strategy How to Find Potential End Users?

[shilmy]

Hi,

Do any of you has regularly sell your domain to end users? If so, do you mind share with me in this thread on how find potential end users for your domain?

Regards,
Sjarief

 

[Tippy]

Well, you can try searching for other Domains that use a combination of your Domain plus another word, so if you owned Games.com you could contact the owners of VideoGames.com, just watchout for TM'ed names.

or

Contact the owners of lesser ext., where you own the .com and they own the .net etc...

 

[nRnF]

I basically only sell to the so called "end users" or at least I sell at the so called "end user prices"

Basically what hat I do is:

1) Look for simillar domains and extensions & Conduct searches in SEs for related websites.

2) With this I compile a Email list of potential interest buyers (based on website or WHOIS contacts).

3) Then I set the name on auction (no FSBO).

4) Right after setting up the domain auction I send out a mail to each identified potential buyer, and inform them about the auction.
(1 by 1 and personalized for each buyer)

Important in my experience is, that if you want to attend a decent sales price is to set up the auction BEFORE you mail the potential buyers. This has the effect, that it puts indirect pressue on buyers (bid now or you never have a chance again)
A FSBO mail to a potential buyer has not much effect, or you just receive a bunch of real low offers.

PS:
It is advisable, to evaluate trademark conflicts before you send mails

 

[Midano]

4) Right after setting up the domain auction I send out a mail to each identified potential buyer, and inform them about the auction.
(1 by 1 and personalized for each buyer)

Would like to see a sample af that mail. Care to share?

 

[IAmAllanShore]

A little more time intensive, but has worked for me is any forum that I'm a member of that is targeted to a topic, I put the domain names that match the topic in my sig with a "for sale" note.
-Allan

 

[shilmy]

nRNF, thanks for all great ideas

But, what FSBO means? Are using eBay for the auction?

Alan, I never thought of this, great idea.

Any other ideas?

Sjarief

 

[EbookLover]

I basically only sell to the so called "end users" or at least I sell at the so called "end user prices"

Basically what hat I do is:

1) Look for simillar domains and extensions & Conduct searches in SEs for related websites.

2) With this I compile a Email list of potential interest buyers (based on website or WHOIS contacts).

3) Then I set the name on auction (no FSBO).

4) Right after setting up the domain auction I send out a mail to each identified potential buyer, and inform them about the auction.
(1 by 1 and personalized for each buyer)

Important in my experience is, that if you want to attend a decent sales price is to set up the auction BEFORE you mail the potential buyers. This has the effect, that it puts indirect pressue on buyers (bid now or you never have a chance again)
A FSBO mail to a potential buyer has not much effect, or you just receive a bunch of real low offers.

PS:
It is advisable, to do this only for domains w/o or low potential trademark conflicts.

Thanks for sharing that. That is a simple enough system that I have thought of before and seems it could be very effective. However, can you plese share with us how you get over worrying about people assuming you are a SPAMmer and repoprting you to eBay and your ISP. I know what you are doing is not spam and there is nothing wrong, but the problem is that there are a lot of folks out there that do not understand how to differentiate SPAM from a benevolent email from a stranger that is trying to sell you a legitimate product they might be interested in. If ebay gets a complaint for something like SPAM, they will just shut you down. That is how ebay works. They do not give you time to explain or anything like that.

I have thought about your system before but I never went through with it becasue of the fear of being accused and reported as a SPAMmer. I cannot afford to lose my ISP connection as the company I am with is the only one in my area that provides cable access.

nRNF, thanks for all great ideas

But, what FSBO means? Are using eBay for the auction?

Alan, I never thought of this, great idea.

Any other ideas?

Sjarief

Well, I'm not nRNF, but I can say I think it would be best to use ebay seeing how everyone has heared of them. Not everyone knows about niche domain auction sites and might shy away form bidding. Only if I were not allowed to sell on ebay would I consider using any other auction site. Remember, the end users are the ones that are bidding. They are not familiar with the differnt domain marketplaces for the most part becasue they are most likely not into the domain trading scene.

Now if you were targeting wholesale buyers/traders, using a niche domain auction site might not hinder bidding as most of your bidders would be familiar withthe auction site or at least they understand that it is legit.

 

[shilmy]

Ok, i never use ebay before. Is it complicated to sell your domain in ebay? Especially if I cannot use paypal account for payment.

