Selling domainer names

[Kuffy]

If we are selling domaining names, then the domain dealer who buys one is really an end user. However, will he expect to buy the name at reseller prices? Looking at some of the names that are being used, it seems that most domainers look for names they can pick up for reg fee. We are constantly complaining that end users don't want to pay realistic prices - does this apply to domain name sellers as well.

 

[Rothex]

Interesting topic as I recently came across a group of dropped names that easily could be used by domainers to brand their business/hobby. Asking the same question I figured it was worth $6.99 sale NameSilo had to find these answers for myself. The dilemma then was to list them in a NamePros auction where the obvious end-users are with the expectation of selling it at a reseller price, or one of the big marketplaces where it can be marked up and still maybe receive some interest.

I decided to list them on Namepros with a starting bid of $10 and see what happens. In the end only 1 of the 4 domains sold and that was at the opening bid price. This could be attributed to the quality of the names themselves or the fact they were listed on NamePros. I may try my luck on NameJet once they get outside the 60 day lock period and see how that goes.

 

[BML]

From my experience, by replaying to requests on namepros I just get low-ball offers or comments that my domains are worth only a reg fee. For same names (three to be exact) in last three weeks on other markets I scored low and mid xxx. I must confess that in beginning of my domainer career (cca 5 months ago) I had unrealistic expectations and my prices were unrealistic too but two months ago I reviewed my pricing and now I think that my prices are on very competitive level.

 

[Kuffy]

I decided to list them on Namepros with a starting bid of $10 and see what happens. In the end only 1 of the 4 domains sold and that was at the opening bid price. This could be attributed to the quality of the names themselves or the fact they were listed on NamePros. I may try my luck on NameJet once they get outside the 60 day lock period and see how that goes.

It seems that domainers are prepared to pay more to not sell a name on one of the big platforms, than they are prepared to pay for a name to build their own businesses. They give away the natural traffic on their names, and allow it to be used to sell other people's names as well.

 

[DN_Hunter]

It seems that domainers are prepared to pay more to not sell a name on one of the big platforms, than they are prepared to pay for a name to build their own businesses. They give away the natural traffic on their names, and allow it to be used to sell other people's names as well.

I can see pros and cons for each side -- Building your own Market Place vs. using one of the many 3rd Party Platforms. For me, the biggest Pro and Con for each approach comes down to this:

3rd Party Platform
-more eyeballs / potential customers (unless that platform is saturated and your domains just get lost in their inventory)
-but higher commissions / fees -- means less NET profit to me

My Own Market Place
-more profit as there are no commissions / fees (outside of Escrow fees)
-less eyeballs / potential customers

For me I am trying to build my own market place. I just don't like paying fees and high commissions for names I think can sell themselves. But there are times I second guess myself because I see deals that big brokers can complete (so that even after commissions I would net more). Maybe you have to do a combination of both and use Brokers for the ultra premium names? I am still trying to figure out the best combination...

Regards,
DN

 

[Kuffy]

It's not an either/or situation.

Lets take Name Silo as an example. You can have a hosted sales landing page with them, and just send your traffic to it. You can have a hosted market site based on your domain name, and list your names on it by category. For those, you use their dns to harvest the traffic. You can have either ( or both) of those sites/pages based on a NS sub-directory, and use your own hosting to collect traffic and send it to the relevant pages. I've just negotiated an upgrade to an old single domain hosting plan that I've had for a few years. It will now allow me to have 1,000 add-on and sub domains. The only problem is that the root domain is completely wrong for domain name selling. I'm about to check to see if I can alias that to get round the problem.