Domain Name Live Auctions – Selling Secrets Part 2
February 26, 2009
If you haven’t read part one of this series go there now to get the basics. Whether you are a new domain auction seller or an old hand at this I’m not going to have a “secret” on how you can sell MyUglyDomainName.com for a million dollars. When getting your name accepted for the live auctions there are two components that go into success. First your name has to be a quality name and secondly it has to be priced right.
To a large degree quality is in the eye of the beholder or in this case the eye of the auction selection committee. In general it should be one or two words, no mispellings, no trademarks and some commercial potential. But beyond that general guideline you won’t get too much more advice. I asked several auction domain houses what are they looking for in their selection process. I told them that I thought if they told me what they were looking for it would save me work submitting auctions they weren’t interested in and save them work in having to review and discard domain names they weren’t interested in. I never got a more definite answer from any of the auction houses. You also won’t get any advice on pricing – as they said to me they are not in the appraisal business (unless of course you are willing to pay for one).
The second component that goes into a successful auction submission is pricing your domain right. It seems a lot of domainers have inflated ideas on the value of the names in their portfolio. I’ve always found both free and paid appraisals to vary so widely in their valuation for the same name as to be practically useless as well as being a way for you to spend money quickly. One of the best guides that will give you a sense of what you can list them for is to look at the results from past auctions and see what similar names sold for. I’ve been getting reports of softness in the sales at recent auctions because of the economy. But I’m not suggesting that you give away your names just to make a sale. If its a good name stick to a reasonable price if your finances will allow.
Frank Shilling has a great blog post, “Domain Names New and Old – Everybody Sells” that discusses some of the issues of domain quality and selling domains for a reasonable amount that will put some profit in your pocket. I agree with his sentiments – I don’t believe you should give your names away. Remember there are alternative ways to make your domain names pay. When one of my names did not sell at a live auction I asked the auction house for a recommendation. The recommendation was to list the name for $9. I said why would I want to do that? The parking revenue I’m currently earning from the site per month is several times that amount. In many ways the domain auction is like a real estate agent. They are working for the seller and it is in their best interest to have your domain name priced low so they can get a sale easily. Always remember the money you get will be the price the domain sold for minus the commissions and fees. I submitted some names for the upcoming Sedo No Reserve auction. In this case no reserve means SEDO’s minimum bid of $60. When I started listing those names for $60 a reminder popped up telling me that if I sold my domain for $60, since SEDO’s minimum commission was $50.00, I would be getting $10.00.
Rick Schwartz Has a great series of blog post on selling at auctions too. Rick is President and Cofounder of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. which holds some of the most well attended and publicized auctions.
If you are not familiar with Frank Shilling or Rick Schwartz make sure you go to their blogs and read their insights on auctions. I’ve found it always pays to learn from the best (and some of the most successful) domainers in the industry.
