Advice

I am sure you’ve heard the phrase (or one like it), “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” as a warning to not be greedy. Well, unfortunately, I want to share how I got greedy and lost what could have been a profitable and substantial deal as a result.

I recently received an unsolicited mid five figure offer to buy a domain name I had acquired within a year for under $150. The offer started in the low five figure range, and after a couple of emails, the buyer made a mid five figure offer. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have accepted the offer, but having just closed a very large sale, I countered with a higher price. I figured the buyer would either accept the higher price or stand firm with the offer, and I could accept that if the buyer would not budge.

Outbound domain name marketing tends to result in lower offers and sales prices than inbound lead generation. It makes sense because outbound marketing is essentially cold calling people who may or may not have an interest in the domain name, and they may or may not have the budget to buy the domain name. With inbound lead generation, someone has taken at least the first step to buying a domain name and are willing to discuss the purchase price.

Although I have done less outbound marketing of my domain names during the prior few years (especially this year), I want to share when I think it might be beneficial to do outbound marketing.