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

 

[Toker]

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

That takes 2 minutes, set it up for the domain ya selling and use
Postmaster@that domain .
When I reg domains I usually change the ns1 & 2 to one of
my servers and just add it there myself.

Actually I even offer the hosting as a tool for some at times..
Even host it free till they hit 5 gigs a month or for the first
6 months whichever comes first so they don't have to pay for
hosting while they're building a site with no income as yet..

Then I give them a great paid hosting package which they
usually keep for 2 reasons, one because they don't have to
move everything and 2 the price is great..
I lease servers with 2 gigs of Ram and duel Xeon CPUs and get 1500
gigs a month of BW for $227.00 so it doesn't really cost me anything
to carry them for 5 gigs..

Tiss a good way to keep making $$$ off the domain even after ya sell it..

 

[barefoottech]

I agree wiith eBOOKlover
Using a ISP based email has the advantage of credibility
Anyone can get a Freebie gmail.com
[email protected]
or Buy a Disposable $5 Domain for spamming purposes
[email protected]

ISP emails are still easy to get but at least has a Credible appearance
[email protected]

But I never ,ever EMAIL prospective Buyers anyway
I research and Phone and/or send SnailMail letter to the
Advertising/Promotions manager or Advertising Agency handling the companies Marketing.

Domain names ,especially Brandable NAMES are often treated as Marketing by large companies.

Contacting WebMasters or IT Departments usually only gets a Techno-Geek
who thinks that "all domains are only ever Worth Reg-fee" and they never have the authority to make the purchase anyway.

 

[MarkP]

does someone mind pasting in the most recent, best tried email template they use, i tried the link above but there was no email template , just earlier part of thread.
thanks, this is a great thread guys keep it up :sold:

I just started testing this variation to Joshua's letter:

___________________________________________________________
(Please forward this message to your marketing and/or sales manager)

Dear USA Auto Glass Repair,

My name is Mark Powell and I’m with GeoBroker.com. I found your company while researching windshield companies online.

I am writing to let you know we have the domain name SeattleWindshields.com available for purchase.

As you probably know, now more than ever, consumers are using online search to find local businesses.

Owning the category defining domain name SeattleWindshields.com will not only improve your search engine results, it is more memorable to consumers and will be a great addition to any online, print or broadcast advertising campaign. The result will be more people finding your business.

If you would like to consider acquiring SeattleWindshields.com, please reply to this email by Tuesday afternoon. I’m happy to discuss pricing and ownership transfer methods with you. Also, you may be interested in reading the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of our website.

Thanks for taking the time to read this message. I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Best Regards,

Mark Powell
President
GeoBroker, LLC
Local Domain Names
877-870-6176
www.geobroker.com

 

[JoshuaPz]

Yes, Joshua, please post your didactic response.

Thanks very much in advance for all the help and advice.

NP

Here you go. I've left all information intact except the recipient's name:

===

Hi [...],

I appreciate the inquiry. It's important to realize that domain names are not much unlike real estate. As a case in point, it might cost you $1000/month to rent a 250-square-foot space in the Bronx for a brick-and-mortar shop, but it would clearly be unreasonable to expect to rent the equivalent amount of space on Fifth Avenue around Midtown, NYC for a penny under $5K/month. The added cost, of course, accounts for the revenue gained from planting your store in a densely populated location and the prestige of selling on Fifth Avenue. As in any other matter of business, demand determines price.

Comparing BlushBoutique.com to ShopBlushBoutique.com, the expression "blush boutique" is regularly Google-searched 2400-2900 times per month whereas "shop blush boutique" receives nominal search traffic (see Google AdWords Keyworld Tool). Since Google heavily weights closeness of match between search expression and domain name in determining the ranking of its results, you would boost your site a long way towards the #1 google match for "blush boutique" (and I notice there are many other blush boutiques out there) by acquiring this domain and then hiring a web developer to build a landing page on it.

If it will make a difference, I can lower my tag on domain's price a bit, to $400, but that has to be my final offer because I could easily dispose of this domain for an amount in the $500-$1000 range by contacting the other prospects on my list. BlushBoutique.com was initially registered 10 years ago (re-registered in '05), and it's very rare for ten-year-old domains to sell for under $500.

I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know your thoughts,
Joshua

 

[JoshuaPz]

Ok I have asked the buyer to quote a price which he thinks is fair. I would have sent him my asking price but I saw your post after sending email. But never mind let's see what he has to say as I have told him I am open to suggestions. Didn't send any SEDO link.

If you approached the buyer, it's your responsibility to quote a price. And if the buyer is an established company I would simply agree to transfer them the domain before requesting payment. Your buyer would then more likely say "yes" because he/she would feel more secure about the purchase, and you spare yourself the 10% loss on Sedo's commission. I've made over 100 end-user sales in this fashion and have never encountered a buyer who grabbed the domain without paying.

***

I've received many inquiries on how to respond to the "how much?" type e-mails. While I have provided general advice on how to price one's domains, to this point I've hesitated to offer templates for e-mails establishing asking prices because I had yet to find one that consistently evoked the optimal percentage of affirmative (or at least positive, understanding) responses. Well, after many months of experimentation, I would to present a template that I have yet, after about 10-15 mailings, to receive a straight out "no" (or no-response) to. My end-user has always either accepted or counter-offered -- usually the latter:

***

Template instance 1 - Domain SimpleTouch.com, end-user SimpleTouchIL.com:

Hi [...],

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, especially during these challenging economic times.

The most accurate way to gauge a domain's market value is to base it off past sales of similar domains. SimpleColor.com, SimpleStream.com, and SimpleMeasures.com pop up as the three most recently reported commercial domain name sales beginning with "Simple-". They sold for $755 (Apr. '08), $2288 (Feb. '07), and $3000 (Sep. '06), respectively. More importantly, the less-desirable SimpleTouch.net is listed at $888 on BuyDomains.com.

Based on the market capitalization and growth potential of LCD touch screens and spa resorts -- the most likely industry candidates for SimpleTouch.com -- this domain could easily fetch $1500-$2000 during healthy economic times. However, seeing as you represent a relatively young group, I will ask a slimmer $845 for SimpleTouch.com. If you choose to move forward I would proceed to transfer you SimpleTouch.com and then invoice your group for $845 via PayPal.

There already exist dozens of established domains beginning with 'SimpleTouch'. At its present $845 tag this domain will sell. It's only a question of whether that swap will occur this week or the week after.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and will keep my offer open through Friday if necessary. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone (XXX.XXX.XXXX) if any questions come to mind.

Speak to you soon,
[...]

***

Template instance 2 - Domain HummerHire.com, end-user HummerHummer.co.uk:

Hi [...],

Thanks for getting back to me, especially late on a Saturday afternoon. At your earliest convenience please pass the following information on to your supervisor and let me know whether he requires any additional facts:

The most accurate way to gauge a domain's market value is to base it off past sales of similar domains. TruckForHire.com and TrucksForHire.com pop up as the two most recently reported car-related domain sales ending with -Hire. They sold for $1000 and $1150, respectively, in July 2008. Other recently purchased -Hire domains include MedicalHire.com (whisked off for $800, also in July '08) and EasyHire.com (scooped up for $1000, Feb. '05).

Based on the market capitalization of the luxury car industry and the fact "hummer hire" as an expression receives 30% more monthly Google searches than "truck for hire" (and 300% more than "trucks for hire"), HummerHire.com could easily sell within the $1000-$1500 range during healthy economic times. However, as I understand the present recession has struck England even harder than it has the USA, I believe $750 would be a more fair amount to ask for HummerHire.com. If you chose to move forward I would proceed to transfer you HummerHire.com and then invoice your group for $750 via PayPal.

HummerHire.com is an extraodinarily pragmatic luxury car domain to own for both search engine optimization and marketing purposes. At its present $750 tag this domain will sell. It's only a question of whether that swap will occur this coming week or the week after.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and will keep my offer open through Wednesday if necessary. Please feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone (+1.XXX.XXX.XXXX) if any questions come to mind.

Speak to you soon,
[...]

***

As you can tell, this template requires heavy tailoring whose final product lucidly reflects the domain's composition, domain's industry category, and the nature of the specific end-user on your receiving end. Work hard => get lucky.

If the end-user does say "no thanks" without presenting a counter-offer, a quick throwback like the following has nearly always elicited a counter in my experience:

***

[...],

Out of curiosity, what is the most you could have offered? It's unlikely we'll accept that amount but we might take it under consideration.

Thanks,
[...]

***

Hope these examples help a few of you. I do not believe in keeping "trade secrets".

Jamie Zoch has also posted up a couple of helpful sample responses to the "how much?" question on his DotWeekly.com blog.

 

[Kate]

Here are a few tips I am sharing today:

First one is actually a reminder of what's been said earlier. When you shoot an E-mail, make sure that the end user will receive it at an appropriate time, which means between early morning and lunch time for example.
Know your target, and their time zone.
When I arrive at the office, I have tens of E-mails waiting, so I will read/delete them very fast, I want to keep pace and not let correspondence behind me.
Throughout the rest of the day I have more time to look at E-mails as they are received. I will pay more attention at 11am than 9am.

Second tip: unless you know exactly what you are doing, send E-mail in plain text, not HTML. If you send HTML, make sure there are no remote (linked), non-embedded images in it. If you use a webmail send one message to yourself to test and look at the headers carefully.
Mail clients like outlook or Thunderbird will not show remote images by default because they could be web bugs. The presence of remote images can dramatically increase the spam score too, it can make the difference between successful delivery and deletion by the receiving mail server.

Third tip: when you are going to pitch a domain to an end user you might want to know if they own zero, just one or several domains. Reasoning: an end user that owns more than just one domain might be more interested in buying more domains. They might also have a strategy like defensive regs.

How do you find out ?

• Some whois data is indexed by google, so if you run a search on their registrant E-mail address, you may find results for other domain names.
• Domaintools offers a paid Registrant search service. You provide an E-mail address and it will return the list of domains linked to that address (I think you can get a free report for your own address).
  There is no need to pay actually, just search the E-mail address and it will tell you how many domains were found. You don't need to know which ones

Fourth tip, if they have a website, have a thorough look at it. Does it look good, is it updated on a regular basis ? If they have a crappy website it probably means they do not take their online presence seriously. It means they must be educated about the Internet to begin with, they might still be light years ahead from understanding the importance of domain names.

Fifth tip: it has been said so many times, don't use free E-mail. It does not look professional and it is less reliable. It also increases the likelihood that your mail will be flagged a spam. Use your own domain names instead. That's the least one could expect, you are selling a domain name, lead by example and don't use a free service :tri:
Make sure that the outgoing E-mail shows your full name and not just the E-mail address, like this: John Smith <[email protected]> and not: <[email protected]>

Sixth tip: if your pitch was successful, the target will most likely visit the domain name out of curiosity. Make sure it is not parked. Instead, put up a simple placeholder page with some additional sales pitch that you did not include in your E-mail, because you had to keep it short and to the point. But now that you caught their attention, you can afford to add a few sentences.

It doesn't hurt to provide a bit of education like references to reported sales for comparable domains. Finally include your full details on that page too, a contact form will definitely make it easy for them to reach you.

That's it for the moment.

 

[lennco]

I think I have fix my problem with my emails going to spam folders so here are a couple of tips for anyone emailing potential buyers and wondering if your emails are going into spam folders.

First off go to ipchicken.com - IPChicken and get your IP, this is the IP you are using through your ISP.
Then go to mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx - MXToolBox and check to see if your ISP's IP is blacklisted, there is a good chance it is since I found out many ISP's blacklist their own IP's. They do this so you upgrade to their business ISP.

If it is blacklisted you can try using luxsci.com - Luxsci to send through a clean IP. I am trying them and so far my emails that I was sending to my old AOL account that were going to spam are now fine.

When you send an email to an AOL account, in the message source they tag it either Disposition G for General or Disposition S for spam.
My mail was "S" and now they are "G"
AOL is just one way to check to see if your emails are spammy.

So I suggest first check your IP and then go from there.


Just to add, I am using Thunderbird as my email client and so far it works well with Luxsci, just stay way from Webmail, I tried a couple of email clients in Webmail (Roundcube and Squirrel Mail) and my mail still went to spam.

 

[Federer]

1. GOOGLE the exact keywords (ex. "Affiliate Marketers" if you're looking to sell AffiliateMarketers.com)

2. Open up the best-fitting results (sites that have your keywords in their site's description/meta tags and/or similar domain)

3. Locate the contact details and send a short email. Do not state benefits and do not put an asking price. Subject line must read: Affiliate Marketers (based on above ex.)

4. Repeat process 50 times for the same domain to generate at least 2-5 "how much" replies from interested companies. Sell to one of them.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the next domain and so forth...

 

[GiftedDomains]

Ok here is probably something new and i am pretty sure maybe only a handful of domainers did this worldwide, if any. It will cost you some money and time and hours of walking. Plus, you need to be quite self-confident face2face. i.e. act like a real businessman. You can't do this with a pyjama and laptop from your bedroom.

Put on a suit, print some businesscards and attend big Fairs / Exhibitions of a specific industry, if you have a lot of domains related to that industry (or few premium category defining domains related to that industry).

In each exhibition stand you will find the important people of that specific company (i.e. managing director, marketing manager, etc.).
No Phone needed. No emails needed. No search needed. You have them all collected in one single place and you have the right and decision making person there to talk to. And you have companies with money. Such stands are not cheap.

I did this once in Germany back in 2008 and sold 3 domains in the x.xxx range. One directly in the fair (we signed the contract which i had prepared already in advance incl. NDA, etc.). And two later after i talked to the Marketing Managers there and we agreed to talk about this later. Note that many serious business don't want details of such sales to be published and specially not in a forum, etc. So prepare your sales contracts in a professional way and include NDA paragraphs, etc. This will make it more professional.

And my names were not one word premium names, etc. I had bought them all for reg fee and/or in the xx - low xxx range from snapservices.

In total i had about 400 dollars costs and made 5k win in two days.

Note: it will help if you know details about the specific industry (Hobby, jobs in the past, etc.), that way you can talk more about that industry, once you are having a conversation there with someone.

You will need to prepare yourself, practice such discussions, write down all possible question which could be asked and prepare your answers, practice in front of a mirror and/or with a relative/friend, etc.

Another great thing about such Exhibitions is that you collect hundreds of business cards from Marketing Managers, Managing Directors with exact details (direct phone, email. etc.), so later when you have other names or even later with the same names you had in the fair, you can contact them again via email.

Most of the people there are surprised about your offer, since probably they never experienced such an offer in any fair they attended (they probably only experienced a lot of email spam though!). So many (not all) are interested to sit down and listen to you.

 

[Federer]

I have been using emailextractorPro for the past few years to locate emails relating to certain keywords - enabling me to sell to end users almost on a daily basis.
Ex. "London Scaffolding" - would generate business emails for scaffolding companies based in and around London.

I have just purchased an Imac and would like to know if anyone knows of a capable software app/program that is capable of performing this task (extract email addresses based on keywords/search engine searches).


Would highly appreciate any guidance anyone could give us.

 

[GiftedDomains]

he said he had been contacted by various firms to sell this same domain name to him and that it looked to him that I am the rightful owner. He then went further to ask for my asking price.

my asking price which was stated at $1700

Thats the problem with these f_cking spammers who spam the entire world with the names which they don't own but found in droplists, etc.
They offer them for xx - xxx in their spam mails.

Now that you asked $1700, the potential buyer is probably shocked, because he received those spam mails telling him he can "secure" the domain for a fee much lower than your asking price.

F_ck these spammers who are ruining everything. I had a similar experience, so i am afraid the same might have happened to you. But anyway, wait few more days and if he doesn't answer or writes back that the price is astronomically high and that he received much lower offers from those other people, you can tell him that they are all scammers and just take the xx , but never deliver any domain. We need to fight back these a$$holes.

 

[TampaDomains]

You should skip Mondays because a business will be catching up from the weekend and have a ton of emails to go thru. Tuesday is better and by Wednesday they should be all caught up and more receptive.
I have heard late afternoon on Fridays is good to call but I am not sure I believe that one.

I have got more responses and sales from outgoing emails on Wednesdays for sure.

 

[maxtorz]

Words on marble. Just the hint I have been looking for.Thank you.please one question, how long do you spend looking for endusers for one domain you intend doing outbound marketing?.

Here is my take.

In order for me to get better at this you have to be able to negotiate to the "yes" (ABC). There is a book that was recommended on this forum which is a GREAT read "Never split the difference. Negotiate as you life depended on it" by Chris Voss.

Business owners do not generally know how to pick a domain name and are not sure why a domain name strategy is important. So, when you see "DomainName - whaterver.org" WOW, they really picked a good domain name. That is a potential client.

