Selling Domains To End-Users: Picking The Right Domains Makes All The Difference

End-User Sales

So you want to sell a domain name to an end-user. Before you go any further please make sure you’re not trying to sell some junky domain. I used to do this so I know it doesn’t work. I would reach-out to a huge group of people for each of my mediocre .NET, .ORG, .US, and .INFO names and I never understood why nobody ever responded.

It wasn’t until someone sat me down and said, “Morgan, most of your domains are complete crap.” That I realized it wasn’t the way in which I was approaching end-users, it was the quality that I was approaching them with. Now some of those names that were called “crap” went-on to make $xxx or $x,xxx/month in revenue, but only once developed – none sparked the eye of end-users.

This is such an important point for new Domainers to understand. You can buy a domain with great keywords in a lucrative niche that given good development, SEO, and promotion, can generate a good chunk of change. That domain could be a .COM, .NET, .ORG, .US, .ME, .CO, .BIZ – whatever TLD you want, and it can be a successful name for monetization. If you read my post about MiniSites then you know that you can absolutely make money with a MiniSite, but it’s going to take time and hard work to do it. Most importantly, domains that make great MiniSites, or even great full-scale sites…might not be the right domains to sell to an end-user.

So back to someone calling my domains crap. What they meant by crap was domains that few end-users would be interested in. End users generally want .COMs. Period, the end. Very few people form companies and then all meet in a room and go, hmmmm how about we call our brand “XYZ Brand” (insert any brand name there) and let’s try to get XYZBrand.net?!?! No – they are going to want XYZBrand.com, that’s their first choice and often their only choice. Yes, often the .COM is taken and brands build on other TLDs but if you asked any of them if they wanted to brand on the .COM, they did and that is in many cases something they still want.

What this means is that if you want to sell to end-users you’ll really have to go .COM. Yes, there are some absolute category-killers in other TLDs that could sell, lots of great one-word .NETs and .ORGs but the most liquidity and end-user interest is in .COM. One and two-word .COMs are the sweet spot and I’ve heard many top Domainers tell me that their two-word .COM sales were hitting it out of the park. The idea is, you want to have a domain to offer that is the top choice for an end-user, not their second or third choice.

Now for the last, yet equally important point. There are plenty of really crappy one and two-word .COMs that will not see any interest from an end-user. I bought Aggregately.com a few years ago and though, “Wow – I have a one-word .COM, this should sell!” Only to find-out what is obvious to many, the name was complete junk. Yes, it was a one-word .COM but who the heck would want it? The same goes for two word domains, FindsHotel.com or BuysCar.com is not even in the same league as FindHotel.com and BuyCar.com, but they’re both two-word .COMs.

So there you have it. For some of you this has been a complete review, for others this may shed some light onto why you aren’t making any end-user sales. I can tell you that once I made the switch I made over $5,000/month in end-user sales and have never looked back. This year I have made over $50,000 in sales to end-users, the advice I got was spot on but it’s not just about buying one and two-word .COMs, it’s about buying the right ones.

(Photo Credit)

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton