discuss Sales Strategy For More Revenue

[Federer]

For those that own thousands of average-good quality brandcentric domains, do you generate more revenue overall by:

- BIN-pricing high and selling fewer domains
- BIN-pricing low and selling more domains
- Leaving most on “make offer”

 

[MediaCode]

good point
but we also must all remmeber that someone who began domain 10 or 20 yra ago had different and better opportunities than someone who started recently...

i think its safe to say it was quicker and easier to start make money then...vs now

In our view that is the conventional wisdom but is also largely untrue. By far, most of our sales are for domain names we acquired within the past five years. Many sales are for names we acquired in the past 24 months. It all comes down to the quality of the names that you are buying and adding to your portfolio today.

 

[Recons.Com]

Nice work, @Recons.Com. Just curious, how long have you been domaining and how long did it take you to start making a profit?

Owned domains for dev since 1999, and occasionally sold some here and there. Made xxxxxx in 2015 from the sale of 3 lll.com and one word org and started building portfolio for sale.

2018 would be the first year I am doing everything methodically and growing portfolio considerably.

For example sold 4 brandable names in past week for around 10.4k gross, 3 were bought this year for total of around $40, one had couple of renewals.

 

[Recons.Com]

yah.. its an unending dilema.. bin vs offer... afternic and other reps will tell you they have far more sales done through bin.. and will always recomend u set bins.. I am sure you heard it before.. and I don't mean just afternic and their premium network exposure with bin.. I mean all markets.. sedo.. gd... they always tell u this..

the probems with bin is that for larger folios, it consumes a lot of time to set bins.. unless you have all similr quality names and you set same bin for 80-90% names.. then like other said, u have to keep track of what sold etc.. else u sell, don't own domain, and likely get banned etc..

plus on top of it.. you may sometimes run into buyers willing to pay more than whatever bin u may have thought is proper for your name.. which is where makeoffer and negotiations would come in handy...

all in all.. its inconslusive.. and will remain so forever imo

imo

I set bin because I feel some pay more that way as many people are negotiation averse.

I would rather not waste my time negotiating either and rather receive an email that a name sold.

If I really like the name or have a potential use for it I just price it higher.

 

[alcy]

Owned domains for dev since 1999, and occasionally sold some here and there. Made xxxxxx in 2015 from the sale of 3 lll.com and one word org and started building portfolio for sale.

2018 would be the first year I am doing everything methodically and growing portfolio considerably.

For example sold 4 brandable names in past week for around 10.4k gross, 3 were bought this year for total of around $40, one had couple of renewals.

great.. having tons of experience and starting early is always a big plus.. in many areas of business... especially domaining..

can you share.. what is your prefered or best performing (if not same) venue of sale for brandable names? and in all yoru total sales ever, are a lot of them outbound based?

ty

 

[alcy]

In our view that is the conventional wisdom but is also largely untrue. By far, most of our sales are for domain names we acquired within the past five years. Many sales are for names we acquired in the past 24 months. It all comes down to the quality of the names that you are buying and adding to your portfolio today.

true.

its a complex matter though.. .cause even if you did start early, with lesser competition, better nmes at better prices etc (all of which were a fact, 10-20 years back).. then there is no guarantee you'd be making quick profit and bigger sales on those names ALSO during those times.. so starting way back imo is definitely a plus and advantage.. but perhaps the name of the game would then become more of a hold and renew and wait game.. versus quick flips for quick big profits.. which back then, may not always work.

 

[Addison]

I should add that depending on your financial situation and goals...

There are times when a BIN makes sense: if your domains are only worth a couple hundred bucks, then it's not worth the time (time is money!) to try to extract another 10-30% out of those deals. When your domains are worth thousands of dollars, then an extra 30% is meaningful.

afternic and other reps will tell you they have far more sales done through bin.. and will always recomend u set bins.. I am sure you heard it before.. and I don't mean just afternic and their premium network exposure with bin.. I mean all markets.. sedo.. gd... they always tell u this..

The fact of the matter is that a BIN is better for them (marketplaces and brokers) and not us. It helps them sell more domains, but that doesn't mean that those sales are your domains or mine.

