You (probably) shouldn’t waste your time trying to sell domain names on Twitter

tweeting-bird

Let’s start this week of with some advice that will likely save you some time – if you’re a normal individual domain investor, stop trying to use Twitter as a channel to sell domain names. The reason why I have (probably) in the title above is because there are three cases where I still think using Twitter is useful and a-okay when it comes to selling domains, but none of them apply to 99% of individual domain investors.

  1. you own Bitcoin.com or another very premium domain (i.e. easily worth $1M+)
  2. you’re a domain broker or domain name marketplace
  3. you’re famous or know someone famous (or who is a social media influencer)

If nothing on this list describes you, Twitter is probably just going to be a waste of your time. Here’s why.

Chances are you want to sell a domain that would be of interest to people in a specific niche, and within that niche an even smaller group – people who are in the market for a domain name, oh and are on Twitter and notice your tweet in a sea of tweets. Unless you have an absolutely stellar domain name your market could really be as small as 5 – 10 people (heck even if it’s 50 that’s not too exciting). The chance that those 5 – 10 people are on Twitter (during the time that you tweet), and happen to be searching for the hash tags you’ve put at the end of your tweet are slim to none. So yes, if you have a huge, multi-million dollar domain name that people would want to share and write about then Twitter could be great…but 99% of us don’t own domains like that, I know I sure don’t!

The second exception here is of course domain name brokers or marketplaces. Selling domains is their business so it’s probably safe to say that a lot of their followers are people who buy domains, in which case – yup, it makes a lot of sense to be Tweeting the domains that you’re selling. If you’re not a domain broker or a domain marketplace, it’s pretty unlikely that you have a massive base of followers who want to buy domain names. Let’s be honest, 99% of us don’t have tons of Twitter followers that follow us because they want to buy domain names.

The last clear exception that is worth mentioning is – if you are, or can get a celebrity or major social media influencer to retweet or like your tweet, that could go a long way. But unless you’re famous, or have famous friends that love helping you out you can cross this advantage off the list. Yeah…so 99% of us aren’t famous and we sure aren’t social media influencers.

What I think some Domainers miss about Twitter is that you’d need to have a pretty badass Twitter profile with lots of followers that engage, like, and retweet often to even stand a chance in getting in front of a potential buyer period. And hashtags aren’t going to save you. People think – well if I include a relevant hashtag it will get in front of the right audience…this is also usually wrong.

Let’s do the math. Maybe you’re selling a domain that you think anyone who owns a bike shop would love to own. Adding a #bikeshops or #bikeshopowner to your tweet doesn’t mean you’re actually targeting bike shops or shop owners. It’s the reason why your tweet doesn’t have a single retweet or like. Seriously, go look at the last five tweets that you sent and count how many likes and retweets you’re getting?

So here’s my take on using Twitter to sell domains in one sentence. Unless you have a major blockbuster domain, or you’re connected to a celebrity or social media influencer, or you’re a domain broker/marketplace, then you’re probably going to be wasting time marketing your domains through Twitter.

Of course you could say it’s not doing any harm…which is partially true, but it takes time to write tweets, especially if you’re doing it all day and covering a long list of names. That time could be better spent actually communicating with potential buyers. Sure, you’re probably marketing through channels outside of Twitter but I’d say cut out anything that isn’t actually getting results because even an extra 2% of your time, could make all the difference. Here’s some channels that could yield results because they are actually targeted:

  • Direct emails to specific people you know could be a good fit, i.e. email someone who owns a bike shop
  • Cold calling (yes, people still do this, I don’t, but people do and it’s about as targeted as you can get)
  • LinkedIn and LinkedIn advertising
  • Attending a conference or meetup group where people in the industry your domain name targets are going
  • Add your domain to more marketplaces (i.e. get in front of people actually looking to buy domain names)
  • Reach out to a broker about helping you sell the domain (let them sell it through Twitter b/c they actually might be able to do it!)

My point is, there are a lot of other ways you could be spending your time and unless you’re seeing people engage with your Tweet…you’re probably just wasting time. If you want to actively sell your domain names, you’ll want to learn what works and then put as much of your time and energy into that as you can.

But that’s just my two cents. What do you think? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton