strategy This is how I price my hand-registered domain names

[infosec3]

This is how I price my hand-registered domain names

Some people ask how I manage to sell so many hand-registered domain names. Before I answer that question, it would be convenient to answer this one: How many hand-registered names do I sell per every ten names I register? Generally, I sell between three and four names out of ten within the first two weeks of registration, but result vary depending on the month and hours dedicated to end-user search. So, if I buy ten names, about three of those will sell within two weeks. Some may sell later. Some others will never sell.

Everything considered, the business is consistently profitable, because hand-registration is not that expensive. The two key factors are registering the right names and pricing them correctly. As my sales report indicate, I focus on low value geo names or names that refer to a specific product or service within a given city, state or region. After doing this for some time, I have now a clear idea of which keywords sell quickly and which don’t, as well as which cities might mean hot sales.

My focus on this post is not keywords, but pricing. This is a pattern I have seen often enough in domain investors who attempt to sell hand-registered names. A domain investor registers a few decent names (ex. MiamiGoldBuyer.com, PhoenixDoors.com, etc.) and then contacts potential buyers attempting to sell each name for $1,500. He receives either a negative response or no response at all and then the domain investor arrives at the conclusion that this doesn’t work.

Have in mind that in my perspective the two names listed above are decent in the sense that you can easily flip them for a few hundred dollars. Forget keyword search, forget age, and forget CPC. Those rules do not apply to this particular game. The fact is that both MiamiGoldBuyer.com and PhoenixDoors.com have a list of small business owners who would like to own them. That is all that matters.

But, going back to prices. The key to flipping hand-registered geo names quickly is to price them in a way that it would be hard for end-users to reject. In other words, to speak the language of small business owners when it comes to pricing. Let me illustrate it this way. Now that I am also into numeric names, if you try to sell 76888.com to me for $5000, there is no way I could buy that name from you. However, if you ask for $100, that is an offer I can’t reject. So, I will buy it immediately.

The point is that when it comes to pricing, there is a melting point. You have to present the hand-registered names at a price that becomes hard to reject in the eye of end-users. You must find the balance between profit and expedited sales. In my opinion, for the two examples I gave (MiamiGoldBuyer.com and PhoenixDoors.com), the balanced and appropriate price tag is $250-$500.

Again, this is if you really want sales to happen. If you plan to sit on the names and ask for $1500, that is fine. But I doubt you will sell them before renewing them for a few years. And, most certainly, they will never sell. So the question is $400 now or $1500 never.

 

[cdnbigd]

For the others who are selling or trying to sell geo+service domains, have you found a good way of automating the mundane tasks?

I just spent about 3 or 4 hours tonight manually searching for potential end buyers for a domain of mine in San Fran. I went through SpyFu to find advertisers, then I went into Adwords Preview tool to get different results by pretending I'm in San Fran and finally went to good ol Google Search.

I ended up emailing 85 potential buyers.

Anyone know of a tool that will (without too many false negatives/positives) do all of this for you. Just spit out a list of the websites on the top 10 pages of google with the URL and email addresses for you?

Thanks!

 

[Keith DeBoer]

No worries. Just wanted to be clear that it's not me who's trying to cut the information sharing short and selling something. It's the guy who started the thread. lol

I was just saying thank you to Infosec as he has given quite a lot of valuable information in this thread. Yes he is selling a video but he's also helped a lot of people for free on this thread and others. So I was just giving him a thank you. Everyone has the right to give out as much or as little of their business plan, strategy, sales results etc as they want. The questions we were asking went quite a ways beyond the original post which was about pricing only.

Anyway, great discussion and information all around. I also appreciate all the info you have given bigD.

 

[cdnbigd]

I was just saying thank you to Infosec as he has given quite a lot of valuable information in this thread. Yes he is selling a video but he's also helped a lot of people for free on this thread and others. So I was just giving him a thank you. Everyone has the right to give out as much or as little of their business plan, strategy, sales results etc as they want. The questions we were asking went quite a ways beyond the original post which was about pricing only.

Anyway, great discussion and information all around. I appreciate all the info you have given bigD.

Ah, okay. Yes, it's good that he started this discussion off with his write up about pricing. And I do understand how he doesn't want to divulge too much info which may be in his video he's selling.

I just hate to see questions & pleas for help to go unanswered so I was trying my best to keep the conversation going and to shed some light on those questions.

 

[NetworkPearl]

Ah, okay. Yes, it's good that he started this discussion off with his write up about pricing. And I do understand how he doesn't want to divulge too much info which may be in his video he's selling.

