Domain Sales

I previously discussed how I used the Estibot lead generation tool* and how I used LeadRefs.com to find buyers for domain names I was looking to sell. I also discussed how you might go about using the tool to find a buyer. I want to share an “alternative” way to successfully use tools like these to sell domain names.

When you are considering the purchase of a domain name in the aftermarket (like via auction or a private sale), you might want to plug the domain name into the tool to see if there will be adequate leads for a sale. I don’t know what number would be considered adequate, but I would think 20+ leads means you’d have a solid chance of finding a buyer.

You might also want to see if those similar domain names are developed and who owns them.  If a company understands that a descriptive, keyword domain name will have value to them, they might also want to buy this one if you are able to buy it at a good price and re-sell it.

Once you find some of these leads, you might take a next step and review a domain name sales history website like NameBio  to see if any of those other domain names are listed as past sales. This can give an indication of when and how much the owner paid. You can and should do a Whois History search to see when the other domain names were acquired.

While it’s great that another company values keyword domain names, I believe there is a difference whether they hand registered the name(s) several years ago or bought it in the aftermarket. I think the later is more  indicative  of a company’s willingness to spend money on domain names now.

Keep in mind that you don’t want to email potential buyers before you buy the domain name. I don’t think that’s a smart move, especially because they might try to buy the name on their own. Additionally, I don’t believe you can use either tool for unregistered names, so you can’t use it to find buyers for names you want to hand register.

*Note: I took the first article down after comments were expressed that I made it sound too easy while my success was predicated on the quality of my domain names.

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.