It's a guarantee that if you sell at a BIN without negotiation, you are leaving money on the table.

the probems with bin is that for larger folios, it consumes a lot of time to set bins.. unless you have all similr quality names and you set same bin for 80-90% names.. then like other said, u have to keep track of what sold etc.. else u sell, don't own domain, and likely get banned etc..

plus on top of it.. you may sometimes run into buyers willing to pay more than whatever bin u may have thought is proper for your name.. which is where makeoffer and negotiations would come in handy...

Superb points.

 

[Recons.Com]

good point
but we also must all remmeber that someone who began domain 10 or 20 yra ago had different and better opportunities than someone who started recently...

i think its safe to say it was quicker and easier to start make money then...vs now

85% of sale revenue were from names bought in 2015 to 2018. So I don't fall into the category of those who had a headstart, unfortunately.

 

[alcy]

85% of sale revenue were from names bought in 2015 to 2018. So I don't fall into the category of those who had a headstart, unfortunately.

ah ok
I didn't mean to say that its fortunate or unfortunate to fall into that category. its more of a neutral thing.

I was just making the obvious observation that 10-20 years ago it was waaaaaaaaay easier to buy higher quiality names at lower prices.. compared to today... for obvious reasons.. less competition etc etc.. of course one can argue that due to their lower cost and demand, quick flipping them for big profits was maybe harder back then too.. which is why I just wrote in another post that the only/best way to benefit from an early start in domaining, say 10-20 years ago, was to hold the names for some years.. and then sell. which I'm sure many did do just that.

of course this is not equivalent at all to saying that today one cannot buy good names at good prices. its just insanely harder.

cheers

 

[Recons.Com]

ah ok
I didn't mean to say that its fortunate or unfortunate to fall into that category. its more of a neutral thing.

I was just making the obvious observation that 10-20 years ago it was waaaaaaaaay easier to buy higher quiality names at lower prices.. compared to today... for obvious reasons.. less competition etc etc.. of course one can argue that due to their lower cost and demand, quick flipping them for big profits was maybe harder back then too.. which is why I just wrote in another post that the only/best way to benefit from an early start in domaining, say 10-20 years ago, was to hold the names for some years.. and then sell. which I'm sure many did do just that.

of course this is not equivalent at all to saying that today one cannot buy good names at good prices. its just insanely harder.

cheers

I agree )) I was not arguing ))

I would be making 200%+ on capital employed with those opportunities plus great parking if I had my method in place then, but 70%/year is still great and allows me working on scaling up.

I am adding 5-20 names almost daily lately.

 

[alcy]

I agree )) I was not arguing ))

I would be making 200%+ on capital employed with those opportunities plus great parking if I had my method in place then, but 70%/year is still great and allows me working on scaling up.

I am adding 5-20 names almost daily lately.

all good ;]

sory if missed it..but u do outbound at all? if so what % sales?

 

[Recons.Com]

all good ;]

sory if missed it..but u do outbound at all? if so what % sales?

Zero from outbound. Have not done almost any, but will start.

 

[pokainc]

so far I put BINs on Afternic and make offer on the landers. it's working pretty well.. but personally and I'm sure many others too want to hear from @Federer ....

 

[creataweb]

I put about 200 names on BIN at AF and will wait 3 months to see how the results are compared to OFFER for this batch.

 

[Federer]

I am still in the testing phase.
BIN, generally, has proved to provide stable sales revenue most months. My best ccTLD month was in fact last month when I had most domains on "make offer". I was able to negotiate a £3000 sale for a .CO.UK name (HotelPay.co.uk), something I could not have done had I had the name with a standard £500 BIN button. But, if that "outlier" sale has not occurred, the month, in terms of ccTLD sales, would have ended a little lower than a few BIN months - but the difference would have been fairly small (-10%).

For mid-range to higher quality domains, "make offer" gives you more upside/opportunity to close better deals, maximizing revenue. I think the key could be to keep a % of the portfolio synchronized with BINs, and leaving at least 35%-50% on "make offer" - so you are going to have the opportunity to closer higher deals/generate more revenue at least 1/2 the time. Testing still in progress, however.
More important than anything is picking the right types of names.

 

[Soofi]

60k revenue once you factor in renewals

I would not work for 60k per year

If you have 10k names, renewals definitely get cheaper for such a portfolio

 

[FPForum]

Has always depended on a few factors for me..How much did I have invested in the name, how long have I held it..etc. I always prefer to price mine at BIN..for hand reg's it'll usually be the Price low at BIN..for something I backordered or paid more for, it would be the Price high at BIN.

