NameMedia presentation is worth watching.
This week NameMedia presented a webinar “How to Sell your Domain Names Fast, and for Maximum Value.” The webinar is now available for playback on the Afternic web site.
I just watched the thirty minute webinar, expecting it to be one big pitch for NameMedia. And although that’s certainly there, the webinar has some good data and information. If you don’t know much about Afternic and BuyDomains, I recommend watching the entire webinar. If you have been in the industry for a while, I still recommend watching the first section, which has some good data and ideas:
-91% of AfternicDLS buyers are end users
-Pricing your domains results in 10x higher sales velocity: “usability studies show that businesses view priced names as a more legitimate business proposal than non-priced names…perception that “make offer” domains will have their asking price materially increased once a prospective buyer indicates interest.”
-Categorized domains sell with 3x the sales velocity of uncategorized — categorical search tool is frequently used at BuyDomains
-Respond to all offers — you never know what large buyer is behind a $75 offer
-For sale notices on your parked pages have minimal impact on parking revenue
-Include a phone number in your domain sales notice on your parked page. NameMedia’s close rate for phone leads are 2x email/web leads. The average sales price from phone-based inquiries is $200 higher than other leads.
-Set realistic prices — more than 80% of end user acquired domain names are purchased from $500-$5,000.
-“Unless you own high value generics, domain sales is a volume game — play it that way”
-NameMedia’s sales people average 4-7 domains sold a day at about $2,000.
After you deduct their own portfolio(BuyDomains inventory, sales), what is the likelihood of a domain owner to sell via Afternic?
“After you deduct their own portfolio (BuyDomains inventory, sales), what is the likelihood of a domain owner to sell via Afternic?”
If you have a good portfolio, it’s pretty high. I suspect they sell about the same percentage of domains of customers as they do their own portfolio (scaled for size), for those domains set up like their own. That means they’re priced, mostly under $5,000, and listed with premium listing.
Dear Anonymous C:
That is a great question – one that we receive regularly, as you might expect.
DLS names are promoted identically to NameMedia owned names. This includes search results weighting on AfternicDLS & BuyDomains, spinning to our global DLS distribution network, and how our sales people are compensated when they complete a successful sale. There is zero difference in how we treat listed names versus NameMedia owned names.
The tips we included in yesterday’s Webinar are intended to address the exact issue you surfaced. We hoped to share with Sellers precisely what NameMedia has learned in our 10 year history of selling names. And we know as well as anyone that succesful selling goes beyond simply listing your names on DLS. The tactics we shared yesterday are intended as a roadmap to successful domain sales.
Our internal data has shown that following the suggestion discussed yesterday will enhance seller’s probability of sale and pricing levels.
If Sellers adopt the tactics listed in yesterday’s webinar, there is no reason to think their results will not be indentical to NameMedia’s. If sellers choose to forgo soem of these tactics (i.e., choose not to price or categorize their names, omit phone number promotion or aggressive promotion on parked pages, etc.), then their sales velocity and pricing results may be different from that experienced by NameMedia.
We also hope these sales tips are valid regardless of what sales platform you choose. Our suggestions should prove to be beneficial to you even if you choose to not sell names through AfternicDLS.
I am happy to discuss further at any time. My direct dial is 781 839 2812.
All the best,
Pete
Thanks Peter. Can you share those numbers I asked about, monthly average?
Sales velocity will of course vary greatly depending upon sellers’ implementation of tactics discussed in the AfternicDLS webinar, as well additioonal variables such as name quality, tld, character count, number of hyphens, etc.
That being said, portfolios with average to good name quality who adopt “best practice” sales tactics should expect to see an inventory turn in the 2% to 5% range.
Hope this helps,
Pete
Quote –
“After you deduct their own portfolio(BuyDomains inventory, sales), what is the likelihood of a domain owner to sell via Afternic?”
Lamson quote –
“should expect to see an inventory turn in the 2% to 5% range”
I believe the initial poster was really asking –
What percentage of your weekly sales are non BuyDomains domains?
It would also be informative to know by units and dollars.
Domain Investor, correct. Also, would like to know what % of Afternic’s inventory is not owned by BuyDomains/Namemedia?
Nice post, all the buying tips looks to make sense.
Hmmm… and BuyDomains own purchasing policies in the last few years has been to buy at about 5% of the domains’ estimated selling value. Smart!
Anonymous C:
Thanks for clarifying; I completely understand your question.
Each week, AfternicDLS releases a performance report on Domainer’s Advantage and other industry sites (often including Domain Name Wire) that includes a recap of our previous week’s sales. While many of our sales are reported, many are also not reported as we honor domain purchase/sale privacy requests from either the buyer or seller in any transaction where confidentiality is requested.
This also means that we do not supply comprehensive sales information, other than what we provide in our weekly report.
With respect to overall saleable inventory, we currently have approximately 2M names listed on AfternicDLS that are not owned by NameMedia.
I can share with you that we see our highest inventory turn velocity and median sales prices within com, net and org listings.
Pete
Anonymous C:
Thanks for clarifying; I completely understand your question.
Each week, AfternicDLS releases a performance report that includes a recap of our previous week’s sales. While many of our sales are reported, many are also not reported as we honor domain purchase/sale privacy requests from either the buyer or seller in any transaction where confidentiality is requested.
This also means that comprehensive sales information reamins confidential, other than what we provide in our weekly report.
With respect to overall saleable inventory, we currently have approximately 2M names listed on AfternicDLS that are not owned by NameMedia.
I can share with you that we see our highest inventory turn velocity and median sales prices within com, net and org listings.
Pete
Tip #2 says… Pricing your domains results in 10x higher sales velocity.
This is probably the part that will make or break you as 50% of the domainers will not know a price to put on their domain names and the other 50% will overprice their domain names because they do not know how to price them.
I think this is why many portfolios list as “Make Offer”.