Realistic Domain Prices Could Lead To More Sales

As someone who has always enjoyed reading the blog at Ebusinessdomains.com I was pleased to have Kevin Jackson accept when I reached out to see if you wanted to do a guest post here. Kevin is working hard to take his business to the next level and has said as of late his focus is on building awareness at the end user level rather than between domainers, that is the good fight and I am happy to have him say a few words here.

Good read below, and thanks Kevin!!!

For you to fully appreciate my viewpoints in this post, simply imagine that domain parking did not exist, and the only way to make money is to buy and sell domains (domain aftermarket) and develop domains into profitable ebusinesses (web and brand development).

All domain investors go through phases before they see the light of day. Quite a few will register or buy domains that have little to no resale value in their first few months of domain investment.

One thing I have noticed is that every domain investor, old and new, will think that their domain collection is priceless, or at least worth a fortune. You will most likely aggravate domainers if you try your best to honestly tell them that their domain names are not worth as much as they think.

Now, we really still do not have any foolproof method of valuing domain names. Over the years valuation techniques come and go. The reality is that when someone invests heavily in a particular niche, extension or type of domain name, they will form all sorts of theories as to why their domain niche is the best thing since slice bread.

One good example is the LLLL domain names. Some people invested heavily in these domains. They bombarded the forums and blogs with all sorts of reasons and theories as to why these domains were worth the big figures. Well, where are they now?

I am a domain investor, developer, and also a broker that operates a domain marketplace. People will naturally get suspicious when they hear me calling for domains to be more realistically priced. However, I am making this call for the overall goodwill of the domain aftermarket.

I invest in all sorts of businesses. The industry that mirrors the domain industry the most is the real estate sector. Even during the incredible credit crunch and economic downturn that we have been experiencing over the past 2 years, I still find it worthwhile to invest in real estate. Why? The rules of the game are clearly stated.

The domain aftermarket is very inefficient and illiquid. Domains are selling, but the volumes are extremely small when compared to other sectors such as the stock market and real estate. This makes it extremely difficult for one to carve any form of successful business in the domain industry.

The real estate sector is driven by supply and demand. There is no quick way of supplying new homes, and there will always be people seeking to buy a place to live in. Property investors will always have tenants waiting. Here in London, I literally have estate agents begging for my business (to supply tenants) long before I close the deal.

Now, if people are proclaiming that domain names are so valuable, why is it that there is no sort of conveyor belt system in the domain aftermarket? Where is the overwhelming demand from end-users?

This is the point I’m trying to make here. Unlike with real estate where it takes time to build new homes and introduce new inventory, domain end-users have loads of choices. They have an orgy of other domain extensions to choose from, and they also can come up with all sorts of concoction of a domain name.

Yes, we all know that the right domain name will help with branding. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The most value that a domain name will add to any ebusiness will be the credibility that it brings. No matter how premium a domain name is, the business will still need to advertise. The domain name will only cut advertising dollars if it has some sort of traction (branding) with the customers. By this I mean repeat customers that will come again without having to see any fresh advertising. Anyway I will expand on that in another blog post, in the future.

Hope you are still with me.

Now, let’s look at domain registration. Companies do not argue about having to register a domain name and then pay subsequent annual renewals. They accept it. It is digestible.

What a lot of people will not get is how they could justify paying big dollars for a domain name when they can hand register an alternative, easily.

This is why we need to price domains realistically, and create a culture of a very active and liquid domain aftermarket. While some companies will need to justify the cost of a premium domain name, some small and medium size businesses just can’t afford to buy one.

We want to target the unemployed who are trying to start their own businesses, but yet we quote them $xx,xxx for an ordinary domain name. Why not make it easy for them to spend $1,500 for the domain name, another $1,500 on web design/development and then have another $2,000 to do press releases and advertisements. Yes, that’s $5,000 in total. I believe that should a good initial outlay for an entrepreneur.

Why demand $50,000 for a domain name when the buyer would need to spend as much if they want to make any sort of returns on investment within 5 years?

If we price domains more realistically so that entrepreneurs can easily utilise their scarce resources to develop brands and successful ebusiness, then we would have a lot more end-user activity in the domain aftermarket.

Now lets quickly look at the “old guard”  - the domainers with the huge domain portfolios that they monetize though domain parking. The “old guard” don’t sell, because they don’t have to, or simply “don’t have the time to deal with domain offer emails”.