I just hate to see questions & pleas for help to go unanswered so I was trying my best to keep the conversation going and to shed some light on those questions.

How do you find emails of buyers? I just email them on their email listed on the website.

Emailed like 30 , got no reply, Since 3 days.

 

[cdnbigd]

How do you find emails of buyers? I just email them on their email listed on the website.

Emailed like 30 , got no reply, Since 3 days.

I try to always check whois.com for a contact person's name and their email address. At times I write to that email AND the generic info@ email which is usually found on their website.

Give it another few days and follow up with another email. I usually do this about 1 week after the initial email

 

[JamesCrew]

I was just saying thank you to Infosec as he has given quite a lot of valuable information in this thread. Yes he is selling a video but he's also helped a lot of people for free on this thread and others. So I was just giving him a thank you. Everyone has the right to give out as much or as little of their business plan, strategy, sales results etc as they want. The questions we were asking went quite a ways beyond the original post which was about pricing only.

Anyway, great discussion and information all around. I also appreciate all the info you have given bigD.

My thoughts exactly.

Even if @infosec3 is selling something, he has helped the community by providing lots of great information in different threads. In my overall domaining career, I have only found a handful of domainers who are willing to actually "guide" new comers about domain investing. So I personally think such people and their efforts must be appreciated.

Secondly, we should not be bothered (or jealous, lol) if he has a quality product to offer. You can see comments of couple of NP members here who have implemented techniques from his video product and have started rolling their geo domain business. I haven't purchased his product (yet) but I soon will.

Finally, a question for professional domainers. In my sales email, I do not include phone/cell number or a physical address (as I operate from my home). So would there be any (negative) influence on the email I am sending and on my credibility as a domain seller?

Thanks,

PS: @cdnbigd is also doing a great job here in taking this thread to the next level. Keep it up mate.

 

[cdnbigd]

My thoughts exactly.

Even if @infosec3 is selling something, he has helped the community by providing lots of great information in different threads. In my overall domaining career, I have only found a handful of domainers who are willing to actually "guide" new comers about domain investing. So I personally think such people and their efforts must be appreciated.

Secondly, we should not be bothered (or jealous, lol) if he has a quality product to offer. You can see comments of couple of NP members here who have implemented techniques from his video product and have started rolling their geo domain business. I haven't purchased his product (yet) but I soon will.

Finally, a question for professional domainers. In my sales email, I do not include phone/cell number or a physical address (as I operate from my home). So would there be any (negative) influence on the email I am sending and on my credibility as a domain seller?

Thanks,

PS: @cdnbigd is also doing a great job here in taking this thread to the next level. Keep it up mate.

Thanks @JamesCrew.

As for your question. Even if you're operating out of your home, you should still include your full name and phone number at least. Some of these business owners hate having to type up emails and they'd much prefer to pick up the phone. I've experienced this. They also see an email signature of "Jason" and just associate it with some guy who has something to hide and probably just spamming me.

If the email signature is even just something like:
Jason Statham
555-555-5555
MiamiCheerleading.com

Yeah, I think they'd take Statham more seriously.

 

[JamesCrew]

My signature looks like this:

James Crew
Designation (I send emails as a company)
Skype ID

The reason I do not include a phone/cell number is because I am not a very good speaker. So I fear that instead of making a deal (or even a good conversation with the potential buyer) I might mess things up badly

But I am working on it and we all learn from time to time. Who knows I'll have a signature in my sales email like you added in your post by next month.hehehe. But right now, I don't see it happening...

Cheers,

 

[cdnbigd]

My signature looks like this:

James Crew
Designation (I send emails as a company)
Skype ID

The reason I do not include a phone/cell number is because I am not a very good speaker. So I fear that instead of making a deal (or even a good conversation with the potential buyer) I might mess things up badly

But I am working on it and we all learn from time to time. Who knows I'll have a signature in my sales email like you added in your post by next month.hehehe. But right now, I don't see it happening...

Cheers,

I'm the same way. I'm just horrible at speaking and was nervous to add my number too. Come to think of it, I've only had people call me like 5 times out of too many to count. So adding your number will probably just add more credibility. I doubt you'll receive calls really.

When you say "designation", is that where you put down your Domain Investment company name or something?

 

[webdomainhub]

Having gone through a small cycle of contacting business owners, I realized some geo domains will never sell regardless of how low you priced it. Good geo+ solid service+ low price sometimes do not sell at all and that baffles me. On the other hand, I have sold ridiculously long geo domains+low paying service.

Another thing world be that a service that sells in a geo does not mean it will sell in another geo. That baffles me too.

 

[cdnbigd]

Having gone through a small cycle of contacting business owners, I realized some geo domains will never sell regardless of how low you priced it. Good geo+ solid service+ low price sometimes do not sell at all and that baffles me. On the other hand, I have sold ridiculously long geo domains+low paying service.

Another thing world be that a service that sells in a geo does not mean it will sell in another geo. That baffles me too.

I can totally relate to those frustrations! You'd think we would have more control and better odds of selling these geo+service domains then those who register very obscure sounding "brandables" but that's just not the case. Even with geo's, it's very random what sells and what does not.

I sold one in a small city for $1000 right away but the same service in a much larger city wouldn't sell at all. In fact, I got some nasty emails full of swears and I was only asking for $220.

 

[webdomainhub]

I can totally relate to those frustrations! You'd think we would have more control and better odds of selling these geo+service domains then those who register very obscure sounding "brandables" but that's just not the case. Even with geo's, it's very random what sells and what does not.

I sold one in a small city for $1000 right away but the same service in a much larger city wouldn't sell at all. In fact, I got some nasty emails full of swears and I was only asking for $220.

I think for geo domains, some business owners are more receptive to buying additional domains than others cos of their needs and most will say that they don't need it.

 

[webdomainhub]

Good to know someone have experience in selling handreg domains quickly.
I was thinking the same way to reg some geo domains maybe in range 5 domains. Actually i dont like geo domain because there a less commercial value and need specific buyer. Thats why we need to price that domains for less than $500. So you're correct.
I will start do reg geo domain in next month but not many and hoping those sold to keep my bills paid.

Ok so this is my plan..

Regging: 5 domains each month
$9 x 5 = $45 invested
Pricing: $300 each(depends on quality)
Emailing: 10 email each domain
Target: 3 end user reply for each domain
Sold: 2 domain each month
Profit: $600 - $45 = $555

This is a very optimistic plan bro

 

[cdnbigd]

I think for geo domains, some business owners are more receptive to buying additional domains than others cos of their needs and most will say that they don't need it.

That's true. Many small business owners just don't see the need for what they think is just a second website. They don't know they can use this as marketing for their main site or to simply cover any type-in traffic and have it redirected to their existing site. And so on.

I feel I need to explain the benefits in my outgoing email BUT if I do, the email will be way too long and just look spammy... most likely not being read. Bit of a catch-22

 

[cdnbigd]

This is a very optimistic plan bro

In my experience, I agree with you on this one.

Emailing just 10 people.
Expecting 3 of them to reply
Selling 2 out of 5 domains like this.

It'd be awesome if it works and I'm interested to find out if @Azwan Asban had/has success

 

[webdomainhub]

For those who see people successfully selling geo domains here, remember to ask them how many they did not sell. Cos my conversion rate is 12% which is not far off from cdnbigd's rate with almost the same amount of work put in like him. And with go daddy coupons no longer available, the risk just increased 4 fold.

 

[cdnbigd]

For those who see people successfully selling geo domains here, remember to ask them how many they did not sell. Cos my conversion rate is 12% which is not far off from cdnbigd's rate with almost the same amount of work put in like him. And with go daddy coupons no longer available, the risk just increased 4 fold.

Yes, being that most of the time we all hand-reg geo's... It's kinda starting to hurt now that I need to pay full price.

I know I know.. people like to keep their own statistics and such closely guarded and that's fair. But it is refreshing when someone else doesn't mind divulging some info like honest conversion/selling rates.

I'd love to find out how many infosec and the many other domainers on here do not sell and what their honest selling rate is. I've heard from a couple people that it's more like 2 - 3 sell for every 6 - 7 domains. I just don't see how that's possible considering what all you and I are putting into our sales. I'd love if that could be closer to my sale rate so I may just be jealous & confused. lol

 

[Azwan Asban]

In my experience, I agree with you on this one.

Emailing just 10 people.
Expecting 3 of them to reply
Selling 2 out of 5 domains like this.

It'd be awesome if it works and I'm interested to find out if @Azwan Asban had/has success

sure. I'll update soon.

 

[NameClerk]

This probably won't be received well but.....

Be honest with yourselves. How often, if ever, have you bought something pitched to you through an unsolicited email? We all view them with skepticism, if we even take the time to view them at all. I know I delete 10 to 20 emails a day without even opening them. It's become a conditioned response, especially for business owners who probably receive dozens of emails a day from companies promising to bring them more business through this method or that.

As domains sellers we love the idea of selling through email. It's passive. There's no rejection, at least not on a face-to-face level. It doesn't take any courage or guts at all. We fall in love with our domains and think the business owners we solicit will immediately appreciate and understand the opportunity we're presenting to them. I'm willing to bet 8/10 of them never read it and a majority of the ones that do won't understand it after seeing it. We're expecting them to sell themselves on the idea. It doesn't work very well. Never did for me anyway.

I've always liked geo service domains. I believe in the category but the skill set required to find good geo service domains is a world apart from the skill set required to sell them. That goes for all domain categories if you're doing outbound marketing.

Sales is the heart and soul of any business. Overcome the fear, pick up the phone. If you're not a highly charismatic extrovert, you'll suck at it at first. You'll get berated and hung up on too. You'll also sell more domains even if you're an introvert like me. With time you'll become a decent salesperson, maybe even an excellent one, which is a tremendous skill to have.

 

[NameClerk]

Good to know. Just a few things.

For some reason, there are cities that hav never worked for me:

NewYork (have sold only one NY name)
Los Angeles
And some others...

New York City might be too large a metropolitan area for a brick and mortar business to service. The boroughs might be more appealing to business owners. Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, etc....maybe even neighborhoods... east village, west village, Soho.

 

[cdnbigd]

This probably won't be received well but.....

Be honest with yourselves. How often, if ever, have you bought something pitched to you through an unsolicited email? We all view them with skepticism, if we even take the time to view them at all. I know I delete 10 to 20 emails a day without even opening them. It's become a conditioned response, especially for business owners who probably receive dozens of emails a day from companies promising to bring them more business through this method or that.

As domains sellers we love the idea of selling through email. It's passive. There's no rejection, at least not on a face-to-face level. It doesn't take any courage or guts at all. We fall in love with our domains and think the business owners we solicit will immediately appreciate and understand the opportunity we're presenting to them. I'm willing to bet 8/10 of them never read it and a majority of the ones that do won't understand it after seeing it. We're expecting them to sell themselves on the idea. It doesn't work very well. Never did for me anyway.

I've always liked geo service domains. I believe in the category but the skill set required to find good geo service domains is a world apart from the skill set required to sell them. That goes for all domain categories if you're doing outbound marketing.

Sales is the heart and soul of any business. Overcome the fear, pick up the phone. If you're not a highly charismatic extrovert, you'll suck at it at first. You'll get berated and hung up on too. You'll also sell more domains even if you're an introvert like me. With time you'll become a decent salesperson, maybe even an excellent one, which is a tremendous skill to have.

Thanks for the tips. I think if you even mix it up with emails and phone calls, you can sell more. Or if you're starting out and an introvert, you may just get beaten up a lot more. lol

For outbound sales phone calls, how does it play out for you? Do you have a set script you normally try to stick to, just like we do with our emails? If so, care to share it with us?

I imagine you try to find a phone number for someone in their marketing department unless it's a small business, then just call the number on their site or directory listing. Let them know who you are (Hi there, I'm __ . I noticed you have the website __.com. I'm reaching out to (service type) businesses in the area and thought I'd check to see if you're interested in ___.com domain name?

 

[NetworkPearl]

I can totally relate to those frustrations! You'd think we would have more control and better odds of selling these geo+service domains then those who register very obscure sounding "brandables" but that's just not the case. Even with geo's, it's very random what sells and what does not.

I sold one in a small city for $1000 right away but the same service in a much larger city wouldn't sell at all. In fact, I got some nasty emails full of swears and I was only asking for $220.

So small citiea tend to buy more than bigger ones like nyc?

Also is it better to focus on state or state capitals instead of a city?

With the being said, Is US the only market for geo domains?

 

[paul79]

I think what this thread shows is that the hardest part of domaining is sales but its also the part you need to succeed at to make it into a business. i'm no expert but i think it relies on two things: having a good name to start with and having the skills to sell it to someone (via mail or on the phone/face to face). trouble is the character of a lot of people who get interested domaining does not lend itself to sales. i include myself in this for info as hate face to face/phone sales.

i tell you what - if someone who did enjoy sales were to set up a business for the smaller domainer to sell for them , they would be onto something i reckon

 

[pablohc86]

This probably won't be received well but.....

Be honest with yourselves. How often, if ever, have you bought something pitched to you through an unsolicited email? We all view them with skepticism, if we even take the time to view them at all. I know I delete 10 to 20 emails a day without even opening them. It's become a conditioned response, especially for business owners who probably receive dozens of emails a day from companies promising to bring them more business through this method or that.

