Domain Sales Update – Trying Works!

As many of you know I’ve been totally focused on development for the last three years. Over the last few weeks I’ve really tried to step-up my domain sales and so far I’ve been impressed with the results. I’m still not making nearly as much as I do from my developed domains but it’s additional income so no complaints here!

Out of respect for the people who purchased my domains I won’t post the price I sold the domain for however I will give you the domain that was sold and the range it sold in. Of course I’ll let you know where/how I sold it as well. Since I have a day job that I absolutely love, but takes a lot of my time, this was all done by putting-in about one hour per day.

Sure, if I focused on it more I could probably sell more domains…but to me it just doesn’t sound fun trying to sell domains all day. I’m still a passive income guy and working on Kayaking.org and a few pieces of custom SW is where the bulk of my time is being spent still.

I get emails from so many people with a huge list of domains and something along the lines of, “I’m desperate, I need to sell my domains, please help.” When I ask them what they’ve done to sell their domains they usually say, “I’ve listed it on Sedo” or “I’ve emailed brokers like yourself.” To which I usually say…well then you really aren’t doing everything you can do to sell your domains. About 90% of the time it also comes down to pricing – I’m seeing so many Domainers that want to sell their domains at end-user prices.

While I’m no domain sales expert, in fact I suck as selling domains, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. That being said I do know that if you want to get end-user prices you have to approach end-users. Expecting me to put your domains at a outrageously high price on my newsletter that goes-out to Domainers or posting your name on DNForum or Bargain Domains is not going to get someone to pay end-user pricing for your Domain.

Just think, when you want to sell your car do you start by approaching dealerships? Car auctions? Forums where people are looking for discounted cars? No! You go right to the end-user and post your car ad on a site or newspaper where end-users are looking for cars. The same is true with domain names but so many people miss this essential point. This is why we’ve seen so many auctions flop lately – it’s pricing to your audience.

Okay, enough of that rant, onto the juicy data that I know you all are looking for. Below is a list of domains that I sold last week along with the total profit I made. By no means should this be looked at as a roadmap to success – I am still very much in the learning phase and I’d like to be focused on domains in a much higher price category a year or two from now. Since I never want to spend all day doing this I’m okay with this side of my business growing slowly and I’ll always give my development/monetization projects the unfair share of my time.

WIP.me – $xxx, my newsletter

CottonSocks.net – $xxx, Bargain Domains

CottonClothes.net – $xxx, Bargain Domains

JuryLaw.com – $xxx, MorganLinton.com

2010StimulusCheck.net $xx, Flippa

In the end my total profit was around $600. Considering I spent an hour a day on this, and really started on Sunday this comes out to about $100/hour. Still, I had to work to make the money and that’s one thing I love so much about passive income. After spending this week more focused on sales I’ve definitely convinced myself that I have a lot to learn and this is only the beginning, but yes, I can sell a domain a day if I actually put some focus on it. That being said passive income/software development is still way more exciting for me 🙂

This week I am going to try putting more focus on end-user sales. I think the sweet-spot here is in the $300-$800 range but I’ve been told by several reliable sources that I can get into the $1,000-$2,000 range without losing many potential buyers. I’ll be trying a few domains at different prices and using Estibot’s lead generation tool to easily get leads. Stay-tuned and I hope you’re enjoying the adventure with me!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton