on building your portfolio.
 
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I don't necessarily believe that having your marketplace will directly get you more sales. What I do believe however is that by having your own marketplace with its own corporate identity, branding and email address it will position you as a professional entity instead of hobby domainer or simply a random domain owner, therefore indirectly making you more sales and higher sales prices.

My marketplace is NameRockstar.com and I link to it from all of my individual For-Sale landing pages. When I have offers coming in from For-Sale landing pages I can respond from [email protected] instead of the free email address I used previously. It makes me look more professional, authoritative and trustworthy and the best thing is it took me only a few minutes to set up and customize using Efty. (which is my company, full disclaimer).

I agree with others here that it's not a good idea to invest a lot of time and money into building your own marketplace, especially when you're a small portfolio holder or a newbie you are much better off spending that time learning about the industry and the money on building your portfolio.
Doron

How do you promote your domain store (namerockstar) given that it is not associated with a blog. Without a blog how do you do SEO on your site?
 
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Parking your domains in a marketplace with 30m other names is like hoping to win the lottery.

Not a viable business plan. In fact this is terrible advice.

I agree, it's the same as putting your domain up for auction on godaddy if you have a two keyword rich one. Someone actually has to 'find' your domain in the first place, the same with parking. The only use i think parking has is an initial test for a couple of months to see how much type in and uniques you get, just by registering the name on search engines.

That at least will give you some indication of what domains have potential. That's what i'm doing at the moment. The parking thing is just a temporary information gathering tool for me.

Then i will look at the top 5 and consider building a mini site with subject relevant PPC advertising (but not too much) this will generate PPC income and hopefully cover the cost of registering the domain in the first place. Once i have some solid data for the top 5, after 6 months to a year THEN i might consider selling some of them.

Unless you have a one word dot com or a LLL, LL people aren't necessarily going to be interested in your domain based on the fact you put it up for auction. The only other thing is having a well aged domain, but who wants to wait over a decade?
 
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If your domain can generate type in traffic you are better off using the domain to create a minisite. Then you can sell your minisite for alot more than if you had to sell the domain on its own.

It costs very little (under a couple hundred $$) to create a 10 page mini site.
 
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for me it makes a huge difference if you park your domains
or have the domain at a place that you can control

when you get an inquiry
you need to know whom you are dealing with
thats the core point

even if you lose a sale or 100 on those marketplaces
you will regain you lost profit
if you understand the needs of the lead
and can adjust your price tag accordingly

number of domains owned is no criteria
get a nice landing page
where its easy to contact you

I have done this in the early days
and now I do it again
-I was only stopping it for legal reasons-
always it had been working well

those marketplaces don't need your sale
they won't help you

there is no reason not to list your domain there
if they sell it they deserve the fees


but for the direct traffic
you better fetch your own leads yourself
 
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You should have your own landing pages, so that you can field inquiries, but it makes absolutely no difference how 'pretty' the page is.. it makes ZERO difference.

I've been doing my own landing pages from day 1, and I have done every kind of landing page you can think of. You know what works best?

The domain name, a contact form (or eMail), and that's it.

You might remember this thread, where the OP was touting how amazing his landing pages were and how it helped him convert sales.

Well I actually put his pages to the test for 3 weeks. :xf.grin:

I made a exact mirrored copy of his landing pages, with better usage of the domain on the page because the wording was too generic due to the OP of that thread did not knowing how to integrate domain names into the copy via code.

Guess how many inquiries came flying in... ZERO... as predicted.

Lol you never give up do you.

First of all I was never touting how amazing my landing pages were. I was simply saying that having your own landers brings many benefits compared to having them parked at for example Sedo and that my landers (for me personally) were bringing me more sales.

Secondly, if you really did copy my landing pages but you failed with your domains and your own landing copy (which basically is not the same setup then) I don't see how that would result in a conclusion that my landers don't work? So if I would copy your landers and put some different text on it and use different domains and none of them get inquiries I should say "just as predicted? They don't work."? My advice: never become a statistician.

Btw, my landers are not meant to get many inquiries. They are all BIN landers so I'm surprised, if you copied them, that you didn't notice that. There's no direct contact form on my landers for people to send me inquiries.

As soon as I took that junk off my domains, I got 2 inquires that week; by using just the domain and a method of contact.

Turning landing pages into sales portals is not going to sell a domain any faster. You can go ahead and try, and spend time and money on this - but it's already been done.

Good luck to all.

You know I tried with the "domain name + contact form and nothing more" approach that you're doing many times and I always had worse results compared to the landers I have now. If "domain name + contact form" would give me beter results then wouldn't it make sense for me to change my landers instead of continuing to use what I use? Maybe I'm using what I use because it works best for me?

