Over the last decade, I can’t tell you how many times someone has asked me for help with selling a domain name. Based on my background, what I usually give them some general advice which has worked well for me in the past. You may remember that I previously wrote an article on this blog which provided some helpful tips for selling domain names to end users. While the tips in this blog post can also help with selling your domains to more end users, they’re also great for reaching other domain investors and website owners in the reseller market as well.
The Truth About Selling Domains
Some readers might not like this part, but let’s get to some facts behind selling domain names before diving in too deep. First, most of the domains you own right now are probably un-sellable. It’s not just you, though. This is actually the case for just about every domain investor out there. Nobody ever sells every single name they own, and you are likely no different. Before getting into how you can boost domain sales it’s important to understand that some of your portfolio is likely never going to sell. In general, the best inventory you can have for selling this day in age is one-word and two-word English .com domains that directly relate to a business product or service. If your portfolio contains non-COM inventory (ORG, BIZ, INFO..etc) or invented words then be prepared for the sad probability that this inventory will never sell. There are exceptions to this, but they are very rare exceptions and certainly not worthy of an investment. Most end users don’t even know how to reach some domain sellers because they’ve never purchased a domain from someone before. As a result, these buyers can quickly become confused and give up all together. With that in mind, below are some helpful tips you can use to increase your odds of selling more domains!
1. Display a For Sale message on your domains homepage – Believe it or not, one of the most common ways a domain sells is by the buyer simply typing the name into their address bar and visiting the website. There are several different tools out there which allow you to add a simple For Sale banner to your homepage and your domain registrar might even have an option like this available for you. The goal here is to give potential buyers some way to reach you if they’re interested. Whether it be a link to a contact form, email address or phone number.
2. Embrace fixed pricing if you really want to sell – This topic is always widely controversial because some people believe fixed pricing your domains can potentially leave money sitting on the table. While that might be true, at least you completed the sale! Many buyers get intimidated by the whole Make an Offer thing and prefer to browse for domains with the ability to buy them instantly. Personally, I’d rather have some sellers remorse then going to my grave still holding an unsold domain because I got greedy with a buyer.
3. Optimize the domains WHOIS record for sales – Just like my first tip suggested adding some type of For Sale sign to your homepage – You should do the same with your WhoIs information as well. Once again, the goal here is to make it blatantly clear to anyone in the public that your domain name is for sale. There are several different ways you can include this message in your WhoIs details. For instance, add This Domain is For Sale to the Company Name portion. Trust me, you can’t be too obvious about this!
The three tips above are simple ways you can let everyone know your domain name is for sale, and hopefully complete more sales because of it. Remember, accept the fact that you’ll never sell every domain you own before you even get started. Focus on one and two-word .COM domains that are relevant to business products and services. Then, make sure your domains are priced accordingly and never get too greedy when an offer is on the table. By following these three simple tips you will vastly increase the odds of selling a domain.
