I was checking out a domain name listed for sale via DomainMarket.com, the domain name marketplace owned and operated by industry veteran Mike Mann. When I visited the landing page, I noticed something I had not seen before on DomainMarket.com’s landing pages that I thought was an interesting approach similar to what real estate agents do with their listings:
As you can see, there is a photo of domain broker Tracy Fogarty along with her contact information. I reached out to Mike and Tracy, and I understand that Tracy still operates her own eNaming domain brokerage and does not work directly for DomainMarket.com or Mike. Rather, she is brokering some domain names on behalf of Mike’s company.
Mike told me he has always worked with different domain brokers, and he is trying out this new approach to see how it works out.
I think it’s a neat idea. Many real estate agents have headshots on their business cards and listing website to help with recall and personalization. With domain name negotiations, there is not typically a personal connection made between buyer and seller. Having Tracy’s photo on landing pages might help establish a rapport more quickly. A buyer might be less guarded when dealing with a real person rather than a contact form.
Because Mike made this addition to DomainMarket.com landing pages recently, he couldn’t share what type of lift or increase in response this is bringing. I don’t think it can hurt. I will keep an eye on this and follow up with Mike in the future to see if he can share how this has impacted inquiries and negotiations.
I think it’s a great idea. It legitimizes virtual real estate sales like physical real estate sales. It feels familiar to the visitor to the landing page and increases recognition that sales of domain names are like sales of real estate in the minds of the visitors.
I love the idea. I am sure other domain brokers will follow suit.
Great idea, don’t see how it could hurt sales. Puts a face on a usually ‘faceless’ digital transaction. Also I agree with the legitimizing concept that people are familiar with through real estate.
Mann’s a smart guy because he knows a pretty face is an asset and a pretty face helps sell anything. If she wasn’t so beautiful I’m sure there would be no picture.
I think that, yes, being a woman makes a difference in this sales situation but the saleswoman needn’t be “so beautiful” for it to work. Just being a woman instead of a man softens the buyer up from the get go and the buyer likely expects a kinder, gentler experience for what would otherwise be expected to be a more adversarial experience if there were no broker or the broker were a man.
This will certainly be the non-pc position since she is obviously popular and looks go a long way with people, but I still don’t like her. Since the last time I mentioned that she never replied to a single domain submission among a small bunch, I have seen that she continues to often broker domains that are at least no better than or even worse than my best domains as I occasionally encounter one of her enaming pages when checking to see if a domains is available or being used. It always makes me think of things like cronyism and nepotism.
Not even the courtesy of an auto-reply saying something like “hey we get a lot of submissions and can’t reply to all of them but will get back to you if we like your domain,” which I doubt would actually be true, but is at least better form that zero, zilch and nada. Even Aron Meystedt always replied regarding a submission to my recollection, and I’ll bet he at least used to get a lot more than her. Coincidentally, I’m not gay or anything, but I saw some images of him recently and hadn’t realized he’s quite the dashing dude himself.
So good looks have their advantage, but are only external packaging. Doesn’t correlate with character. In fact it seems fitting to me that she’s connected to Mr. Mann now since I’ve also written before about how a domain I discovered available and tried to pay for in 2001 was blocked for payment as I was trying to complete paying and then disappeared for days, only to resurface at BuyDomains with a creation date several days after my blocked attempt to complete the payment, during which time for all those days it was literally impossible to either register it anywhere or find evidence it even existed to explain that.
The courtesy of even a terse reply is all it would have taken to avoid a comment like this.
A lot of domains were obtained unfairly in the early days, it still happens today.
I’ve lost some domains in auctions and at certain domain registrars to the “domainer buddy system”, it does exist.