discuss Hello Sir to You A-Hole in 10 emails or less

[MapleDots]

I received an email inquiry on a nice two word .com and the initial offer was $75

Since I list a lot of my domains at godaddy with a $20 opening bid I am used to getting lowball offers and I have a policy to simply ignore them. The above mentioned email was no exception and I did not even think about it, I simply pressed delete.

Over the course of the next few days I received numerous inquiries from 3 different email addresses on the same domain. Each time the offer was under $100 with an inquiry of "How Much". I have an internal policy that I do not respond to offers under $1000 so I figured the guy would eventually get the point and up his offer. Well I was wrong, no higher offer came, but the emails continued. The first one started with sir and the last one called me an A-Hole.

The tone of the emails got more irate with each one. Having never conversed with the guy I was astonished at the time and effort put into the emails. He seemed to be having a conversation with himself telling me why he needed the domain, his history, and even how many kids he had. Yet he left out anything that could identify him or something that would indicate to me that he was a serious end user.

Anyways.... long story short, I just received another email with some very colorful language, not sure if that is supposed to intimidate me into responding or to give him his desired $75 sale.

PS. I make it very clear on my website that $1000 is the minimum bid on my domains so I don't really get where all the anger is coming from.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I understand what MD is saying...it is a tool for him to price at 20.

My mins are all set at 500 and I still get a ton of low ballers on high value names, but I use the data through my registrar and also voodoo...very good stats come through the voodoo system.

 

[MapleDots]

I understand what MD is saying...it is a tool for him to price at 20.

My mins are all set at 500 and I still get a ton of low ballers on high value names, but I use the data through my registrar and also voodoo...very good stats come through the voodoo system.

Yup, you get it.

When my domain comes up for renewal with a couple of keyclicks I can see how many offers I have had. Now they might be lowball offers but it does show interest. The alternative is to set the minimum higher and have zero offers but then you will really never know anyone was ever interested when it comes to renewal time.

I appreciate that you like vodoo and it works for you and that is why I would never try to convince you otherwise. Everyone does what works for them and that is the name of the game.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Everyone does what works for them and that is the name of the game.

Indeed.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

While it would have generated fewer responses, probably, I wonder if in the spirit of NamePros a title like Why I Allow Low Offers might have been more appropriate. Then right off in @MapleDots reveal what you said later (about analytics, sending back messages if decide to later drop) explaining why.

I hate sensationalistic titles and the A- rubs me the wrong way. Sorry. Although a prominent domain investor, not active on NamePros, recently purchased that domain name. Now it's not my thread, but I feel anything anyone says on NamePros affects each of us a little.

But more fundamentally the title is not reflective of the value in the discussion. It is not about whether you got 3 emails or one, or $75 or $20, or they got perturbed with you not answering, really.

The value in the discussion is about these topics in my opinion, all of which are important. But do you get that from the title?

• What should we set minimum offer at?
• Should we allow communication below that offer?
• Should we respond to all offers?
• Can you get useful analytics from offers even below those you consider?
• Do you later respond to low ball offers if you decide to drop the name?

I may sometime start a thread on The Value of Boring Titles. Probably won't get much response.

Bob

 

[MapleDots]

While it would have generated fewer responses, probably, I wonder if in the spirit of NamePros a title like Why I Allow Low Offers might have been more appropriate. Then right off in @MapleDots reveal what you said later (about analytics, sending back messages if decide to later drop) explaining why.

I hate sensationalistic titles and the A- rubs me the wrong way. Sorry. Although a prominent domain investor, not active on NamePros, recently purchased that domain name. Now it's not my thread, but I feel anything anyone says on NamePros affects each of us a little.

But more fundamentally the title is not reflective of the value in the discussion. It is not about whether you got 3 emails or one, or $75 or $20, or they got perturbed with you not answering, really.

The value in the discussion is about these topics in my opinion, all of which are important. But do you get that from the title?

• What should we set minimum offer at?
• Should we allow communication below that offer?
• Should we respond to all offers?
• Can you get useful analytics from offers even below those you consider?
• Do you later respond to low ball offers if you decide to drop the name?

I may sometime start a thread on The Value of Boring Titles. Probably won't get much response.

Bob

HeHe.... I guess that's why you have the author title and I don't. Maybe I watch too much Netflix with all the cliffhangers.

Looking at what the topic has turned into I have to say I am actually in agreement with you and a title change is probably indicated.

Report it to namepros.... I will support the decision to make the change

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Looking at what the topic has turned into I have to say I am actually in agreement with you and a title change is probably indicated.