Regards,
Sjarief

 

[1rrr1]

Ok, i never use ebay before. Is it complicated to sell your domain in ebay? Especially if I cannot use paypal account for payment.

Regards,
Sjarief

There are a lot of scammers there. Just watch out

 

[zaros64]

just find a domain thats got nearly the same keywoards as your domain and contact your owner and sell it

 

[EbookLover]

just find a domain thats got nearly the same keywoards as your domain and contact your owner and sell it

Gee, if only it were that easy, then you would be right.

Just because you ask someone if they want to buy something it does not mean they will actually buy it.

Besides listing it on an Auctions site like ebay has way more advantages than just saying to someone, "hey, wanna buy my domain? It's really good for you."

 

[mole]

"hey, wanna buy my domain? It's really good for you."

True, a lot of people other than domainers don't know the last thing about the value of domain names. All they know is, "shit, the .COM is not available" once in a lifetime when the urge or need strikes then just go register mycatswhiskers4u.com without bothering to contact the registrant.

People hate to be scalped, and have this feeling that they will be scalped if they contact the registrant.

Anyone here knows any site that has a good slick presentation on the value of domains to businesses?

 

[Wanda]

Presentation..
Presentation..
Presentation..

Finding "potential" end users/buyers is step 1. You do this by conducting a google search for the main keyword /s which your domain name serves/represents.

You then, take the time.. to find the "contact" email on these pages..
and you then,
create a positive, non atrusive msg. to send to theses "potentials"..
basically, an informative, courtesy msg. to make them aware that your domain is for sale.
* don't waste your time on a lengthy sales pitch.. out of respect.. a wise biz owner, will know and recognize the worth of a specific domain..
* simply make this domain web address available for "acquisition".
* be short.. and polite.. and NEVER, underestimate the intelligence of the end "reader" of your email.
* ALWAYS tell the end reader "who you are.. USE YOUR REAL NAME

My msg's go something like this:

Hello,
I am Wanda Cox, owner of the web domain: Whatever.com
I am currently offering this domain "for sale".
Should your organization, have interest in acquiring this domain, please
feel free to contact me.
************************

ALWAYS list a contact email AND A CONTACT PHONE NUMBER.

In your closing signature.. it's good measure, to list your professional website address. (one which relates to your domain listings is best)

AND DON'T FORGET TO OFFER YOUR PHONE NUMBER.

I have rec'd a good # of phone calls, by offering my phone number. Folks wish to speak to the person they will be dealing with. be prepared to answer "domain transfer" questions..

GoodLuck!

 

[RJ]

Here's a quick method of finding possible buyers for your domain name,

1. Go to WHOIS.SC and find owners of variations of your domain name. If you own example.com, there's a chance the owners of example123.com, exam-ple.com or example.us might be interested.

2. Go to Google.com and search for the keywords contained in your domain. Make a list of all the paying advertisers that appear in the "Sponsored Links".

3. Go to Overture.com and search for the keywords contained in your domain. Make a list of all the paying advertisers. (Click "View Advertisers' Max Bids")

These three steps will usually produce a decent sized list of potential buyers for your name. From there you can contact the companies and see if there's any interest in aquiring your name.

DO NOT SPAM! Mass mailing all these companies with a single spam email is a bad idea! Any time you do this you should be contacting these companies indivudually by email, snail mail or phone. Figure out how these companies can benefit by owning your domain and approach them with this information. Other threads on NP contain advice about how to go about this.

Also keep this in mind when expecting responses from contacting potential buyers:

People who contact you are much more likely to purchase than anyone you approach...

You might contact 30 companies and not receive any interest. Don't fret, move on to the next domain.

 

[JeeJee]

Good advice. What does FSBO and SEs means? Cheers

 

[IAmAllanShore]

FSBO = For Sale By Owner
SE = Search Engine *usually
-Allan

 

[JeeJee]

3) Then I set the name on auction (no FSBO).

why no sale by owner?? cannot understand this.

 

[nRnF]

3) Then I set the name on auction (no FSBO).
why no sale by owner?? cannot understand this.

As I said (now in other words):
A FSBO is no auction, hence there is no time limit for a potential buyer, and the reactions to any offer come by the seller.
Generally the buyer feels no pressue, and is not aware of any other buyers offers.

At FSBO the buyer likely will play the "I offer 10$" game just to see your reactions
For many Sedo users this might sound familliar

With a time limited acution you ashure, that the buyer will not have the chance to play the "low offer game" to see your reactions.
In fact the reactions come by other buyers.