If they are quality names and priced correctly they might be chosen by the auction selection committee. Congratulations you just passed your first hurdle to selling your domain name at an auction. In the next post
All the best,
Ted Sudol
TheDomainHunter
 |
Clexx.com DOMAIN NAME FOR SALE 4 5 Letter Short Web NR! US $6.53 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:30:36 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Zefro.com RARE SHORT 5 LETTER CATCHY BRAND DOMAIN NAME US $10.49 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:30:50 PST Add to watch list |
 |
.COM Domain Name Registration For 1 Year Register Now! US $5.03 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:36:43 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Lot 4 Premium Domain Names Marketing.com US $11.50 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:38:06 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Pix Haven.com 9 Year Old Domain Name w/ Backlinks! US $10.49 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:40:06 PST Add to watch list |
 |
TRIBIL.COM - brandable domain name PAGERANK PR1 US $10.49 (7 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 16:03:24 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Sqeal .com - Rare Domain Name 2-3-4-5 NR US $67.00 (19 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 16:30:50 PST Add to watch list |
 |
i VisaCard .com - Rare Domain Name 2-3-4-5 NR US $10.49 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 17:17:02 PST Add to watch list |
 |
'WEDDING & BRIDAL' Website & Domain Name For Sale US $26.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:03:48 PST Add to watch list |
 |
.COM Domain Name Registration (1 Year) US $5.76 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:19:41 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Presentation Skills Seminar.com Web Domain Name NR! US $15.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:22:57 PST Add to watch list |
 |
QualityWebTemplates.com "WEB TEMPLATES" DOMAIN NAME US $26.00 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:32:25 PST Add to watch list |
 |
'TATTOO & BODY ART ' Turnkey Website & Domain Name US $7.20 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:33:54 PST Add to watch list |
 |
HeHog.com BRANDABLE 5 Letter 2,3,4 HARLEY DOMAIN NAME US $3.30 (4 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:02:56 PST Add to watch list |
 |
'FOREX TRADING' Website Business & Domain Name For Sale US $41.00 (22 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:03:59 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Supreme Listings.com REAL ESTATE/HOMES DOMAIN NAME NR $ US $4.26 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:07:32 PST Add to watch list |
 |
ww48.com PREMIUM 4 CHARACTER ,2,3 CHAR DOMAIN NAME $$ US $3.24 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:12:43 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Zwimo.com DOMAIN NAME For Sale Short 4 5 Letter Web NR US $7.57 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:22:02 PST Add to watch list |
 |
Sniggered.com PREMIUM ONE WORD DICTIONARY DOMAIN NAME US $15.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:30:43 PST Add to watch list |
 |
'DIET AND NUTRITION' Website & Domain Name For Sale US $25.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:34:05 PST Add to watch list |
Secrets of Selling Your Names at Live Domain Auctions
February 24, 2009
I’ve been busy submitting some of the names I own to several of the live domain auctions. It’s been a journey and I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned along the way to make your auction submissions a little easier.
I felt that a live auction is a more active selling forum and would provide some more potential that just listing your domains on a web based for sale list like Sedo could provide. The difference, when trying to get your names in a live auction, is that you don’t just list your domains for sale. It’s a two step process. The first step is to submit the domain names you want in the live auction to the auction house. Then an auction selection committee goes through the submitted names and chooses the ones that are actually part of the live auction. Because of the limited time during a live auction there are only a limited amount of domain names they can accept. This can be a pretty considerable hurdle. For instance for the Snapnames Internext and DomainFest auctions they had over 100,000 submissions. From those submissions only about 5,000 names were selected. So its important that the names you submit are both good quality and priced right or they won’t be selected by the committee for inclusion in the auction.
When you list your names you want to make sure you pay attention to the terms and conditions that you are agreeing to. Most auction houses have a period of exclusivity in which you cannot list or market your names anywhere else and if you do happen to sell it through another means, say for instance privately, they are still due the commission.
It’s important to pay attention to the fees and commissions you will be responsible for. One of the conditions for the Snapnames auction is that all names have to be registered at Moniker. If they are not you need to start the transfer process so that it will be completed by the time of the auction so that it doesn’t impede the transfer process. Anyone who has transferred any domains knows that glitches almost always occurs and it usually takes more than the five days they say the transfer will take. If your names are not transferred over Snapnames/Moniker will charge you an extra $100.
Part of the reason for this is to make the transfer process smoother since Moniker handles the whole transfer process through their escrow and only one registrar is involved. The escrow process protects both the buyer and seller. When a domain is sold you transfer your domain to Moniker’s domain escrow account. The seller then transfers the money to Moniker. Once Moniker has the money from the seller it transfers the domain to the seller and send you the money less their commission.
Another part of the reason for requiring the transfer to Moniker is probably a brilliant marketing strategy. If you have 100,000 submissions and you are telling all of those people they need to transfer to Moniker or they get charged an extra hundred bucks it probably results in a lot of new customers and a big chunk of change.