Report it to namepros.... I will support the decision to make the change

I think the mods are very hesitant to change titles and content once posted. For good reasons nonetheless, including a slippery slope of where that would end. I most object to titles involving companies that have the company name in title and some gripe from one person.

Anyway, I know that I am terrible at catchy headlines (and you are very good at them!) and your headline did bring this topic to attention, which is good.

And as I said, I think the topic has generated great discussion. You have not convinced me, but I do see more value in low initial offers.

Anyway, thanks for the great topic. Go spend some time with that family of yours!

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Name Trader]

@MapleDots - I don't see why you set your GoDaddy starting bid at $20 and then get irritated with offers of $75-$100 when you don't respond to these $75-$100 offers, and the offerer sends you a complaint. You are completely misleading any offerers that you might consider $20 or a low price for the domain. On GoDaddy, I usually bid $20 when that is there lowest offer threshold.. It's a negotiation, which normally goes nowhere. Because I mostly never get a response. My own sales on GoDaddy start at $1000. I don't get bothered by a) lowball offers, or b) complaints from offerers about no response. I understand the tracking part of your argument. But the people making the offers don't have that foresight. They've made you an offer of 4-5 times your lowest acceptable offer. You SHOULD NOT be ignoring those offers, if only out of courtesy. It's your own fault. I understand your modus operandum. But you are not treating the offerers with the same respect. It might be ok to not reply to the lowest low-ballers, but someone posting an offer 4-5 times your lowest acceptable bid, requires and deserves a reply. IMHO. I think you are in a conundrum of your own making.

OK. Lets take an example. You have a domain with the $20 starting bid. Lets say you get between 1-10 offers in a year of $20. What does that tell you? It tells me that you should probably drop that domain, if you are expecting $1000+ for the domain. So. I don't really understand your traffic argument. Whereas. If you responded with $1000 (or whatever you actually want), 1 of these 10 buyers might actually begin negotiating. If you won't accept an offer under $1000, then your lowest acceptable bid should be in the region of $800-$1000. In my opinion.

 

[MapleDots]

@MapleDots - I don't see why you set your GoDaddy starting bid at $20 and then get irritated with offers of $75-$100 when you don't respond to these $75-$100 offers

I don't get irritated at all, I encourage the offers, I collect that data that is why it is set at $20 opening.
The opening post was about a private offer and even then I did not get irritated, I simply chose to ignore.

A lot of posters in this topic are confusing the content of my opening post with my godaddy statement.

Nowhere do I ever say I get irritated, I specifically set the offer bar low to encourage people to respond.
The only thing is I don't respond to offers below 1k. It's no different from the auctions on namepros that will announce a bin later and start the bidding at $1. Even when there is no intention to sell below 1k the bids start low and the reserve or bin is announced later. If nothing else the owner of the domain can gauge interest even if the domain never sells.

I look at godaddy the same way, someone may be attracted by a low $20 start but if they really want the domain they usually come back with several offers. Once an offer peaks my interest I will respond but the amount of inquiries I get is still valuable information regardless of if the domain sells or not.

 

[Name Trader]

I think it's crazy to start with an opening bid of $20 and not to respond to offers of 4-5 times that amount. I think it is a poor strategy to have a starting bid of $20 when you won't accept offers under $1000. I'm actually surprised this strategy works for you. But to each their own. I won't bid anymore on a sellers opening bid price. I probably will assume, they are expecting over $1000. But I'm not an end-user. I'm a domainer

 

[golan]

as a buyer and seller, I ignore godaddy listings with a $20 minimum. If it is a nice name with a $20 minimum, I assume it is a bad listing that the owner does not know about or a lazy seller.

So what? You disqualify them then and don't want these domains anymore because their sellers are stupid morons?

 

[Sutruk]

Well, to avoid similar "drama" I have set up 5k min offer to all of my domain names - this means I do not need to think about situation when someone sends me $20 offers. If I want to liquidate something for few bucks, I have Namepros auctions available for that purpose.

I do not want to sell my names for $20 so why even allow someone to submitt such amount? Sure, it is much less fun this way, but when someone contacts me, it is usually someone serious.

And no one ever has called me A-Hole in the entire time - it has probably to do with the professional and friendly style I reply when someone sends me an email or LinkedIn message.

Sometimes it is better to play less games with people - if they want our names, they will pay anyway

Just imho.

I agree very much with this quote

 

[7363824]

I fo4 one can appreciate having no other a very low minimum offer. I plan on doing the same but I will be having all offers go to an email address that is monitored by an automated script, not me. And have the script auto reply to low balls until it receives an offer above a specific threshold then have it forward the offer to my email.

