Domain Sales

Where and How Are You Selling Your Domain Names?

After posting yesterday’s article discussing what names have sold recently, which was a follow up post to the post about recent domain purchases, Steve Morsa and a couple of others suggested a follow-up post. Although it’s very interesting to see what names are selling, it might be even more important to learn about where domain sellers are having luck making their sales.

For the most part, I have been selling my domain names in private to other domain investors looking. For me, the key is knowing what type of names my buyers are looking to buy and to present them with a very reasonable price. The people I sell to are contacts I’ve made over the years through my blog, at conferences, on forums, and in private. Maybe I could make more on individual domain names by targeting and finding end users, but I am comfortable with the sales I make.

I recently sold one domain name at the DomainFest Live auction run by Moniker (GunCollection.com). The sale didn’t yield as much as I had hoped, but it is what it is. I opted to not set a reserve price on the domain name, and it sold for the minimum.

Although I haven’t sold many names on domain forums, I did sell one recently on Namepros (iCookbook.com). The buyer made his first post on that forum by saying he wanted the name, which leads me to believe he had wanted this name specifically, and he signed up to buy it. His company is in that industry, so that would make sense. Maybe I priced it too low, but I sold it for a profit.

Finally, I sold a couple of names recently on my blog, although I haven’t listed many for sale here in a while. I generally try to limit my sales posts on the blog, but it’s been a good vehicle to sell domain names in the past.

I (and others) are interested in learning where you have sold some of your domain names recently, and how those sales materialized.

Idearc Making Play for “Super” Domain Names?

Idearc SupermediaIt appears like the marketing and Internet Yellow Pages company formerly known as Idearc, and now known as SuperMedia, may have recently made a strong play for “Super” domain names.

In this week’s sales report on DNJournal, it was reported that SuperElectricians.com, SuperMechanics.com and SuperPainters.com each sold for $10,000 apiece. All three of these are currently registered in the name of Sedo’s Escrow account, presumably awaiting transfer.

This morning, Eric Borgos of Impulse Communications announced (in a comment on my blog) that his company recently sold several Super domain names. The names his company sold were SuperMortgages.com for $7,500, SuperFlorists.com for $3,000, SuperMoving.com for $7,500, and SuperPrinting.com for $4,000. All of these domain names are registered to Idearc  Media, which is now known as SuperMedia.

The company also owns SuperExterminators.com and SuperCarRepair.com. In addition, SuperPlumbing.com looks to be at Sedo Escrow as well. There may be others, but I only checked a handful of names I thought would make sense for them to own.

Does this mean that “Super” names have more value now than before? Probably not. I wouldn’t advise going out to buy these names unless you can get great prices. It’s more than likely the company already went after the domain names they wanted, and if you buy them with the hopes of flipping them, you might be stuck.

What Domain Names Have You Sold Recently?

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I wrote a popular post a couple of days ago asking people what recent domain acquisitions they made, and that post has received 71 comments as of this afternoon. Steve Morsa followed it up with an email suggesting another post asking readers to post some of their recent sales.

At first, I was a bit hesitant to post this because I keep just about all of my sales and sales prices private. However, I don’t mind revealing some of my recent sales, albeit without sales prices.

  • Danvers.com
  • GolfBooks.com
  • BoroughPark.com
  • ParkSlope.com
  • GunCollection.com
  • RittenhouseSquare.com
  • UniqueInk.com
  • iCookbook.com
  • DeepWrinkleTreatments.com
  • ChristmasLawnOrnaments.com

If you’d like to post some of your recent sales with or without sales prices, feel free to do so. It’s an interesting look at what the aftermarket is doing.

iPad.com: New Millionaire About to be Minted Courtesy of Apple?

Apple iPadAfter considerable speculation and discussion, Steve Jobs introduced the new Apple iPad today in a press conference that received much fanfare. The iPad is a device that is a new category of computing systems that bridges the gap between the iPhone smartphone and the Macbook laptop.

If history is an indication of the current situation, Apple is going to want the iPad.com domain name, just as they own iPhone.com and iPod.com.   iPhone.com was also privately held before Apple paid a great sum of money for it, and iPod.com has been owned by Apple for quite some time (since at least 2001 according to a Whois history search).

iPad.com has been a privately owned domain name since 1997. The current registrant (Administrative Contact) is a person with a New Jersey address named Martine Bejasa. They don’t have much on the front side of the website, although it’s quite possible there is information for clients of the owner, as there is a client log in on the home page. The owners will probably get a ton of traffic, which will be expensive for server maintenance.

If I were to advise   Martine Bejasa, I would recommend selling the domain name for the million dollar plus offer that will be sure to come from Apple. The name probably can’t be monetized by the current owner enough to justify passing on an offer in this range. In addition, there is no guarantee that the iPad is going to be a huge success, just as Apple TV has not taken off. If that’s the case, the domain name will probably be worth much less than its peak value today.

Now is   the best time to sell iPad.com, and I hope the owners and Apple are able to come to terms in the best interest of both parties.

Update:

As Bill Hartzer points out in the comments below, the domain name is registered to a company called Enero 6 Corp, translated to January 6 Corp.   Apple and Jobs always seem to have announcements right around that time, so it’s conceivable that the domain name was already acquired by the company.

Reaching Out to a Potential End User Domain Buyer

I am going to try something a bit different today and give you an inside peak into how I hope to sell a domain name to an end user company that knows the value of potential clients who visit the domain name.

My company owns the domain name ResistancePool.com. For those who aren’t aware, a “resistance pool” is generally a small indoor pool with streaming jets, allowing people to swim in place. These are similar to treadmills in a sense but they allow people to swim instead of run. Resistance pools are perfect for smaller areas, allowing people to work out in a place where a lap pool couldn’t fit.

I have done some research, and I see that there are a number of advertisers who are bidding on the keyword phrase “resistance pool” using Google Adwords. Those pool companies include:

  • Endless Pools (EndlessPools.com)
  • FitMax (FitMaxiPool.com)
  • FamilyPoolFun.com
  • SwimEx.com

I also did some research to see what other companies offer these types of pools but who aren’t using Adwords. Since it’s the winter time – and since many parts of the country are facing frigid temperatures, some companies may not be advertising right now. Other pool companies that offer resistance pools include:

  • Sentry Pool (SentryPool.com)
  • Hydroworx.com

Now that I have a small list of potential buyers, I am going to do a bit of research to find the names and contact information of the companies’ principals and/or marketing contacts. Here are the contact name I found (email addresses not included here):

  • Endless Pools (James Murdock, President)
  • FitMax (Lawrence Chang)
  • FamilyPoolFun.com (Jeff Backer)
  • SwimEx.com (Mark Pearson and Suzanne Marchetti)
  • Sentry Pool (info@SentryPool.com)
  • Hydroworx.com (Anson Flake, Paul Hetrick and Mike McHugh)

Not only will I use this information to get my emails in front of the right people, but hopefully Google will visit my site, and I presume many of these companies monitor their brands with Google Alerts, so they should see this blog post as well.

The hard work of finding potential buyers is nearly complete, but here is the email that will be sent to the buyers today:

Dear (Contact),

I see that your company is one of the few pool companies that sells a resistance pool. My company owns the keyword domain name ResistancePool.com, and I would like to sell it. Instead of having to pay Google, Yahoo, or Bing every time someone clicks on advertisement, you can own the domain name for this competitive search term.

According to the Google Keyword Tool, there were 320 exact match search for “resistance pool” last month, and the number is almost certainly higher during the warmer months in the Spring and Summer. Owning this product domain name can help bring you new high value clients, and perhaps more importantly, it will prevent one of your main competitors from doing the same.

I am currently offering ResistancePool.com for just $850.00, paid via check, bank wire, or Paypal. I am also amenable to using Escrow.com, and we can split the fees. Since I am offering this domain name to several companies, the first one to reply with “I want it!” will get the rights to acquire it. The domain name is registered at Moniker, a Florida-based domain registrar.

Please contact me at once if you would like to purchase ResistancePool.com.

Regards,
Elliot J. Silver
President, Top Notch Domains, LLC

There Are Many Ways to Become a Successful Domain Investor

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Picture 1Believe it or not, DomainGang.com was right in its recap article on Monday. In separate posts, Brian discussed how domain investors should find end users for their domain sales, and I said that domain investors should continue selling to other domain investors. The reality is that both recommendations can work for different people, but most people do a little of both rather than one extreme or the other.

As the old cliche tells you, there are many ways to skin a cat.

People come into the domain industry with a variety of backgrounds, careers, financial situations, and family situations, and each has his or her own needs to be successful.

Some people own the best possible .com domain names, and if they make one sale per year, they earn more than 99% of the rest of us. They can wait for an end user to approach them, and they won’t regret turning down a 7 figure offer because they don’t need the money and know it’s worth more.

Some are domain investors purely as a hobby, and if they earn more than they spend, the year is a success for them. They can email potential end user buyers and/or wait for end users to approach them. If they sell and make a good profit, that’s great. If they don’t sell, they can pay the $8 renewal fee each year and wait until an offer comes their way. As long as they are in the black at year end after paying renewal fees, all is well.

Some are full time domain deal makers. Many constantly buy and sell domain names and need to make quick (or big) sales to stay liquid. They churn and burn through domain names and use the money to buy other names and to grow their business. They try to hit home runs with their sales, but are happy to make a good profit on a quick sale, while moving on to the next transaction.

Some people own strong portfolios (generics or TM names with traffic) and make a living with PPC and affiliate revenue. They sell when they receive an offer that’s great, but they don’t necessarily look to sell. They are earning enough with their domain names as is, and they don’t look for   buyers because buyers find them. They can be selective when they sell.

Many people own domain names that they develop and build out. They aren’t necessarily looking to sell their websites, but if the right offer comes around, they will consider it. Some of these people seek out potential end user buyers and others are content waiting until the right deal comes around.

Most domain investors I know use a combination of strategies to generate revenue. They sell to end users when they receive a good offer, they email potential end users (mindful of UDRP/legal issues), they sell to domain investors in private and on forums, or they hardly ever sell and generate revenue from their domain names.

No matter what type of domain investor you are, if your strategy works and you enjoy what you do, nobody can tell you that your method is wrong. One of the amusing things I find is when someone will try to argue that another guy has it all wrong, when the other guy makes a lot of money year after year. The domain business is like any other business: there are many ways to be successful, but the ultimate bottom line is your bottom line.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poenaru/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

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