Here are some things I’ve been thinking about lately.
It must be difficult for expired domain name research tools to compete with ExpiredDomains.net. It’s hard to beat free with such a solid feature set.
There’s a new domain name generator out that you might want to check out, called NameBounce. I tried it and got some good results. My favorite name generator is still LeanDomainSearch, and it appears to have gotten an upgrade recently.
Sedo’s auction board isn’t as active as GoDaddy and NameJet, but it’s worth stopping in from time-to-time. Right now Jet.biz has 16 bids and is $650. GV.biz has 17 bids and is EUR 355. Someone placed a $4,200 bid on FreeSlots.casino; I suspect that was pushed to auction after an offer.
Speaking of Sedo, I’d like to give them props for continuing to publish sales data. It’s very helpful for the industry.
For everyone who blasts GoDaddy’s appraisals, I challenge them to sort an expired domain list by the GoValues. Each value might not be perfect, but you’ll notice a marked drop in quality as you go down the list.
I sold another domain through Afternic today and I’m thinking it’s time for me to switch to buy now landers. I waste lots of time responding to inquiries with prices. I like how easy buy now is.
congratulations on your sale.
1. Name ?
2. Buying and Selling Price ?
3. Holding Time ?
” sold another domain through Afternic today and I’m thinking it’s time for me to switch to buy now landers. I waste lots of time responding to inquiries with prices. I like how easy buy now is.”
Do you mean straight BuyItNow in their listing platform Or Landers Pages?
Do they have templated lander pages?
Landers with a buy now price. I don’t think Afternic offers such a thing — I’ll have to use a different provider.
That said, Afternic has good for-sale only landers with a form and their phone number. I use these for a lot of domains.
Hi Andrew,
Could you let us know if the Afternic sale was in the $2K-$3K range? Any other details?
Thank you
Exactly, it was $2,600 for a three-word phrase. The buyer purchased it through Google Registrar. It was a domain I picked up at NameJet for $69 a few years ago.
Afternic absolutely has to develop for sale lander with BIN prices enabled. It no doubt will increase number of sales.
I would love to see that test. They say they like to get people on the phone using the lead forms, but an a/b test would be nice
We’ve tested it a few times and getting people engaged always tested at a higher sales rate which is why we do it that way.
Thanks for the info. Can’t wait for you to add the GoDaddy branding to the sales-only landers that are set up using GoDaddy Listings 🙂
“I challenge them to sort an expired domain list by the GoValues. Each value might not be perfect, but you’ll notice a marked drop in quality as you go down the list.”
That’s why the idea someone else already proposed in blog comments is a viable answer if anyone is genuinely interested in a compromise that does not screw almost everyone with the status quo.
And what was that idea, you forgot already?
Do not give $ figures represented to the world as being an “appraisal.” Only give suggested relative index #’s that are not designed to convey the idea of what a domain is actually worth according to some kind of “appraisal” people are effectively advised to believe as authoritative.
Otherwise you have nothing but harm to everyone except those who benefit in the “now” from immediate market churn at our expense regardless of devaluation and undervaluation. But it seems you don’t care about that, Andrew, and are now even something of an apologist for the status quo.
In 2018 I sold 15 names on Uniregistry Market for a total of $79,000. So the average sale price was $5,266.
My domains there have always had BIN landers and are also available for instant transfer. This is what customers want.
I think a small majority of my sales had a commission of only 10 percent. These buyers simply pay the full listed price and acquire the domain instantly.
A large minority of sales had a commission of a still very reasonable 15 percent. This is because all my domains are also set up for broker assistance when requested…
Even when you have BIN prices, buyers still often want to negotiate or ask various questions. Expecially for higher value names. So they developed an incredible system to deal with this at the Uniplex…
So in those situations an expert Uni broker is automatically assigned to manage the deal. That explains why the commission rises to 15 percent.
Which lander do you choose? Sales only with bin/make offer
I only use the sales only with BIN option. I feel that having a make offer option or even a make contact option simply invites buyers to make (lower) offers…
But I’m totally happy if buyers make the effort to contact the Uni sales team directly to negotiate on my BIN prices.
Then, a broker contacts me to ask my opinion and have a discussion, but this is usually time well spent.
Since I now have more than 2,000 names at Uni, I also want to avoid what you say:
“I waste lots of time responding to inquiries with prices. I like how easy buy now is.”
This buys me more productive time to spend on ExpiredDomains.net! Instant transfer also saves heaps of time!
Please let me know if you would like me to post an example of one of my Uni landers.
Please do
Uni BIN lander example:
DotIndia.com
https://uniregistry.com/market/domain/dotindia.com?landerid=www5cdb82f448bef4.95545847
This domain came to mind because a buyer recently bypassed the lander and instead inquired directly to Uniregistry.
I think it’s a good example of how the higher the price or value of a domain is, the more likely a buyer will go to the extra effort to see if the price is negotiable even on a BIN listing. But that’s OK.
I’ve been surprised that this happens more often than I would have predicted, but am fine with it because the buyers are more highly “qualified” and Uni brokers do an expert job helping to aim for a deal within the range of the listed price etc.
Typically, if you are selling a BIN domain for only say $1,000, then buyers simply click the Buy Now.
Interesting. So there’s no link to Uniregistry on there? I guess people see the branding and the URL and reach out to Uniregistry based on that?
I had never tried NameBounce.com or LeanDomainSearch.com. They are both great, thanks.
On the DotIndia.com example why not use the BuyItNow/Offers Lander (example : desalinationsupply.com ) and set the minimum dollar amount required for the offer higher? That way you don’t get lowball offers. Have you tried that vs just the plain lander where they have to contact Uni?
I haven’t actually tried the Buy It Now/Submit Inquiry format, though I probably should.
IMO if you decide on the BIN option, you don’t want to also invite offers (or even make it too easy to contact you).
The small print at the base of your DesalinationSupply lander says:
“We need your name and contact data in order to be able to contact you with a quote.”
The word “quote” seems to imply you are open to lower offers and even encourage them. Nobody is going to offer you more than your BIN price!
You are asking why I don’t “set the minimum dollar amount required for the offer higher?”
Where on your lander are you displaying a minimum amount? Are you saying your $8,000 Buy Now price is actually only a minimum offer?
You wrote: “That way you don’t get lowball offers.” By making it hard to contact me, I don’t get many lowball offers! The lowball offers go to Uni brokers first who presumably protect me from the worst ones.
(You can also set a minumum offer acceptable within your Uni account which is hidden from prospective buyers. So that way your broker can know what kind of offer you might accept behind the scenes.)
I haven’t had time to implement this so my prices are currently the same as my (hidden) minimum offer amounts. But I’m very glad Uni brokers do tell me about lower offers.
I think Uniregistry gives you 4 choices for a template. They set the language and settings for them. The BuyItNow/Offer allows you to setup a minimum amount for an offer (which isn’t displayed) under settings. It’s priced at $8k to BuyItNow. If someone wants to fill out the form and offer me something lower (above the minimum amount set) I’ll look at it and it’s a way for them to contact me. I also have it listed on Afternic as just straight BuyItNow at $8k.
Like you though I am still playing around with the right landing page. I think I sold all of my names using the old GoDaddy instapages and escrow (ex : appcheckout.com) . They don’t offer them as a landing page anymore on new names. I wish they did since they were so easy to setup and got a lot of inquires on names from them.
Thanks for the extra info. Because my portfolio is getting big and time consuming, I prefer to avoid having a form so prospects have to contact Uni staff instead of me, unless they make a special effort. So I’ve outsourced negotiations, escrow and transfer to Uniregistry.
Also, I do feel the presence of the form actually encourages lower offers.
It’s all working well for me so I’m avoiding much of Andrew’s complaint: “I waste lots of time responding to inquiries with prices.”
I guess what I’m doing is similar to your Afternic BIN strategy, though with lower commissions.
The difference is that you’re not getting into the purchase path at a bunch of registrars when you only use Uni and don’t have Afternic fast transfer.
Our conversation above seems to have run out of space, so this is a reply to Andrew saying:
“So there’s no link to Uniregistry on there? I guess people see the branding and the URL and reach out to Uniregistry based on that?”
Yes, that seems to be right. I also forgot to mention that I’m occasionally contacted directly via whois as well. Even once after privacy was implemented on my names because of GDPR. A prospect was savvy enough to know the anonymous email address would still get to me.