Have you ever wondered why any domain-related article that appears on TechCrunch.com always get a swarm of comments calling ALL domainers squatters? A typical comment would read:

“Such a pain in the ass when someone already owns the name that would be perfect for the project you just thought up, and when you go to the site all that’s there is a bunch of Google ads.”

Domainers know that it is legal to buy and hold domains and to monetize them through domain parking. However, as we know it, most domainers will only park domains. They have no intention or desire to develop the domains into any sort of meaningful Internet destination.

Yet, when an end-user wishes to buy the domain name, they are either ignored, or asked to buy the domainer a mansion, a Ferrari and a yacht. In most cases, no matter how robust the business plan is the end user would not be able to develop the domain into any sort of web destination that generates that type of cash flow.

Hence, I believe that regardless of whatever their domain strategies are, it would benefit the entire domain industry if domainers make it much easier for end-users to acquire premium domain names.

Let us hear your viewpoints.

Optimizing Value Of An End User Domain Name Purchase

When selling a domain name to an end user you need to approach the valuation much differently than when selling at wholesale prices between domain investors. Our domain properties are key real estate properties and need to be treated as such when working with a possible end user.

As domain investors we tend to have domains that span many industries and as such do not necessarily think about the true value our names may have to the business acquiring our domain. When the real estate industry is in good shape commercial real estate agents can look at getting the top price for their property, we are no different with our "domain" property.

Earlier this week I had a contact from an end user looking to acquire one of my domains, it was a geo targeted .NET name in a hot tourist area in a very strong niche. So from the beginning I knew that there was solid value in the domain, but now it was time to evaluate what the true value was to the buyer.

First step was I noticed they indicated they wanted to buy my "website", this is something I have been noticing from buyers that have came from my minisites, they want to buy my website, not my domain name. This is key, they are viewing it as more than just a name, this adds value.

The other thing I noticed is that they person had their logo, title, etc in their email signature. This validated them as a company and what was really nice is I am familiar with their location and their business from visits to the area they are in. This also allows me to focus on speaking the value to their business since I know they are a real business and not just someone looking to buy a name on the cheap.

Before sending though I did some quick searches to determine if they were buying Google Adwords ads or if they were showing up in search results for the name they were looking to purchase. They were not...

After all of this I was able to set a price, although we all like to make the other side make the first move in many cases I find it more productive to set a price and negotiate from there. That is what I did in this case. The person is now taking the offer to the owners of the business (which is a nationwide firm).

Now, to make sure you get the most value it is time to start a bidding process, I went to Google once again to determine the Google Adwords customers targeting the related terms. I was able to determine the top companies that would be interested based on that. I was lucky enough to know the area and business they are in so that helped me focus on on several that I know are considered top players in their field. I then either sent emails or made phone calls to these businesses (asking for the Director of Marketing in most cases) to inform them that offers have been made for my "website" and I wanted to allow them the chance to bid on this property as well.

At this point negotiations are ongoing, but based on all of the above, and selling like a website instead of domain I have been able to increase the value and number of betters which increases the chance of success. Hope one of these tips helps you in some way.

UPDATE: Teendomainer also wrote a great post that you should read concerning selling to end users who have contacted you.

Geo Domain Names For Sale – BUY NOW

UPDATED: I have added some City/State.org names at the bottom, they are all at Fabulous. Take a look, the prices for these names will go up in the future so act fast on these. These are names being brokered for someone else.

UPDATE #2: I have just deleted out several names that are in process. Thanks to the buyers.

UPDATE #3: More names removed. Clarified the names added at the bottom are being brokered for another individual.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago I have been working to focus my domain portfolio in certain niche areas, and really am 90 percent focused on selling domain names to end users rather than at wholesale prices between domain investors. That said I have several that I would like to give my blog readers a chance to grab before I either a) develop them or b) market them to end users.

These are not names that will be dropping so do not get your hopes up, these are names with high search volume or are in tourist areas with high value. Some of these get revenue as well but that is not really relevant since one direct ad on any of these names would top any PPC revenue.  Feel free to contact me through my contact form or email me directly to claim these names. After any name is sold I will completely remove it from the list so there will be no reference if you resell it in the future. If you want to buy multiples please send the list to me and I am willing to play lets make a deal. Here is the list:

Names deleted for buyer NDA reasons......