Reminder: Build the relationship and then make the sale.

Finding end users:
1. Google
2. Zfbot
3. Spyfu
4. Zoominfo
5. News and Radio

Tools:
Boomerang for gmail - Schedule emails at night and send in the morning
Streak for gmail - manage emails and lets you know who's viewed your email. Do a quick reply or phone call
email-format.com - if you cannot figure out the email format
whois.sc

email template:

Hope are doing well. My name is Rafael and my company owns the following domain name(s):


HoustonPersonalChef.com

Price: $$$$ US Buy It Now



We currently decided to sell this domain name and find potential clients that can benefit from this domain name. While doing a search , your company came up.


A domain name strategy is an important part of your overall digital strategy to be ahead of your competition and gain additional customers. Do you agree? Is so, get the domain name before someone else does.


If are you interested, please reply with your best offer. I am sure we can find a price that meets both our needs.

I hope this helps.

I like the tools you use and I had good experience with Boomerang and Streak.
This is my constructive criticism regarding your pitch:

I find your pitch rather confusing. The majority of business owners don't know what a "domain name strategy is" and could care less as they already have a domain and website. I would say something like "you can use this domain for lead gen, inquiry forms etc to attract new clients"

Also asking someone to reply with a best offer after you included a BIN price, will result in low ball $50-$100 offers....and you are leaving money on the table.

What's your followup pitch??? What will you say if you already asked for a best offer in your initial pitch?

 

[Eng.Balogun]

Thanks everyone for this. It will remain relevant forever.

My little addition☺
Hello [name],

I am Eng, owner of rr/r./com
I thought that you might be interested in knowing that the domain name is up for acquisition.

You can redirect it to your current website to capture additional targetted customers and increase sales.

Would you be interested in owning this domain name for your business?

Best Regards
Eng.
123456789
www/.rrr./com

 

[gilescoley]

Hello everyone.
This is my first post on forum.

I quit my job after a lot of years and in last few days I have been devoting myself to learning about domaining. I read a lot of it on forum and It looks fun and challenging when done properly which is what I want to do, with your tips and steps i have read on this forum. ( mostly buy it for 10$ sell it for 100$ ) to end users.

Ever since I started thinking about this, a couple of people have tried to dissuade me from this, saying that this was good about 10 years ago and that there is no point in spending time and money on this today.

My question is :
Does it make sense to start doing this, since I am a beginner and still have a lot to learn?
I'm aware that you oldschoolers are still killing it but you have been in this for a long time.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I'm just looking for encouragement

Matko.

Its not easy to make money in this game and it will more than likely take a few years before you get enough experience to start making any money. The best thing is to have a full time job and learn domaining on the side and gain and much experience and knowledge as you can. DO NOT register any domain in the first few months until you understand domain value. Check out dnjournal.com and namebio.com to see what sort of names sell. Good luck

 

[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

 

[wot]

If you just send an email it may just get deleted along with lots of others. Send a fax as well, then your prospect has a hard copy that may find it's way to his/her desk and may get looked at more than once.

If you follow up with a call your chances of getting to the decision maker should be improved by referring to "the fax we sent ----- relating to ---", may even have been waiting for your call :sold:

 

[danielr]

I have never tried to sell to end users before or tried selling on ebay.
I have about 30 domains that I am putting up for auction (FreePoker) domains.

"Free Poker" is the #1 marketing strategy to lure new players into online poker so I construted the site http://www.freepokerdomains.com and listed the domains that I am putting up for auction on ebay.

I am now in the process of notifying my poker affiliate program managers about this auction... but I am not putting a sales price.

I hope it works.

Note: "FreeRoll" is a free poker tournament that is used to give a way prizes or money to lure people into the game of poker / poker tournaments

 

[AdoptableDomains]

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.

I personally NEVER take anyone as a serious business person if they use a free email or an aol mail for business.

Better yet, set up and send email from the domain you are trying to sell. that will really get attention and seem to indicate it's not a flash in the pan dead domain. In a UDRP claim ,should the worst happen, it may even also show you actually USED the domain and had it hosted instead of just parked sale. The buyer may think they are buying from another company that was using it rather than a trader, and feel better about the dealings.

I always put "Private & Confidential. For The Personal Attention Of whois name".

Even in large corporations it is considered rude to open somebody elses mail.

