Successful End User Sale From Start to Finish

I want to share information about a successful end user sale I made with a domain name I recently acquired on Snapnames. Out of respect for the buyer, I am keeping the name and price private, but that’s not really important for the sake of this article.

I was looking through Snapnames a couple of weeks ago, and I saw a niche category defining domain name with one bidder. The name is one aspect of a large industry, but there are companies that specialize in this area. The GAKT numbers are decent, and there are a lot of companies that use this term in their domain names (CityXxxxxxXxxxxx.com for example).

As the auction progressed into its final minutes, it shot up from under $100 to several hundred dollars, but I was the winning bidder. I know the domain investment company I was bidding against, so I knew that I wasn’t battling an end user who would have more knowledge about the actual industry value than I could have.

As usual, I offered the domain name for sale to some of my clients, but there wasn’t interest. I was concerned that I possibly over paid for the 10 year old domain name, but I thought a company that specializes in this would be willing to pay above what a domain investor could justify. I did some Google research using the term (in quotes to ensure this exact term was being used), and I sent prospects the following email:

Good afternoon,

I noticed that your company is listed (used the word “advertising” to companies that are paying for Adwords) on Google for the key phrase “xxxxxxx xxxxx,” and my company is selling the exact match domain name “XxxxxxxXxxxx.com. The domain name was created back in January of 2000, and developing it could provide a SEO boost.

If you are interested in acquiring XxxxxxxXxxxx.com, please let me know. I am offering it to several xyz companies in the next few days.”

Regards,
Elliot

– –
Elliot J. Silver
Top Notch Domains, LLC

===============

I sent a total of 24 emails to prospective buyers using the contact forms or email addresses available on their websites. In total, I received 7 replies, all of which were from people that were interested. A few people said they’d love to buy the name but times were tough. A couple suggested I hold the name for another year or so to increase the value because that particular business is just now seeing a recovery.

I received two offers – one for under $1,000 and the other in the thousands of dollars range from a NYSE publicly traded company that happens to be the leader in the industry. Although I attempted to negotiate, they stuck to their initial best offer, and I agreed to sell them the domain name. We used Escrow.com for the transaction, and the transfer/sale was finalized this week.

I believe I sold the name for much more that it would have sold to another domain investor. I know there are people doing this type of thing every day, and I want to share my approach from start to finish.

=========

Please help me raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

112 COMMENTS

  1. Now rinse and repeat 🙂

    Congrats on working this industry from idea to liquidity event.

    Nice when that happens.

    Selling to end users can be mentally and financially rewarding.

  2. Hi Ellliot:

    Can you reveal the Google Analytics numbers?

    Just curious what the estimated numbers of visits were per month and what the CPC numbers were.

    Thanks. Great post. Congrats.

  3. Elliot quote –
    “I believe I sold the name for much more that it would have sold to another domain investor.”

    Domainers are only willing to pay pennies when a domain is worth dollars.

    Elliot, you made the right decision.

    • @ Thanks

      I don’t think the correct term is “willing.” I think saying “justify” is better because it makes domainers sound cheap, although some are for certain. If a domainer will make $1.00 a click when a end user will make $250/sale, the end user can still afford to pay 1.5x even assuming a 1% close rate. The numbers make it impossible for the domain investor to compete.

  4. Elliot

    Congrats on your sale!. Thanks for sharing some insight into end-user sales!.

    Just as a fyi – I read your blog everyday, several times a day sometimes, and I’ve recently found your blog loads very slow, especially when it’s trying to load analytics from statcounter, you may want to check it out….anyone else have the same load time issue?. I’m on broadband and other sites load up quickly so not sure what’s the deal with yours!.

    cheers

  5. I’ve hired a few “jobless and experienced” freelance media sales people working on commission that are doing exactly the job you describe above (from home).

    I’m sure we’ll see a lot more full-blown businesses using this model in the future.

    Why buy on to PPC when you can “own the search term”?? Find the right businesses show them the numbers and let them decide. The numbers don’t lie and a $xxxx domain is, most of the times, a better investment than the $xx,xxx spent annually on PPC.

    Show them the light…

    Nice post Elliot. Again..

  6. Very nice. I have done the same thing BUT for much less in sales. Its still nice to send out emails and have people buy something you have. I am trying to now move up from the $100-300 range in sales from end user emails (although sell high when they contact me) to your range!

  7. @ Jon – Haven’t had anyone indicate slow load. Where are you surfing from and at what time of day are you experiencing this? Which browser are you using?

  8. Hey Elliot,

    Congrats on the sale. I have a logistical question. I know you use a MacBook Pro; when sending the sales pitch to multiple buyers… is there a way to send a mass email but have it appear as if they were sent individually? Is there an easy way to do this in Mail?

    Thanks!

    • @ Alex

      Thanks 🙂

      All of this was done by hand. I am not really sure how to do mass emails and wouldn’t want to try in case it could jeopardize my email account.

  9. @ Kevin

    I’m surfing from work, but I don’t have any issues with surfing any other sites, except this one, for some reason or another, this blog always loads very slowly!.

    I’m using FF 3.6 for browsing!. I was trying to surf this blog around 1pm CST!.

    Cheers

  10. Elliot,

    I like to commend you on your appraoch. That is another good way to make a sale. I recently sold a few domains with advertising my a few of my domains, suggesting to the buyer what they do with the domain. These are nice domains that have serious market potential.

    I have hundreds more that I know that are good. Recently I submitted a few on here, but those were only a couple I picked up when I first started seriously learning the business. Because an individual ppurchased 1 out of 20 domains I bought last year, it motiaved me to start domaining.

    I’m glad he bought the domain because I wouldn’t have considered looking at domaining as a profitable business. I now know what I’m doing, and will surely push more domains. With any business, it takes time to learn an approach. I have one that is working for me now.

    I want to ask if it is okay for me to contact IIPOD out in Dallas, Texas. Their website is IIPOD-Texas.org. I was able to land IIPOD.org. Would it be appropriate to contact them regarding my domain? Sometimes I see some people attracting trouble from contacting these businesses.

    I managed to push a few domains this past week. One only cost me $1.15. I sold it for over $300. Another cost me the price of registration, whcih I pushed for $100. I made a mistake on that one because the buyer agreed on $300, but I failed to update the price in the company where the domain was up for sale at. Be careful about ensuring your prices are right. I couldn’t imagine anyone losing a $1000-$5000 domain for $100. I’m sure you have the option to reject the fixed price offer.

    I’m going to try your approach on several domains which target specific markets that are growing. I do have one domain generating substantial traffic as of late. I created it back in February. To date, it has over 1200 unique visitors. I haven’t put any work into it. Attracting 25 visitors per day is good for a 7 character domain that targets a specific market. I will be checking out your blog, and possibly share some information on how I managed to make a sale as well.

  11. Excuse some of my errors on the past post. I was using an Iphone to type the message. To the visitors on this post, you can easily sell to many people. The problem nowadays is that domain companies will reject or even hold you back from selling your stuff.

    What you need to do is advertise your domains in a specific area. If you’re trying to sell something that is based out of Los Angeles, make sure to determine which surrounding cities would benefit from the domain. Specific job domains are good, especially if you can target a popular position. I have a few dozen job domains that will surely attract interest. I will keep you all updated. Good luck to you all.

    Enjoyed the query letter appraoch to selling domains. Nice work.

    Jason

    • @ Mark

      Not if you didn’t know I had a domain blog or other outlet to give publicity and attention. For all I know, the buyer could issue a press release announcing the acquisition, but it’s not my business.

      If you are serious about thinking this is BS, I will make a bet with you that this happened as I stated. I will provide pdfs of every email as well as the Escrow.com closing statement if you take me up on my bet. If I am fabricating anything, I will pay you $1,500 cash money.

      However, when I prove that all of this is legit, you can donate just $750 (tax-deductible) to the Ronald McDonald House non-profit towards my bike tour: https://www.rmdh.org/silver

      Are you willing to continue to say I have BSed this and take this bet? You’ve got a fair amount to gain and not much to lose. Or you can just apologize for questioning my integrity by saying that what I wrote is BS.

