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

 

[nicedomains]

I think you completely get my point wrong when i mention the advantage of having a content website. I never say "hey this is my website. check it out." What I mean is that you have a website available, use a email from that domain. If u contact a technical guy, chance is he will check out your domain and come to that website. It is a parked or not available domain. He might have no impact from you (or worst: "scam, beware!"). If you have a content website, you boost your image. This is marketing, promoting yourself. Why misleading with that?

Nothing wrong with developing websites to sell. I was commenting on this sales tactic:

Also, when u sell to small, family-run, elderly-run, women-run business, use "website" instead of "domain". Most of these targeted group don't know what is a "domain" and always associate internet with "website".

If you have your domain parked and are approaching them to sell them a domain name I wouldn't tell them you are selling a "website". A website includes unique "content" associated with that domain.

 

[aladinonl]

If you have your domain parked and are approaching them to sell them a domain name I wouldn't tell them you are selling a "website". A website includes unique "content" associated with that domain.

I get your point. I would suggest compromising the correct term used with us but unfamiliar with the prospect ("domain") with the incorrect term but acceptable to them ("website") BUT indicate that you are currently put up advertisements related to the business (to indicate a parked domain) or not developed website ( to indicate an undeveloped domain) and urge them to see the web page.

This is what I did when my prospect keeps using "website". I find its hard, confusing and unnessarry to tell her that it's a domain.

THe differnt between a domain and a website is the content. By this, you indicate that currently there's no content besides advertisement and that they buy a "website" with no content and have to build the content themself which is not different from the core meaning of this activity.

I recently have a chance to approach few key top people in a company which I cooperated and had good relationship before to sell. They are totally puzzled about the word "domain". And I have to go back to above points to explain to them. Unfortunately, they have changed their strategy and develop a new business more profitable than what they previously did so no sales i guess.

Still, there's a lot of people tell upfront a "domain" and still sell. So I'm just suggesting a way to go around.

 

[Marck]

What about calling it a "website address"? Would that work?

 

[ripley]

Just closed my second enduser deal, after about a month of trying. I have one other deal agreed to but have yet to receive payment. I'm just breathing in gas fumes from folks like JoshuaPz and Federer, but I'm still pushing.

Calling Card Site (com) - $100.

I'm finding the process of domain transferring to be rather bumpy, also. Not because the process is difficult, but because it's unfamiliar to non-domainers.

ripley.

(edited to change Credit to Calling!)

 

[StrictlyNames]

wow ripley, that seems cheap to me.

 

[Jake]

wow ripley, that seems cheap to me.

+1

congrats on the sale though

 

[DNK.it]

Just closed my second enduser deal, after about a month of trying. I have one other deal agreed to but have yet to receive payment. I'm just breathing in gas fumes from folks like JoshuaPz and Federer, but I'm still pushing.

Credit Card Site (com) - $100.

I'm finding the process of domain transferring to be rather bumpy, also. Not because the process is difficult, but because it's unfamiliar to non-domainers.

ripley.

congratz on your sale ripley. You can avoid the problem of domain transfer by create an account on the registrar where the domain is, push the domain into the new account and give user and password to the new owner.

 

[Starblast]

Is it a good idea to include in a letter the link to Sedo domain name offer page?
So the people who do not want to reply by email, can just click the link and maybe
place an offer on domain?

 

[ripley]

Yikes, that should be CALLING. Not credit! I was just done paying my credit card bills when I posted the message. :o

Otherwise I'd agree with you.

I've experimented with not listing a price and just emailing a generic email, and with listing a price and a link to the Sedo page. But I haven't tried it enough to be able to judge which is better or worse.

ripley.

 

[Nattydomain]

Just closed my second enduser deal, after about a month of trying. I have one other deal agreed to but have yet to receive payment. I'm just breathing in gas fumes from folks like JoshuaPz and Federer, but I'm still pushing.

Calling Card Site (com) - $100.

I'm finding the process of domain transferring to be rather bumpy, also. Not because the process is difficult, but because it's unfamiliar to non-domainers.

ripley.

(edited to change Credit to Calling!)

Good job...goin to email some follow ups tomorrow and see if I lower my price if they bite....Now since im not getting replys im thinking maybe I should just spend my time devloping full throttle 1 domain a month and let the ads work for me....1 week developipng......2nd week tweaking and adding affiliate banners....3&4th week promoting......and do that monthly since end users seem not to be my forte

 

[JoshuaPz]

I'm working on various statistical experiments to determine the optimal conditions for sending sales pitches.

In my first experiment, I pitched 100 companies (of all sizes) on a domain -- the first 40 on a Mon. afternoon, the second 40 on a Tue. afternoon, and the last 20 on a Wed. afternoon. I gave each of the 100 until Friday to provide me an initial response. The results:

* Pitched on Monday - 5 / 40 (12.5%) responded asking for price by Friday
* Pitched on Tuesday - 3 / 40 (7.5%) responded asking for price by Friday
* Pitched on Wednesday - 1 / 20 (5%) responded asking for price by Friday.

So it appears that the earlier in the week you e-mail them given they must respond by Friday, the better your chances. I'll need to perform further experiments to determine whether Monday's excellent results were due to the day of week pitched or the generous amount of response time allotted.

Please don't make any critical decisions base on these findings, as the sample size of companies I e-mailed in this trial was very small. But in the event you're torn between e-mail pitching a key prospect between Monday (logic: more time to consider your offer) versus later on the week (logic: expressing urgency, putting the clamp on), it looks like Monday's your better bet.

 

[FPForum]

Congrats on the sale ripley. Whether people say it was underpriced or not, it all comes down to feedback. If you have a domain which appears to be good and email 50 people about it and only get 1 response, honestly it comes down to how bad you want to get rid of it. When you get that one response it all depends on how bad you want to sell. You have two choices. 1: give them a price they can't refuse (which sounds like the road you took) or 2: give them a price they can refuse if it's too high and you hold onto the domain.

Now..if you really wanna make the sale (which I have been in a couple times before) you take the first route. I had a CCC.net in which I sent out to a few people. Got a response from only 1 person (the guy who owned the .org) he was very interested. I took into effect the fact that a CCC.net will sell here on NP for what..$10 if i'm really lucky. Well, I wanted to get the name sold and not hold it for another 3yrs waiting for the resale value to go up. So, I responded with the price of $50 (knowing he would bite on it right away)..Guess what, he did! Although I might have been able to squeeze a 100 or 2 out of it I didn't wanna bother. I wanted to give him a price he couldn't refuse AND I could make a decent profit on.

Great sale at $100 and anyone telling you it was too cheap should have made that offer to you when you had it. If it's a name you wanna sell right away then you made the correct move, making them an offer they couldn't afford to refuse!

 

[mwzd]

I don't really do much cold calling except to known prospects.

But selling to end users for $100 seems counter productive.

Too much effort for too little money, at least pitch around the $500 range - sell at $250-$300 lowest, or move on to the next prospect. And yes... make sure the domain is at least worth $500 before even bothering with end user sales.

 

[FPForum]

I don't really do much cold calling except to known prospects.

But selling to end users for $100 seems counter productive.

Too much effort for too little money, at least pitch around the $500 range - sell at $250-$300 lowest, or move on to the next prospect. And yes... make sure the domain is at least worth $500 before even bothering with end user sales.

I dunno...to me $8 to register a domain and 4hrs of emailing still comes out to over $20/hr..More than most people make in modern America these days unless they have a degree in law, medicine, or engineering.

 

[mwzd]

Time your average end user sale, including prospecting and transaction completion.

Add to that the time it takes to find an actual $500 name for $8.

Then let me know whether you nett $20/hr for $100 sale.

 

[Nattydomain]

I'm working on various statistical experiments to determine the optimal conditions for sending sales pitches.

In my first experiment, I pitched 100 companies (of all sizes) on a domain -- the first 40 on a Mon. afternoon, the second 40 on a Tue. afternoon, and the last 20 on a Wed. afternoon. I gave each of the 100 until Friday to provide me an initial response. The results:

* Pitched on Monday - 5 / 40 (12.5%) responded asking for price by Friday
* Pitched on Tuesday - 3 / 40 (7.5%) responded asking for price by Friday
* Pitched on Wednesday - 1 / 20 (5%) responded asking for price by Friday.

