debate Trying Something Drastic!

[gericsb]

I've decided to shake things up a bit in an effort to at least generate some cash flow for 2022 (zero sales so far).

1 - I reduced DRASTICALLY the Buy It Now Prices on most of my domains (portfolio is about 136 names now) and I did this for about 120 of them. 16 are long term holds if I don't get my price, but the rest I slashed massively...the majority of my names are now priced between 399 and 1488, roughly.

2 - I synced up my BIN prices so that they match across Afternic, Sedo, and DAN. Yes, I am using BINs on all three marketplaces since I think the odds of selling the same name to different buyers is very low (small portfolio)

3 - I may try listing a couple brandable names on Squadhelp if this doesn't generate any sales.

4 -IF I get a sale or two (big IF), I will probably raise a few of the lowest priced names, but just a little. My goal is to generate some type of cashflow for the year to help offset my renewal fees.

Have any of you radically changed your pricing with the hopes of shaki g things up and generating some sales?

 

[AEProgram]

After re-reading your post (cause I immediately assumed I misread it), I honestly don't know how to reply to this

I spent enough time on this forum explaining the issue. If I felt there is any hope for companies to change things to help domainers, I would post more about this. It is a lost cause, very costly to all domainers.

 

[Bean]

I spent enough time on this forum explaining the issue. If I felt there is any hope for companies to change things to help domainers, I would post more about this. It is a lost cause, very costly to all domainers.

I have a sneaking suspicion we may have different definitions for the same word lol
I apologize for I may well be in the wrong, it's just that I've come to associate the word/term 'lander' with clean for sale pages (without advertising of any sort). If a page contains any type of ads I normally tend to think of it as a parking page even if it also has a sale banner.
I however now realize that the word 'lander' may simply be referring to the page where you 'land' when you type in the domain name in the address bar, whether it be a pure for sale page or a parking page or any other page for that matter.

 

[DomainNature]

Some othet things I have done:

This thread is about trying to ignite some sales/cashflow by giving your domains the greatest exposure (i.e. chance for sales success).

But ALSO about reducing expenses. By reducing expenses enough, your total sales revenue doesnt need to be as high.

I don't know how I missed this, but GD has something called a Discount Domainers Club. I just joined for 12 months for $238. That's pricey BUT I have about 100 Dot Coms coming up for renewal at $20 each. Thats $2k...

This membership has reduced my renewal price to $9.63 per DOT Com domain (says $9.45 on website, but maybe some small tax or increase). So, instead of blindly paying $2k, I have now reduced this upcoming expense to roughly $963 + $238 = $1201 (or a savingsof $800).

Perhaps everyone knew this already (I didn't). One click of a button saved me over $800 annually (not all my domains are Dot Coms and other extensions, while cheaper to renew now, may not be as heavily discounted.

You can move domains at Cloudflare or SAV without any Godaddy crappy club and be able to save even more on renewals.

 

[gericsb]

You can move domains at Cloudflare or SAV without any Godaddy crappy club and be able to save even more on renewals.

Totally agree. For me its about convenience, not wanting to learn the workings of a new site etc.

I have a full-time job about 60 hrs per week, family etc.

 

[gericsb]

So you need 1000-1200 bucks for renewals and you worry so much? I would say don't decrease your prices if your names worth the prices. Just get a job!
IF you sell names for 300-500 bucks, 1 or 2 annually, you will be out of business before you know it.

Good luck!

Just a quick update:

I did some pruning (dropping names) in my portfolio and regged a few new ones based on some more current trends.

After all that, I'm at about 140 names.

I also reviewed my annual costs instead of just keeping my head under a rock. For 2022, I'm at about $1,900 in renewal costs plus GD Discount Domain Club $238, so let's just say $2,100. I'm okay with this due to good day job etc. No debt....

We'll see how this goes, but next step will probably listing some more of my domains on Squadhelp.

Domaining is weird because at my level, one X,xxx sale changes my whole profit/loss dynamic for the year.

Also, I only got back into domaining end of 2020 (after 10-11 year hiatus), and had just about $1k in sales profit in 2021, so that keeps me motivated.

Thanks for your comments so far...

 

[gericsb]

Some othet things I have done:

This thread is about trying to ignite some sales/cashflow by giving your domains the greatest exposure (i.e. chance for sales success).

But ALSO about reducing expenses. By reducing expenses enough, your total sales revenue doesnt need to be as high.

I don't know how I missed this, but GD has something called a Discount Domainers Club. I just joined for 12 months for $238. That's pricey BUT I have about 100 Dot Coms coming up for renewal at $20 each. Thats $2k...

