How to List a Domain Name for Sale

Over the years, I’ve been asked by a number of people how to sell a domain name. Most of the people who have asked are friends or friends of friends, and they are not involved in the business of domain investing. I also saw a tweet from someone this past week asking the same type of question, and I thought I would expand on this.

If I was not a domain investor but owned a domain name that has value and wanted to sell it, here are the steps I would take:

1) Put up a for sale landing page. There are several options people have for landing pages:
A: Create a very simple landing page that says the domain name is for sale and include a contact email address or an inquiry form to try and keep my email address private. This can be as simple as an HTML page, a website builder page, or some sort of WordPress or other template.
B: Use a platform like Efty to create a landing page. This option is probably most useful if there is more than one domain name for sale. Some registrars like Namecheap and Epik also offer “for sale” landing pages.
C: Use a landing page provided by a sales platform like Sedo, DAN, or Afternic. This is a good option for someone who does not want to deal with the hassles of managing the sale process. These platforms may also offer advice on pricing, but sellers should understand they may be representing the buyer.

2) List domain name on a sale platform like GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo. These platforms, particularly GoDaddy, bring a substantial amount of buyers seeking domain names. If a buyer searches for a particular domain name and it is listed for sale on the platform, it will show up in the purchase stream. Even if the exact domain name is not the search keyword, the platform may show the sale listing.

3) (Optional) Contact prospective buyers via email. If I owned one or two domain names that I believe are valuable, I would do a Google search for the term to see if there are companies with that name or companies advertising for that search term. I would then email them to let them know the domain name is for sale. Importantly, I would only do this if I the term was generic/descriptive and I was confident it would not pose risk. For instance, if I bought ApplePhones.whatever, I would not reach out to Apple to try and sell it to them.

I think this covers the steps I would take if I was not a domain investor but wanted to sell a domain name or handful of domain names I own. If I missed something, please add it.