So like I said many times before we can go back and forth on this or stop it once and for all and accept that you have your view and I have mine. If you're happy with the performance of your landers then keep using them. I'm happy with the performance of mine so I'll keep using mine.
 
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a nicer more professionally looking page increases the price you can sell the domain for

I was once selling a domain with zero income
a minor domain to me
for 6000 €
as I had an amazon shoping system there
which looked like the domain makes money

so they didn't dare to bid less
 
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Doron

How do you promote your domain store (namerockstar) given that it is not associated with a blog. Without a blog how do you do SEO on your site?

I personally link to it from all my For-Sale landing pages which instantly creates hundreds of backlinks. I link to it from my blog and you can of course link it from your email and forum signature etc. We do have plans to add a blog and/or content pages functionality because quite a few users have requested this feauture.

Efty marketplaces are already very well optimized for SEO and Google loves their link structure (as you can see in the screenshot below) . If you have custom descriptions for your landing pages this content will also be displayed on your marketplace, ie: http://www.namerockstar.com/domain/BadMonkey.com/ or http://www.namerockstar.com/domain/StarTalent.com/

upload_2016-8-8_17-59-3.png


My point however remains the same and that is that you shouldn't spend too much time and/or money on creating and/or promoting a marketplace - the way I see it is that its a must have to own a good looking marketplace because you want to come across as a professional when you negotiate with end-users.

Most domains sell because a buyer wants that domain, they have already made a decision. It's rare that a company uses a marketplace to discover a name and if they do, chances are they start with a Sedo or a BrandBucket where there's ton of inventory and not with a small marketplace that has a couple of hundred or thousands names.
 
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I didn't read what you posted, and never will.

I stopped at the first line and realized I had better things to do than to argue online with someone whining about their landing page.

Facts are facts, and your fanciful vision of your 'pretty' page helping to convert sales is like a trip to OZ - a delusional dream.

You may have one or two fan-boys agree with you, but thats out of pure inexperience and inaccurate correlations.

Good day sir.
 
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I didn't read what you posted, and never will.

I stopped at the first line and realized I had better things to do than to argue online with someone whining about their landing page.

.

And yet you started to whine about my landing page in this thread. Not me. I merely replied to your rantings. Go figure huh.

I made a exact mirrored copy of his landing pages, with better usage of the domain on the page because the wording was too generic due to the OP of that thread did not knowing how to integrate domain names into the copy via code.

Guess how many inquiries came flying in... ZERO... as predicted.

There it is.

Anyways what you said would be like me saying that tomorrow I'll forward 400 domains on a Sedo "BIN" page and forward 400 other domains on a Sedo "Make Offer" page. The pages are identical in every way except for a "BIN" button on the first lander and a "Make offer" form on the latter. If after some timeframe I get more inquiries on my Sedo "Make offer" page my conclusion will be that the Sedo BIN page doesn't work.
Do you have any idea how stupid that sounds? Of course you're going to get more inquiries on a "Make Offer" page. Isn't that what they are made for in the first place? And yet that's how you "reviewed" my landers; when you compared the amount of inquiries from my "BIN" landers with your "contact form" landers.

Anyways, you seem to have made it your crusade to make the world believe that a personal lander with just a domain name and contact form will outperform anything else. Newsflash, your personal results does not mean everyone else will experience the same results (and yes this applies to me as well).

On a last note, you seem to have no problem with mirroring/copying my landing pages but in legal terms that would mean copyright infringement as I didn't give you permission to do so. But maybe your moral compass thinks that's ok.

Anyways I've had enough from your bashings, questionable ethics and illogical conclusions so you're on ignore from now on.

My advice to all: People should not blindly believe what some are preaching or claiming (and yes that includes myself again as well). They should always test what works best for them and implement those tactics for themselves.
 
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preaching

Sorry... saw another jumble of rambling self-serving words with your avatar next to it, and skimmed over the rest.

Sounds like you are doing an awful lot of that self-serving preaching there buddy.
 
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you guys
do you know there is an IGNORE feature in this forum?

I use it with great results for my peace of mind
 
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i will give you the advice i didn't get when i've started buying domains ... put all your money in a single good domain, do your research, find something with commercial value for end users outside of online world ... and then go after those guys ... email, phone ... show up at their door if you can.

forget brandable, it's a waiting game and those renewals are a pita. you are inclined to think that you get some nice brandable for under 100 and sell for 5k but that is a rarity, is like winning the lotto.

e.g. chixat is at bb from 2007, einweb the same, 100s if not 1000s the same.
 