This membership has reduced my renewal price to $9.63 per DOT Com domain (says $9.45 on website, but maybe some small tax or increase). So, instead of blindly paying $2k, I have now reduced this upcoming expense to roughly $963 + $238 = $1201 (or a savingsof $800).

Perhaps everyone knew this already (I didn't). One click of a button saved me over $800 annually (not all my domains are Dot Coms and other extensions, while cheaper to renew now, may not be as heavily discounted.

Just clarifying, annual expense of about $1,200 is for JUST the Dot-COMs in my portfolio. I also have a handful of .org, .co etc which are more expensive to renew.

I have added a new post with more detail about my annual expenses.....

 

[lock]

That is a bit of work just to do the tasks required.
I want to try catch the buyer on own lander then choose if want communication goes through a marketplace of my choice. I don't think marketplaces bring much in general traffic unless they market keywords or have some rotating type of exposure, they certainly can when they do along with security. Many rather hold onto the customer and then ask what you will sell a domain for even if set price all to gain margin and never reveal buyer anyway. Even starting anon you have more chance revealing customer which suits my interest more.

 

[gericsb]

That is a bit of work just to do the tasks required.
I want to try catch the buyer on own lander then choose if want communication goes through a marketplace of my choice. I don't think marketplaces bring much in general traffic unless they market keywords or have some rotating type of exposure, they certainly can when they do along with security. Many rather hold onto the customer and then ask what you will sell a domain for even if set price all to gain margin and never reveal buyer anyway. Even starting anon you have more chance revealing customer which suits my interest more.

I tend to agree with this, however, I just don't have the time to create landers, engage with customers etc right now.

The marketplaces make sure payment is received, have brand recognition (GoDaddy), have brokers that can negotiate on my behalf....

It takes long enough just to find a name to list.....lol

 

[okaydomains]

I have discount domain club, because I still have about 400 names at GoDaddy. I thought it was $99, I guess its gone up on the price (I have had it for many years). It works out to a decent deal if you're going to use GD and don't want to fiddle with coupon codes. And you know this now, but $20/year for .com renewals is just ridiculous. No one pays that.

I am slowly moving my names away from GoDaddy (I expect free WHOIS privacy in 2022, among other issues), but I like buying from their closeout auctions so I will always have an influx of new domains coming in there.

Dynadot is my preferred registrar now. Once you spend about $5k/year they opt you into their best prices anyway without needing to pay for any sort of club. I find their prices to be competitive on every TLD, and they don't gouge you on renewals like many other registrars are doing now. Support has always been amazing.

I also use Namecheap a lot, primarily because I like their API and their year one prices are good (but make sure to Google a coupon first). But they will charge you $15/yr for .com renewals is you aren't careful.

When hand registering domains I always check Dynadot and Namecheap, sometimes one has a significantly better price due to a sale.

Regarding your original thread, I think cleaning up your listings/landers and lowering prices is the best thing you can do (other than outbound sales). But still with only a few hundred names you're just not likely to sell all that many per year. With a smaller portfolio, I think its best to just be honest with yourself about the quality of your names, keep the best and let the duds go, and then keep prices high and wait it out. You're only likely to make a few sales/year, so you want to make them count.

 

[gericsb]

I have discount domain club, because I still have about 400 names at GoDaddy. I thought it was $99, I guess its gone up on the price (I have had it for many years). It works out to a decent deal if you're going to use GD and don't want to fiddle with coupon codes. And you know this now, but $20/year for .com renewals is just ridiculous. No one pays that.

I am slowly moving my names away from GoDaddy (I expect free WHOIS privacy in 2022, among other issues), but I like buying from their closeout auctions so I will always have an influx of new domains coming in there.

Dynadot is my preferred registrar now. Once you spend about $5k/year they opt you into their best prices anyway without needing to pay for any sort of club. I find their prices to be competitive on every TLD, and they don't gouge you on renewals like many other registrars are doing now. Support has always been amazing.

I also use Namecheap a lot, primarily because I like their API and their year one prices are good (but make sure to Google a coupon first). But they will charge you $15/yr for .com renewals is you aren't careful.

When hand registering domains I always check Dynadot and Namecheap, sometimes one has a significantly better price due to a sale.

Regarding your original thread, I think cleaning up your listings/landers and lowering prices is the best thing you can do (other than outbound sales). But still with only a few hundred names you're just not likely to sell all that many per year. With a smaller portfolio, I think its best to just be honest with yourself about the quality of your names, keep the best and let the duds go, and then keep prices high and wait it out. You're only likely to make a few sales/year, so you want to make them count.

