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

 

[garptrader]

BGMV-Between January and February we sent out close to 900 emails targeting a combination of end users, web development companies and a handful of Namebio/DNSalesPrice buyers for similar keywords. Probably about 2/3 of the emails were for Spanish domains while a fair percentage of the English emails went to Canada, England, Australia. No serious offers. Given the time it takes to filter through drop lists, administration, marketing, transfer and then paying a 10% commission I just don't see how $200 sales can amount to much more than spending money for Saturday night. So I have started developing domains which I believe can be most easily monetized. But congrats to those who consistently make end user sales.

 

[JoshuaPz]

BGMV-Between January and February we sent out close to 900 emails targeting a combination of end users, web development companies and a handful of Namebio/DNSalesPrice buyers for similar keywords. Probably about 2/3 of the emails were for Spanish domains while a fair percentage of the English emails went to Canada, England, Australia. No serious offers. Given the time it takes to filter through drop lists, administration, marketing, transfer and then paying a 10% commission I just don't see how $200 sales can amount to much more than spending money for Saturday night. So I have started developing domains which I believe can be most easily monetized. But congrats to those who consistently make end user sales.

Your emails need to be be very pointedly targeted, short & sweet (don't include price), and sent one at a time (custom tailored for each individual end-user). If you fulfill these three requirements across all your e-mails, 10-15% of your recipients will bite (i.e. ask you for a price quote).

ADDENDUM: Also, be sure you send your e-mails to the highest level decision makers possible and, if possible, to fire them out between 8am and 10am ET, preferably on Monday, and allow your recipient 4-8 business days to issue an initial response. If a prospect seems highly "probable", follow up your e-mail with a phone call the day before the response deadline you set.

 

[h2o]

Your emails need to be be very pointedly targeted, short & sweet (don't include price), and sent one at a time (custom tailored for each individual end-user). If you fulfill these three requirements across all your e-mails, 10-15% of your recipients will bite (i.e. ask you for a price quote).

Yes, listen to Josh as he has sold hundreds of domains to end users. You need to make selling to end users a scientific project. Keep on tweaking your techniques.

 

[Nattydomain]

BGMV-Between January and February we sent out close to 900 emails targeting a combination of end users, web development companies and a handful of Namebio/DNSalesPrice buyers for similar keywords. Probably about 2/3 of the emails were for Spanish domains while a fair percentage of the English emails went to Canada, England, Australia. No serious offers. Given the time it takes to filter through drop lists, administration, marketing, transfer and then paying a 10% commission I just don't see how $200 sales can amount to much more than spending money for Saturday night. So I have started developing domains which I believe can be most easily monetized. But congrats to those who consistently make end user sales.

Really depends if the keywords were realted to their business OR have the keyword in their old url. i get frustrated to but unless you try that you never know. I kno when I sold one domain for $250 via this method that was an extra $250 that I would not have got since the person who bought it was not looking for domains but liked the one I had. I try to keep the emails down to 15 and if gets hits (responses) then send more. Sent 16 out Monday and got 2 back to say no thanks. No others yet but will move on to the next domain.

 

[mwzd]

I just don't see how $200 sales can amount to much more than spending money for Saturday night.

It doesn't, I've said it before in this thread, I normally aim for a $500 min. This sale was primarily reported to encourage newcomers to end user sales, I've had much bigger sales too. :p

This was a sweet sale because:
a. hand reg leading to a 2500% return
b. less than two months old, if you annualise that return, its crazy.
c. only 6 mails were sent, all at one time, though research did take about 30 mins.

Just goes to show that there is still money to be made in this business, if you do it intelligently.

 

[JoshuaPz]

It doesn't, I've said it before in this thread, I normally aim for a $500 min. This sale was primarily reported to encourage newcomers to end user sales, I've had much bigger sales too. :p

This was a sweet sale because:
a. hand reg leading to a 2500% return
b. less than two months old, if you annualise that return, its crazy.
c. only 6 mails were sent, all at one time, though research did take about 30 mins.

Just goes to show that there is still money to be made in this business, if you do it intelligently.

Indeed, a 25x ROI on 30 minutes' work is nothing to sneeze at!

 

[garptrader]

In regard to our domain marketing campaign, we targeted companies who sold the same product or service as our domain but whose domain was either of inferior quality or was a brand name and we thought they might want a generic. We attempted to find a contact other than [email protected] but certainly a large percentage of the emails went to the contact found either on the website or in Whois. Regardless, in many cases with small businesses that contact is the person you want. OK the time of the email was probably never between 8-10AM and we sent emails out every day Mon-Fri even some on Saturdays and late at night. I started out not including the price but only the SEDO link. After a period of getting no response I started putting in the price. We never made phone calls but given the percentage of international contacts that would not be feasible. While I am aware of the arguments of why generic domains should be valuable, I am just convinced that end users don't give #$@%^ about domains unless they can get them for $50. Admittedly only a small percentage of our domains were English .COMs.

 

[codyjames]

I have a few questions:

1. I cant think of a good subject line the best I could come up with is "Contact" To me that wouldnt look like spam....

2. Usually busines's have contact information on their website? So why do you need to look up whois?

To me this is based on chance, but you can do little things to increase your game.

 

[bmugford]

I agree with a lot of these points. When I look for end users the first place I start is end users with developed sites on inferior domains. Then I will look for things like Keyword Sponsors, as well as top SE results for the term.

In regard to our domain marketing campaign, we targeted companies who sold the same product or service as our domain but whose domain was either of inferior quality or was a brand name and we thought they might want a generic. We attempted to find a contact other than [email protected] but certainly a large percentage of the emails went to the contact found either on the website or in Whois. Regardless, in many cases with small businesses that contact is the person you want. OK the time of the email was probably never between 8-10AM and we sent emails out every day Mon-Fri even some on Saturdays and late at night. I started out not including the price but only the SEDO link. After a period of getting no response I started putting in the price. We never made phone calls but given the percentage of international contacts that would not be feasible. While I am aware of the arguments of why generic domains should be valuable, I am just convinced that end users don't give #$@%^ about domains unless they can get them for $50. Admittedly only a small percentage of our domains were English .COMs.

I have a few questions:

1. I cant think of a good subject line the best I could come up with is "Contact" To me that wouldnt look like spam....

2. Usually busines's have contact information on their website? So why do you need to look up whois?

To me this is based on chance, but you can do little things to increase your game.

1.) If I am selling a keyword domain I normally put that in the title only.
For instance if I was selling GoldChains.net, I would put "Gold Chains" in the title. You can normally get the other party to open it since they will think it is an inquiry into their products.

2.) I always prefer to find a contact email on the website itself, those are normally more reliable than the whois information. However I will normally CC an email to the whois email if it is different and relevant.

What it boils down to is you need domains an end user would want. That is what ends up selling the domains more than anything else.

Brad

 

[garptrader]

Yahoo jacked up their renewal prices last year so I moved those domains to Godaddy. I was going through my deletion emails and was unsure if one of those domains had been dropped or just transferred to my Goddaddy account so I checked the Whois. It was dropped but shortly afterwards picked up and is now a developed site. I'd bet ten to one had I not dropped that fitness-related domain, the current registrant would have just chosen something else (rather than offer to pay for the name).

Domainers are guilty of the same practice. How often do we pay good money to get a quality domain from an existing registrant? Rarely. Most domainers go after reg fee domains or drops. It would be interesting to see a study on the percentage of end user purchases of aftermarket versus reg fee and drop domains.

 

[andrewsA]

You sir, are spot on with that remark. Brilliant deduction, and that is what most domainers like myself are short of. But that is why I try to improve because if I can take advantage of these mistakes by others I will make money. Meaning finding the domains. I think domainers fear saying how much and getting back $2000 replies so they give up and by reg fee.



>>>Domainers are guilty of the same practice. How often do we pay good money to get a quality domain from an existing registrant? Rarely. Most domainers go after reg fee domains or drops. It would be interesting to see a study on the percentage of end user purchases of aftermarket versus reg fee and drop domains.

 

[garptrader]

It is not difficult to find end users and even web design and SEO firms with so-so to horrible domains. Learning what constitutes a good name takes a while and yet many small companies obviously don't bother to acquire a domain in the aftermarket. And yet when they are offered a better alternative, they already have a developed site and marketing built around their current domain so perhaps they don't want to go through the hassle. On the other hand we did find many companies with multiple websites and the same registrant but still not willing to buy. Companies will spend big money on travel, management bonuses, consultants, system implementations, marketing, etc but as Rick Schwartz says, many companies just don't get it.

 

[codyjames]

Hey I wrote the template for the end user email, can someone please help fix it up.

here it is:

Dear

My name is Cody James,

I am sure you are aware of the powerful potential domain names have on every business. I own the domain name SponsorForms.com, your business could benefit highly from this domain.
Please contact me should you have an interest in acquiring this domain for your company.

If this correspondence has arrived at the wrong department, please pass it on to the appropriate staff member and if this matter is of no interest to you I apologise for this unsolicited intrusion.

Kind Regards
Cody

 

[ripley]

Cody: I think it's fine, although I don't think you need to apologize for sending a targeted offer to someone who could benefit from something. What you really want to convey is you aren't going to be bombarding them with emails.

I usually add a line something like this:

If you aren't interested in this offer, please feel free to ignore this message -- we will not contact you again.

ripley.