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i will give you the advice i didn't get when i've started buying domains ... put all your money in a single good domain, do your research, find something with commercial value for end users outside of online world ... and then go after those guys ... email, phone ... show up at their door if you can.

forget brandable, it's a waiting game and those renewals are a pita. you are inclined to think that you get some nice brandable for under 100 and sell for 5k but that is a rarity, is like winning the lotto.

e.g. chixat is at bb from 2007, einweb the same, 100s if not 1000s the same.


thats a matter a strategy
not the magic formula

mostly I sell my domains after 5 or even 10 years
so what?

but I will not sell them below x.xxx
 
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i don't think i get this right, you don't sell under 1000 EUR?

mostly not
ofcourse there are exceptions

why should I keep a domain
that is worth less?
 
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This topic deserves a poll
 
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In theory having your own site can allow you to bypass marketplace commissions of 20% and negotiate directly with the buyer.

In practice, you end up with a lot of lowball and spam offers that you normally don't even receive when you have fixed price listings in a domain marketplace. Those lowballers just show up as offer page views at SEDO or Godaddy.

True

the general rule is that if you own domains that are worth buying, people will find you, even if you're parked on the dark side of the moon.

True
 
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Because only about 1% of aftermarket domains actually sell, I think it really does not matter much. Perhaps the big box sites sell more, or report more sales anyway, but boutique sites likely earn more per sale with higher prices and no commissions.

Personally, I only use my sites to sell... but it has little to do with actual domain sales.
1) I don't like the loss of control and jumping thru hoops on multiple sites
2) I want my properties to avoid the stain & suffering dished-out to big box parked domain listings
(Yesterday I typed a URL into the search bar and got 'the last we checked that domain is parked'. It would not even take me to the page).

Mostly, I use my own domains because I learn more and earn more from sites I (half-ass) develop.
I see my domains as a business network, the sales site connects to various niche sites where I aggregate and create content. None of the sites gets huge traffic, but the visitors they get are mostly folks active in the field -some of which I reached-out to as a fellow fan to talk shop.

In short, I earn a living providing 'content marketing' services from newsletter content to promo & holiday videos. And, over time, the niche domain becomes increasingly valuable to them -sometimes leading to a sale. Though, I often don't want to sell, and they get a bit ticked at me... which is happening now with several clients.

On the other hand, I'm considering going all-in with ecommerce content marketing and putting the bulk of my portfolio on a big box site.
 
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I can't speak for everyone, but personally I think it's worth having something, even if it's very basic. Think of it as having an online business card at the bare minimum.

I got a simple WP theme, made a few customizations, a small bit of basic content and I was done. Did it all myself over a couple of days. I did have previous experience developing a site with WP, wordpress is a bit like riding a bike.

I recently closed a mid $xx,xxx deal with a NDA attached. Much to my surprise the inquiry came directly through my site. Buyer wished to pay to via bank wire, no middle man, no fees. Having my own site has already paid off for me with the money I saved on that deal.

I don't forward my domains to my site and it's not what I'd describe as a polished article, but it does the job, it gives me some form of presence online outside of marketplaces. My names are pointed via BIN @ Sedo and NameSilo and via makeoffer @ Uniregistry - I love their landers.

When you Google my domains my site shows up in Google search results.

This particular name was pointed at uniregistry but the buyer chose to contact me directly through my site.

Each end user has their own purchasing preferences/habits when it comes to domains imho. It never ceases to amaze me how offers come in via another marketplace while the domain is pointed somewhere else.

In my experience they are not a waste of time. If you've never developed a site then it's a great skill to learn which you can apply to other domains in your portfolio.
 
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Waste off time and money! Park with sedo or afternic and you do better. Thats typical newbie thing that you want to have a blog and sslling site
That's not a newbie thing. Let's say you have 100 domains all in the same niche and they all forward to one website with all 100 domains listed. I can promise that you can sell more than one name to the same buyer. I know because I've done it.
 
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Hi


i think the domain name is what gets the sale, not whether you have your own page or not.

as the ability for the interested party to contact you, is more important.

and since they can do that via whois, then is a page necessary?
no, it's not.

but until the "right buyer" searches our name, we want to monetize any traffic, that will enhance our pockets and possibly "add value" to the domain name.

so we park it, cuz how can a landing page without ads, add value?

just saying....


imo...
 
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so we park it, cuz how can a landing page without ads, add value?

just saying....


imo...


it will have unique content
so google / bing / yahoo will scrape and display it

they won't so same for a parked page of course not
 
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