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

 

[Sameh]

Trying my luck with a LLLL .org today.
Sent out 30 emails an hour ago using the tips given by Federer.
And so far, I have two quick replies.

1 reply with "No Thanks.".
The other saying their company is non-profit, but is willing to listen to my Buy-It Now price.

Waiting for a few more to reply (hopefully!).

Wish me luck. :hehe:

Take the "No Thanks" replies as a positive result. As you managed to get them to read your email and reply. IMO


Good Luck :tu:

 

[ripley]

Trying my luck with a LLLL .org today.
Sent out 30 emails an hour ago using the tips given by Federer.
And so far, I have two quick replies.

Mind sharing what these tips might be? Or perhaps Federer can make a post here.

ripley.

 

[Jingles]

Does anyone have any tips on sending emails to potential endusers once one of your names is already at auction? I'd like to email a few people regarding a name currently on auction at Sedo, but I'm not sure how to do it in a tactful way. Should a link to the auction page also be added to the email? Thanks

 

[DNK.it]

Does anyone have any tips on sending emails to potential endusers once one of your names is already at auction? I'd like to email a few people regarding a name currently on auction at Sedo, but I'm not sure how to do it in a tactful way. Should a link to the auction page also be added to the email? Thanks

I'm interested in it too

 

[NP41215]

It may also mean that 4 days or less is too short and not comfortable for most people to make a decision of this nature.

Try something like "within 10 days" and see what results.

Personally, I like to take my time and not like being pressured.

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.

 

[JoshuaPz]

The 3-5 day limits are only for providing an initial response. Once the user asks "what's your price?" and I usually provide a comfortable time frame (~1 week) for the user to make a decision.

From my experience, 90% of all end-user prospects who respond to my e-mail get back to me with a decision within a day, and it is usually the first one who replies that counter-offers at a figure closest to my asking price. If you want the domain badly and know I'm actively selling it, you gotta lunge for for the name before it's gone. The world of Internet business moves fast.

It may also mean that 4 days or less is too short and not comfortable for most people to make a decision of this nature.

Try something like "within 10 days" and see what results.

Personally, I like to take my time and not like being pressured.

 

[asdomar]

Joshua, I thankyou for your precious tips in this great post. I have a question for you.
Did you ever make mini-sites on the domains that you want sell. How did you present the domain to endusers: enveloped, parked or what?
Many tnx again.

 

[1901gt]

Take the "No Thanks" replies as a positive result. As you managed to get them to read your email and reply. IMO
Good Luck :tu:

Over the past 2 days, I've received 5 'Not interested' replies

On a positive note, like you said, at least I know people been reading my emails.

Mind sharing what these tips might be? Or perhaps Federer can make a post here.

ripley.

Probably you can PM him privately.

 

[JoshuaPz]

If you guys are looking to jack up your response rates to e-mail pitches, make sure you're keeping close tabs on when you're delivering your pitches.

I spent the past few hours brushing through ALL e-mail pitches I have made since July 24th* and ALL replies to those e-mail pitches, and have compiled statistical data on my "initial reply" (e.g. "What's your price?") rate for each hour-block** during which I sent out pitches. My findings were quite interesting:

Total Initial Replies: 122 / 1091 (11.1%***)

BREAKDOWN:
=> 12am-12:59am: 0 / 1 (0%)
=> 1am-1:59am: 0 / 0 (0%)
=> 2am-2:59am: 0 / 0 (0%)
=> 3am-3:59am: 0 / 2 (0%)
=> 4am-4:59am: 0 / 0 (0%)
=> 5am-5:59am: 0 / 0 (0%)
=> 6am-6:59am: 1 / 13 (7.7%)
=> 7am-7:59am: 1 / 15 (6.7%)
=> 8am-8:59am: 6 / 31 (19.4%)
=> 9am-9:59am: 7 / 31 (22.6%)
=> 10am-10:59am: 9 / 73 (12.3%)
=> 11am-11:59am: 16 / 135 (11.9%)
=> 12pm-12:59pm: 10 / 67 (14.9%)
=> 1pm-1:59pm: 7 / 91 (7.7%)
=> 2pm-2:59pm: 11 / 66 (16.7%)
=> 3pm-3:59pm: 20 / 142 (14.1%)
=> 4pm-4:59pm: 7 / 136 (5.1%)
=> 5pm-5:59pm: 9 / 99 (9.1%)
=> 6pm-6:59pm: 7 / 51 (13.7%)
=> 7pm-7:59pm: 5 / 71 (7.0%)
=> 8pm-8:59pm: 3 / 30 (10.0%)
=> 9pm-9:59pm: 1 / 19 (5.2%)
=> 10pm-10:59pm: 1 / 13 (7.6%)
=> 11pm-11:59pm: 1 / 5 (20.0%)

Because the number of e-mails I sent out during some these hours was statistically insignificant, it may be more useful to group these sets of hours into logical blocks, as follows:

=> Early Morning (6am-7:59am): 2 / 28 (7.1%)
=> Mid-Morning (8am-9:59am): 13 / 62 (21.0%)
=> Late Morning (10am-11:59am): 25 / 208 (12.0%)
=> Afternoon (12pm-3:59pm): 48 / 366 (13.1%), but avoid 1pm-2pm?
=> Rush Hours (4pm-5:59pm): 16 / 235 (6.8%)
=> Evening (6pm-8:59pm): 15 / 152 (9.9%)
=> Early Night (10pm-11:59pm): 3 / 37 (8.1%)
=> Late Night (12am-4:59am): 0 / 3 (0%)

I will flesh out and add analysis to this post tomorrow. At the moment I'm exhausted from compiling the above data.

