I regularly log in to my DAN.com account to add domain names to my portfolio, check on the status of a transaction, to update pricing, or to respond to a purchase offer. As each month ends and a new month begins, the monthly revenue number changes from the prior month to a big fat $0. The total revenue figure is listed above this, and last month’s revenue is listed below, but the $0 always screams out to me.
Whenever I see the monthly total at $0 in revenue, it always irritates me and it sometimes motivates me. I don’t want to be stuck at zero – even if that is simply because it is the first day of the month and no deals have transacted yet. I currently have two payment plans in place at DAN, so this number will not remain at $0 for very long, but I don’t even like seeing this number for a day.
When I see this number, I usually have a quick look at my portfolio and try to find one or two domain names to do a bit of outbound. These aren’t high value domain names – they are replaceable domain names I will be happy to move. I tend to use Dropping.pro to search for 10-15 prospective buyers and try to get a deal done. I don’t love doing outbound marketing to sell domain names, but staring at a $0 revenue month on DAN.com bothers me even more.
Truth be told, the monthly revenue figure is a meaningless number. Even if it were to stay at $0 for most of the month, it doesn’t really mean much. For one thing, DAN.com is only one avenue for sales, but importantly, it is a look at a smaller period of time. For me, it is a bit of a motivational tool to put a crooked number on the board so I don’t have to stare at $0 every time I log in to my account.
If the DAN.com figure changes when you make that sale to start the month, it implies you are paying them for sales in which they have played no part. Why would you do that?
Great question.
I am happy to run 4 figure deals through DAN at a 5% commission if it saves me the hassles of dealing with escrow KYC approvals and transfers/account changes. The buyer is able to immediately pay with a credit card, and once paid, I start the account change / transfer process.
I can close deals outside of normal business hours and don’t have to wait for the payment processing to take place on the subsequent business day. This means I don’t have to concern myself with the buyer backing out or having to jump through hoops to transact.
I look at the 5% commission fee as a convenience fee for me. I wouldn’t necessarily put through a self-negotiated $25k deal at DAN because that fee is much higher than Escrow.com, but if I was concerned the buyer would back out or choose something else if given the extra time, I would consider it.
That why I moved from different platforms every 3 months.
When I get an inquiry sale, then I give them my domain link to DAN.
For example, when I get inquiry for my top notch domain squarely.com,
I give the buyer the link to DAN: https://dan.com/buy-domain/squarely.com
easy peasy.
One of the many great features of the superb Uniregistry platform is that it constantly displays your rolling sales over the last 30 days. This is useful.
My current rolling sales at Uni over the last 30 days is 3 domains sold for a total of $5750. Another certain sale is currently being closed by the brokerage which will take it to $9250.
The goal is to keep the rolling number in five figures as much as possible. With the inclusion of several other sales on Afternic in the last month I’m currently meeting that goal.
I now have 2,700 names multi-listed on the Uniregistry Afternic DLS network and sales are great.
Hi Dan, this week I started listing domains for sale on Dan. I have listed them only with Buy Now pricing and the extended payments if buyers choose that option. I’m not sure about listing with the option of submitting offers. From your experience, do you think accepting offers or listing a firm price works better?
Hi Elliot, sorry for too many Dans in my prior comment. I want to thank you for answering my question with your new post. Your year-end experiment should be interesting… https://domaininvesting.com/why-i-use-make-offer-on-most-of-my-domain-names/
Sorry – meant to reply to your comment with a link to the article. Glad you saw it.