 

[Recons.Com]

I am still in the testing phase.
BIN, generally, has proved to provide stable sales revenue most months. My best ccTLD month was in fact last month when I had most domains on "make offer". I was able to negotiate a £3000 sale for a .CO.UK name (HotelPay.co.uk), something I could not have done had I had the name with a standard £500 BIN button. But, if that "outlier" sale has not occurred, the month, in terms of ccTLD sales, would have ended a little lower than a few BIN months - but the difference would have been fairly small (-10%).

For mid-range to higher quality domains, "make offer" gives you more upside/opportunity to close better deals, maximizing revenue. I think the key could be to keep a % of the portfolio synchronized with BINs, and leaving at least 35%-50% on "make offer" - so you are going to have the opportunity to closer higher deals/generate more revenue at least 1/2 the time. Testing still in progress, however.
More important than anything is picking the right types of names.

The names that have upside always could be priced higher than your normal bin for the category.

For example, your hotel/pay example, you could have set it at 3k to 4k bin, assuming that either someone would just hit the buy it now or they'd make lower offer if it is out of their budget.

I sold some names in $2.5K to $3K range with bin that if it would have been negotiation I would have probably given a discount ))

Regarding 500 bins, have you noticed that at this price you are maximizing profitability?

Meaning 500 x sell through at this price x total names > 1000 x sell through at this price x total names?

Or you just intuitively expect it?

I don't price any name at $xxx, unless I don't plan to renew and/or I bought it for its traffic. Interestingly, those names don't sell at $xxx either )))

 

[AuthorityDomains]

If we look at the large portfolio owners (hugedomains / mike mann) then we can see they are doing a mixture of both pricing models. Some names you'll see are make offer, some are bin + make offer, obviously mike mann sets his prices much higher (he has to cover cost of renewals) but hugedomains may not renew for years (slightly different model).

I agree with Federer. Having a mix is a good way to go.

 

[Recons.Com]

If we look at the large portfolio owners (hugedomains / mike mann) then we can see they are doing a mixture of both pricing models. Some names you'll see are make offer, some are bin + make offer, obviously mike mann sets his prices much higher (he has to cover cost of renewals) but hugedomains may not renew for years (slightly different model).

I agree with Federer. Having a mix is a good way to go.

why wouldn't hugedomains renew for years?

Why Mann has to set prices much higher to cover costs of renewals? Is he paying more than any of us?

 

[elmoney]

This is a lottery ... Short and high quality domains set as BIN and I consider as a long-term investment. Low quality domains set "make offer", will sell depending on a buyer's budget and his possibilities.

 

[domainer111]

For those that own thousands of average-good quality brandcentric domains, do you generate more revenue overall by:

- BIN-pricing high and selling fewer domains
- BIN-pricing low and selling more domains
- Leaving most on “make offer”

It's the big question! It's almost impossible to know because an A/B test is not possible, a true A/B test. As long as you can keep the supply of names up - not a given - I choose to price low to keep some cash coming in. So I have sellers remorse all the time but it's quickly forgotten as I can get more names in. It's ok for FS to price long as he has such a huge bank of quality.

Having said that I do go long on around 50 names or so.

 

[wizard]

why wouldn't hugedomains renew for years?

Why Mann has to set prices much higher to cover costs of renewals? Is he paying more than any of us?

He has so many domains he has to price high for all those renewals even with all the sales he still has a huge cost to have all these domains

 

[Recons.Com]

He has so many domains he has to price high for all those renewals even with all the sales he still has a huge cost to have all these domains

It should make no difference, unless you assume very high % of names that are of bad quality.

1000 names x 1% x 2000$ - 1000 x 8$ = $12000
100 000 names x 1% x 2000$ - 100 000 x 8$ = $1 200 000

100 x more in names -> 100 more in revenue after renewals, assuming similar quality.

So, no he does not have price higher. If anything, he can afford to price lower.

 

[wizard]

It should make no difference, unless you assume very high % of names that are of bad quality.

1000 names x 1% x 2000$ - 1000 x 8$ = $12000
100 000 names x 1% x 2000$ - 100 000 x 8$ = $1 200 000

100 x more in names -> 100 more in revenue after renewals, assuming similar quality.

So, no he does not have price higher. If anything, he can afford to price lower.

no with the amount of names he has most his profit goes into renewals !

 

[Federer]

=

Number of domains in portfolio = $Sales/month after renewals.