question What is your idea of an ideal sales page and name platform?

[NPer]

What exactly do you, as a seller, require from a name platform and sales pages?

I have been experimenting with several ideas for myself, I have some things to iron out before I go ahead completely. But I would like to hear from you.

Things beyond my ideal platform is also having a wide-reach. But I figured that this is something I can do by listing everywhere that doesn't charge a dime for the listing, e.g. Godaddy, etc, which is what I have done.

I believe that most inquiries come mainly from the page shown on the domain, rather than via networks. Which means that you could close a sale on your own. If sales do come from Godaddy or elsewhere, I am happy to pay the commision since they have earned it.

I have experimented over a span of 8 months so far... and here are some things that I have noted:

- With your own pages, which has a make offer/price request form, you don't need a buyer to spend too much time to sign up. e.g. Sedo requires this... Instead, what you want is for the buyer to be able to make an inquiry quickly.
- You have the buyers details, so you can follow up directly and understand the buyer a bit better and work with him/her to close a sale. With an external platform, this info is withheld from you.
- Buyers are not exposed to other domains which are not yours... that way you don't have to worry about losing YOUR lead to someone else. When you list your domain at a "brandable" marketplace, you a pay a fee, and you would never know if you lost out a sale to another person.
- You can offer the domain at a lower price because you don't have to pay commision, just the Escrow fee, or part thereof... or the buyer can pay- that choice is there for you to make. Being able to be a bit more flexible in pricing can mean the difference especially between closing a sale and losing one. You don't want to lose a buyer because you wanted to factor in the commision... seriously.
- You can sell additional domains to the same buyer, that meets his/her requirements. You've built a relationship with him/her. I have done this.

Now... I have questions:

1. What is an ideal sales page to you? What features should it have? How should it function?
2. What is an ideal name platform? What do you (or don't you) like about the ones you've used and what suggestions do you have, if any?
3. If you are using your own pages, what features do you believe have helped with enticing the potential buyer to make an inquiry? E.g. providing stats? Reasons for buying it? Images/Logos?
4. If you aren't using a your own sales pages, what has been the reason for this? E.g. You prefer to be anonymous when negotiating (like at Sedo/Godaddy)? You prefer brokers to handle your inquiries (like at Afternic)? You don't have time/technical knowhow to create pages?

If there is anything else that may be beneficial to mention, beyond my questions, please do so.

I'd like to hear from you...

 

[DomainVP]

This is a fantastic part of domaining that I personally think does not get enough attention.

I've been really focusing on what works for landing pages over this past year, and I've found that the more attractive a landing page is, the more deadbeats and low ball $50 offers you will have to deal with.

Let me answer your questions first before I start to go into a diatribe about anything else.

1. An ideal sales page for me cleanly presents the domain name, and clearly presents a method of contact. I want the buyer to contact me personally, that way I can sell the name with human interaction. My pages use an eMail address that uses an image+[doman name] format. That way it can't be scraped by spammers, and I know that the person is coming from the landing page.

I don't want there to be 'buy it now' or any pricing whatsoever. In the best case scenario, we work on a price together, and can do a direct wire and domain transfer and leave all fees and services out of the conversation. I've used the buttons before, and I still was contacted first.

2. I don't like external sales & parking pages. If a person is coming to the landing page, they probably typed the domain name in and someone else is just profiting from your investment.

3. I don't use stats or logos on my landing pages. The domain is styled in css (and is responsive), and is presentable to the user. Here's an exact example: (No I don't own FrozenTies lol)

I don't use any on page sales because my logic is that if they found themselves there, then they already know why it's a good name to own. By the time a user arrives at your landing page, they should have already sold themselves, which is why all that needs to be discussed is pricing and availability.

4. Everyone should use their own sales pages, unless required by a platform that you believe will get your name sold.

The things holding people back from using their own sales page are technical ability and the lack of existing solutions. Domainer & developer do not go hand-in-hand. Although there are many developers in the domain investing community, I have noticed that most domainers don't know the php/css/mysql/js that it takes to have a nice presentable landing page.

