Listing Your Domains For Sale? Here’s Three Things You Might Be Doing Wrong

I’ve had a few emails lately from people who have told me they are doing everything to sell their domains but they aren’t getting any interest. If you’re going to say everything, you better be doing everything, and most of the time you’re not, in fact you’re barley doing anything.

There are many different ways to sell domains and I think every single person should have their names listed for sale on marketplaces like Afternic which has been my personal favorite for years. Once all your names are listed for sale on a platform you can then use a parking service like TrafficZ or Domain Name Sales to quickly add a “For Sale” banner and manage inbound leads.

afternic_domain_marketplace

Once all of this is going, then you can get to the business of actively selling your domains which means sending emails, picking up the phone, and sometimes attending conferences or events to get in front of potential buyers. Sounds like a lot of work? It is, but that’s sales.

The problem is, many people do Step 1 wrong. They list their names for sale on a marketplace but don’t take the time to set things up properly. This means that potential sales are being missed. So if you think you’re doing everything, you probably aren’t, and when it comes to sales getting your names, getting up and running properly on a platform like Afternic that gets your names in front of millions of buyers, getting it right is crucial.

Here are three things you might be doing wrong when listing your names for sale on a domain marketplace:

  1. Listing Domains In The Wrong Category – if you own a domain name that is related to the automotive industry but have it categorized as a Travel domain, potential buyers may never see your name. Yes, it may take a few hours but it’s worth it for you to go through all of the names you have listed for sale and make sure they are in the right category. Don’t want to do it yourself? Neither do I. You can always hire someone to do this for you, it just takes teaching them how it works once.
  2. Not Taking Advantage Of Premium Promotion – most marketplaces have a premium promotion level that gets your names in front of a larger group of buyers. In the case of Afternic they find 33% higher sale prices and a reach of over 75 million buyers a month for premium promotion names. Anything that gets your names in front of more buyers and sells them at higher prices is a good thing.
  3. Not Selling At Fixed Prices – while you don’t have to sell all of your names at fixed prices, I do recommend listing as many as you can at a fixed price in marketplaces. Domains with fixed prices sell at a significantly higher clip as buyers can easily be deterred by “Make Offer” pages. Like I said, you don’t have to sell all of your names at a fixed price, but if you want more liquidity, the more you list with reasonable fixed prices, the more you’ll sell.

As always feel free to share your own tips below or comment on any of mine!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton