Hello, happy Monday and welcome to what has become my most popular series on my blog, Domaining MBA Monday. Today I wanted to talk about a topic that confuses many new Domainers but is a reality that you’ll have to get used to.The idea is simple, your average person has absolutely no idea that people are actively selling domain names, they don’t know what a “Domainer” is and they have no idea that companies and individuals are spending millions of dollars on domain names ever week.
So what does this mean for you?
This means that selling your domains is not just about finding a buyer, it’s about finding and many times educating the right buyer. While domains are often compared to real estate, there’s a huge difference between the domain market and the real estate market. Just about everyone knows that people are buying and selling houses, and they know how to look up the value of a house.
The same is true for cars and baseball cards. If I want to know how much a car is worth I can look-up the Kelley Blue Book value, if I want to buy a baseball card I would use Beckett. If I offered someone $500 for their house they would laugh at me and I’d never call them a real estate squatter, yet Domain Investors with six-figure names are called cybersquatters all the time.
Like I said above, the idea is a simple one, people just don’t know anything about our industry. Domaining has been happening behind-the-scenes for a long time and that means that most people think domains cost $10-$20 and anyone asking for more is extorting them. Most of the Domainers I know with dozens of six-figure names get sub $1,000 offers on those names every single day. The buyers aren’t trying to insult them, they just don’t know.
As an investor it’s up to you to do your research and determine who is making an offer on your domain, and then, unlike physical real estate, you need to teach them about the market. This is why resources like DNJournal and NameBio.com are so incredibly useful when you’re dealing with potential buyers.
So next time you get a $500 offer on a domain you’ve turned down $50K offers for, don’t get offended, just know that most people have no idea how much your domains are worth, it’s up to you to show them.