As domains sellers we love the idea of selling through email. It's passive. There's no rejection, at least not on a face-to-face level. It doesn't take any courage or guts at all. We fall in love with our domains and think the business owners we solicit will immediately appreciate and understand the opportunity we're presenting to them. I'm willing to bet 8/10 of them never read it and a majority of the ones that do won't understand it after seeing it. We're expecting them to sell themselves on the idea. It doesn't work very well. Never did for me anyway.

I've always liked geo service domains. I believe in the category but the skill set required to find good geo service domains is a world apart from the skill set required to sell them. That goes for all domain categories if you're doing outbound marketing.

Sales is the heart and soul of any business. Overcome the fear, pick up the phone. If you're not a highly charismatic extrovert, you'll suck at it at first. You'll get berated and hung up on too. You'll also sell more domains even if you're an introvert like me. With time you'll become a decent salesperson, maybe even an excellent one, which is a tremendous skill to have.

Man, i think your words are gold!!
This is the point, common sense is above all, especially here.
I guess we all receive tons of soliciting mails every day, how many we read? i think very few...
How many end up to make us purchase something or making an action solicited in that mail?
I think very few in 1 year and if there are any, why we have do that action?
Because we are savvy enough + able to do proper research in order to not be scammed.

People not so close with these knowledge will surely delete your email or neither consider your offer.
Build trust is a must then in order to sell.

About automatized way to send email or reach people at the phone.
Also here we know that nowadays people receive soliciting calls everyday and you can ask your friend with a business if they like those. I'm sure 99% of people will tell you that they are really bothered about that thing and again to have success you should be trusted by the customer you are reaching.

I'd like to start an enstablished biz in this way (selling names) so i'm trying to read a lot, especially in the law field gathered with sales.
I want to mention some thing that i've never seen mentioned by other experts around.
At least this is for Italy, the country where i live but i think that many other countries surely have similar rule.
Do you guy know that reaching a person with a soliciting mail is forbidden and illegal at criminal level if they have not requested it?
I think it is not a nice business model just not care this because people receive tons of mail everyday and they should spend all day to denounce the sender. Especially because many times it will end in only a waste of time due to the different country of the sender, so they overlook the mail.

I've also read about @cdnbigd asking for an automatized tool.
I think this is not a nice option, if you automatize mail you end up doing spam, spam is illegal.
Another thing to keep in consideration is that doing manual mail ends up in better opening ratio because they can less trigger the junk filter of the receiver. A vey high percent of people do not neither know there is a junk folder in their mail account. If they know there is a junk folder, the possibility they are trusting what it is there it is very low.

About phone calls,,, same here like soliciting mail, it is forbidden if you have not allowed a company to do that.
There are also timing where you can reach people, and for US many state have also different time.
Sure mostly are similar but i think we should be aware of this thing.
I've recently heard this because i'm setting up a system to call possible enduser and i've hired a cold caller to do the task. I will hear him recorded while he is doing his job..
My spoken english is not perfect + i like a native speacker of the country where i'm trying to sell.
I think this will add trust but i still need to figure out how i can not be persecuted by law if a customer want proceed. They are low percentage but there are also frustrated people.

I know there are services like linkedin that allow you to message businesses decision maker if you want offer something to them. This is not free and they let you send really realy few mails per month.
I guess this is totally legal because it is written on linkedin TOS that an user there accept to receive soliciting offers + they offer really low mail so the message sent need to be highly targetized.

Maybe i'm just too worried because i'm italian and here burocracy kills many business for its
complexity or maybe i've missed something.
Sorry for the long post but i think to have mentioned fresh things that maybe not all have thought on.
I'm still learning so i read more than what i do in practice.


about other comment:

New York City might be too large a metropolitan area for a brick and mortar business to service. The boroughs might be more appealing to business owners. Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, etc....maybe even neighborhoods... east village, west village, Soho.

great point of view... i've not thought to this. I've seen @infosec3 has mentioned citied where it is not so easy to sell names so i thought the reason was that there are places where certain business/services are more requested than others but i really do not know how to discover this.

 

[JamesCrew]

I'm the same way. I'm just horrible at speaking and was nervous to add my number too. Come to think of it, I've only had people call me like 5 times out of too many to count. So adding your number will probably just add more credibility. I doubt you'll receive calls really.

When you say "designation", is that where you put down your Domain Investment company name or something?

Yup, I include company name and my designation as a Sales Rep.