Selling Point for End Users

Elliot Silver
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5

If you have a great domain name for sale, you probably don’t need selling points to convince a buyer that the domain name is a worthwhile investment or purchase. However, the greatest obstacle I face is convincing a buyer it’s worth what I think it’s worth in order to close a deal.

I want to share a selling point that you can use if you face this same challenge with one of your domain names: the domain name can be resold, perhaps for a profit.

I like to remind the buyer, especially a buyer that is planning to use the domain name to replace his current website or in addition to his website, that he can re-sell the domain name in the future. Buying a domain name is not like spending money on SEM or paying for newspaper advertising or something that has a limited shelf life and is gone once the money is spent. For all intents and purposes, a great domain name should retain its value and will likely increase in value over time.

There are many reasons why people exit businesses, and when the buyer decides to exit his business, he can sell the domain name to someone else, and it will probably be at a greater price if he added goodwill to the domain name by developing it. Even if the buyer didn’t put the domain name to good use, if it’s a great domain name, it can be sold to another company or even a competitor. Heck, the domain name might be worth more than the actual value of the company’s goodwill and brand!

When you are in the process of selling a domain name and are negotiating a price, you should remind the buyer that he or she is making an investment that may actually grow in value.

Explaining My Requirements from Yesterday’s Post

Elliot Silver
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5

Yesterday afternoon, I posted a request to buy a website, and I listed several  requirements  that needed to be met for me to consider  acquiring  a website. Someone asked me if I could explain why I chose those requirements, and I thought that it would be a good idea because that might give you some insight into what I personally find valuable.

  • Must be a directory website, preferably for a service

I have done pretty well with the directory model, but more importantly, there’s a business behind directories. There are several monetization options for directories. You can place advertising on free listings, you can sell listings, or you can offer upgraded listings over the free listings. In large and popular industries, there may be thousands of prospects to buy advertising or to have listings.

  • Must have at least 300 directory listings all either manually added by you or by advertisers

This will save me time. Instead of spending time researching businesses or landmarks and then having to verify, upload, and focus on getting them indexed, the job will already have been started for me. Ideally, these listings will be populated with unique content to help the website stand out amongst other competing websites.

  • Must be on a keyword exact match .com domain name (look at  what I buy  for an idea)

If the directory doesn’t earn as much as I hope, or if I decide to sell the domain name, I want to own an exact match .com domain name that has value aside from the revenue. There’s burn down value in a good keyword exact match .com domain name.

  • Website needs to be live and have been live for at least 5 years

I don’t want to buy a made for Adsense site that was built by someone last week and may nor may not have legs. I want to buy a site that someone cared about and gave it TLC. I’ve also found that older websites tend to have more inbound links, established trust, and brand awareness. A website may need a little extra care and attention from someone else, and I want to give that.

  • Website must make at least $800 per year

If a website has been up for five years and has 300+ listings, it should make at least $800 even with  minimal  monetization. If it’s not making this, there’s probably something wrong with the model. Perhaps there aren’t enough searches or the revenue per click is too low to make it a viable business. Whatever the case, it’s probably not worth my time.

  • Website must be monetized via Adsense and/or direct ad placements (no affiliate sites)

I’ve never had luck with the affiliate business (aside from one affiliate deal that was highly targeted and I had a good relationship directly with the company). I want to be able to implement my own accounts like Adsense or reach out to advertisers to continue advertising. I don’t really have to worry about Adsense changing terms, and perhaps I can increase revenue with some minor changes.

  • You must be able to prove the revenue (ie stats,  receipts…etc).

There are lots of scammers and bullshitters out there, and if someone can’t prove something when they’re selling a website, it’s probably not true.

Will Google Launch “Google Keep” Without Matching Domain Names?

Elliot Silver
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7

Some technology news outlets have reported that Google may be in the process of launching a product or service called “Keep,” and the company doesn’t seem to own related domain names. According to Time Magazine’s Techland, “Google appears to be testing a new service called Google Keep, which could allow users to compile written notes, task lists, web links and images in one place.”

I did a bit of research, and while I am not at all surprised the company doesn’t own Keep.com (it’s owned by a startup called Keep Holdings), they also don’t appear to own GoogleKeep.com. In fact, GoogleKeep.com was registered today and it has a domain name for sale landing page. The domain name appears to be registered

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Video: How to Find the Names of Decision Makers

Elliot Silver
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4

When I am looking to sell a domain name, finding a decision maker to discuss a potential deal is critical. Last October, I shared some tips to find the decision maker, and Ramahn was kind enough to share a video that offered additional insight into finding the names of decision makers. The video below was created by Jill Konrath, a best selling author and expert at sales strategy.

I could have a great domain name and be willing to sell it for a fair price, but if I am unable to get in touch with the person responsible for buying domain names, a deal might be impossible. There may be a variety of obstacles in your way to finding the person who makes domain name acquisitions for a company, but if you use some of the strategies

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Enom Domain Name Transfer and Registration Tips

Elliot Silver
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2

EnomPerhaps it’s just me, but I’ve had a few minor issues with settings on domain registrations and transfers at Enom. These issues are all correctible, and I’ve learned how to fix them by setting up some defaults and making certain selections at the time of the transaction that I want to share with you.

On new domain name registrations, make sure you uncheck the boxes of the TLDs you don’t want. It’s easy enough to remove them from the cart on the next page, but instead of accidentally registering them, you might as well just uncheck the box at first.

When doing bulk registrations, make sure you check off the box for auto renewal and domain locking. Unless you have it as an account default, your name will not auto renew, which is fine if that’s what you want, but it’s an extra step you’ll need to take in about 11 months.

For your domain transfers to Enom, on the start a transfer page, be sure to click the ” Modify Domain transfer Settings” link below the transfer box. On this page, you can lock the domain name, set it to auto renew, and most importantly (for me anyway), uncheck the “Transfer current domain WHOIS contact information” box. By unchecking, the transfered domain names will take your Whois information from your Enom account rather than from where it was transferred.

When you do an account change to push the domain name to another Enom account, you should consider not pushing the contact information with the domain name, especially if you are using escrow. If you push the contact info with the domain name, your information will be retained. If a third party escrow service does a Whois search, your name will still show up, making the push less visible. If you happen to have a dishonest buyer, it could theoretically be more difficult to confirm that you pushed the domain name. One advantage to pushing the contact info is that if you push it to the incorrect account, you may have an easier time retrieving it (although Enom says pushes are final).

You’ll probably want to set up some defaults within your account to save you time. I have set up default DNS nameservers so that new registrations automatically resolve to the parking company of my choice. I’ve also set my registrations to auto-renew and auto lock.

Most of these things are fairly obvious, but if you are trying to do something quickly, you could easily forget about these things and create more work for you (or your account rep, Bari!)

Domain Sales Tip: “Negotiable” is a Bad Keyword

Elliot Silver
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16

When I am in the process of discussing the purchase of a domain name, the best thing a domain owner can say to me is “the price is negotiable.” Without fail, this means I will completely ignore the price he’s given and make my own offer. For domain sales, this (and similar language) is really bad for negotiating.

As a domain seller, if you give a potential buyer a price for your domain name but say the price is “negotiable” or that you will consider an offer, I think that not only are you throwing away your price, but you are opening the door for a much lower offer. Any shrewd business person will detect weakness with those types of terms and you are going to potentially lose money. If they had been willing to pay your $5,000 price, but you then say it’s negotiable, that means you are not firm on your price and you will most likely get less.

Another term I find to be weak is “asking” price. To me, an asking price means

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