discuss Renewing domains in advance to increase sales?

[nomen]

So probably like the most of you guys and girls I've always been renewing my domains at the very last minute and in many cases transferring them out to reduce costs if possible. But just recently I've been starting to renew domains that I like much and tend to keep at least for a few yars way in advance.

My reasoning is that if there would be an end user looking for a domain for an upcoming product or service and he/she sees that the domain is about expire in, say, ~ one month, he/she might just want to see if the domain simply comes available (given that he/she is not that familar with the domain exp. process). It's not like he/she doesn't have a lot of other things to do.

This is all theory at the moment but based on traffic, inquiries, offer views (though pretty useless metric IMO), WhoIs counts and just plain old gut feeling, I renew selected domains even for a couple years. And as said, I just employed this tactic just recently and really don't know if there's anything to it yet.

Opinions? Thoughts?

 

[GoKaizen]

You have people that contact DA a lot assuming this?

I don't know if it's worth it to renew it for 10 years, but I think it's definitely worth it to renew in advance and not wait until the last minute. There are definitely buyers who wait to see if a domain will expire before reaching out, especially those that haven't bought a domain on the secondary market before. They tend to think that they'll just be able to buy it expiration day +1 because they don't know about the grace period and drop catchers.

 

[DomainAgents]

You have people that contact DA a lot assuming this?

I wouldn't say it happens a lot, but we do get a fair number of questions about domain expiration dates and how the process works. It isn't the most straightforward process. A lot of domain owners don't understand that they can't still get their domains back even after they "expire".

 

[ZapNano]

Exactly. If they see that your domain is expiring in 2 months, they may say to themselves, "I will check back in 2 months to see if he renews it," and then they go off and lose the impulse to buy.

 

[korganian]

The other advantage of multiple year renewals is for estate planning. How many of us have someone who would have the funds to renew and know how to manage our domain portfolio if we died today? They would need at least a year to learn what's going on in the domain industry.

 

[Nile Patel]

I guess renewing for 10 year not help much but may be 3 to 4 extra year will help , but not sure.

I recently started buying end user kind of names which focus only on businesses and might be not for other domain investors, and parked all of them with parkingcrew.com , already started getting inquiry for some of the name what i notice is all of that inquiry came from parkingcrew.com buy now tab form.

After seeing all my buy request i feel end user businesses or their marketing guy has not looked in my domain whois email but prefer to contact me through parkingcrew.com buy now link, that mean either they don't care about expire date and who own or may be easy to feel forms rather then researching about owner.

The bad for me is some of them have offered me under $100 because i kept zero for minimum offer but now i raise that to certain level so will see if that stop some law ball offers.

When i want to buy a premium name i will always check who own and i will never waste my time if owned by big boys because you will never get cheap deal but if buying from other domain owner i will never wait for expire date if the name is premium the expire name auction or drop auction will get really high bids may be some time better then sellers sales price.

So i feel advance renewal is only safe if you know your future financial situation which can turn up or down depends on your portfolio size and also socked me when i see very good domain get dropped and receive high bid at expire auction.

I m still wondering all this big portfolio(above 20k name) owner renew every year or pay in advance, is any one has any idea about them?

 

[GoKaizen]

Definitely is confusing. I've tried to explained to friends the process when asked. They either get frustrated or confused.

I wouldn't say it happens a lot, but we do get a fair number of questions about domain expiration dates and how the process works. It isn't the most straightforward process. A lot of domain owners don't understand that they can't still get their domains back even after they "expire".

Expiration comes down to buyers. Marketing, sales, social, domains won't matter as those people don't know how to check. Tech domains will, since those people might.

 

[campout]

I m still wondering all this big portfolio(above 20k name) owner renew every year or pay in advance, is any one has any idea about them?

I just checked a few Huge Domains names, including some they are asking ~$20,000 for, and none have even one extra year renewed.

 

[168]

The other advantage of multiple year renewals is for estate planning. How many of us have someone who would have the funds to renew and know how to manage our domain portfolio if we died today? They would need at least a year to learn what's going on in the domain industry.

