I decided to break up some Summer doldrums by doing outbound marketing to sell one of my domain names. I picked one that I’ve owned for a while and hasn’t had any inbound inquiries. It was also a domain name that had several upgrade targets.
The first company I messaged showed interest in buying the domain name. The person’s first and only question was along the lines of ‘how do I know you own the domain name and aren’t trying to scam me?‘
This is a great question and one that is obvious when doing outbound marketing to sell a domain name. Unfortunately, it’s not always simple to answer the question in a definitive way.
In this particular case, I directed the prospect to the GoDaddy Whois record, which I pre-checked to ensure it was accurate and not private. I told him to email the Whois email and I would confirm it was me and that I owned the domain name. I told him he could call me if he wanted to speak on the phone. I then sent him a screenshot of the domain name within my control panel at GoDaddy. Finally, I reassured him that the domain name could be bought via GoDaddy and sent him a checkout link.
Had the Whois record been private or redacted because of my location, it would have been more challenging to prove ownership with a level of certainty that a buyer might want. If that was the case, I probably would have told him to visit the domain name to see where it resolved and then changed it to forward to my corporate website or to my LinkedIn.
When you email someone out of the blue, oftentimes their first thought is that it’s spam or a scam. The prospect has their guard up, especially since the email is likely an expensive ask and unexpected. When selling a domain name, a prospective buyer will want some assurances that you own the domain name, so you should be ready and able to prove it.
