Domain Sales

There’s an interesting article on Venture Beat today discussing the recent sale of Foodie.com. According to the article writer’s sources, it was confirmed that “Glam Media CEO Samir Arora purchased the Foodie.com domain last week for over $100,000.”

I don’t know the article’s sources so I can’t say for certainty that the sale price is legit or factual, but it seems to be a good price for a very good domain name. The domain name appears to have been previously owned by publicly traded Marchex, and it appears to have been a part of the Ultimate Search portfolio it acquired several years ago.

As can be seen in the 1st quarter earnings report from Marchex, the company doesn’t appear to break out its domain sales individually. For this reason, unless someone from Glam goes on the record to confirm the purchase price, it may never be reported as factual.

Glam Media also owns several other descriptive domain names, and it apparently has a valuation of close to a billion dollars.

Thanks to  David Bleaman for the tip.

I am about to try something fairly unique (at least for me) with one of my domain names, and I wanted to share this idea with you.

I had reached out to a number of companies regarding a domain name I own in an attempt to sell it. I also reached out to an organization comprised of members that offer the type of service described in this exact match .com domain name. The organization offered me $2,500 for the domain name, which I didn’t accept. I also turned down an offer in the $10,000 ballpark from another company.

I reached back out to this organization and made them an offer. I asked if they would send an email blast out to their membership offering the domain name for sale. If the name sells, they will get a 10% commission for the sale. If it doesn’t sell, I won’t have to pay for anything.

From my perspective, it’s win/win/win for everyone involved if a sale is consummated.  I will make a sale, the organization will make a nice profit for sending an email, and a member of the organization will be able to acquire a great domain name. I may not have been able to connect with the decision makers on my own, but the organization has the contact information and the attention of industry executives.

I believe the key considerations are the quality of the domain name and the price. This won’t work for a secondary domain name or if your price is significantly higher than its value. This is something I’d likely pay for if they charged me, but under these conditions, there is very little risk for me.