I wrote a post yesterday recommending LeadRefs.com as a source to find potential domain buyers. I want to share some additional insight and information to help you potentially close a deal.

First off, it may or may not be okay for you to send multiple email messages trying to sell domain names to people you don’t know. I am not a lawyer, and I am not going to interpret any laws that may or may not exist in your locality. I am personally opposed to sending bulk, untargeted, and unpersonalized spam emails.

That said, I think the best possible domain acquisition prospects are people and/or companies who already own descriptive domain names. They either realized  certain types of keyword domain names have value back in the day or they recently bought them, which may even be better. They likely don’t need a big sales pitch or any sales pitch at all to sell them a good domain name that will fit within their business strategy.

More important than the leads are the domain names and prices. You can have the best sales letter, but if you’re trying to sell a crappy, hyphenated .info domain names for $5,000, it’s not going to work. I almost exclusively use exact keyword .com domain names when I am trying to find a buyer. I don’t try to do lead generation for brandable domain names or call to action names.

I try to keep my email simple and to the point these days. I might write something like this:

“I am the owner of xxxx.com, and I thought your company might be interested in purchasing it. The price of xxxx.com is $x,xxx, and payment can be made using Escrow.com or an escrow service of your choice. I am offering this domain name to several companies, and the first to agree to the price will have the opportunity to purchase xxxx.com.”

I think prospecting for buyers is a very good way to sell domain names. Companies that already own solid descriptive domain names that are similar to yours make great prospects.

I believe it’s more difficult to sell a domain name with any type of development as compared to a parked domain name. Many people who are unfamiliar with the Whois database will type in a domain name to see if someone is using it. If they see a developed website (even a mini site), it’s likely they will move on to other domain names, unless they absolutely need a specific domain name.

When you visit many domain names parked with Internet Traffic (and other parking providers), you can see a bright bar at the top of the landing page announcing that the domain name may be for sale. From what I understand, this helps drive a significant amount of offers for domain owners. Although many offers are unqualified, it still opens a dialog.

The Hello Bar is a neat toolbar that you can easily add to the top of your website or blog, and it can be used to let visitors know the website is for sale. You can choose any color or font combination and add a link to a destination url of your choice. Many people traditionally use it to direct visitors to certain articles or make special announcements, and I think it’s a great tool to sell a website.

It’s very easy to install the Hello Bar, whether you use WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr, or basically any content management system. For WordPress, you can download a free plugin, and then enter the code from the Hello Bar website into the correct field on the plugin editor page. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to install and add. You can then add a page on your site to let people know how to get in touch with you or how to buy the domain name and website.

I want to share an example of how I set up the Hello Bar on one of my websites this morning, and it only took a few minutes. Visit BabyRegistries.com and you can see how the Hello Bar looks. Once I added my messaging to the Hello Bar, I set up a very quick and free form at Woofoo.com. It took less than 30 minutes to set up on my first try.

I can’t tell you if it will work for certain, but it’s a great way to let people know your domain name with website is for sale.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I get anywhere from 4-12% of my traffic from Domaining.com, depending on the day. It’s obviously one of the top traffic referrers for my blog. One negative for me (and maybe positive for you) Domaining.com deletes links to article with domain names for sale.

When I have valuable domain names I want to sell and will be content with domain investor pricing, I’ve purchased Domaining.com sponsored headlines for 24 hours, and there is considerable value in doing that. In 2011, I purchased 12 sponsored headlines on Domaining.com. I probably had close to a 75% sales rate, which is outstanding.

I can’t say for certain whether the majority of those sales were from people who read the headline on Domaining.com and then bought the domain name(s). However, I am pretty sure more than a few found their way to my post as a result of the headline, and it was certainly worth the cost.

People often ask if I would be willing to list a domain name for sale on my blog, which is something I don’t do. My recommendation to them is to post an article on their own website (or to create a post on DNForum) and then pay for a sponsored headline on Domaining.com for about $150.

Although it may seem a bit pricey for a 24 hour headline, it gets tremendous exposure from domain buyers of all kinds. If the price is right and you can absorb the $150 cost in the domain sale, I strongly recommend doing it. It’s worked several times for me, and Francois didn’t even have to ask me to post this.

I’ve read about how some of the wisest domain investors negotiate huge domain sales, and this is not one of those stories. This is a lesson to domain investors who think a higher offer will always materialize after an opening offer, and hopefully it will make you to think twice when you receive an offer.

At the end of 2011, I received a $5,000 opening offer for a one word, aged .com domain name I had recently acquired at auction for under $100. I did some research on the name and buyer and we sent a few emails back and forth, with me asking him to submit his best offer, assuming his $5,000 offer was just an opening offer.

When I didn’t hear back within a day or two (previous emails were fairly quick), I offered it to him for around $10,000, figuring I would either sell it for $10k, or at the very least, the $5,000 offer.

I didn’t hear back from him for a few weeks and sent a follow up email. Unfortunately, he opted to buy a different domain name.

Although you often hear stories about huge offers materializing from smaller offers, this is a case where the opposite is true. I turned down a solid offer with the hopes of making more, and it didn’t work out.

2011 was one of my best years in terms of domain sales and income, and the offer came in right at the end, so I gambled on it. I think it’s important for you to see how easy it can be to lose a $5,000 sale when you want to be a little bit greedy. It was a lesson learned, and I hope you, too, can learn from my experience.