I think this increases the chance of it being opened by the right person significantly.

If the domain is widgets.com and you are promoting it to a manufacturer or distributor of widgets, make the subject line something like:

"Widget industry business opportunity."

No one will pass up reading something that directly relates to the line of business they are in, thinking it's a busines prospect for their them (which it really is!).

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?

Individual emails takes away the first impression it's spam. However, I have sent to 3 people if I know they are direct competitors in the same market, AND they will recognize the other person/company. No one likes to think a competitor may get some advantage over them with good generic domain that they don't have. If it's a large industry, they don't know each other, or they compete in different geographic markets it has no use though.

 

[Archangel]

Maybe I should add something here:

Two more things to keep in mind. One is simple: DON'T use abbreviations! Sure, YOU know what a SERP is. A lotta domainers do. But people who aren't in the business likely DON'T. Longer emails are good if you take the time to explain WHY a domain would benefit, opposed to telling them a bunch of Net lingo without an explanation for the majority who don’t understand.

Also, I advise that you proofread your email before you send it. I personally find typos to be a sign that the seller is a little kid or too stupid to do business with. If I receive an offer that contains a billion typos (and lacks professionalism), I delete it without consideration.

Or in the case of multiple typos, I tend to fall upon the assumption that the writer was in a hurry and wouldn't take his time to present himself professionally. That's a major no-no if you ask me.

 

[Dotplanners]

contacting end users

Another point of view. I adopted this exact same approach with a single-word dot com name I owned about 12 months ago. I did two months research until I had a shortlist of prospective buyers. I then emailed out to what I thought were several hundred highly relevant potential buyers, plus I did an actual worldwide postal mail-out that cost me about $700. I set the domain name on its own site and set out the terms and conditions for an auction on eBay. I published on the website what I consider to be an excellent presentation extolling the merits of why you would want to buy the domain name. I insisted on registration for the auction so I would only get qualified buyers. I set what I believed was a very modest starting price for the name. It was all done very professionally.

I did not get one bid.

I've also tried other approaches over the years and I have come to the conclusion that unless you have a very sought after name it is extremely difficult to sell a name at this point in time. There are just so many alternative names that people can buy and unless someone is fixated on your name it becomes quite hard.

I think you can usually gauge your chances by looking at how many approaches you have had over the past 3-5 years. I have had what I consider to be good names for in excess of 10 years and have not received one email re some of these names. That clearly suggests to me that this industry is just starting and has possibly 20-30 years to go before it matures to the point whereby you can quickly and easily sell a good two-word dot com for a significant amount. Leasing your names is also years away. That won't happen until name brokers become involved and we haven't really seen them established in the industry yet.

You are going to have a lot of luck to sell your names through your own initiatives. Your best chance at this point in time is through the auction and sales houses. The DDN system would have been great but it looks like the registrars have killed that by demanding huge commissions (it was initially proposed that 2% commissions would apply).

If anyone has a strategy that really works I'd love to know it.



.

After years of sending out all sorts of beautifully written emails (I was once a copy writer for a Madison Avenue Ad agency), I finally stopped sending emails and started getting the PHONE numbers of the companies, either their marketing dept (for large corporations) or just the person in charge of online promotions for the business. I asked for names and phone numbers of the correct person to contact. I then CALLED these people, gave them my phone number and email address, asked for their direct email address, and asked if I could send them more information on the value of owning their keyword specific domain name for their products/services.

It's a lot of work, but it gets better results. Talking to someone, then sincerely giving them all the info you know for the value of a domain and how it applies to that specific company ( I have a huge list of "why buy domains" comments and bullet points I use) is very helpful in closing a sale that gets you the price you want. Sometimes you have to WORK for the deal. Just sending out tons of emails, no matter how well written, doesn't mean those emails will ever reach the person authorized to buy the domain from you for the company.

Do your due diligence, find out about your buyers, tell them your BIN price, and you're accepting all offers, but the BIN price is an immediate sale.

I sell about $5,000 - $10,000 a month this way, and these are NOT premium domains. Just simple keyword domains that describe niche categories for the buyers. Lots more secrets are in my files, but I'm a domain consultant, can't give it all away for free or my kids don't make it through college!

 

[MarkP]

I only got one response today. This came in the form of a phone call from a possible end user which really caught me off guard (although it shouldn't, I include my phone # with every email).

