I’ve called and sent a ton of emails. I find that emails generate more interest than cold calling. Every time I make a call, it never results in a sale. I’m a really good sales person. I can close deals that appear as dead deals.

As long as the end-user leaves the door open, I can build interest into why they domain will improve their business. I support the emails with data.

I was looking to find out your technique to moving .us domains. Should I host them first to build traffic, or push them in the notion they’ll help a company generate website traffic?

I sold Pier39.info to a company, but they ignored me on Pier39.us. I spoke with the marketing department a few times. They advised me to send an email with all my San Francisco domains. In short, the company never returned my emails or any of my phone calks. This company purchased my .info for a good price. I struck out 20 times on pushing the .us on various companies in SF.

I have a few dozen good .us domains. Most companies only want to acquire .com domains. I have yet to sell a .net, .us, or a .org domain. My .org collection is good.

Would you invest time into hosting a domain such as Pier39.us? It seems that the .com brand owns every website in the city. Every time I contact a website, I’m rerouted to the same operator which asks me the reason of my call. Then, I’m
sent to the same voice mail.

Thanks in advance for the pointers.

I don’t think that the best way to reach end-users is by parking your names and waiting. I tried this back in 2007 when I started in Domaining and never had any success with it. I’ve found that to sell domains you have to actively reach-out to end users. I use the same tools that most professional brokerage firms use to find leads. I reach-out to end-users via email and telephone and try to actively sell my domains. This is how I sell the 1-2 names/month I sell now. If I didn’t do this it would be none!

As for selling to Domainers through forums I’ve also found this to not be the most effective way to reach an audience. Once again I did this a lot in 2007 and 2008 and have found that a lot of names sell for a fraction of what they’re worth on forums because buyers expect bargains. That being said I do buy domains on forums because I think there are some amazing prices sometimes!

I’m an Exclusive Lifetime Member of DNForum with over 500 posts so have some experience on there.

As for brokerage, I’m a domain broker myself. We’ve been doing Domain Brokerage for about two years now. We broker to end-users and focus almost exclusively on .COM – you can find-out more at http://www.lintoninvestments.com

What I am talking about in this post is how to reach ccTLD buyers specifically. They aren’t in the forums because almost NO ccTLD sales happen in forums. I’ve also found that it can be harder to reach-out to end-users in the same way I do with my .US names. So my question was – why methods have worked for people selling ccTLDs specifically. I’m really looking for someone with a few 5 figure ccTLD sales under their belt that can help give me some guidance here.

Once again thanks for your comment @Dietmar – I will tell you that if you want to sell to end-users you’ll have to be much more active than just parking your names and waiting. Doing this could mean a lifetime of renewal fees and no revenue!!

I do have some good .US names, but the ones I buy for resale are really geared towards small businesses. A good example is AutoLiquidators.us – this is a domain I’m trying to sell now and I am actively approaching auto liquidation companies. If you have a domain like Peanuts.us or Sky.us I think there is a much smaller market for end-user sales and you’d really have to want to develop the name.

Most of what I buy in .US is either related to credit/debt or a geo-targeted law name (I love those!)

As for .MOBI I honestly think the extension is dead…but I’m still hanging onto the first .MOBI I ever bought just like I am my favorite .CC

You must have some great .us domains. I own some popular .us domains, but haven’t been able to sell one. My only sales seem to fall within the mighty .com. Another was a .info. Too bad .mobi domains are not as popular as they once were.

I own a handful of nice .mobi domains. some which I think would definitely benefit a few .com owners. Any pointers on which end-users are looking to acquire .us domains? Thanks in advance. Cool article.

You must have some great .us domains. I own some popular .us domains, but haven’t been able to sell one. My only sales seem to fall within the mighty .com. Another was a .info. Too bad .mobi domains are not as possible as they once were.

I own a handful of nice .mobi domains. some which I think would definitely benefit a few .com owners. Any pointers on which end-users are looking to acquire .us domains? Thanks in advance. Cool article.

1. Almost all the URLs were hyphenated .de domains.

2. Almost all the URLs were displayed in purely lowercase letters (unlike in the US, where each word in a domain is typically capitalized – e.g., FishTacoKing.com).

3. Almost all the writing (including domain names) was in sans serif fonts.

There’s something to be said for standardization … but this really showed how different cultures have different aesthetic sensibilities.

you asked: “Where do you go to sell your names? How do you find buyers?”
Which buyers are you looking for? End user or domain trader?
If you want to reach the end user, park them at Namedrive or SEDO and then
sit and wait, what will hopefully happen. It depends on the quality of your domain.
The more generic it is, the more people will come and bid.
If you want to target domain dealer, you may join the local major domain forum to
promote your domains. But here you have to be an active member to do so, not just
sign in, post and leave.
Another way to find a buyer for your domain is to develop them, so that they will
be recognized by search engines and potential buyers.
And using a broker is a good way for domains starting in the five figure range.
Or you place an ad in a domain magazine called Domainvermarkter-Magazin.
And a hall-of-fame.de looks much better then a halloffame.de!

Ahoi!
Dietmar

I doubt it can be contributed to any one factor. Certainly there are plenty of “greater fools” out there but that can’t possibly account for every puzzling domain sale.

SEO layering is a more likely suspect, but when the terms aren’t popular that balloon is deflated as well.

I think often domainers suffer from a “looking glass” effect of their own rationale. I’m often chided about my asking price for domains in my portfolio as unrealistic when compared to other (more or less) comparable sales. Many wish all domainers would “mark to the market” and try to devise complicated pricing schemes that make a lot of sense (to them).

My answer is invariably “domains are worth what the buyer and seller can both agree on”, not a penny less and not a penny more. I’m not going to sell a domain I see potential in just because someone else flipped a similar name for a smaller margin than I would be happy with.

The reverse is also true. I see domains sell for what I think are ridiculous prices but somewhere out there is a happy buyer and a happy seller. It takes two to tango.