A Few Days Away, A Couple Domains For Sale and A Busy Week Ahead

I took an unplanned few days away from the laptop (well not 100 percent but close). After driving up to meet my business partner Friday the family and I decided to keep it going and spend sometime with some family in that part of the state and disconnect a bit. Good times, even if talk does turn to business more than planned. When you are excited and having fun it seems like somehow or another even when disconnecting you can get back to business.  Sorry to a few of you who I had planned on connecting with over the past couple days but had to put the calls off until tomorrow. Appreciate the understanding....

I have a couple names currently either headed to auction or in auction right now, here they are:

Smartphone.ME - With the current auctions for .ME continuing to do well you might want to grab this one while you can. Smartphones.com sold for $95,000 not to long ago to give you some idea of interest in this term. The auction ends in less than 12 hours at sedo. Smartphone.me Auction

StilettoSandals.com - This name will be on auction at Bido August 11th. A very solid product term to say the least. Heres a link to the auction: StilettoSandals.com auction.

Well, after getting a little breather its a long week ahead. I expect this week to have some interesting outcomes and to maybe have some announcements unrelated to Missouri.me coming out of the meetings to come that may interest many of you.

Back to my take a breather weekend. Hope yours was great!

Build Your Niche Minisite and Domain Empire

My domain sales have been rather good the past couple weeks so thats put me in the mood to move some more names, rather than focus on selling individual names I thought I would do something a bit different and package names together to help the buyer build a niche domain and minisite network.  I am setting the prices on the packages at a get the deal done price, if you want to buy more than one package I am willing to play "lets make a deal" though.

Please use the Contact me form to send me offers or questions and let me know which package you are buying:

Package 1:

This is a nice package of 3 Geo names that could be developed easily in various ways. Broad match results in the Google keyword tool show 60,500 for the Las Vegas Area and Florida Golf Course name and 40,500 for the Vegas Golf Course name.

VegasGolfCourse.net

FloridaGolfCourse.net

LasVegasArea.net

UPDATE: PACKAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, MAKE OFFERS ON INDIVIDUAL NAMES ON SEDO OR THROUGH MY CONTACT ME FORM

Package 2:

If you are interested in building a network of medical sites this would be a great package to pick up, medical terms tend to be some of the highest click value terms for minisites. Here is your chance to pick up a nice set a nice price.

ChronicChestPain.com

ChronicAsthmatic.com

ChronicLymphoma.com

ChronicMalaria.com

ChronicMedication.com

UPDATE: PACKAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, MAKE OFFERS ON SEDO OR THROUGH MY CONTACT ME FORM FOR INDIVIDUAL NAMES

Package 3:

Online shopping continues to grow yearly even in this down economy and finding product names with high search volumes is key in building out  a nice product related niche minisite network if you are wanting to focus on Amazon or Ebay affiliate sales this is a great package to go for nice commissions.

The number next to each name is the monthly search volume per Googles keyword tool.

BlackShoes.org  1,220,000

WomensSandal.org 450,000

BlackDressShoes.org 74,000

HighSandal.com 40,500

PlatformStiletto.com 27,100

UPDATE: PEOPLE MISSED THE BOAT ON THIS ONE, PACKAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, MAKE OFFERS ON INDIVIDUAL NAMES ON SEDO OR MY CONTACT ME FORM

Package 4:

Networking equipment is a product area that also has high value per click and high dollar sales, this is a nice set of high search volume names. As above the number next to each name is the monthly search volume per Google.

LinuxVpn.com 74,000

EthernetSwitches.net 49,500

EthernetSwitches.org 49,500

GigabitEthernetSwitch.org 22,200

EthernetRouter.org 49,500

UPDATE: SAME AS THE OTHERS ABOVE, PACKAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, INDIVIDUAL OFFERS ACCEPTED

Package 5:

If you are looking to build out a nice recipe network this is a set to make that happen, I will throw in the content on the RoastTurkeyRecipe.com site as well.