      Keep in mind, no confidentiality agreement was signed, but I want to be respectful of my buyer, and I don’t want my buyer to be inundated with emails.

  12. @ Alex

    Create your recipient list in Excel and use MS Word’s mail merge function to send the e-mail blast. Works like a charm. I’d suggest keeping your recipient list under 50 though. As Elliot mentioned, you don’t want to jeopardize your e-mail address getting blacklisted by ISP’s.

  13. i don’t understand what kind of relationship you have, or don’t have with your buyer. i.e. I don’t get why you haven’t linked them to this post (unless of course because, like most domainers, you are an egomaniacal liar 😉

  14. @ Mark

    There are a few reasons:

    1) I think it’s tacky for them to see that I bought a name for $xxx and re-sold it to them a short time later for $x,xxx.

    2) If they are still buying good domain names, I would like to sell them other names in the future and not have my competitors approach them with their domain names.

    3) Even if I did name the domain name and buyer, perhaps people like you would still question the price. I didn’t ask them if I could report the sale, and I don’t want to ask them. As most people who read my blog frequently can tell you, I hardly ever report my sales. I haven’t reported a single sale I’ve made this year and can’t remember the last time I reported one intentionally (I’ve mentioned about Sedo and Moniker reporting sales of mine when I neglected to ask them to keep them confidential).

    If you happen to think I am a liar, you’re an idiot for not taking me up on my bet. If you’re right, you’ll get $1,500 and when you find out that this is 100% truthful, you’ll be contributing towards a great cause (while getting a tax deduction).

    “you are *still* using email? a “one to one” form of communication? have you heard of social media/Twitter which is a “one to many” way of communicating?”

    I would LOVE to hear about all of YOUR sales that YOU’VE made via Twitter and social media. What names and how much?

  15. isn’t the first question “how many names have you tried to sell using social media”? the answer is 0, I have mentioned domain names that I own on Twitter/Facebook, but I haven’t used those sites to try and sell my names.
    I haven’t tried hard to sell any of my names actually, I have maybe a dozen, except for the occasional listing on Bido.com
    Don’t worry, you aren’t the only domainer that still thinks that it’s 1999 😉

  16. @ Mark

    Why would I change my selling strategies if I’ve had some relatively *good* success doing what I do. I’ve been buying and selling domain names full time for nearly 3 years and manage to live pretty well.

    If you were successful with the methods you suggest, perhaps I would defer to you and ask for a guest post from you regarding your methods. Since you’ve sold zero names on Twitter/Facebook (like you seem to suggest and mock me for not doing), I don’t think people would be interested in learning from your experience.

    BTW, are you going to take me up on my bet or continue to make silly suggestions that have no basis?

  17. Hi Elliot,

    I’d love it if you could share some of your negotiation emails. I get a fair amount of response from my initial email pitches, but I often lose touch after their first response unless I’m the first to put a figure on the table. How did you pry an offer out of the businesses that responded, avoiding the “How much?” response and without “scaring” them into not responding at all?

    Thanks,
    Kevin

  18. @ Kevin

    Their first reply to my inquiry was, “We are interested in purchasing the domain name. Let me know how you would like to proceed.”

    and I replied that they should submit their best offer, which they did. After a few emails where I tried to get them to increase their offer (to which they didn’t reply), I agreed to sell it for their offer.

  19. Elliot,
    Speaking on your behalf and your regular readers, I would like to say that your integrity has been evident and while you may have to justify yourself from baseless accusations for the occasional reader, your regular readers appreciate your honesty and openness and know you have no need to answer keyboard cowards.
    Mac

  20. Elliot:

    The other “Mark” is just some annoying idiot.

    Thanks very much for this post. I think your integrity is 100% solid and all of your readers know of your good word and adept business acumen.

    Sorry this jerk that I have to share my first name with is so foolish.

    Thanks again for the post.

  21. Well, that’s lots of info! Thanx, Elliot!

    I think that the reason for reply rate (which I think is very high) for your e-mails is a professional signature with “Top Notch Domains, LLC”. Which immediately positions you as:

    1. Person is Ok
    2. Company is Ok
    3. etc.

    Those are one of the most important steps you’ve to overcome to sell.

  22. eliot, re your asking me what names have I sold…isn’t that a little on the hypocritical side, or, can I answer like you do, I’ve sold 14 names, for several thousands of dollars…I just wish I were at liberty to divulge to you the names and the amounts?
    you, my friend, as i noted, are too egomaniacal (and/or stupid) to see how twisted your logic is.

  23. @Mark mayhew

    I come here seeking intelligent posts which Elliot maintains every week, I really don’t want to see jealous banter from other domainers who feel they are competitors “in some way”.

    I’m sure I speak for most readers, I would suggest giving it a rest because your also getting a bit boring. Can you do that for us please, you’ll most definitely receive a little more respect for it..

    • @ Email Subject

      Good question! I’ve tested it a little bit, and I use the search term. For example, when I was trying to sell HattiesburgAttorney.com last week, I used “Hattiesburg Attorney” as the subject. So far, I’ve only received one reply on that domain name and no offers yet. I haven’t had much luck selling legal domain names to lawyers though 🙂

  24. @ Mark mayhew

    I do see your point about not sharing your sales prices since I generally won’t share mine, although you can click on Projects & Sales in my blog’s header and see some of the names I’ve sold on public venues. Your point is moot since you haven’t sold any names in the way you suggested, despite the fact that you criticized my sales strategy.

    Anyway, I guess you’ve moved on from calling me a liar since you’d have to pay $700 to uphold your end of the bet. Perhaps you shouldn’t visit my blog anymore if I am untrustworthy? Again, I am happy to provide all details to you or anyone else who thinks any of my post was dishonest. I think Escrow.com would be willing to hold our wager amounts in escrow.

    @ Mac

    “keyboard cowards”

    LOL 🙂

  25. nice information on the e-mail subject!

    I’ve noticed that many domainers note that somehow it’s harder to deal with lawyers than other industries. Although lawyer companies seems to pay the highest CPC.

    • @ Arseny

      I wouldn’t say harder to deal with them, just harder to get a response. I’ve had one CityAttorney.com name sold to a lawyer who then never returned emails. At that time, I listed a buy it now price and he agreed to it but became impossible to find. I’ve since tried to sell a few others like it (such as HattiesburgAttorney.com) and haven’t had much luck. One theory I have is that the contact form on site doesn’t actually goto one of the lawyers but rather an office manager. Another theory I have is that the name wouldn’t be as useful for a lawyer whose in a large firm. In fact, the two replies I’ve had in total have both come from single lawyer firms.

  26. These comments are a trip.

    This industry is crazy and to the people who are jealous of Elliot making sales, works hard and is the real deal are idiots.

    Elliot keep doing what your doing. Sad to see this as your helping your loyal readers out in so many ways and people on forums, dnforum or namepros is just nuts.

    Be happy for people who do sales! Why cause drama? Bs that’s what it is.

    If you sell a name for a loss, you get heat for being a bad domainer. You sell for a profit and you still get heat and jealous. Get a life folks!

    So the conclusion here is this. Why mention what your doing, how your doing it and Elliot enjoys helping others out. He wants you to do well. Then these silly dumb ass comments comments happen.

    Appreciate all the help Elliot has given and this domain industry is getting more crazy.

  27. Keep it up mate… on the exact same strategy myself and sold 2 $x,xxx domains this month that I acquired for less than $60 each. The best bit was that I was approached by end users which was nice! I will try the seek and approach method on the other domains that arent getting end-user sales enquiries ;0) Cheers, Alan

  28. Elliot,

    Re: After a few emails where I tried to get them to increase their offer (to which they didn’t reply), I agreed to sell it for their offer.

    How did you feel when they didn’t respond to your negotiations? Also, how long did it take them to reply after you agreed to their initial offer?

    Must have been pretty nerve racking.

    Keep up the good work though.

  29. @ Eliot

    What about these postings of your sales, are they 2010? or 2009?

    What Domains Have You Bought Recently?

    It’s always fun to share new acquisitions and new registrations. Below are some newly acquired domain names I have made in the last couple of weeks, both in the aftermarket and newly registered names. Feel free to share yours in the comment section.

    * MovieCollectibles.com
    * Grandmom.com
    * ActingCoach.com
    * StrayAnimals.com
    * BoroughPark.com (sold)
    * GolfBooks.com (sold)
    * RittenhouseSquare.com (sold)
    * BulldogBlog.com (sold)
    * CatFuneral.com (newly registered)
    * DogFuneral.com (newly registered)
    * LugeSleds.com (newly registered)
    * WashingtonDogWalker.com (newly registered)
    * TableTennisSets.com (newly registered)

    The Kid

    • @ The Kid

      The names I mentioned that you posted were from 2010. Sold names now include MovieCollectibles.com and Grandmom.com.

      Recent acquisitions for me include:
      WanChai.com
      Hingham.com
      Mashpee.com
      Weymouth.com (sold)
      Rustenburg.com (sold)
      Abington.com
      Harwich.com
      Norwell.com

      and some others I can’t think of off the top of my head 🙂

  30. @ Mark Maniac (Mayhew)

    Don’t you have better things to like maybe sell DOMAINS?

    Than make an idiot out of your self, like dude find another blog or make your own. I wouldn’t take a domain for free from you let alone buy one!

    The Kid

  31. Elliot –

    Great post, I’ve been meaning to do the same. It is always one of the first questions people ask me as a domain seller/broker – “how do you sell a domain to an end user”.

    The answer is really quite simple, and you have laid it out here pretty clearly.

    As someone else pointed out, however, often that second email you send to respondants where you need to coax an offer out of them is the most critical. I sell on average 2 – 3 domains per week to these types of end users (domains priced between $500 – $3,000) and the most common response I recieve is: “what are you asking?”.

    The follow up to that question is the real deal closer…

    As for your discussion with Mark “so and so”…you handled it quite well, even making him a very generous gentleman’s bet, but for future reference:

    “Don’t argue with fools, because people from a distance can’t tell who is who…”

  32. @Elliot

    Just thought I’d update you Elliot, I tried your exact email layout today on 10 targets based on G results and ads for WaterFuels.com keyword “Water Fuels”. I’ve received various offers this afternoon including a healthy $50k offer from a HHO manufacturer.

    Obviously this model has been used for some time but the wording in your layout seems to hit home in respect of the angle on SEO.

    Still need to negotiate more on the pricing but otherwise it’s working..

    Nice one dude!

  33. Wow Elliot,
    You leave me no choice but to get the lead out and make some sales! It’s amazing the extent to which I can drum up excuses and delays around cold-contacting potential end users.

    Do you think having the LLC in your signature is an important part of dealing with end users?

    And if I may… You mention your clients. I’m assuming they’re deep pocket domainers who don’t have time to rummage around in the lower tier aftermarket but who are happy to pay you a finders fee for your time when you come up with a good name. Would you consider a post or two around those relationships and how they came to be?

  34. @ Elliot,

    I think trying selling domains via email is the best way as to get past the gate keeper at any office etc. and get the correct contact person on the phone will be a very hard task.

    Another point is most people seller/buyer don’t want to go back in forth by phone or face to face unless it’s a truck load of $$$$. Just my thought’s.

    The Kid

  35. Hi Elliot:

    Follow up question.

    You mentioned that you used either the email address or contact forms available on the prospect websites.

    Just curious if you still use the whois contacts as well?

    Thanks,
    Mark

  36. Elliot,

    Have you really been successful regularly selling exact search of 1000 – 2000 for thousands of dollars? that is awesome

  37. @ Jeff

    Although it really depends on the term, they usually sell for more than that as I focus on areas where companies can afford to justify a higher price.

  38. Hi, thanks for the email copy shown here.

    I am wondering how you arrive at the price at which you sell your domains.