The pages I manage have been setup so that they use their own unique eMail address and are standalone, not dependent on external front end resources. The only resources the pages use are a MySLQ link which reads a database with the domains information that I have input.

So if a user comes to frozenties.com the domain is formatted to be "FrozenTies.com", to easily identify the keywords, and the phrase "Frozen Ties" is used in the description so that not everything is "FrozenTies.com"

I am actually making a video about how I setup my landing pages and eMail system, which I will publish soon.

More people need to be talking about this, I'm shocked it's taken 4 days for any response. Great topic.

 

[NPer]

This is a fantastic part of domaining that I personally think does not get enough attention.

I've been really focusing on what works for landing pages over this past year, and I've found that the more attractive a landing page is, the more deadbeats and low ball $50 offers you will have to deal with.

Let me answer your questions first before I start to go into a diatribe about anything else.

1. An ideal sales page for me cleanly presents the domain name, and clearly presents a method of contact. I want the buyer to contact me personally, that way I can sell the name with human interaction. My pages use an eMail address that uses an image+[doman name] format. That way, it can't be scrapped by spammers and I know that they are coming from the landing page.

I don't want there to be 'buy it now' or any pricing whatsoever. In the best case scenario, we work on a price together, and can do a direct wire and domain transfer and leave all fees and services out of the conversation.

2. I don't like external sales & parking pages. If a person is coming to the landing page, they probably typed the domain name in and someone else is just profiting from your investment.

3. I don't use stats or logos on my landing pages. The domain is styled in css (and is responsive), and is presentable to the user. Here's an exact example: (No I don't own FrozenTies lol)

I don't use any on page sales because my logic is that if they found themselves there, then they already know why it's a good name to own. By the time a user arrives at your landing page, they should have already sold themselves, which is why all that needs to be discussed is pricing and availability.

4. Everyone should use their own sales pages, unless required by a platform that you believe will get your name sold.

The things holding people back from using their own sales page are technical ability and the lack of existing solutions. Domainer & developer do not go hand-in-hand. Although there are many developers in the domain investing community, I have noticed that most domainers don't know the php/css/mysql/js that it takes to have a nice presentable landing page.

The pages I manage have been setup so that they use their own unique eMail address and are standalone, not dependent on external front end resources. The only resources the pages use are a MySLQ link which reads a database with the domains information that I have input.

So if a user comes to frozenties.com the domain is formatted to be "FrozenTies.com", to easily identify the keywords, and the phrase "Frozen Ties" is used in the description so that not everything is "FrozenTies.com"

I am actually making a video about how I setup my landing pages and eMail system, which I will publish soon.

More people need to be talking about this, I'm shocked it's taken 4 days for any response. Great topic.

Thank you for a Fantastic response!

I agree with your answers. Yes, you are correct that many domainers lack the technical know-how. Things that some of us accept as simple, are hard for others.

As you said, every domainer should have their own pages, and handle their inquiries. When someone visits your page, that is YOUR lead. This is how most sales happen. Now when a domainer doesn't have his/her page, they end up paying somebody to have it listed, pay for a logo, etc-which is all unnecessary and/or in some cases, pay a commison as well. there's also that risk of losing that lead to the platform which they had hoped would close the deal for them. If the name is good, and the buyer wants your name, that is all that is needed to close a sale.

I was somewhat surprised that no one responded-but figured it was because creaing pages could be too technical for many.

 

[SirDrago]

I personally use WordPress, edited for Multi sites.

Themify Ultra theme plugin.

Custom landing page for ALL my Domains with one WordPress installation.

I keep it very simple...
Domain name available.
A attractive contact form and a brief description of my services.

@DomainVP hit the nail on the head with his methods especially embedding Emails and links.

EDIT: There are occasions where I will link similar Domains to each other.