Good Point
It is important to at least have emergency instructions if something goes wrong with you. I do multi regs for the ones I want to keep for long term investment so my heirs have ample time to figure it out and get help. Others I just keep 1-2 years because the new owner might not want to stay with registrar and not all registrars honor the extra time.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

I will renew whenever I get a serious offer on a domain. Serious meaning I have communicated with the prospect, and not necessarily just decent offers. If its a low-ball offer and I have been in contact with the potential buyer but we disagree - I still renew it. So long as I can confirm a real human on the other end.

Its resulted in a sale, within 60 days, about 1/3 of the time.

 

[Fancy.domains]

This is actually a good advice. At least for names with low renewal costs...

Personally, I will renew my hundred best domains, with a renewal fee of no more than $15, for two years.

Just two thousand bucks and you don't have to think about them for some time.

 

[GoKaizen]

Great advice.

Can you define "serious offer"? How do you determine a real human?

I will renew whenever I get a serious offer on a domain. Serious meaning I have communicated with the prospect, and not necessarily just decent offers. If its a low-ball offer and I have been in contact with the potential buyer but we disagree - I still renew it. So long as I can confirm a real human on the other end.

Its resulted in a sale, within 60 days, about 1/3 of the time.

 

[maxtorz]

I have seen my previous "unwanted" domains that I let drop sell in the thousands like a few months just after I let them drop....
I have learned that is best to have a smaller portfolio and renew ALL names instead of keep acquiring 100s of new names in hopes to sell them within a year.
AeroWiper dot com was an example...it was a reg fee name that I keep for 3 years with no inbound offers. I let it drop then Dynadot auctioned it on their expired lists, and I was like wow it's not a bad name really so I paid $12.99 on it and bought it back....2-3 weeks latter I had 1 inquiry for the name and sold it for over 3k.
I am sure it was not a coincidence...the buyer waited for the name to simply expire and become available for reg fee.
This has happened to me so many times now, that I rarely let my names drop anymore...

 

[ResoluteDomains]

Great advice.

Can you define "serious offer"? How do you determine a real human?

Well hopefully its a human that I am negotiating with but if I respond to an offer and dont get a reply back then according to me its not serious. That doesnt happen too often but it does happen from time to time. I'll even renew names when I see other extensions of get purchased or if products or services are created with the same name or even similar name... Lots of conditions will make me renew.

 

[GoKaizen]

Thanks for sharing. It can be hard to know what people want to buy with brandable domains. Is that mostly what you own?

I have seen my previous "unwanted" domains that I let drop sell in the thousands like a few months just after I let them drop....
I have learned that is best to have a smaller portfolio and renew ALL names instead of keep acquiring 100s of new names in hopes to sell them within a year.
AeroWiper dot com was an example...it was a reg fee name that I keep for 3 years with no inbound offers. I let it drop then Dynadot auctioned it on their expired lists, and I was like wow it's not a bad name really so I paid $12.99 on it and bought it back....2-3 weeks latter I had 1 inquiry for the name and sold it for over 3k.
I am sure it was not a coincidence...the buyer waited for the name to simply expire and become available for reg fee.
This has happened to me so many times now, that I rarely let my names drop anymore...

 

[Domainstore]

Yeah. Some domains are wurth it to register for several years.
When f.i. there's a promotion and the promotion is not only on the first year, but also
on the following years. Then it's cheap registgerring for 3 or 4 years f.i.

 

[MARK ROBERTS]

Good observation. Based on my own experience I would agree with it. I think if it is close to expiration, some buyers will wait before making contact.

The most savvy will.

 

[frostify]

I think you should register all your domains for 10 years so people will be much more motivated to buy them from you.

I may be an entirely different person in the course of 10 years , none the less it's an interesting strategy.

 

[TampaDomains]

That is a sarcastic smiley face, or the closest I could find to it.

 

[maxtorz]

Thanks for sharing. It can be hard to know what people want to buy with brandable domains. Is that mostly what you own?

I focus on exact match keyword names, hyphenated domains and brandable domains.
My best sellers are hyphenated 2 word .coms.......
Liquid domains are all over the place in value, so I no longer invest in them just hold on to the ones I already own...

 

[pablohc86]

for sure planning to renew a name for 10 years will make us think twice before to buy a domain name.
this could be a great benefit for selecting only very qualitative names