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

 

[DNK.it]

I have to use a yahoo address because I am travelling all the time and using hotel and apartment internet feeds. I know this is not ideal so I will look at setting up an email at one of my sites; however they are at Whypark and they don't provide email addresses.

Try to setup a google apps account ( Google Apps for business ) for your domain name. I've two and I use them from my BlackBerry, email client and internet browser without any problem. There are the istruction to change the MX records of your domains ( Set Up Email Delivery for Google Apps - Google Apps Help )

 

[bgmv]

I personally think $2,500 is too much for this domain. Estibot is not a great judge to base pricing on. For example: HealthPublications.com has a lot more results, advertising, and searches and estibot values @ $3600, it sold a few years ago for $2,500. I think a reasonable price for this domain would be $1,999, did you also use Yahoo for potential endusers, they sometimes list more prospects.

Why dont you just set up an email @ AcademicPublications.com - that would look pretty legit.

Ben

Hi there bgmv, thanks very much for taking the time to write those very useful points for me. I have to use a yahoo address because I am travelling all the time and using hotel and apartment internet feeds. I know this is not ideal so I will look at setting up an email at one of my sites; however they are at Whypark and they don't provide email addresses. I have a golfing minisite which might be ok as its parked at Minisites.com.

Yes, the emails were pretty professional but I only had a return email address and not a number so I will check out the 1800 numbers.

In the first lot of mails I sent out I put no price for the domain but in the second lot I put a price of $2,500 which was just above the Estibot valuation of $2,200 (I had nothing else to go on!). It seems like a bargain for a catch all .com which covers a complete publishing category.

I didn't describe the benefits of the domain to the buyers because I didn't want to insult their intelligences. I thought it would be obvious to them. It ranks no.1 on search for any Academic Publishing Keyphrase I tried. I mean, even defensively it makes sense for that very low price, I would have thought.

Yes, I believe there is a market (am I being proved wrong?), because Academic Publications is the top Keyphrase in a multi hundred million dollar industry. I looked at adsense and saw the lack of Sponsored Links but the Academics kind of sit outside that system. The Universities have their own Presses and they don't really engage in advertising the same way a commerical company does. They tend to work within subject groups with transnational publications for each area that they subscribe to both on and offline. Kind of like a set of networks. But to me this domain represents the top level keyphrase that encompasses all of that publication activity. Maybe it needs to be some kind of directory to the University Publication world - there's a thought! An Academic Directory. lol.

I did send the same email basically to everyone - cut and paste. It saved so much time! I truly thought I would have been swamped with emails - a real wake up call I think!

Again I really appreciate the time you have taken to make those points. Thank you indeed!

Best wishes, Bill

 

[krx]

4. Are you contacting the decision maker? I would rather send 5 emails to decision makers than 80 to info@....

Great post! I think this point is key. I would be interested in how you (and others) go about finding the decision makers. If it isn't clear from the website I usually send my queries to the whois registrant, assuming this is typically the owner (at least for small businesses). Also do you ever call or always email? If you call who do you ask for?

 

[Kate]

Why dont you just set up an email @ AcademicPublications.com - that would look pretty legit.

Tip: when you park at Fabulous, you can set up one E-mail per domain, ie. [email protected]

 

[copper]

Tip: when you park at Fabulous, you can set up one E-mail per domain, ie. [email protected]

Humm...
Never knew this.
Thanks for the info

 

[garptrader]

I see a few posts from domainers who are going through the frustration we went through recently of many hours of research trying to find and contact end users and seeing no positive feedback. The only advice I can glean from those who have been successful approaching end users that 1) only offer high-quality domains, 2) go beyond the [email protected] and Whois contact because often those emails only see the delete button, 3) price your domains to sell! I mean really cheap at levels that DNJournal would never report, 4) remember that these contacts don't need your domain because they already have one. You need to show them how this domain can help their business.

Best of luck and back to development...

GARP

 

[bgmv]

Great post! I think this point is key. I would be interested in how you (and others) go about finding the decision makers. If it isn't clear from the website I usually send my queries to the whois registrant, assuming this is typically the owner (at least for small businesses). Also do you ever call or always email? If you call who do you ask for?

When I find a prospect that I think would be interested I search google/yahoo for info about the company and try to find out who the operations manager/ceo/vp etc. is. Once I find out who it is i then try and find their email address, this may seem time consuming and sometimes its fruitless but in the end its very well worth it.

I always email - calling is very time consuming and sometimes annoying. I have tried it a few times and have had no results thus far, maybe others have and would like to share their tips.

 

[theuniverse]

Why,mass mailing to potential end users does not work out?

If we mention same points when we contact single potential end user or potential end users,Why,mass mailing to potential end users does not work out? Is it possible to work out? How?

 

[Billy2009]

Tip: when you park at Fabulous, you can set up one E-mail per domain, ie. [email protected]

Not a realistic suggestion considering the thresholds for new accounts.

 

[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.

 

[JoshuaPz]

This approach can work with any Keyword Rich Domain...