    Did you calculate based on Google Pay-Per-Click or searches? Any formulas to teach us.

    Thanks for all the informative posts in your blog. I really appreciate and enjoy it.

  39. @IrishDomainer

    Her nipples are beautiful actually, you can view them at nikkibenz.com — it’s just that Elliot decided to hack into my gravatar.com account and cover them up.

    He’s got this big brother type of fetish deal… Don’t ask questions, I just play along 😉

  40. @wannadevelop.com: Not bad… pity they aint real. Theres a fair few nuns that read this blog hence the red stars ;D

  41. I don’t know if anyone mentioned this – but the subtle take away is your conversion rate (even for responses) IMHO opinion reflects the value in targetion BUYERS not BROWSERS….
    You found potential buyers that already know the value in a good domain name and so it was an easier sell. Perry Marshall’s research on how domains reduce customer acquisition costs is called to mind and it’s almost so good you don’t want it widely known yet – until you’ve scooped up thousands more names…
    B@ MindMaps.tv

  42. Elliot, i was curious about something. i checked out your other website, and i’m wondering why you use an @gmail addy rather than @topnotchdomains. do you also use your @gmail address for contacting end-users and if so what is your rationale? a lot of people will say the company email is better for establishing trust and also that since most spam is sent through generic email providers people are more likely to discard your email without reading it.

  43. @ Mike

    I only use DomainNames for contacting end users. I have another gmail account for my other company, but that’s more for contacting advertisers than end users.

    I am not really that sophisticated and don’t want to screw up anything by setting up the email account on Gmail enterprise for small business. I am sure it’s simple, but I really don’t want to take the chance.

    I always use my gmail address. I figure gmail will be more white listed than @topnotchdomains.com. I also figure if I have great names and am targeting the right buyers, the response rate will be high.

    On another note related to this post, I registered a similar name (to what I sold in this post) on Friday and I pitched it to the same type of buyers (same industry) but used this keyword phrase, and I have an $800 offer for the name. I countered at $800 + a $200 donation to the Ronald McDonald House, and I hope to hear back soon. I used the exact same email and very similar end user buyers.

  44. eliot, you don’t seem to be learning/”getting it”…nobody wants to read your “i sold a name for an amount” bullshit…it’s insulting for those of us who have more than half a brain. i said you were a lyin’ sack of shit earlier, and now i’m more throughly convinced.

    • @ Mark

      Put your money where your mouth is you piece of shit. You are a coward. Like I said before, I will pay you $1,500 if I have been lying and you only have to pay $700 (TAX DEDUCTIBLE) to a non-profit organization when you see that I have been truthful.

      You either can’t afford $700 (sucks for you) or you are just a big talker and nothing else. Back your words up or STFU and don’t come back here.

  45. Elliot i’d say he is just doing it to push your buttons and get a rise out of you. i wouldnt even give him the satisfaction of a serious response, like those signs at the zoo, dont feed the monkeys peanuts, it just encourages them

  46. @ Mike

    You’re probably right, but I just don’t like to see people questioning my ethics when there would be no purpose to lying about it. Had I been lying, I probably wouldn’t have approved the guy’s comments, and I certainly wouldn’t have challenged him to a bet 🙂

    Anyway, back to biz… well… time for the tennis court.

  47. Hey Elliot, This one is a Great post. very inspiring one! You’re not a selfish person to share Your experiences, not a greedy one coz You share infos for many other domainers out there that need help to find such articles or advice like this.

    We really need domainers, just like You.

  48. Hi, Just completed my letter to the head of a major German automobile manufacture group, for ConvertibleCars.de , except I made the offer exclusive through the end of May . . . I’ll keep you posted . . . Thanx for the encouragement! 🙂

  49. @ Elliot

    Man I told NumbNuts Mr.Mark Wacko to look for another blog back on March 31st…I was waiting for the attack but nothings? looks as he after you only WOW some nerve.

    Don’t worry he will leave to go SCRATCH HIS ASS and his hard drive will crash then we will never here from him again?