Thanks for the detailed contribution!

I actually just sold my first domain of 2022 (posted details in Completed Sales thread earlier today).

Nothing huge, only $688 gross sale, but was one of the names I lowered slightly during my repricing.

At least provides some positive reenforcement that some of these measures I'm taking do have an effect.

 

[okaydomains]

Thanks for the detailed contribution!

I actually just sold my first domain of 2022 (posted details in Completed Sales thread earlier today).

Nothing huge, only $688 gross sale, but was one of the names I lowered slightly during my repricing.

At least provides some positive reenforcement that some of these measures I'm taking do have an effect.

I saw that, congratulations!

Now you get to wonder if it was the price change that sold it or if it would have sold anyway for marginally more money! My favorite pastime.

(I think you got a good price for the name, FWIW)

 

[gericsb]

I saw that, congratulations!

Now you get to wonder if it was the price change that sold it or if it would have sold anyway for marginally more money! My favorite pastime.

(I think you got a good price for the name, FWIW)

Nice sale to you BTW.

I would have totally regged that name...lol

 

[gericsb]

Just keeping my thread going...lol!

I have added a few domains and dropped a couple, as well:

Added:
EasyOrganizers.com
SweetGoddess.com
Offloading.net
MovieDownloads.net

Dropped/Dropping:
TryCactus.com (Don't ask!)
Couple Spanish Dot-TVs

Still just one sale for 2022, but hey there are a couple more days in the year!

For 2023, my Main Goal will be to improve the quality of names and to raise the prices of the names I continue to hold to a slightly higher level.

Happy New Year!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Just keeping my thread going...lol!

I have added a few domains and dropped a couple, as well:

Added:
EasyOrganizers.com
SweetGoddess.com
Offloading.net
MovieDownloads.net

Dropped/Dropping:
TryCactus.com (Don't ask!)
Couple Spanish Dot-TVs

Still just one sale for 2022, but hey there are a couple more days in the year!

Thanks for the update. It's good to see that lowering the prices may have helped.

When examining the overall performance of marketplaces this year, what was very clear to me was the need to get lower prices for the renewals. There's no guarantee any domain will sell in a given year. There is a guarantee that renewals will hit your wallet.

The important thing here is that you are questioning your strategy and tactics this year, and making changes accordingly. Congrats!

 

[gericsb]

Thanks for the update. It's good to see that lowering the prices may have helped.

When examining the overall performance of marketplaces this year, what was very clear to me was the need to get lower prices for the renewals. There's no guarantee any domain will sell in a given year. There is a guarantee that renewals will hit your wallet.

The important thing here is that you are questioning your strategy and tactics this year, and making changes accordingly. Congrats!

Thanks, LCD!

Yes, questioning whatever we do can always help us improve in one way or another!

What's becoming painfully obvious is that with the 1-2% industry wide STR, keeping my prices 'low' is never going to make me profitable.

Now, I still have a bunch of names priced 299 - 699 and those are probably where they should be.


So, in my mind:

1. Improve Quality of names, so..

2. I can price them higher

I am at about 160 names now, with about half priced 1,xxx or higher.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Have you also looked seriously at the selling options with the Namepros marketplace?

Apparently you can even list your expiring or even expired domains there. There are the NamePros rules that are important to read before doing this. And, since BIN offers are legally binding, the sale would presumably need to be exclusive to Namepros.

One wonders whether this tactic might be worth a trial. Delist a small group of desirableBIN domains for a week or two at the other outside marketplaces, and list them at Namepros. After all, if you post prices that are 10-20% less or more, could that be a good start for investors who may have been interested in your domains?

 

[gericsb]

Have you also looked seriously at the selling options with the Namepros marketplace?

Apparently you can even list your expiring or even expired domains there. There are the NamePros rules that are important to read before doing this. And, since BIN offers are legally binding, the sale would presumably need to be exclusive to Namepros.

One wonders whether this tactic might be worth a trial. Delist a small group of desirableBIN domains for a week or two at the other outside marketplaces, and list them at Namepros. After all, if you post prices that are 10-20% less or more, could that be a good start for investors who may have been interested in your domains?

This is something I had been considering! I very well may do this soon....

Thank you.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

This is something I had been considering! I very well may do this soon....

Thank you.

That option of listing the expired names is a very interesting one. Considering that the outside marketplaces appear to require that you pay the renewal or redemption fees prior to sale, Namepros appears to offer a different alternative.

