This morning, I removed the Make Offer option for the 1,100 +/- domain names I have listed for sale on Dan.com at under $2,000. To be more precise, all of these domain names have a BIN price of $1,999. I still have a handful of less valuable names without prices and a $997 minimum Make Offer option in place.
In addition to this portfolio change, I also added back the Lease to Own option I had removed over the Summer. However, instead of the default 20 months for a $2k name, I am only offering people the option to lease to own a domain name for a 6 month maximum term.
Several months ago, I increased the prices for my least valuable replaceable inventory. Previously, the lowest value names were priced in the $1k range, but I increased it to $1,997 or $1,999. I recently made this price consistent at $1,999 across the board. I was tired of dealing with small deals that didn’t move the needle but could become a bit of a time and attention suck. I can’t find it right now, but NameBio’s Michael Sumner wrote a Twitter thread about increasing prices which led to fewer sales but higher revenue. I am trying to hit a sweet spot with that.
I think the Make Offer option is a distraction for buyers and a source of frustration as a seller. On one hand, I might only value a name at $1k, but if the buyer makes a $1k offer and I accept it right away, there’s a pretty decent chance – based only on my limited experience – the deal won’t go through. I think a counter offer is always warranted. The issue is then I get stuck in a back and forth with someone over short money. Time suck to make a little bit more and not worth it. So I removed the Make Offer distraction.
Over the Summer, I removed the LTO option for this inexpensive domain name inventory. Tracking $100 monthly payments for nearly 2 years is asinine to me. This is exacerbated by Dan’s new payout policy that pays out on specific days of the month rather than when the buyer actually pays (but not if the payout date is a weekend!). I still have to track and hear about late payments and defaults. If/when a buyer defaults, I then have to transfer it back and do other back-end accountant-required bookkeeping since it’s no longer a lease payment but other income. That was a short story made long, but $100/month LTO payments are not worth it to me.
All that being said, I just added back the LTO option for domain names priced at $1,999. I changed the LTO maximum time length to 6 months though. On a $1,999 domain name, a buyer will have to pay a minimum of $334. This puts a bit more skin in the game. In addition, if the deal is started between January – June and the buyer pays, the entire deal will be completed in one calendar year, which I think is a bit cleaner for my accountant.
All in all, there is nothing scientific about this approach. I am doing what I think will drive additional revenue without sucking up my time.
Great post Elliot, thank you for sharing what you try, what works for you and what doesn’t.
What makes Amazon so great is because they have good data scientists data analysts that know what buyers want to buy , what makes it appealing for us to buy….more and more even we don’t need the stuffs.
Too bad we don’t have data on what domain buyers want to see and what attracts them to buy those domains….maybe the data is out there but the domain companies selfishly do not want to share with us.