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
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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 |
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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 |
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.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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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'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 |
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.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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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'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 |
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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 |
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'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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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'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 |
Making Ebay Domain Auctions Profitable
March 1, 2008
I often pick up domain name bargains on Ebay. But buying a domain name on ebay requires the same research you would do on any other domain name. What is its value – does it get traffic? Does it have page rank? How commercial is the name? The first pitfall to avoid when buying a name on ebay is avoid overpaying because you “thought” it sounded like a good name. Today the value of domain names is based on the revenue they can bring it. You can measure that value by statistics such as traffic, links, age, DNZ, TLD ext. Read more
Domain Auctions – finding that Bargain Domain name that will earn you a profit
February 29, 2008
Hi,
Domain auctions generate a lot of buzz – especially when a domain like diamonds.com goes for 7.5 million or some of the other six figure purchases. You can make a lot of money but you can also lose a lot of money if you don’t have a little experience under your belt so you can determine which domains are valuable and which are not. I hope you’ve signed up for your free account at Premiumdrops. The page shows the powerful search cababilities of this powerful tool. All you need to do is Read more
