From $1000 to $100,000 – My First 100x Flip!

If you read my post back in March about my 50x domain flip then you’ll be excited to know that I just completed my first 100x flip. This sale was made to an end-user with a business in the niche that the domain is in. So the first question most people ask when something like this happens is, “where did you find the buyer?”

As with most of my sales I look for end users by searching for the keywords my domain targets in Google. I then look at who is advertising for those keywords starting with the top spots since these are the companies paying the most. It is best to look for a name and phone number in the Whois information as you have a chance of contacting the domain owner rather than an employee of a company.

I have found that when emailing or end-users only .com names get responses, with other TLDs it can be a crap-shoot since most people only want the .com. Also only call an end-user on the phone if you have a real pitch you’re ready to deliver. Calling randomly without a plan is a great way to confuse someone, not inspire them to buy your domain.

Now I know the next question you’ll ask so I’ll beat you to it, “What domain did you sell?”

The domain name I sold is one of my favorite travel names and yes, I sold it to a travel company. You might be surprised to hear that it’s not a .com, .net, or .us – the domain I sold was actually a .ws. What I really like about .ws is that end-users get it, this is the TLD for a website. In the case of this end-user I explained how most people think of commercial products when they think of .com and computer networks when they think of .net.

Just think, if you own a travel company and someone is looking for your website, wouldn’t they just try .ws? The key to this sale was really explaining it to the buyer in a way that made sense. I explained how the web was changing and after the Google Panda update people are looking for company websites more and more. You can’t just own your .com any more, you need the corresponding .ws or nobody will ever find your site!

After about two weeks negotiating the deal with came-up with a price of $100,000. I went through domain sales lists with the buyer to help them understand the common sale price of domains in this niche. I even quoted specific sales to show recent sales of similar domains.

Okay, I know you’re probably dying to know the domain name! The domain I sold was HotelLocation90024.ws and yes, the travel company I sold it to is located right here in LA, with the same zip code as me 90024. As I’m sure you can see right-away this is a great example of a category-killer exact-match domains. The buyer wanted to rank well for hotels in this specific zip code so the keywords in this domain are spot on.

Initially the buyer was looking for something like LosAngelesHotels.com or LAHotels.com but once they understood the important of geo-targeting with the zip code coupled with the strength of .ws it really was an easy decision. Since I purchased this domain name only a few months ago for $1,000 the sale was an 100x multiple of the purchase price, and I’m proud to say my first six-figure sale.

The idea here is simple – people are searching for websites online more and more now. Given all the junk that’s out there consumers are finding themselves drawn to .ws because they know what they will get on the other side is a website. When you’re making a domain investment you really have to take-into account the current market conditions and pay particular attention to trends. I can tell you this, websites are here to stay, it’s one of the hottest trends of the last ten years and this sale shows that end-users see the value in owning a .ws domain that clearly communicates to their customer that this is their website.

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below…oh and April Fools! Did I trick you? I love April fools, it’s one of my favorite holidays…and of course .ws is not my favorite extension, it sucks, and I would never pay $1000 for a .ws domain or any domain with terrible keywords like HotelLocation90024! Hope this provided some comedic value and please let me know if I tricked you, I’m hoping to get at least a few people!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton