Is it worth grouping domains for sale?

[essjay2009]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum having been buying selling low value domains for a few years (the most I've ever sold a domain for is ~$500), so I'm hoping to go to the next level.

The question I've got is whether it's worth grouping similar names together to sell them as a package. When I say similar names, I'm talking about names that relate to a similar theme (rather than names with a similar makeup). For example, I have the following names all relating to usability:

usability-web.com
usability-web.org
usabilityassessment.com
usabilityassessment.net
usabilityassessment.org
web-usability.net

Is it worth trying to hit up some end users with the aim of selling them en masse? Or would it be best to target them individually? I know these aren't particularly high-quality names, so I'd like to extract as much as possible from them (especially since I bought them to use myself, but never got round to it).

Thanks.

 

[biznews]

You are asking akin to, "Should I group 5 bad apples in a basket together to help facilitate a sale?"

NOT!

I might add that your com is not a bad name at all. I was merely referring to the methodology being applied to a poor set of names.

 

[essjay2009]

Yeah, I know they're not great names, but I've got a few little bunches of names like this that I bought to develop personally, but never got round to it.

I take it you don't think grouping them for sale is a good idea then?

 

[Domainace]

I know some domainers have done well by grouping names. Obviously, though, they have to be good names. If you bundle 3 dried turds with one gem, it's not gonna help the turd's value and it's gonna make the gem stink a bit.

 

[Sparhawke]

If you happen to find something desirable like mousepads.com and all 3 top level extensions were available I would certainly take them...if I didn't someone else would, but by the same token you have to know that they will sell.

Either that or have a plan to develop one of them, at least someone else won't be able to take your name and outrank you in the search engines or squat on it and offer to kindly sell you it for 1000x regfee at a later date.

 

[Eguru]

...If you bundle 3 dried turds with one gem, it's not gonna help the turd's value and it's gonna make the gem stink a bit.

I will use this as my facebook status today. funny :bah:

 

[mrjohn]

From a profit standpoint, no, it isn't a good idea.

From a get rid of them standpoint, sure, it will work if you're willing to come down on price.

 

[nielsencl]

I think if you find the right buyer this can be a good plan. I have heard of some larger buyers paying a lot of money to aquire many domains at one time. OF COURSE the quality of the domains is going to be a factor. But I think too many people here are saying these domains are crap, when in fact an end user cares more about how they WORK and less about how they LOOK. What I mean is that if the domains are getting traffic on the topic of the domain, THAT is going to have value to the buyer.

You may say most of those those domains will never get traffic, and what I say to that is, "they could". If you can put some content on the domains, even while parked, and get some links to them if possible, then you could be getting some traffic to the domains. When you then tell a buyer that the domains are getting xxx or x,xxx visitors a month those domains will have much more value, no matter what the basic quality of the name is.

Example: your web-usability.net may look like junk to some at first, but Yahoo sees 11 backlinks to the domain, despite it being parked. While the traffic may not be a lot, I am sure this domain is getting 30-100 uniques a month, yes? If your parking provider allowed you to put some content on the domain, you could see that increase quite a bit.

So, while "web usability" may not attract the same kind or number of buyers that a portfolio of domains on something like "DUI lawyers", it still may be a good strategy for turning a collection of domains into a nice sale as a package. I'm trying to do the same thing with "solar" and "electric car" domains.

P.S. One more thing to consider with selling a portfolio: Many companies are spending a lot on PPC advertising. If your domains can deliver even a small amount of targeted traffic, they can easily be worth buying for the traffic. If domainers ever starting to advertise and promote this idea, I think we would see a surge in end-user sales for domains that are getting traffic, even if that traffic is not type-in as long as it is on-topic. Disclaimer: I have not sold any porfolios yet...

 

[sunny055]

If you really want to get rid of them then I appreciate your move. but in terms of profit you cannot make a good amount. I prefer selling individually.

 

[nesloone]

From a buyers point of view go for sales of each of them in order to profit most !

 

[youdiezst]

Grouping domain is basically a way to throw away your crap domains at any price.

Say you own 3 decent .com names and 2 crap .coms who nobody wants.

Instead of selling the 3 .coms for -say- $100 each and let the 2 crap .coms expire (total sales $300), you set a group price of -say- $320. That way you can at least recoup the reg fees of your 2 crap domains.

This won't work when you own 1 good .com and 10 craps tho, nevermind 6 craps in a group.

 

[tq104B]

I often wonder whether the concept of great and not-so-great domain name are overdone. Aside from offensive, silly, and banned words, is a domain name not just ordinary until someone comes along to pay a lot of money for it? Or until someone or some organization develops it and become successful with it?

Close your eyes with me for a minute and imagine there is no organization called Google Inc, no organization called Yahoo Inc, and the greatest search engines on our imaginary planet are AltaVista, Msn and Ask. Now quickly imagine that regular Mary Jane owns google.com and yahoo.com in her portfolio and she's now trying to sell it in a world where bing.com, ask.com and altavista.com reign supreme. It is almost certain that no one would think those names will be worth a lot of money because they are not keyword-based, they are made-up (abstract) names. Now open your eyes: not worth a lot of money until you realize that those two names have been fully developed by two companies that are now giants on the planet. (Well, may be one is far more giant than the other).

Hope this is still in-topic. What I was driving at is that we don't really know until a serious buyer comes along to offer $x for the domain. In this case, based on what experts say about negotiating, I will suggest not to bundle them. If the buyer is offering $x, the seller can now use the other related ones as a bargaining tool to say no to $x and counter with "I will settle for $(x+y), and this price is really good because I will also throw-in related-domain (rd1), rd2, and rd3. Do we have an agreement?"