Yesterday morning, I wrote about purging domain investor contact emails  from sales lists since they rarely end successfully, and they tend to annoy the people who receive them. I want to share a suggestion for LeadRefs, Estibot, and any other services that suggest email contacts for domain sales.

In addition to including domain names and contact email addresses on results pages, these lead generation providers should also include DNS information as well. I think this will help people find domain investors and scrub them from their lists to avoid annoying them and/or being accused of spamming.

Many domain investors own portfolios of domain names, making it easier to scrub the list when you see multiple domain names owned by a single entity, especially when the entity is familiar (Name Administration or Most Wanted Domains as examples).

However, there are many domain investors whose portfolios are not as prolific, and whose email addresses are more difficult to spot. If you can see a domain name is parked at Sedo, TrafficZ, DomainApps, Internet Traffic, Voodoo, Bodis…etc., it’s a good bet that the owner is a domain investor and likely should be avoided when trying to sell domain names to end users.

Knowing where a domain name resolves can help domain sellers remove domain investors from their email lists.

Most people who send end user domain sales emails use Whois information to contact potential buyers. People use services like LeadRefs and Estibot to “harvest” email addresses of potential buyers, and while both of these services are valuable, without purging some of the email addresses, you run the risk of annoyance.

Although most people have sold obscure domain names for high prices when people have inquired, it’s rare that you’ll be able to sell an obscure domain name to a domain investor unless there are extenuating circumstances. Unless a domain investor has a great interest in a particular topic, it’s unlikely that he’ll be interested in a very specific domain name (like ReconstructiveOrthopaedics.com for example).

I’ve personally found that most domain investors these days are generally only buying great domain names on the aftermarket. From this experience, I generally shy away from sending emails to other domain investors on names that are for niche verticals and would only excite people who are in that line of business.

One thing you should do if you are selling domain names using Whois email contacts is to learn the Whois information of domain investors (like Mike Berkens and Frank Schilling), privacy services (like Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy), hosting companies (like BlueHost), and large domain investment companies (like Huge Domains and Buy Domains).

I don’t usually mind receiving emails offering very good domain names for sale, but there are some people who constantly send me crap, and I don’t even read their emails anymore.  If someone marks you down as a spammer, they will likely ignore all of your emails.

With tough economic times and domain investors rarely buying average names on the aftermarket, I would become familiar with their Whois information and purge their email addresses from your sales lists.

To be successful with domain investments, I believe being a good negotiator is essential. You don’t need to be slick or anything like that, but you need to be able to convince someone a domain name is worth your asking price specifically to a potential buyer. There are many people who aren’t good negotiators, but they can still be successful at selling domain names.

I’ve noticed that many people have a “this domain name may be for sale” message on their landing pages, and there’s generally a link to a contact form. I would guess that most people have the form set to email them, although parking companies generally allow clients to set a specific url for inquiries.

If you aren’t a great negotiator, if you don’t like negotiating, or if you can’t stand conversations with people who may be uneducated about domain names, I recommend changing the url on the sales form and having it go to a broker’s website or sales listing to open negotiations. You can also forward contact form emails to a broker if you want to manage the process to be sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Working directly with a broker will allow him or her to negotiate on your behalf. You can also bounce pricing off of the broker, which is beneficial if he or she is an expert at doman valuation. Some brokers and brokerages may even give you a better rate on commission since you brought them a potential buyer as opposed to their platform generating the lead.

I’m not very good at some things like coding and programming, so when I need something fixed, I ask an expert. If you aren’t great at negotiating or you just don’t like the negotiation aspect of domain sales, I recommend reaching out to a broker who will likely produce better results than you, and the cost is minimal.

I was negotiating a domain sale with an end user buyer a couple of weeks ago, and when it came time to discuss payment, he mentioned a potential hardship in paying the full amount at one time. I didn’t want to lose this sale, so I mentioned that there are financing alternatives since banks don’t generally lend to purchase domain names.

In order to close the deal, I arranged an introduction to Domain Capital, and fortunately, the buyer and Domain Capital were able to come to terms, and the deal closed yesterday. When I think of Domain Capital, I generally think of domain investors and others with domain industry connections who use the company as a means of financing an acquisition or getting liquidity for domain names they own. I am glad I thought of them when I was dealing with this end user buyer.

Of course, there are other financing alternatives to consider (a couple of which I considered), although two of these are not really “financing” per se. You might consider these options when closing a deal with an end user, even if it’s not mentioned. I would imagine some people wouldn’t discuss a payment hardship, so unless you suggest the financing options, they might balk at paying your asking price.

Here are a few domain financing options:

• Domain Capital – I mentioned it above.

• Self financing – Offer the buyer the option to pay with a payment plan and keep the name until payment is made in full. It’s the least expensive option but it can get hairy if something goes wrong. Be sure to have a solid contract with the buyer and don’t risk this on a valuable name.

• Escrow.com payment plan – It’s not cheap, but it may make a buyer more comfortable to have the name held in escrow while payments are made. You can also step away from the transaction and let them collect your payment on your behalf. Escrow.com offers this on deals valued at $75,000 or higher.

• Attorney escrow – Work with an attorney like John Berryhill (who I know offers this on some transactions). You can work out the legal agreement and his firm will hold the domain name in escrow while payments are being made.