So it appears that the earlier in the week you e-mail them given they must respond by Friday, the better your chances. I'll need to perform further experiments to determine whether Monday's excellent results were due to the day of week pitched or the generous amount of response time allotted.

Please don't make any critical decisions base on these findings, as the sample size of companies I e-mailed in this trial was very small. But in the event you're torn between e-mail pitching a key prospect between Monday (logic: more time to consider your offer) versus later on the week (logic: expressing urgency, putting the clamp on), it looks like Monday's your better bet.

Wow 100 emails for 1 domain? Ok this is where I get stuck and start to feel I cant do this anymore. What companies are you emailing that you can get 100 emails? Im lucky to get 25 prospects! Let me give you one example and please be frank on the response....

I was pitching the domain GPSRadars (dot com) and based on the name was pitching it to online stores who had GPS in their url & GPS related stores who sold GPS. I also sent it to the GPS manufactores (sp) for a total of 25 emails. I ONLY sent to .com and .net sites as with .org I never pitched to for the reason (and this is my thinking) that there prob more non profit and feel it would be better if they got a domain as a donation rather then spending money. So besides GPS stores and GPS makers who else should I have pitched this to?

When I send out the emails my main search first is urls that contain one or more of the same keywords in my domain. Second is a search on that subject or close related. Give us an example of a domain you pitched and what typs of people you pitched it to.

 

[StrictlyNames]

Great sale at $100 and anyone telling you it was too cheap should have made that offer to you when you had it. If it's a name you wanna sell right away then you made the correct move, making them an offer they couldn't afford to refuse!

FP,

My reply "that it seemed cheap" was directed at the domain "credit card site (dot) com" which he initially said the domain was, and I stand my statement that for 100 that would be cheap for that name.

The actual name was "calling card site (dot) com", which sounds more reasonable to me.

 

[JoshuaPz]

My domain is a highly-generic sleep-related name. I'm pitching to mattress companies (of which there hundreds), sleep therapists (a couple dozen with websites), and pharmaceutical ventures (another few dozen). Of all these, I chose the 100 sites that receive the most visitors.

Yes, it's a lot of effort for one domain, but I feel that carefully researching, targeting, and engaging my end-users in this way will allow me to make my first mid-$XXXX sale.

Look at Federer's sales for samplings of domains with hundreds of potential prospects. One of his latest accomplishments, Shopping - Center (dot) com for $6500, is a prime example.

But yes, I pitch most of the names I catch off the drop via my personal tools to just 5 or 6 high-probability prospects, hence my 15-20% response rate. My latest campaign was more of a semi-individualized mass-mailing, hence the meager 9% rate.

 

[ripley]

Time your average end user sale, including prospecting and transaction completion.

Add to that the time it takes to find an actual $500 name for $8.

Then let me know whether you nett $20/hr for $100 sale.

It's true, it can be fairly time intensive. But, it's better than hanging around waiting for renewals to come due. $100 is $100 more than I had yesterday, and probably more than I'd have in a year waiting for an offer on a name like that. I used $20 of it to purchase a name on which I have a $150 sale pending, two weeks later.

Was it time consuming? Sure. But I don't mind working for my money.

ripley.

 

[mwzd]

$100 is $100 more than I had yesterday,... Was it time consuming? Sure. But I don't mind working for my money.

You're never going to make money unless you work for it. What I'm trying to say is that $100 is probably what a decent sized company spends on one lunch, its not too much money.

A $300 sale is not that tough at all... even for one man companies as long as they are end users.

I sold auctionbandit dot com to the .biz owner - he's an individual doing clickbank sales. I told him 'make me a decent offer' and he offered $400 - I accepted, that simple. So a 100% strike rate - 1 sale for 1 prospect plus i made a decent ROI that enables me to wait for over a week to complete the deal - which included showing him how to setup a godaddy account..