 

[mwzd]

Dear

My name is Cody James, I am the owner of SponsorForms.com

"give specifics about advantages of the domain to them"

Please contact me should you have an interest in acquiring this domain for your company. "add sedo link here"

If this correspondence has arrived at the wrong department, please pass it on to the appropriate staff member.

if this matter is of no interest to you I apologise for this unsolicited intrusion. "edit as per ripley's suggestion"

Kind Regards
Cody
"include phone number, email, company name etc"

 

[dtagr]

I have been using this letter for these two domain names and sent over 150 of them to lenders, mortage brokers and banking institutions. Not a single response. I could use some constructive criticism. How do I fix this letter?

My current thinking is - the domain names are a lot crappier than I thought.

“ShopMortgageRate.com” – Inquiry.

I am the Registrant and Administrative contact for:

www.ShopMortgageRate.com
www.USALoanYes.com

My research indicates these web names may be relevant to your companies’ online competitiveness.

Many sound reasons to purchase a new domain name include – but are not limited too:
• Expanding your business from a regional base.
• Reducing your PPC costs by owning industry relevant search terms.
• Preventing a competitor from owning keyword rich web names.
• Redirecting traffic to your own website.

Please accept my apologies for not knowing enough about your corporate structure to specify an individual responsible for acquiring new business opportunities. If you are not that person, please pass this opportunity on.

In these difficult economic times, the ability to redirect traffic from these existing web names to your own homepage may have a substantial impact on your bottom line.

Regards,
Chris Stephenson
www.DtagrsDomains.com
TollFree: xxxxxxxxxx

 

[bmugford]

I don't think the main problem is your letter. The main problem is the quality of the domains.

Three Word domains need to be much better to have value to end users.

First of all take ShopMortgageRate.com for example.

1.) It is a three word domain with no real search volume. It is not a popular term - Results 1 - 10 of about 1,110 for "shop mortgage rate".
2.) The term just sounds odd.
3.) The plural ending would be a lot more appealing.

As I have said before, the best letter in the world will not sell a bad domain.

Brad

I have been using this letter for these two domain names and sent over 150 of them to lenders, mortage brokers and banking institutions. Not a single response. I could use some constructive criticism. How do I fix this letter?

My current thinking is - the domain names are a lot crappier than I thought.

“ShopMortgageRate.com” – Inquiry.

I am the Registrant and Administrative contact for:

www.ShopMortgageRate.com
www.USALoanYes.com

My research indicates these web names may be relevant to your companies’ online competitiveness.

Many sound reasons to purchase a new domain name include – but are not limited too:
• Expanding your business from a regional base.
• Reducing your PPC costs by owning industry relevant search terms.
• Preventing a competitor from owning keyword rich web names.
• Redirecting traffic to your own website.

Please accept my apologies for not knowing enough about your corporate structure to specify an individual responsible for acquiring new business opportunities. If you are not that person, please pass this opportunity on.

In these difficult economic times, the ability to redirect traffic from these existing web names to your own homepage may have a substantial impact on your bottom line.

Regards,
Chris Stephenson
www.DtagrsDomains.com
TollFree: xxxxxxxxxx

 

[dtagr]

That's where my thinking is now. Thanks for the confirmation.

I don't think the main problem is your letter. The main problem is the quality of the domains.

Three Word domains need to be much better to have value to end users.

First of all take ShopMortgageRate.com for example.

1.) It is a three word domain with no real search volume. It is not a popular term - Results 1 - 10 of about 1,110 for "shop mortgage rate".
2.) The term just sounds odd.
3.) The plural ending would be a lot more appealing.

As I have said before, the best letter in the world will not sell a bad domain.

Brad

 

[lincolndsp]

guys, please help look good in the situation I'm in.
The end-user offered $xx for the domain I'd marketed to him.
I countered politely with with the price twice as high. But I get no response from him
for several days. I would like to accept his offer now. I do not know what transition to use in the letter to accept his offer and not look silly.
Maybe someone has been in the situation like that and can give advice :]

 

[JoshuaPz]

guys, please help look good in the situation I'm in.
The end-user offered $xx for the domain I'd marketed to him.
I countered politely with with the price twice as high. But I get no response from him
for several days. I would like to accept his offer now. I do not know what transition to use in the letter to accept his offer and not look silly.
Maybe someone has been in the situation like that and can give advice :]

Why don't you call him/her and ask for his/her thoughts on your latest offer? If he/she says "too much", ask what's the most he/she would be willing to offer. If the answer is no higher than that initial $xx amount, say "let me think about it and get back to you." Then PM me and I'll shoot you a sample transition letter.

If you just send a letter stating you'll accept his/her offer right now, it conveys "ok, I'm desperate, so you won me over using the silent treatment". Never equate a no-response with a "no", and never allow the silent treatment to undermine your position in the negotiation.