NOTES:
(*) - I chose 7/24 because I have been using roughly the same pitch template since that date.
(**) - Hours given are in the end-user's time zone
(***) - The 1091 figure includes (a) e-mails, (b) web forms that sent a copy of the message to my e-mail address, and (c) end-users contacted by web forms who replied back saying "I'm not interested"; many web form pitches, i.e. those not fulfilling (b) or (c), were excluded from this total. The 122 figure includes (a) affirmative responses to e-mails (but not "No, I'm not interested" replies), and (b) affirmative responses to web forms that quoted my original message and included its timestamp. My ACTUAL initial response rate has been 12.8% overall, but shows up as 11.1% due to discrepancies between what the 122 and 1091 were counting.

 

[1901gt]

Most of the replies came in the morning for me.
So far, I've received no replies in the evening or at night.
But then, I've only been sending out emails since last weekend. :hehe:

 

[JoshuaPz]

The chart in my post shows not when you RECEIVE the replies but when you should SEND your pitches to maximize your chances of receiving replies.

From the data, it appears your probability of getting that often-elusive "What's your price?" response is 3 times higher if you pitch during the Mid-Morning Hours (8am-10am) than if you send those same pitches during Rush Hours (between 4pm-6pm), even when no other factors are considered. I've arrived at these findings based on a pretty strong chunk of sample data (~1100 pitches, all based on the same template), and to me it bloody hell screams that you send ALL your e-mail pitches between 8am and 10am in your prospects' time zones to maximize your chances of making sales. The resulting 21% response rate figure speaks for itself. So, if it's 4pm and you've just captured a fabulous domain on the drop, I would strongly advise resisting the urge to throw the domain in your prospects' faces immediately. Triple your chances by HOLDING OFF until the next morning and drilling 'em then!

 

[Nattydomain]

The chart in my post shows not when you RECEIVE the replies but when you should SEND your pitches to maximize your chances of receiving replies.

From the data, it appears your probability of getting that often-elusive "What's your price?" response is 3 times higher if you pitch during the Mid-Morning Hours (8am-10am) than if you send those same pitches during Rush Hours (between 4pm-6pm), even when no other factors are considered. I've arrived at these findings based on a pretty strong chunk of sample data (~1100 pitches, all based on the same template), and to me it bloody hell screams that you send ALL your e-mail pitches between 8am and 10am in your prospects' time zones to maximize your chances of making sales. The resulting 21% response rate figure speaks for itself. So, if it's 4pm and you've just captured a fabulous domain on the drop, I would strongly advise resisting the urge to throw the domain in your prospects' faces immediately. Triple your chances by HOLDING OFF until the next morning and drilling 'em then!

Great info man. Right now though im losing the feeling. When I really kinda pushed the emails in August I was feeling fine, now I see myself maybe able to find 10 people to send the emails to and thinking im just wasting my time. I need some enthuisasim (sp) to get me back on track.

Right now im building a domain selling site for my portfolio to market out that way, but my main thing now is not finding enough people to send to unless im doing something wrong!

 

[ripley]

Great info man. Right now though im losing the feeling. When I really kinda pushed the emails in August I was feeling fine, now I see myself maybe able to find 10 people to send the emails to and thinking im just wasting my time. I need some enthuisasim (sp) to get me back on track.

Right now im building a domain selling site for my portfolio to market out that way, but my main thing now is not finding enough people to send to unless im doing something wrong!

I have found, as I've shifted my focus to flipping to end users, that I've also adjusted the kinds of domains that I buy. Not all domains are well suited to a quick flip, even ones that might one day fetch large dollars like industry generics, or other names that might be valuable for other purposes.

I've also found that when considering domains to flip to end users, some domains are TOO generic. Many brick and mortar places that have a website almost just "because you have to have one" aren't going to be interested, particularly, in a global industry generic. Let's say WindowGlass.com. Because most of their customers are going to be looking for companies that deal in their geographic area. So WindowGlass.com might not be that attractive. But ColoradoWindowGlass.com might be better, even though conventional domaining wisdom generally says shorter = better.

ripley.

 

[R.C.S]

Who is the best domainbroker?

 

[mwzd]

Who is the best domainbroker?

Currently the best known is Rick Latona.

He has a daily newsletter which lists names for sale.

http://www.ricklatona.com

 

[Sameh]

Currently the best known is Rick Latona.

He has a daily newsletter which lists names for sale.

http://www.ricklatona.com

I totally agree on that. Rick Latona is the best one-man broker right now.


On a side note. Yesterday, I completed Escrow transaction for $1,500 .net sale. I will report it later in the Sales Report thread.

 

[henniemeijer]

Do you guys have any statistics to prove that Rick Latona is the best domainbroker? Or is it a matter of liking the man/name?
Could it be that he gets offered the best names?
To me the best domainbroker would mean something if one offers the same 1000 domains to different domainbrokers and see who brings the best results.

Having a big name might be a handicap if customers have the idea that you are a smoothtalker who is not cheap/probably too expensive, but could also trust you as the "big name guy" that might charge too much(even he does not influence the price), but not deceive you.

 

[j0hnyl]

I've arrived at these findings based on a pretty strong chunk of sample data (~1100 pitches, all based on the same template), and to me it bloody hell screams that you send ALL your e-mail pitches between 8am and 10am in your prospects' time zones to maximize your chances of making sales. The resulting 21% response rate figure speaks for itself.

Would you mind sharing your template or giving us an idea of whether it's one of the shorter two line pitches or a longer sales letter?

 

[R.C.S]

Currently the best known is Rick Latona.

He has a daily newsletter which lists names for sale.

http://www.ricklatona.com

Thank YOU

 

[advaita]

Excellt post Josh - thanks for the insights - more rep added. Can you post the template you are using ?