The first thing he wanted to know was what I could tell him about the name..I froze for a moment and then blurted out where the name was reg'd, expiration date...At that point I was unsure what more I could say about the name, so I started to explain why I was looking to sell. Basically just saying I didn't have the time to develop, would like to find a person who could better utilize the name..blah, blah...I was SO nervous by this point!

He then asked HOW I found him! I mumbled off something about doing a Google search for dog food companies (my name is a 3 word organic food domain). I thought for a brief second to explain to him about my whois search, then thought I'd better not...is it better to not mention a whois search to endusers?

The call then basically ended with my price quote, mentioning that my research of DNSaleprice.com confirms that I am well under market value (which I am). He then said he would have to run this by the IT dept and board of directors and that he would either call back or email me....That was earlier this morning and I have heard nothing back as of yet..keeping my fingers crossed though.

In my past life I spent my days battling with medical insurance companies on the phone...that was a breeze compared to trying to pitch a sale over the phone!! I hope my slight nervousness didn't blow the deal.

Running something by a board of directors could take weeks, be patient and follow up with him every week or two.

Business to business phone sales has been part of my life for over 20 years. From making hundreds of dials per day, to closing $xxx,xxx deals, to writing scripts, to building a phone sales force of over 200 people.

I'm going to write about this a lot more on the blog I'm thinking about launching (I just bought SellingMy.com from Josh). If you're serious about learning, start with these two things (only the best and most committed ever do these):

1. Join a Toastmasters club and learn to think and speak on the fly.

2. Write out all of your scripts and answers to common questions and objections. Practice them out loud - to the mirror, your dog, your spouse or anyone else that will listen. You should even record yourself and play it back to hear how you sound.

Your goal is not to sound like a 'sales' person, but to sound like a business professional that can have a comfortable conversation on a topic you have expertise in.

 

[FreshAvails.com]

This approach can work with any Keyword Rich Domain.

Re: AcademicPublications.com, I might approach it differently. Your main goal should be to get traction with decision makers and demonstrate it's value/opportunity. Noone likes to get unsolicited sales messages. Position your email more as a business opportunity.

Step One
First thing you need to do is a little homework. You need to approach them as if you are selling advertising on your site. Stats on the Academic Publishing industry. How big is it? Number of Publishers? Number of Consumers? Etc...You are selling so you need to do the heavy lifting. Now you have your ammo.

In your email, approach them as the new owner of the domain with plans for a business with a directory/portal/e-commerce hub centering on Academic Publications. Mention how well positioned you are because of the great generic name you have and that it is universal. Mention the size of the market and opportunity, the influx and rising influence of online publishing, etc.. You are interested in having them participate in this enterprise. Focus on your goal and the opportunity of generating revenue, leads and new markets. All this is possible because of the domain name. You should also sprinkle in the amount of google searches this gets and the number of results generated as well. Ask or confirm that this is the right person to deal with on this. (don't mention a price!) If it is not them, they WILL send the email to the right person for a response to you.


Step two
Once you get ahold of the decision maker and their interest in the potential you are offering, keep mentioning the revenue and opportunites along with the competition you might have contacted. Then start asking them about their own "online" strategy---they will have one or pretend they do. Your name will no doubt dovetail nicely into that strategy. To them, your difficulty is generating the content and revenue to be successful but you have a great name. They have a much lower hurdle to be successful because they have the content, products and contacts already. They just need your name. Also them having the name allows for them to keep their competition from getting it.

At this point, you may have 1-2 interested parties and able to generate a nice end user sale for the name. Will take some work but you are then looking at a name worth $5K or more. Good luck.

 

[GoQuickly]

Tips and end user sales!

So I am new to this forum and have been selling domains for roughly 6 months now. I have been honing down on my techniques and am doing moderately well with my responses. Here is my contribution.

First find expiring domains that are coming available within 3-5 days.

A great resource for this is Pool.com or NameCatch.com

If you find one that is something you feel comfortable marketing, open Excel up (Different sheet for the different days they come available.)

Paste the name in there and make it bold.

Leave about 15 lines between any domains you found.

Next go on Google and search the keywords that are tied to your domain.

