New Way to Sell Domains that work.

[sellingonline]

I agree with "it takes time", at the end it's the right audience and that's important (I would like to see sales posted too, would interesting!)

 

[Raider]

Only use adwords for premium and/or keyword rich domains that have advertisers bidding on the keywords that your domain name contains.

I completely agree, I think its misleading to think you can sell a domain such as xtremehairstyles.com by using adwords, as opposed to using key rich domains like coolhairstyles.com, not saying its impossible, just unlikely.

And although I agree that Afternic is geared to selling domains, I prefer to sell domains on my own and save the 10%, I've sold a few domains in excess of 30K and didnt have to give Afternic or Sedo $3000 each time I sold one, You dont need Afternic to do what Namestrands is doing, you can use a landing page from almost any PPC provider with a "For Sale" link in the top corner, and broker the sale yourself, although it helps to have selling skills.

Thanks for the post Namestrands and congrats!

 

[namestrands]

Domains Sold shortly after Adwords campaigns are:

DKIB dot com - Purchased By an Investment Bank - $5750 (sales page) first adwords sale. (october) (escrow.com)

Black***** dot com - Pending Funds $8k (2 bidders) (Sales Page)(last week)

******.com - $6k (NDA so cant post) (sales page and then escrow.com)

mneo dot com - $2.4k (AfterNIC) (last month)

4 other domains with current offers.
1 more pending sale at $250 on AfterNIC

.

Of course you dont need afterNIC or SEDO to do this. However AfterNIC gives you a huge boost in the Search Engines.
(afternic charge 3% on escrow only sales)

Its all about Maximum Exposure, and I am happy with the results. I myself have had around 80% of sales this year without the need for the Domain Escrow Services.

The fact remains is that many people still google a domain to see if its available, and companies like AfterNIC have partnerships with some registrars, so if the domain is already registered they have a link to say "make an offer on this domain on AfterNIC" If the domain is listed on afterNIC you have a greater chance at selling.

Adwords, is just another route to market and allows you to target a whole new vertical. Even if it does not sell, the name gets out there. Some marketing department might come across it and think "Great Name".

I have maintained that you keep the bids low, and choose key phrases as opposed to keywords.

Having a domain name parked with little traffic is a waste of your time and money. This is not Field of Dreams, if you park it they will not come. Parking harms any search ranking a domain has and if it doesnt have any, then dont expect it to get some by parking.

You are not allowed to promote parked domains, so it makes sense to take them off, put them on a sales page and then market the hell out of it.

It cost nothing but time to promote a domain.

My Golden Rules of Domaining.

• Develop at least 10% of your Portfolio
• If a domain earns less than reg fee in a year develop it
• List your domains in as many programs as possible
• Use your developed domains to promote your for sale domains
• Dont be afraid to mailshot previous people who made offers
• Ensure you pitch your domain. Take the time to research
• If you have a small porfolio. Promote others for the Commission
• Enjoy what you do and learn how to design and program
• Never get Complaisant.
• Innovate. Innovate. and then Innovate

Happy Holidays.

 

[remf]

Yikes! $5k for a LLLL! Awesome - this thread is a real inspiration to those who have tried all that's available to them and have come up with blanks, and provides the opportunity to try new and innovative ways to earn more money. Thank you very much for sharing all this information with us NS!

 

[namestrands]

To add some more revenue ideas for you.

Affiliate Sites are the new parking. Even if you dont sell a thing. You get the pages indexed and that generates traffic. Adsense will bring in as much if not more revenue on a domain that was parked with no traffic.

Developed correctly, these sites offer a wealth of content for adsense.

Once you have some good traffic, then you can park it if you like. I will bet it earns more than reg fee each year. I will even give you the reg fee if it doesnt. I am that confident.

I will be developing more of these sites in the new year and hoepfully be able to distribute the site code in easy template format for all. (nominal fee applies)

Supported Programs at the Moment are.

www.buy.at
www.tradedoubler.com
www.webgains.com

Also available is the AfterNIC and SEDO, RSS feeds for those who want to promote other porfolios.

Dont be afraid to diversify into new markets. Games Sites are easy to build and generate enough revenue to renew hundreds of domains each year.

I do believe in content sites as they offer the most consistant revenue above any parking program and you choose the keywords and design your own templates, you are not restricted to being told what keywords you can have and you are not limited to any design.

 

[erdinc]

I have just put 8 adverts. Domain prices vary from $69 to $250 so hopefully I will sell at least one of them. There are no impressions or clicks so far. I will let you know if I sell any of them.

The most impressive thing with adwords is that you can chose particular websites. I had a scientific name so I have chosen to advertise on a science magazine website.

To do this you need to switch from starter version to standard version. My suggestion is to start with the starter version on adwords since it is much much easier to understand.

Once you need to ad a second advert it will require you to switch to standard version anyway.

At the beginning I was confused with these adwords things but the starter version is very easy to understand.

If I understand correctly you don't pay for impressions but only for clicks.

 

[namestrands]

Best of Luck, and be sure and let us know if you get any sales or offers.

 

[zojila]

Parking harms any search ranking a domain has and if it doesnt have any, then dont expect it to get some by parking.

perhaps this is true, but namedrive offers me top ranking for a number of domains i own. yep #1 in google. eg : bhojpal.com

 

[namestrands]

I have many #1 domains, and have had for many years. Unfortunately once I parked them it soon dropped off.

If yours remains then this would be an exception to the rule. However saying that if the name has less than 1000 results for the search term the ranking appears to remain consistant.

As part of google guidelines it does not like "sites that directly profit from traffic" as they offer no real content.

 

[StrictlyNames]

"google"

it does not like "sites that directly profit from traffic" as they offer no real content.

That's definitely the pot calling the kettle black. :lol:

 

[namestrands]

yeah I can see the irony in that one.

 

[erdinc]

I have now 16 domains (Campaigns) running. 15 of them are mine and one is an active sedo auction of someone else. I used my partnet id. Adwords isn't real time so I don't know #of clicks yet but sedo is. When I go to sedo > my sedo (from top menu) > partner stats, I see 18 visitors. So I have spend like 18*.0.04= £0.72 in a few hours advertising somebody elses auction in return for nothing. Other than that for my own 15 domains there are some impressions but no clicks so far. But I'm hopefull.

 

[shopperx]

zojila: Impressive, if it last for more than one month ill switch my domains to ND.

erdinc: Very useful and simple information, keep us posted on your findings. Ill be more than pleased to read it.


shopperx

 

[namestrands]

Now you can Earn Money From your Parked.com Domains and see how many people actually click through your for sale link.

www.parked.com offer the ability to redirect to your own sales pages.

I show you a way how to track those clicks to your for sale page on AfterNIC, also including your affiliate link will enable you to earn commission on any sale or new signups.

First Create a Database in mysql:

CREATE DATABASE `domaintracking`;
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `domaintracking`.`parkedstats`;
CREATE TABLE  `domaintracking`.`parkedstats` (
  `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `domain` varchar(65) NOT NULL default '',
  `date` timestamp NOT NULL default CURRENT_TIMESTAMP on update CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Now create a simple PHP page.

<?
$domain = $_GET['q'];
$server =  'localhost';
$user =  'user';
$pass =  'password';
$database = 'domaintracking';

// Enter your Affiliate ID
$afternicref = "YOURAFFILIATEID";

	if (isset($domain)) { 			    
	$link = mysql_connect($server, $user, $pass);
	
		if (!$link)
		{
			die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
		}
   	
		$db = mysql_select_db($database, $link);

//
	$query = "INSERT INTO parkedstats (id, domain) VALUES ('','$domain')";
				$result = mysql_query($query, $link); 
				mysql_close($link);
				
		
		header("Location: http://www.afternic.com/name.php?domain=$domain&ref_id=$afternicref");
		exit(); // Use the exit command to make sure php is exiting out correctly. 
	}
		else
	{
		echo "No Domain Specified";
	}
?>

save the php file as bounce.php and upload to your server.

Now got to Account Information Tab on www.parked.com and click "My Account"

Scroll down to the Domains For Sale section

and add the following text:

http://www.yourdomain.com/bounce.php?q={DOMAIN}

Now every click through to AfterNIC sales page is tracked with Domain name and Time Stamped.

Remember they may not buy your domain, but they may buy another so why loose out on the chance to make some commission.

This can also be easily adapted for NameDrive also.

 

[erdinc]

Hello NS,

www.parked.com offer the ability to redirect to your own sales pages.

If I understand you correctly you mean "www.parked.com gives you the option to put a link on the landing page that leads to your sale page". Am I right on this?

But I'm still confused why all those codes are needed. If you are parking at parked.com can't you just enter a sale url?

By the way, if you are selling at sedo this will not work very good since they charge too much commision for non parked domain sales. I checked afternic and I'm not very happy with their yearly membership fee. They should get rid of it.

 

[namestrands]

Yes of course you can enter the sales url direct, however adding the script allows you to track all click throughs on your own server.

Having these analytics can help your price your domains and increase sales.

The best way to get round the afternic subscription is you add the $25 to the first domain you sell. Also think of how much you would have to pay SEDO if you parked elsewhere and pointed to a SEDO sales page?

AfterNIC charge 3% on Escrows for non parked/listed domains.

I think the membership fee is more than fair as you dont get as many dodgy sellers or buyers as you do on SEDO.

 

[***]

Thanks for the idea.

 

[JuniperPark]

Hi -

Great idea Namestrands!

I've given it a try for a week, but so far, no takers. This is my first Adwords campaign, and I have to say I'm VERY unimpressed with them, I thought they would have their act together by now. VERY confusing to set up, zero support from what I can tell, and poor reporting of results.

I put up 2 domain names for the test, with about 10 keyword variations each, a 16 cent default bid across the board, ad budget of $20/day.

In the first 3 hours I got 3 clicks on about 5,000 impressions. Over the 1st 24 hours I got about 9,000 impressions, but no more clicks. After 24 hours, impressions dropped to a trickle, and I've only had about 500 impressions this entire WEEK, with 0 clicks.

There seems to be no explanation as to why so few impressions, and my bid is already high enough. There seems to be no support email or phone number.

I'm VERY dissapointed in the results, but I might try a couple more tests before giving up on this.


UPDATE: I did some looking around, and now my screen says for many of my keywords "increase quality or bid $5.00 or more"? What the &@D)(#D??? Bid minimums have gone from $.15 to $1.00 - $5.00 in a week for restaurant related terms? That's just not right.

 

[David G]

Looks like Adwords bids did indeed go to $5 minimum as I am now getting the same message from Adwords where my old keyword bid of 0.25c is not acceptable anymore and new mimimum is now $5., which seems extremely high for a low paying kind of non-financial category. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[JuniperPark]

Looks like Adwords bids did indeed go to $5 minimum as I am now getting the same message from Adwords where my old keyword bid of 0.25c is not acceptable anymore and new mimimum is now $5., which seems extremely high for a low paying kind of non-financial category. Anyone else seeing this?

Seriously -- doesn't this sound a lot like 'bid rigging' to anyone else?

I find it highly unlikely that ad budgets across 2 different industries has suddenly increased 10-fold in a week. That would be headline news if it were true. And if it's NOT true, then something very unethical is going on here at the Google camp.

Perhaps someone with more Adwords experience can shed some light on this.