Business is Down YOY – Here’s What I am Going to Do

This year has been relatively slow for my business. Year to date, I am on pace to equal the number of domain names I sold last year, but I am trailing substantially on the revenue and profits, year over year. Obviously, the profit is the most important metric to my business.

There are a few reasons for why my business income is down this year. For starters, last year was my company’s best year profit-wise due to some abnormally large domain name sales. Comparing a great year to a pedestrian year isn’t really fair, but I can’t help it. I am always seeking income growth. That said, I expect the year to be slightly below average unless I close a few exceptional deals unexpectedly.

When business was cruising last year, I adjusted many of my BIN prices higher. I believe that is impacting my business this year. There also appears to be a corporate belt tightening across many sectors, and that may be the biggest contributor to my down year.

Beyond outbound, which I do very sparingly, there isn’t a whole lot of things I think I can do to drive domain name sales. I can control my spend with acquisitions and renewals, which I am doing to some degree. That is a driver of cashflow but not a revenue driver. With domain name acquisitions, I am happy to be opportunistic as good names come on the market. I think this is a cyclical issue that will turn around, and I want to maintain a strong portfolio.

One thing I have started to do is compare domain name pricing across platforms where I list domain names for sale – Afternic, Dan.com, and Sedo. I want to ensure consistency across platforms. If I reduced a price on Dan.com, I want to ensure the price matches on Sedo and Afternic since the commission rate is pretty much the same.

This analysis also gives me the opportunity to adjust pricing in line with today’s retail value. Perhaps I listed a name on Afternic last year at $12,999, and it should be adjusted below $10k. I am going to spend the next several days doing this analysis and making changes. I believe this will drive more revenue, particularly at Afternic where people may be less inclined/able to submit an offer reflective of the market value.