This sounds like a fantastic approach to use when (a) Your domain is keyword-rich, (b) You are aiming to pitch it to large-ish corporations ($25M+ in annual sales), and (c) You are in no rush to sell. Would you mind posting an example of an approach e-mail you used under this setup? I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one who'd rep. you for it.

 

[Billy2009]

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.

Thanks for the encouragement. Much appreciated.

I like the idea about the move to on-line publishing. I was watching BBC last night and they had a story on exactly this. And the rate is accelerating.

I will shortly start to market two more publishing names which I really liked when I saw them and bought when they dropped:

BrilliantWriters.com
JuvenileFiction.com

Juvenile Fiction is a really big category in publishing and far more commercial than Academic Publications (no one pays for ads. in Academic Journals). The modern name is Childrens' Books. So will be putting together a plan for those two as well. Brilliant Writers just seemed a good name for a business for someone. A very balanced sounding name (but no Adsense). Good name for end user I am sure.

Thanks again for your insights and suggestions. Bill.

 

[Fork]

I think I need a bit of help with this one.

I found an aftermarket domain, registered in 03 so it will retain its registration date. It's a short .com. I intend to flip it to the owner of the .net and .fr versions of the domain (and likely a few others). They registered theirs in late 03 and early 04, after the .com was registered. They are a large European company with 700+ employees and $15mil sales according to Hoovers.com (their own website reports much larger figures).

Now there are a few other businesses with the same name should this one not bite, but if they do, how should I price the domain?

I've acquired it. Any suggestions?

 

[bmugford]

End User Discussion - Social Group

I have created an End User Discussion - Social Group on NP.

It will be dedicated to finding, approaching, and selling domains to end users.

I have sent invitations to many of the top end user sellers on here and hopefully they will join to share their knowledge.

For now the group is Invite Only.

Thanks,
Brad

 

[MarkP]

I'm working on this now with PalmDesertGolf.com. Positioning it as a business opportunity.

I'm curious if anyone has tried developing a minisite, positioned it well in Google or Yahoo, started generating some organic or link-based traffic off the domain and then attempted to sell to an enduser? One disadvantage is that the registrant is going to demand a higher price the buyer may not be willing to pay for their time invested in development. But the site's positioning in the search engines and traffic would have a value to that end user which would not have been possible without some development.

 

[Domainace]

An instructive read at US News & World Report. It's a poorly written article for a senior editor, but useful nonetheless. I'm sure many end-users share her attitude. The domain sales letter looks familiar too, but I can't quite place who....

The article is here--->"How to Buy a Domain Name, Not a Scam"

 

[bmugford]

I read the article. The fact that the writer could not justify paying $250 for a popular FirstLast.com name combo is ridiculous.

I mean you are talking about a one time fee basically (+renewal) to own it forever. It is not like the person who approached her was asking some outlandish price.

What else would you rather spend $250 on than that? I am sure she got paid much more than that to write the article.

As far as the person who approached her actually owning the domain, use Escrow.

Brad

An instructive read at US News & World Report. It's a poorly written article for a senior editor, but useful nonetheless. I'm sure many end-users share her attitude. The domain sales letter looks familiar too, but I can't quite place who....

The article is here--->"How to Buy a Domain Name, Not a Scam"

 

[Domainace]

That's why it was poorly written. She didn't bother to look into it at all, and entitled her article "How to...." when she still clearly doesn't know how to herself.

But, her observations are useful:

1-She finds any overseas correspondence to be suspect, even from Australia.

2-She found the language over the top.

So ignorance of domaining combined with #1 and #2 above equal immediate distrust.

But it is a real problem when normal people balk at a negligible price for a valuable lifetime domain. Especially when they write about it for a major magazine without even a minimum of investigation.

 

[bgmv]

That's why it was poorly written. She didn't bother to look into it at all, and entitled her article "How to...." when she still clearly doesn't know how to herself.

But, her observations are useful:

1-She finds any overseas correspondence to be suspect, even from Australia.

2-She found the language over the top.

So ignorance of domaining combined with #1 and #2 above equal immediate distrust.

But it is a real problem when normal people balk at a negligible price for a valuable lifetime domain. Especially when they write about it for a major magazine without even a minimum of investigation.

What im wondering is if she felt that this seller was a scammer than a lot of other end users must feel that our emails are scams. BTW, I think that email used in the article was from Rob Sequin's blog - I used it a few times with no results. But it is a shame that Kim wouldnt even consider $250 for the domain, thats peanuts.

I have started to realize that I think I'm selling my domains for too little - even two word .net, there is an intrinsic value that will only increase with time and good keywords are valuable commodities. I think endusers will start to realize this with time, making sales even easier.

 

[Nattydomain]

I belive this "Kim" is about 90% of the type of people we are sending our emails to when looking for end users. She cant see how in the world someone would pay $250 for a name when they see Godaddy and $18.95 they dont look beyond what it takes to get the name or anythign else. All they see is $250 vs $18.95

So under what she thinks really seems a bit prejudice (sp). Anyone outside the USA is out to get her and cant be trusted...A Shame really when I myself sold a .org to a company in Australia just last week.

Until more of the outside media sees how a domain is the first key before any type of content is added to a webiste, and can justify why it would cost a lot to own a good domain, then we are back to sqaure 1