A auction changes the players from YOU vs BUYER to BUYER vs BUYER.

E.g. at a auction for let's say 7 days duration the buyer(s) know that this likely the only chance to put hands on that domain.
After the acution the chance has gone maybe for ever.

IMO it makes absolutely no sense to set a name at FSBO and "make offer" when you additionaly contact potential buyers.
In the end this will eaven hurt your sales price if you do not sell it. A second approach to a potential buyer like "domain again/still on sale" cuts your sales price at half.

Only one thing is important if you wanna play the BUYER vs BUYER style game:
Make shure that there will be at least some players :bingo:


And if you are afraid of not getting enough money at the auction, set a "reserve" price.
If the auction ends then with no sale you got at least a very realistic appraisal.
I love this appraisal system, cause it gives you direct feedback of your own appraisals

However, can you plese share with us how you get over worrying about people assuming you are a SPAMmer and repoprting you

- Send out personalized Emails 1 by 1 (Dear Mr. Buck Fush, ......)
- Do not use a spammer like mail like [email protected].
- Use your name + a Tel. number in the signature
- You may use also something like "please excuse this cold mailing, but...)
- keep it short
- do not tell that you are in need of selling

 

[JeeJee]

great advice but i'm not that professional yet!

I've just sent something like 30-40 emails to advertisers on overture

The domain i'm selling is www.1hr.info which i target 1hr photo shop, 1hr credit payday loan, 1hr teeth whitening, etc

However, i notice i've got some emails rejected. Furthermore, those 1hr payday loan comes from a network i think which is like drop-shipping. I've wrote down a list of 30 emails which i can send when i set up the auction in about 1 week time.

I was not as polite as i could have been. No "excuse this cold mailing" or telephone number but definitely short and to the point. Used my real name as well. Didn't address each of them individually since most i won't know theirs as the email is sent to [email protected]

Is there any trick which i should imply on my first approach to the end user?

I suppose the name itself is rather brandable and hopefully some of them would be happy to use that.

Please advise further.

Also, does sending email to 30 people via gmail to invite them consider a spam and got block by Ebay??

Cheers

 

[nRnF]

JeeJee,
try to find more potential buyers
(I would say in 1hr.info case arround 100 or more, and do not limit this to a certain industry)

Problem with your domain is, that the .com is also for sale (stupid price -lol).
The .net is used by a not so popular web hosting company.
The .org is taken by a PPCer
This makes the TOP potential buyers shrink

If you do not know the name just use the company name.
A WHOIS lookup also gives you something to base on.

There are no real tricks to approach the end user.
--> Just be polite, be proffessional, tell the truth.

Concidering your doubts about spam:
For shure there is the risk, but you can/should minimize it by applying the basic rules stated in this thread.
(A 1 by 1 mailing is no spam)

Good luck

 

[JeeJee]

I've initially sending out email one by one. potential customers coming from Overture.

I'll search google and yahoo for the other potential buyers.

I didn't think of the whois. Well, i guess i'll personalise each email then. It'll probably takes a few more hours and hopefully it goes well.

Finally, i intend to send email out to invite the potential customers to bid for the item in 10s so that they know i am actually sending the email to a few people. Then they'll at least check the listing. Should i put a reserve price on this one?

 

[nRnF]

...
Finally, i intend to send email out to invite the potential customers to bid for the item in 10s so that they know i am actually sending the email to a few people. Then they'll at least check the listing. Should i put a reserve price on this one?

If you go for end users I would suggest using Ebay.
Reserve price at Ebay has also the advantage, that it is not showen (but set it wisely).
--> Don't reveal the reserve price if you set one, this may scare off eventaul buyers.

Again GOOD LUCK

 

[Castlemelody]

Greetings!

This is an interesting thread. My answer to this is another set of questions:

1. Who are your target end-users? How do you determine who they are?
What do they usually do? Where do you think they hang out on the
internet?

2. What is the best advertising technique to expose your domain on sale?
Do you have your sales copy ready?

Maybe if you are somebody else can answer them for you, that will be very nice.

I wish you well!

 

[Tippy]

Also, does sending email to 30 people via gmail...

I personally wouldnt use a gmail, hotmail or yahoo email account to contact possible buyers, it just doesnt look pro to me, use one of your own Domains if possible.

 

[JeeJee]

that would mean i need to setup a email account for my domain name isn't it?