If I could have a dollar for every email I sent, educating prospective buyers about aftermarket domains, I’d be at least one thousand bucks richer.
The fact is, end user buyers – as opposed to domain investors – are for the most part unfamiliar with the value and pricing of domain names.
This comes as no surprise, for several reasons.
- Domain investing is an unregulated business, receiving – for the most part – negative coverage.
- Some big players in the industry, such as GoDaddy, assert that a domain can be had for a token price, e.g. $10 bucks.
- There is little to no coverage on the lifespan of domains: what happens when they aren’t renewed, for example.
- It’s tough to educate everyone, all the time; the “online” crowd gets regenerated constantly.
With that in mind, educating an end-user buyer about your assets can significantly increase your ability to sell domains to them.
Forget about flipping domains for a second, as this type of mentality and practice exists to justify one’s expensive hobby or disorganized, secondary occupation.
By defining your strategy towards end-user inquiries, you will be able to offer something of value – your domain – at a premium price.
While your prospective domain buyer might not always welcome the rationale behind your asking price, they will most likely appreciate your ability to define something that they had little knowledge of. Quite often, this can lead to a sale consistent with your expected price.
In order to cut down on your response time for every inquiry, it’d be prudent to write up a “bullet point” list about what makes domain names in the aftermarket desirable.
That could be as short or long as you like, however longer lists tend to appear to be “patronizing” and you don’t want your buyer to feel intimidated.
Keeping the list short and to the point ensures that it is legible, comprehensible, and actionable; the recipient will utilize this “free” knowledge to assess their options, and hopefully, will make an offer to acquire your domain in the range you anticipate.
Educating end users is a tough task, and it’s a practice that will land you more sales at a much higher price.
While DNJ reports list the outliers, the vast majority of the general populace views a domain name as the equivalent of a hosting account, a logo, or the garbage can for the break room – under $100 type items. But when considers what companies do spend on IT costs, advertising, professional services, office rent, perhaps one has a basis for arguing that a domain name deserves more budget than most potential buyers typically consider. It is a hard sell particularly when doing outbound marketing.
An example of how you would go about educating the enduser would be great. I am currently having an exchange that started yesterday evening with an author who let the .com of his latest book expire which is a generic word with “the” in front of it.
He contacted me claiming to be the owner of the domain name. Offered me $10. I explained to him that I am the legitimate owner and why, comparing it to a foreclosure being bought by a subsequent real estate investor, and explained to him that he will need to make an offer if he wanted the name.
He came back with $40.
I grabbed some comparable sales this year from namebio from buydomains which are likely to be enduser sales rather than auction sales. They were in the 1,000-7,000 range and I told him he will need to make an offer with those comparable sales in mind.
He said he has to “assess what to do”.
Rod – I’ve been offering such tidbits of advice through my blog posts, and you can search the archives for info.
The case you mentioned involves the previous owner who let the domain to expire, presumably by accident.
It’s a sensitive issue, particularly if the domain is tied to a personal product or service.
Using similar sales as a means to gauge value is not the way here; instead, you should focus on defining your buyer range.
If it’s “indefinite”, meaning, this offer won’t be the last one, by all means raise the asking price. If, however, this inquiry is more or less the only offer you’d ever receive, you could set the price lower.
Regardless of price range, it’s not easy to convince a prior owner of a domain that they should now pay a premium price – it sounds like “punishment” to them.
Leonard – Very good analysis. A domain going to an end-user is bound to a brand at minimum, or a campaign for a product or an extension of an existing one. There are associated costs for those marketing functions, and domains do deserve a valuation within the same frameset. Thank you for bringing up these valuable points!
Definitely an interesting way to go about it. You are simply giving valid reasons as to why your domain is priced a certain way. I have seen a similar method used on Flippa where the seller writes out ideas and ways you can use the domain name once you have purchased it.
Such a powerful strategy to get the end user/potential buyer thinking and having ideas of what they can possibly use the domain name for.
How would you go about when reaching out to end users and asking them to buy your domain? Do you ask them to put an offer? Do you give them an initial price in your first email and jot down bullet points as to why you are asking for that much?
Thanks in advance appreciate the info.
– Will
Will – Managing outgoing sales or making cold calls, is quite different from responding to incoming inquiries. I will address this specifically in a future article. In the meantime, check out this article on DotSauce.
PS: Great videos!
After a long time, I finally able to access this site from India. Thank you Acro for solving the server issue.
Krishna – You’re welcome. Some bad apples ruin it for everyone else; India was blocked, but not currently. Enjoy.