If the price is low enough, an invester/buyer may be fine with paying the renewal fees. That may be still a better deal for them --compared to backordering and battling out with bidding on expired domain auctions. The rules stipulate that the seller pays redemption fees, though, minus what would be the renewal fee that the buyer pays. So having an expired domain listed in the redemption period may be tricky and has to be priced carefully.

Thanks for your posting. You've been an inspiration to explore different options more agressively.

 

[gericsb]

That option of listing the expired names is a very interesting one. Considering that the outside marketplaces appear to require that you pay the renewal or redemption fees prior to sale, Namepros appears to offer a different alternative.

If the price is low enough, an invester/buyer may be fine with paying the renewal fees. That may be still a better deal for them --compared to backordering and battling out with bidding on expired domain auctions. The rules stipulate that the seller pays redemption fees, though, minus what would be the renewal fee that the buyer pays. So having an expired domain listed in the redemption period may be tricky and has to be priced carefully.

Thanks for your posting. You've been an inspiration to explore different options more agressively.

Yes, that is an intriguing aspect of the NP Marketplace that I hadn't fully realized. I am going to give it a shot.

Thanks for the kind words, too.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Yes, that is an intriguing aspect of the NP Marketplace that I hadn't fully realized. I am going to give it a shot.

Thanks for the kind words, too.

Perhaps some other Namepros members have had successful experiences with listing the even the expired domains there, and can share more insights.

There was the issue about Paypal that came up recently. The business account provides more protections for the sales, so it does make sense to use that--even if fees are higher. So the sales transaction options might be good to explore further.

If you think about it, when the various aftermarket platforms have 20+ million listings, what really are the chances of your domain being seen. Namepros Marketplace at least doesn't have millions of concurrent listings....yet. So, you might get a little bit more visibility here?!

 

[gericsb]

Hey All!

Have been away fir a while, but like to update this thread periodically - usually after a sale!

I was able to post my first sale of 2023 over in the Completed Sales thread.

First 4-fig sale in a loooooonnng time (yes, low low 4-figures, but I'll take it)!

Here are a few things I've been doing and some observations:

Was up to 198 domains and trimmed 8 of what I considered my weakest. My recent sale came without any price adjustments or anything.

Buyer paid BIN on Afternic.

Now that I have one sale for the year, which will help a lot with renewals, I am going to bump some of my names up a bit so that a 2nd sale will ensure profitability.

BUT also, there has not been much good inventory on Expired Domains, GD closeouts etc.

This leads me to believe that good domains are becoming more scarce and if we own any, price them up now!

Finally, areas to maybe focus on are good brandables, AI, or emerging tech.

Good luck, All!

 

[gericsb]

Gradually trimming a few more domains - mainly 3 or 4 word domains that don't meet my 'minimum price criteria' - which is currently $799.

Goal is to get to around 170-175 domains-ones that I think will have a higher probabilty of selling.

Anyway, I'm still learning and refining my strategy.

Thanks!

 

[Iori]

Hey All!

Have been away fir a while, but like to update this thread periodically - usually after a sale!

I was able to post my first sale of 2023 over in the Completed Sales thread.

First 4-fig sale in a loooooonnng time (yes, low low 4-figures, but I'll take it)!

Here are a few things I've been doing and some observations:

Was up to 198 domains and trimmed 8 of what I considered my weakest. My recent sale came without any price adjustments or anything.

Buyer paid BIN on Afternic.

Now that I have one sale for the year, which will help a lot with renewals, I am going to bump some of my names up a bit so that a 2nd sale will ensure profitability.

BUT also, there has not been much good inventory on Expired Domains, GD closeouts etc.

This leads me to believe that good domains are becoming more scarce and if we own any, price them up now!

Finally, areas to maybe focus on are good brandables, AI, or emerging tech.

Good luck, All!

Congrats for the nice sale, it's a bear market and it's hard to impossible to have a slae for us with small portfolio, happy for you (:

 

[gericsb]

Congrats for the nice sale, it's a bear market and it's hard to impossible to have a slae for us with small portfolio, happy for you (:

Thanks, SnakeCase....

Last year 2022 was not good, but in this business there is a lot of time where nothing happens....then maybe we get lucky once in awhile!

 

[gericsb]

Seriously can't believe I've had a second sale within ten days of my last sale. It's posted in the Completed Sales thread...

This business is 'odd' - Lol.

But it's made me reconsider my pricing strategy so I thought I'd share it here:

Like most people, I buy, hang reg, get a name somehow and then think...hmmm, it's okay but not great so I may price it at xxx and hope for a sale.

I have changed to a pricing model that focuses on what I want to achieve versus what I think the domains are worth....