Domain Name Live Auctions – Selling Secrets Part 2

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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