Other live auction houses don’t force you to transfer your name name around. For instance one that I spoke with said they maintained escrow accounts at a dozen of the major registrars and they could work with whatever registrar the seller was using.
Another one of the conditions you should be aware of is what happens if you make a mistake. What happens if you mistype and enter a domain you don’t really own? It happened to me. Since the template for the Snapnames auction would not accept my excel file (I’m told the problem has since been fixed) I was forced to use the web based form which involved some cutting, pasting, and typing. Somehow I mistyped a domain name leaving out an s. That name, a name I did not own, was chosen for the auction. When I checked the catalog and noticed the error I called the company immediately to correct the problem and was informed by the terms and conditions I was liable for $119 fee.
That’s bad but not as bad as it could be. In one of the terms and conditions forms at one of the other auction houses it said that if there was an error made you were liable for the full commission AS IF it had been sold. So if you were selling mybigdomain.com for a reserve of $10,000. and the auction house charged a 20% commission you could be on the hook for $2,000 big ones.
Now that you know what to look for and have the basics of listing your names at a live auction my next post will give you some hints on getting them accepted by the auction selection committee.
All the best,
Ted Sudol
The Domain Hunter
|
Clexx.com DOMAIN NAME FOR SALE 4 5 Letter Short Web NR! US $6.53 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:30:36 PST Add to watch list |
|
Zefro.com RARE SHORT 5 LETTER CATCHY BRAND DOMAIN NAME US $10.49 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:30:50 PST Add to watch list |
|
.COM Domain Name Registration For 1 Year Register Now! US $5.03 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:36:43 PST Add to watch list |
|
Lot 4 Premium Domain Names Marketing.com US $11.50 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:38:06 PST Add to watch list |
|
Pix Haven.com 9 Year Old Domain Name w/ Backlinks! US $10.49 (2 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 15:40:06 PST Add to watch list |
|
TRIBIL.COM - brandable domain name PAGERANK PR1 US $10.49 (7 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 16:03:24 PST Add to watch list |
|
Sqeal .com - Rare Domain Name 2-3-4-5 NR US $67.00 (19 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 16:30:50 PST Add to watch list |
|
i VisaCard .com - Rare Domain Name 2-3-4-5 NR US $10.49 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 17:17:02 PST Add to watch list |
|
'WEDDING & BRIDAL' Website & Domain Name For Sale US $26.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:03:48 PST Add to watch list |
|
.COM Domain Name Registration (1 Year) US $5.76 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:19:41 PST Add to watch list |
|
Presentation Skills Seminar.com Web Domain Name NR! US $15.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:22:57 PST Add to watch list |
|
QualityWebTemplates.com "WEB TEMPLATES" DOMAIN NAME US $26.00 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:32:25 PST Add to watch list |
|
'TATTOO & BODY ART ' Turnkey Website & Domain Name US $7.20 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 18:33:54 PST Add to watch list |
|
HeHog.com BRANDABLE 5 Letter 2,3,4 HARLEY DOMAIN NAME US $3.30 (4 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:02:56 PST Add to watch list |
|
'FOREX TRADING' Website Business & Domain Name For Sale US $41.00 (22 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:03:59 PST Add to watch list |
|
Supreme Listings.com REAL ESTATE/HOMES DOMAIN NAME NR $ US $4.26 (6 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:07:32 PST Add to watch list |
|
ww48.com PREMIUM 4 CHARACTER ,2,3 CHAR DOMAIN NAME $$ US $3.24 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:12:43 PST Add to watch list |
|
Zwimo.com DOMAIN NAME For Sale Short 4 5 Letter Web NR US $7.57 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:22:02 PST Add to watch list |
|
Sniggered.com PREMIUM ONE WORD DICTIONARY DOMAIN NAME US $15.50 (3 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:30:43 PST Add to watch list |
|
'DIET AND NUTRITION' Website & Domain Name For Sale US $25.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 19:34:05 PST Add to watch list |
