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?

 

[Future Sensors]

@gericsb Even with DDC, they're still more expensive than standard pricing at e.g. Porkbun (including ICANN fee).

 

[Bean]

what is your lander? Most landers are showing up blank for 20 million + potential buyers that use ublock origin. This industry keeps ignoring this, but all your discounts won't matter if your pages are blank unless the user visits afternic etc directly.

Even one of godaddy's pages now are blank (not my domain) http://usebloom.com/ for ublock origin users

Parts of squadhelp blank, bodis blank, some sedo and gd landers blank etc.

I think you may be confusing for sale landers with parking pages that have for sale banners. I haven't come across any pure landers that are affected by ad blockers. Afternic and Sedo for sale landers display just fine with ad blockers enabled.

 

[AEProgram]

I think you may be confusing for sale landers with parking pages that have for sale banners. I haven't come across any pure landers that are affected by ad blockers. Afternic and Sedo for sale landers display just fine with ad blockers enabled.

If you read what I wrote you will see I am confusing nothing. I am very clear.

 

[gericsb]

@gericsb Even with DDC, they're still more expensive than standard pricing at e.g. Porkbun (including ICANN fee).

Future Sensors.....yes, I see that myself. Years ago, I had domains at multiple different Registrars always trying to get the best deals/reduce costs etc.

The convenience of having all my names at GD, my familiarity with their technology, and their support (which for myself has been excellent) makes it more than justifiable to pay the $9.63 per renewal (again, for me today). $20 per domain was pushing it (on my budget).

Years ago I NEEDED to cut every cost I could, now convenience and my time have assumed a higher priority.

But agree with you 100% IF others are just starting out on a shoestring budget, look at some of the less expensive Registrars.

Thanks again for your response!

 

[Bean]

If you read what I wrote you will see I am confusing nothing. I am very clear.

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

 

[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.

 

[Altetra]

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.