Pull any sort of business with a weak domain name for the keyword results within the first 5 pages. Also take note of the people paying for advertisement. For example, you would have a better domain if you owned ArizonaPetSupply.com over someone who owned BestPetSupplySuzie.com and had Arizona in her description tag.

Open all of these sites by CTRL + Clicking on them into new tabs. I use Chrome for this because it also has a nice built in notepad and whois tool. You'll need both these in a minute.

Browse the site and find a contact email. If it doesn't have one, look on the whois. If you can't find one there move on.

If you do find one. Copy and paste it into the chrome notepad and close that sites tab.

Once done with all sites, copy and paste all email addresses gathered under the domain name your trying to market.

Open outlook and pull up a prewritten template and replace the spots needed to make it feel more personalized. I don't put the customers name in the actual email, because sometimes they ask where you got their name from and it's awkward. I just market it as if I found the information off their site.

Fill out your email in the To field and the other addresses in the BCC so it keeps it more personal. Your in the to field so you can archive what you sent/when/and to whom.

Do not put down a price on the domains in the initial email unless they are highly valuable. On those you can set expectations. If it's something you hand registered for 7 dollars be happy that someone might pay $300-$500 for it and move on.

Be short and sweet on the email. Let them know the obvious and move on. My template generally includes the monthly searches in Google alone for the keywords in the domain.

Tips on what the end of your email should look like.

You ALWAYS want to send an email from a domain you own!

Having a professional signature is advised!

Example:

First Middle Initial Last
Website Address
Description of site (motto)
Phone number to reach you at.

I've sold 3 domains in the past 2 days totaling about $950 in total.

 

[fm1234]

posted by Federer:

1. GOOGLE the exact keywords (ex. "Affiliate Marketers" if you're looking to sell AffiliateMarketers.com)

2. Open up the best-fitting results (sites that have your keywords in their site's description/meta tags and/or similar domain)

3. Locate the contact details and send a short email. Do not state benefits and do not put an asking price. Subject line must read: Affiliate Marketers (based on above ex.)

4. Repeat process 50 times for the same domain to generate at least 2-5 "how much" replies from interested companies. Sell to one of them.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for the next domain and so forth...

No matter how many years this thread goes on, this will always be the short version. While my approach is not exactly the same as yours, the bottom line on end user sales is that it's a grind, and those who will work it are those who will succeed at it.

posted by gcttirth:

Those that rank for "Affiliate Marketers" high on Google -- why would they buy another domain? They must be having a good domain name if they are ranking for the exact keyword. Why would they do SEO again for the new domain if they already have a domain ranked?

A good point. Some companies just like to own relevant domains -- a fact I always check using the WHOIS to get an idea of how many domains a given prospect owns, and what kind of domains they are. I tailor my approach for a few different types of prospects:

1) Those who are spending on AdWords to rank for the term, but do not rank organically in the first couple of pages for the term. These are very good prospects, because they are spending money on an ogoing basis (note that simply having an exact match domain doesn't guarantee top rankings, but one study after another shows that it certainly helps in conjunction with good content and proper optimisation.)

2) Those who rank well for similar but lower-value terms, typically those which come up as "related searches" on the Google SERP page.

3) Companies and investors with large domain portfolios, especially those for whom a sample of their portfolio suggests that they prefer the kind of domain I am selling.

4) "lesser" TLD holders of the same phrase as my .com domain.

There are other types of prospects of course, but I tend to stick to these four, and each has its own particular approach. Trying to sell a .com domain to a prospect who already has a decent domain, ranks on the first page for the .com's keywords, and doesn't appear to own a bunch of similar domains, is likely a waste of time.

posted by mitok:

I understand, but what if they dont "get it"?

I mean, you cant know if the potential end-user understand why your domain is better or would also do good for them.

When you are contacting them very ofter you dont know how well they understand domains. If you reach someone who understand the value of domains then you should definitely be short in your initial mail. BUT, very often you dont know how well does they understand domains and if including benefits will trigger them to think about purchase.

You have got to qualify your leads somehow. If they aren't spending money on AdWords to rank for your domain's phrase, and do not appear to own multiple domains in their niche, then chances are you're going to spend a lot more time explaining yourself than you are selling your domains. You also run a much higher risk of buyer's remorse among unqualified prospects, which can lead to chargebacks and being maligned on the internet (which is great when another prospect does a search on you or your company's name, just great.)


Frank