FruitDrinkRecipes.com

HealthyDrinkRecipes.com

MorrocanRecipes.com

ReducingSugar.com

SpinachDip.net - ON AUCTION AT SEDO

RoastTurkeyRecipe.com

CeliacDiets.com

Get it Done Price: PACKAGE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, INDIVIDUAL NAMES STILL AVAILABLE

I will never package these names like this again, I am in the mood to sell some names though so lets get some deals done.

It’s Better Than Real Estate Stupid

When explaining domain names and their value to people I usually start with a real estate reference, billboard location reference, etc and then go from there in how a domain name is even better for various reasons (probably should do a post on that....).  Well tomorrow it will be really interesting since I have to actually explain this to an end user buyer who has investors from the real estate community. Let me explain a bit.

Early last year I picked up an expired name that only someone local to St. Louis, MO would get the value of, but if you were from St. Louis you would get it in a second and if you happened to be in the entertainment or live music business you would get more attention from this name based on its history than almost any other. Plus the links to the name were from some of the top radio stations, etc in St. Louis and the region.

Well, in August I received an unsolicited email from someone interested in buying the name. The person was launching a business and was using the exact same name as the name I had based on the history that I mentioned earlier.  We negotiated a price, he budgeted for this in his plan and then he went to get financing. After initial approval the economy did what it did and the deal got put on hold. Thats fine the name pays for itself in ad revenue per month.

Fast forward 5 to 6 months and I get an email this morning saying that the project is back on and he now has external investors (from the real estate community) that are working with him to launch in July. He gets the value of the name but "the investors do not think the expense is necassary".  I almost laughed, people in real estate, specifically commercial real estate should get the value more than anyone outside our domainer community. Its all about location and thats what I have for them.

Now, let me say, I think domainers are naive many times when complaining about people just not getting the value of x name or y name. But in this case (and I wish I could release the name and it would make sense) there is no other name that works, period. It is the brand in this case. 

I sent back an email outlining that we could discuss this tomorrow and that the value of high end relavent domain names are still high even during this down turn (and referred to DNJournals YTD sales) and that every type in visitor or linked visitor they miss is a customer they missed out on. 

I am actually looking forward to the dicussion outlining why the category killer domain is valuable to their business, should be an interesting conversation if anything.

Sedo .ME Premium Auction Ends Tomorrow

Being a believer .ME domain names I have been watching the Sedo premium .ME auction which is currently running and ends tomorrow at 1PM EST. There are some premium .ME names in the auction that fit the extension well and I think with the current economic situation can be picked up at what will end up being bargain prices.

As I have mentioned before, outside of .COM and .NET the .ME extension seems to resonate the most with people outside the domaining world. As has been mentioned many times .ME really is the most brandable "alternative" cctld. With the net being more and more about personalized and localized content there are many possibilities to play off .ME.

Now, I am a realist and am not saying .ME is taking over .COM , please do not start screaming that I am nuts and dotcom is king. I get that. But I do think that .ME is going to do better than many domainers may expect (or want....).

Take a look at the list of domains being auctioned, might be your time to get a name at a bargain price:

pay.me
bet.me
book.me
download.me
compare.me
tell.me
print.me
film.me
rock.me
add.me
employ.me
sell.me
locate.me
test.me
join.me
pick.me
support.me
order.me
reward.me
message.me
manage.me
drink.me
power.me
discount.me
remember.me
market.me
clean.me
ring.me
promote.me

Sell Your Domain Name For Free

Ok, thought I would give people the chance to try something a little bit different.

There are many different avenues to sell your domains but I hear people complain all the time that their name is buried in the thousands of other names on the various auction sites or forums.

Also, many people want to be able to give a direct pitch to their prospective buyers, really give a sales pitch rather than just typing a few lines of stats but really not being able to verbalize in a forum post why they think their name is something someone should buy. Well now is your chance to change that.

For the first 5 people that are interested in trying this I will give you the chance to showcase your domain name here on BruceMarler.com for free. The video can be up to 2 minutes long, you can have anyone you want do the pitch, the 2 rules outside of that are no nudity (obviously) and no cussing.

There really is no downside. Many people are better in front of people than behind a screen typing, this is your chance to show that (or let someone else show that).

The video will be posted to youtube.com and have an embedded link here on the site. Each post will have its own contact form so all interested buyers will be able to contact the seller directly.

If you are interested in selling you domain here please contact me by selecting contact me in the menu bar above.

I do reserve the right to reject a name depending on content or extreme adult nature.