I figure this will give me the best of both worlds, I'll only get emails with serious offers but I'll have data on the existence of lower offers.

But even this is unnecessary and for some here without any coding experience too difficult to setup. But a simple auto correct rule in your email client could allow you to send a standard response in a few keystrokes.

 

[Bearded Goat]

@golan Basically.

 

[Brands.International]

Although I have different style in handling my domain names comparing to @MapleDots one thing I have to admitt - he simply knows how to name a thread, so it trends like hot pancake all over NP ... something we all should be learning

 

[Furquan]

Hello @MapleDots Sir, change your profile domain properties 2002 - 2020

Welcome to 2020 it happens, just ignore them. I agree that we need to have this record as it gives us a clear picture of a domain name (renew or drop)...

Anyway, You are not A-Hole.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

... something we all should be learning

or not
(if I have a pet peeve it is sensationalistic titles, although I agree they get traffic)

Why not title this one:

"An analytical approach to domain renewal based upon statistics of minimalist offers: side-effects related to lack of response."​

How catchy that would be!

Bob

 

[Name Trader]

or not
(if I have a pet peeve it is sensationalistic titles, although I agree they get traffic)

Why not title this one:

"An analytical approach to domain renewal based upon statistics of minimalist offers: side-effects related to lack of response."​

How catchy that would be!

Bob

I got tired and my eyes glazed over before I got to read the end of the line The first six words have would be enough, I think

 

[NicTraders]

@MapleDots I totally understand your desire to collect the data. And you use that data to decide whether or not to drop domains. That's fair enough. But I think there's an issue with the quality of your data. The data you're collecting reflects interest above $20, but still you're only going to respond to offers above $1k. But surely this means you're keeping a bunch of domains that people will only ever pay $xx - $xxx for. The interest in the domains means you keep renewing, but for a bunch of them you're never going to get a $1k offer.

So, I wonder if there's be a better way to collect this data, borrowing from an earlier recommendation from @Bob Hawkes... My suggestion would be (for your own website) that you have a Make Offer button for each domain. That button links to a unique Make Offer page for that domain which includes validation of a minimum offer amount ($1k if you so desire) per Bob's earlier post. You would track any traffic going to a domain's Make Offer page. This way you still collect the same data (virtually anyone clicking the Make Offer button would presumably have been willing to submit a $20 offer), however you then improve the handling of this by only ever receiving offers you want to see (since the form would stop any low-ball offers and would advise the user as to why their offer can't be accepted). Then you can easily collect data on serious offers too.

Personally if you only consider offers of over $1k I'd set the minimum offer to $400 or $500 since it's quite foreseeable that anyone offering that amount would engage in a conversation to increase their offer. But of course that's your call. Regardless of the minimum offer amount, you get to collect the same data but without wasting the time of a bunch of 'uneducated' people who think they'll get their chosen domain from you for $20 when your expectations could be at least 100 times that. It seems to me that this solves the problem from your OP, but without you losing any functionality in terms of tracking interest.

All the best.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I got tired and my eyes glazed over before I got to read the end of the line The first six words have would be enough, I think

Just in case I had not made it obvious, I was not serious with that title. I personally think something like "Using Data From Low Offers" might have worked.
Anyway @MapleDots certainly got interest with his title, and a good discussion.
Bob

 

[uzver]

@Bob Hawkes

Having read all the responses, I think you’re exaggerating a lot. To me, it was never OP’s intention to write about the strategy of tracking low ball offers for evaluating domain interest.

I personally wouldn’t give a flying fuck on what price the buyer was anchored to at GoDaddy. He inquired via the OP’s website and entered $75 (or whatever) in the form field where it prominently stated $1000 min. That’s all what matters.

The buyer can submit $20 offers all day long and send harsh emails on the platform (GoDaddy in this case) where he sees those min offers. He was smart enough to find @MapleDots website in the first place, so he should be able to understand what $1000 min means.

IMO

 

[Recons.Com]

Again guys... read my posts, it has nothing to do with selling for $20 as much as it does to track interest.
When I know people are interested in a domain it gives me an indication it should be renewed. Very little else needs to be done when the decision to renew gets made. The domain had interest, you renew.

You have made several posts (I think) asking us what we think you should renew or drop.
If you had actual data that showed interest you would be able to make those decision based on data instead of asking other people. At 5k minimum you are never really gauging interest and if you ever decide to drop a domain you cannot go back to everyone that inquired and offer it for a couple of hundred bucks because your minimum was set to 5k.

On the other hand if I decide to drop a domain I can shoot back an email to all my $20 offers and ask them if they want to pick it up for a couple hundred or so. I don't drop a lot but it does make for a good tool to have that information on hand.

That is why I don't restrict my form to 1k, I allow people to submit because the data is nice to have. I ask for 1k minimum but you can submit in any amount. (This also addresses @Bob Hawkes question)

You are making a big mistake if you assume offers are a guide for renewals.

I have sold 70+ domains in past 2 years and 90% had zero previous offers on them, most held like that for few years. And I have plenty of unsold with previous offers.

 

[Recons.Com]

@Bob Hawkes

Having read all the responses, I think you’re exaggerating a lot. To me, it was never OP’s intention to write about the strategy of tracking low ball offers for evaluating domain interest.

I personally wouldn’t give a flying f*ck on what price the buyer was anchored to at GoDaddy. He inquired via the OP’s website and entered $75 (or whatever) in the form field where it prominently stated $1000 min. That’s all what matters.

The buyer can submit $20 offers all day long and send harsh emails on the platform (GoDaddy in this case) where he sees those min offers. He was smart enough to find @MapleDots website in the first place, so he should be able to understand what $1000 min means.

IMO

Then why not to set up the form the way that it would simply reject under 1k right there and show error message? You can track rejections right there too.

 

[uzver]

Then why not to set up the form the way that it would simply reject under 1k right there and show error message? You can track rejections right there too.

1) A matter of personal choice and technical skills?

OP prefers to track offers in Gmail.

I track domain interests via GA events (number of clicks on BIN and MakeOffer buttons).. and Gmail search is very convenient, yes.

2) Some argue it’s not good to actually restrict form inputs (form validation) for a number of reasons.

I can’t find the article about Form UI best practices, but I recall there are some strong arguments in favor of NOT restricting users as some may not notice/understand form errors and abandon the submission altogether.

As to the domain offers in particular, one may want to show higher min offer for anchoring the buyer, but then allow for lower offers.

This is actually a very interesting subject to me. I still don’t know how to better setup my forms:
no min offer — expect law balls
min offer in place — anchoring to the min offers rather then domain value
high min offer — miss out on potential buyers who may need some education (why go from $100 to $5000).

What I’m currently testing is min offer $500 as HTML5 validation without showing a placeholder (or help text) so that buyer see the error when entered below $500, but they don’t know $500 is my min offer upfront.

 

[Truespin Domains]

I get why MD might want to set a low offer range, in order to gather data and gauge interest in the names.

However, I can also understand why someone would get annoyed if they were seemingly making offers above the suggested minimum level, and getting no response. I personally wouldn't resort to bad language or manners, but I can understand the frustration.

MD has stated that his website makes it clear that the minimum bid is $1000, so I guess it's not completely misleading, but people don't always stop and read the small print.

Personally I don't see the harm in responding and setting out your price expectations. Most the time people will just walk away, but I've had a couple of low-ballers eventually meet me somewhere reasonable in the past. It's rare, but can happen.

 

[karmaco]

Again guys... read my posts, it has nothing to do with selling for $20 as much as it does to track interest.
When I know people are interested in a domain it gives me an indication it should be renewed. Very little else needs to be done when the decision to renew gets made. The domain had interest, you renew.

You have made several posts (I think) asking us what we think you should renew or drop.
If you had actual data that showed interest you would be able to make those decision based on data instead of asking other people. At 5k minimum you are never really gauging interest and if you ever decide to drop a domain you cannot go back to everyone that inquired and offer it for a couple of hundred bucks because your minimum was set to 5k.

On the other hand if I decide to drop a domain I can shoot back an email to all my $20 offers and ask them if they want to pick it up for a couple hundred or so. I don't drop a lot but it does make for a good tool to have that information on hand.

That is why I don't restrict my form to 1k, I allow people to submit because the data is nice to have. I ask for 1k minimum but you can submit in any amount. (This also addresses @Bob Hawkes question)

Collecting $20 offers is not an indication of the end user interest you want. Almost any halfway good name can acquire offers at that level. These are low budgeted domainers sending offers.

So is your goal to keep the domain out of other domainers hands or to actually sell? I don’t need other domainers to verify my name is worth keeping, in most cases.

I agree with much of what has been said. $20 opening offer listings look like a joke to most of us and are often people who want to collect a large “offers” column on GoDaddy to make a domain appear more desirable than it actually is. Not saying that is your intent persay but what are you actually acquiring? I guess the knowledge that other domainers want your domain?

Setting a starting offer much closer to what you are actually looking for would save everyone time.