Tips for selling domain names!

[DotDuDe]

Ok here you go. This small tutorial should get you started

1.) Make sure you have a parking page with the link to contact the domain name owner (this works pretty good if you have good amount with type-ins)

2.) List your site for free at every site you can find at http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Domain_Names/For_Sale_or_Auction/

3.) If you are lazy to generate a page for each registered domain name. Redirect all traffic to your domain name selling portal (e.g. one page where you can list all your domains)...

4.) Some people make good amounts of $$$ while domain names are parked (domains should have a decent type-in or any other value traffic/visitors). Try applied semantics (traffic requirement 100k+ uniq/per month), trafficz.com, ppc search engine affiliate sites, pop-up sponsors etcetc. Make sure you sign-up with companies that really pay on-time. Also check sponsor agreement before redirecting adult parking domains... some do not accept adult traffic (for example, engine54.com)

5.) I have sold some names for a decent value by finding the party who might be interested in purchasing the domain name. For example, if one company owns a tutifrutimotors.com domain name and you got tutifruti.com - there is a good chance that they are willing to buy the domain. Approach them nicely, I usually check out whois records and contact the domain name administrative contact (in this example tutifrutimotors.com admin contact) not [email protected] or [email protected]. In most cases, contacting management will help you too.

6.) Make sure you have whois info up-to-date. Check your email address that is listed in whois records from time to time - some people prefer to contact the domain name owner to buy the name in this way.

btw, avoid #5 if you got a domain name that has a trademark
You can check US trademark database for free at http://www.uspto.gov/

DN buck donations are welcome !

 

[proproject]

Originally posted by DotDuDe
1.) Make sure you have a parking page with the link to contact the domain name owner (this works pretty good if you have good amount with type-ins)

Right position, #1. I agree but even stronger. Only reason not to park your domain is if you have it in use with a real website. It works well even if the domain does not get type-ins. Even if only one person in the world wants your domain, he or she is likely to visit the domain and see what's (not) there. On our site, domains that are parked are MUCH more likely to sell than domains that are not. Only about 10% of our listings are parked on our site, but about 50% of our sales are parked. That means our listings that are parked are 5 times more likely to sell than domains that are not.

I also think it helps to park them on a reputable site where buyers get assurance that their transaction will be safe. If you park your own, add a message about how your escrow service (escrow.com, afternic, sedo, whatever you choose) guarantees a safe transaction for the buyer.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by DotDuDe Ok here you go. This small tutorial should get you started...........4.) Some people make good amounts of $$$ while domain names are parked (domains should have a decent type-in or any other value traffic/visitors). Try applied semantics (traffic requirement 100k+ uniq/per month.........

I read that too (on their website) about applied semantics not accepting you you unless you can deliver 100,000 uniques a month. I find that amazing in that there would seen to be so very few names who would have that much traffic to send to parked pages! With such a low number of possible clients with domains like that it's surprising applied semantics is such a big prosperous appearing firm.

100,000 true uniques a month is incredible traffic for a parked page. With that kind of heavy traffic why in the world use a ppc program to generate revenue in the first place as selling a simple product or service would seem to me to be able to generate significantly more revenue than notoriously low income ppc programs do.

Does anyone here have domains with that much traffic? If so, how much are they valued at?

 

[proproject]

They need that much traffic in total - not from one domain. It might take thousands of domains to qualify if they don't each get much type-in traffic. Their customers have lots of domains.

 

[David G]

Originally posted by proproject They need that much traffic in total - not from one domain. It might take thousands of domains to qualify if they don't each get much type-in traffic. Their customers have lots of domains.

Thanks for clarifying that. But is there really that many of us who own thousands of domains that generate more than 100,000 uniques/mo in total? I doubt it.

I personally know one domainer who was the #-1 owner lister at the old Afternic who owned more than 30,000 names in total and it appeared not even 1 name had any natural traffic.

Have also seen many other large portfolios where I doubt if they had more than a few hundred hits/mo per 1,000 names. To equal 100,000/mo plus sure seems very unique to me, even with thousands of names.

Anyone here have some real natural type-in names they want to sell? Even low type-ins are OK, in fact I prefer less than 100/day. P.S. Roger, do you know of any you own or have listed?

 

[proproject]

I made a little mistake by limiting traffic to type-ins. Of course the traffic could be from anywhere. Residual traffic from old websites works, too.

FYI, all names parked on Afternic, a little over 20,000, got 340,000 uniques in April. If we have an average sample, that means it takes about 6000 average domains to get 100K uniq/mo traffic.

To answer your question, I did a little query. Keep in mind, the most high-traffic listings are probably not parked on Afternic - they're being used for real websites. Of the listings parked on Afternic, we do show the traffic they get (uniq/mo). Here's the top 20 traffic domains listed on Afternic. I'll even show the SQL for the techies (traf column is the uniq/mo, buy_now is the asking price if not zero)...

mysql> select name,traf,buy_now from Auctions where active=1 and parked=1 order by traf desc limit 20;
+------------------------+-------+------------+
| name                   | traf  | buy_now    |
+------------------------+-------+------------+
| filesearch.com         | 52227 | 50000.0000 |
| ttee.net               | 32628 |     0.0000 |
| linkinparklive.com     | 26556 |     0.0000 |
| coldwell.com           | 24663 |     0.0000 |
| CreditMarketers.com    | 16126 |  2500.0000 |
| TelTV.com              | 14289 |     0.0000 |
| computerfreakz.com     | 13378 |     0.0000 |
| comtech.com            | 12408 | 20000.0000 |
| shareyournakedpics.com | 12130 |     0.0000 |
| nix.com                | 10039 |     0.0000 |
| etou.com               |  8617 |     0.0000 |
| hozmail.com            |  8243 |     0.0000 |
| britneys.com           |  7921 |     0.0000 |
| DTX.net                |  7836 | 12000.0000 |
| shou.net               |  7599 |     0.0000 |
| KHALED.com             |  7581 |     0.0000 |
| cooldolls.com          |  7218 | 95000.0000 |
| cribbs.net             |  7098 |     0.0000 |
| jxxw.com               |  6698 |  1500.0000 |
| mansor.com             |  6433 |     0.0000 |
+------------------------+-------+------------+
20 rows in set (2.23 sec)

 

[mole]

Originally posted by proproject
Even if only one person in the world wants your domain, he or she is likely to visit the domain and see what's (not) there.

Yup, that's me

 

[dbdomains]

RealNames:

I only have about 150 names left in my portfolio, but do 20,000 - 25,000 uniques per month. Most are type-ins, although I think that search-engine traffic can be just as valuable since the vistors pre-qualify themselves, in most instances, as potential product or service buyers.

Anyway, I am sure that there are 100,000 plus uniques per month out there.

 

[whitelion]

Agree with dbdomains on that.

 

[Edwin]

If I could be bothered to sort out my "spare" domains to the point that they all pointed to the same place, I've definitely got over $100K a month. Most of that is traffic from old sites, not pure typeins of course...

Put another way, 100,000 a month is only 3,300 a day. That's only 66 domains with 50 a day each or 132 with 25 a day each (low numbers for expired domains with traffic from old links)

Put still another way, if somebody owns 30,000 domains and doesn't even get $100K visits a month out of them, they're IN THE WRONG BUSINESS

 

[lux]

Originally posted by Edwin
If I could be bothered to sort out my "spare" domains to the point that they all pointed to the same place, I've definitely got over $100K a month.

Might want to drop that dollar sign. For a minute there, you had me picking my jaw up off the floor. :laugh:

 

[Edwin]

Originally posted by lux


Might want to drop that dollar sign. For a minute there, you had me picking my jaw up off the floor. :laugh:

Bang go my dreams of millionairehood inside of a year...

 

[hhunterjr]

I wanted to ask about tip #5 on the original post. I've used a direct email campaign myself- without much luck. It was tax deductible, so I didn't lose any money on it in the long run.

In the group's experience:
Does contacting prospective companies that may want the domain really work or does it appear to be a desperation move on the part of the seller?


I'm just asking because I've been contacted recently by some domain holders and their emails seemed to have a tone of "desperation" in them. Perhaps its the way you approach the company that matters. Perhaps approaching with a confident, carefree attitude can work. But approaching with a desperation type mentality like "I'll sell this domain for $10.00" doesn't work in my opinion.

Any comments?

 

[actnow]

Harold,

I have also gotten some of those desperation emails. My mind immediately says, "I guess I will wait til it drops!"

If you are going to solicit a sale, you need to do it professionally.
And, that takes practice.