    Also do you have one or two more short email scrips towards maybe a site on the first Google page but not “Sponsored Links” as I love the mention scrip very cool.

    The Kid

  50. Elliot, after reading your post I registered CorporateSalesExecutive.com and CorporateSalesExecutive.net is hosted by beyond.com. Should I write email to beyond.com for this?

  51. Elliot,

    I just registered a few names the other day. Leathermanbags.com. CharcoalSticks.com. AnimationModels.com. Videogamemodels.com. TrackingLight.com. Suisun.org. I also registered Grantwritingjobs.com a few months ago.

    Does anyone think these domains have long term potential?. Suisun is my hometown city. I was kind of shocked to have found it. Nice article.

  52. @ Jason

    I can’t say without knowing much about each vertical, but I do know if I start predicting that, I will be inundated with requests 🙂

    I am not a huge fan of .orgs, but it would seem like a good name to develop because of your familiarity.

  53. Hi Elliot, Congrats on the sale! Could you go a little more into detail on what responses you use when it comes to that “How much are you asking?” reply from end users? Besides just stating a price, what works best for you from a negotiation standpoint?

    • @ Scott

      I don’t consider myself a great negotiator, but this is how I’ve responded in the past:

      “A number of studios and photographers have expressed interest, and two have made offers. Please submit your best offer when you have an opportunity. I would like to reach a deal to sell this soon.”

  54. Elliot,

    Thanks for the response. What is the best route to take on developing. I don’t have any experience with developing websites. I really would like to develop the city domain. I feel there is major potential to attract many visitors from the intermediate area. Maybe include jobs, community service, hotels, homes, college, loans, parks and other area.

    I can also add some links to help others find writing opportunities. How much do you think it will cost to develop the city domain? Will I be able to sell space on the domain to local advertisers. I was thinking about promoting the domain by paying some people to hold signs up in that area. I don’t live there anymore, but I have an area on what is popular in the area. The military base is also nearby.

    As for the other domains I mentioned, I can easily write about them. I have experience with writing on blog spot and Word Press. How can I host my domains using Word Press. I was told that I could write content on a parked page. What would be the cost of hosting about 400 domains? Would I just need a hosting and a Word Pres. Account. Some say that it is cheap to write on parked domains. Since most of my domains are parked at Sedo, and some at GoDaddy, will they allow to write on park pages?

    I have some good ideas for a handful of my domains. Thank you for the advice.

  55. @ The Kid

    Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. Since I’m a writer, I have plenty of time to work on them. You know how some of these cities create sites in which they offer ad space?

    I want to turn Suisun.org into a community site for my hometown. Would I be able to attract local businesses to pay for ad space? Should I generate traffic before going after clients?

    I took your advice to go after more targeted domains. I managed to pick up some nice domains. What is the best strategy to selling domains. I managed to push a few at the end of March, but there hasn’t been any offers since then. My domains are all fixed prices.

    Would that influence prospective buyers from making a purchase? I know the advertsing is working, especially when there are many vistors to the domains which were put up for sale. I’m thinking that my prices may be too high. I used Sedos price suggestion, and then reduced the prices even further. I want to learn more about the selling side, as well as hosting and building websites.

    I got my hands on mobilemovies.info and Pier39.mobi and forces.mobi. Out of the 400 domains I own, more than 300 of them target a market. I stopped purchases the reverse order ones a few months back. For some reasons they still generate high appraisals. Englandnew.com seems to generate an appraisal that exceeds $10k on Sedo and on Valuate. Maybe it is the search results for the words and not the popular monthly searches.

    I think my most valuable .com nay be Venezia-abc.com. It generate nice traffic. Also, it produces 1385 yahoo backlinks and a dozen or more google links. It is ranked number 2. Sedo suggests pricing it at $2200. Should I invest in a professional appraisal? I put the domain in GoDaddys auction and never attracted any attention. I battled 20 other bidders to win that domain. It seems that it is now hard to attract any buyers.

    I recently contacted a Texas company about having IIPOD.org. Thru never responded to my email. Should I write them? My domain ia far better than their current site. It will give them
    access to a larger market base, considering that they are looking to expand internationally.

    Thanks again for your help.

  56. Elliot,

    Would you also try to sell newly registered domains or would you wait few months\years after you register a name and then try and sell it.

    Thanks in advance for your help!

  57. I have found that aged domains are much more valuable. I’ve been rejected from auctions because my domains were newly registered. These names have appraisal value. I just recently registered airforcebase.co.uk last night. It appraises for $6200 on estibot and valuate and $900 on Sedo.

    Many auctions tend to want age domains. One exception is how camroulette.com made it into an auction. How was a 2 month old domain able to generate $155k. As I mentioned in a past post, I felt that chatrpulette.com helped camroulette to make a fortune. It reminds me about the eBay guy that sold Jenny’s number for $190k. Some people are lucky because others help them to generate money.

    I would let a domain age for at least several months. Try to generate traffic to build value. HOST the domain. Google will rank the domain, which will increase its value further more.

  58. Thank you Elliot, I used your text almost exactly as it is shown and have successfully concluded 2 sales in a matter of hours. Both co.za domains that came within 10% of my expectations in the upper Rx,xxx range,
    You are the man!

  59. @Graham: Congrats mate!

    @Elliot & All: I have a keyword .com domain (CarRentalMalaga.com) that shows PPC of €10.21 per click and a evaluation of €1,100 which I think is severely undervalued due to that huge PPC rate. Average Monthly Searches: 6,642

    What would you do with this domain as I have a couple offers in the €xxx range which im not willing to sell it for. I would however accept mid €x,xxx but cant convince the buyer that it worth mid €x,xxx. How would you go about doing that? Could I get that PPC rate on site? If yes, development is definitely on the cards!

    Cheers,

    iD

  60. @ ID

    Not sure… I sold a bunch of similar names that were hand registered in the $xxx. I don’t love the name and think it’s a bit awkward, although that could be my American POV (Malaga Rental Car sounds better to me). If I hand registered the name and got a mid xxx offer, I’d take it… unless it gets good traffic and makes money parked.

  61. Yes here its “Car Rental Malaga” or “Malaga Car Rental”. In relation to the high PPC, do you think I would get better return in the long run developing a site optimized for the above keywords than selling it outright?

    Cheers,

    iD

  62. @ ID

    Not sure… if you have the skills to do that and the time, why not try? If not, it might be time consuming, expensive, and there aren’t any guarantees that it will make more money or increase the value. It’s probably a very competitive market.

  63. Hey Elliot… long time reader, great story as always.

    Was wondering what your thoughts were to a different (or is it actually old school) technique I have been considering.

    I know standard protocol is to make the email SEEM as if it is written specifically to the intended party.
    BUT
    What about writing the one email and addressing the letter as universal, and sending the email out to all the known chief competitors in that niche, in the hopes of creating a bidding war.

    If you are familiar with baseball, Scott Boras has masterd this type of craft for his free agents and gets BIG bucks because of it.

    I’m still relatively new to the world of domaining so idont know if this was ahold school, hard nosed kind of approach, but it’s certainly one that seems worthy of trying, no?

    My apologies if this is considered bad practice – just a thought.

    Thanks for your time and good luck on all future sales.

  64. This thread is still alive! Elliot, I don’t know how you do it, sending out 24 at a time! I emailed 5 childrens’ books publishers today – it feels like alot of work!

    @ JV, the more personal and personable, the better, IMO. The client is giving you business, and people hate hard-nosed pitches regarding domain names! It’s hard enough to convince end-users domain names are valuable, then demand big $$, then be rude about it, seems not a good policy!

  65. Hello Elliot,

    Mmm. Ok, I’ll take your advice and approach the leaders in the industry rather than other Domainers.
    Does anybody have a list of top brands in the industry for “Fat Loss”, “Weight Loss” products ?
    Or, even “Yeast Infection Cure” products.

    Actually, Elliot, would you be interested to buy my domain names and use your selling tactics to sell them to the big guys in the industry ?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

0
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

4
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...