Have Your Domain Appraised
The first step in the process is to determine the value of your domain name. This can be done through a variety of channels. You can appraise your domain name yourself or have the domain name appraised by a professional.
Self-appraisal is a bit more challenging than with tangible commodities like a house or car, but the same process can be used. Some people check out sale prices on similar domains and work from there. A good resource to use when trying to appraise your domain name yourself is NameBio. They have a keyword-based search engine that looks up sale prices of particular domain names. You can find information on lowest prices, highest prices, average prices, who sold the domain and other pertinent information.
But lets say you cant find a value for your particular domain name. This is when enlisting the services of a professional appraiser can help. A professional appraiser knows the market inside and out, and can provide valuable insight that can help you arrive at a fair market value for your domain name.
Ensure You’re Not Stepping Over Anyone’s Trademark
A trademark search is a good idea when you’re in the brainstorming domain process to make sure that no one is using anything thats close to your top domain picks.
It doesn’t mean that you can never use these names though because sometimes people will let go of domain names if they feel that theres a superior one. However, this might also mean a lot of legal fees and there is more risk involved.
Go For A Brandable Domain Name
When it comes to choosing a domain name, consider how easy or difficult it will be when branding your website.
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Your domain name is part of the brand itself so it will be associated with your business from the very first day. The domain name should also make sense when put together with your slogan or brand message.
If people can’t get a good idea of what you do by reading your domain name, then you might need to do some more thinking until you hit the right name.
Brandable domain names aren’t generic either because these names are difficult to remember and won’t stand out among the competitors in your niche.
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Verify The Domain Name Sales Listing
When you find your domain name in the search results , click on Continue.
You can see that HerculesJobs.com is listed at Fixed Price for $2,000. A buyer would click on the Buy Now button to purchase the domain for that price.
If you had listed the domain as Make Offer, then the green button would read Make Offer, as the example below shows.
The buyer can pay the fixed price of $2,000, which will move the transaction along without any counteroffer delays. If the domain is listed as Make Offer, the listing price gives the buyer an idea of the sellers expected price range. In that scenario, it will likely require time to close the transaction and might end up with no sale.
Prepare Your Domain Listing
Once youve chosen your marketplace its time to optimize your listing. A lot of sellers just upload their URL and call it a day. However, you can maximize your chances of selling your domain by making it more attractive.
For example, does your domain have any existing traffic? Does the domain have considerable age? Does your domain have any existing authority?
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How To Sell Your Domain Name: Ultimate Guide
Have you ever been paying a domain renewal fee and thought, Im not using it, I should sell that domain name. I know I have. You may not be sitting on a million-dollar domain name, but you could very well own one that has some value. So lets talk about how to sell domain names.
As I type this, there are over 1,500 TLDs. You can register a domain on about 1,000 of them. So clearly there is no shortage of available domain space. Yet the secondary domain market is thriving.
Why? Because people still want a domain name on a small handful of specific TLDs, .com being the most desirable.
The TLD is the part of the domain that comes after the last dot. TLD stands for Top-Level Domain. So com, net, and org are TLDs. As are club, store, and chat. Technically they are generic top-level domains, but were just going to refer to them as TLDs.
How To Sell A Domain Name On Sedo
Jason Allen GoodlinMay 22, 2011 | Updated: August 17, 201726
In the domain world, Sedo is considered one of the top domain name marketplaces. It leads DN Journals domain sales list almost every week and runs the domain industrys leading domain auctions, promoting the top domain extensions and the worlds greatest premium domain names.
In order to sell a domain name on Sedo, you must have an active account. Are you ready to take the next step? Soon enough you will list your first domain name on Sedo. The images below will guide you through the steps to open a new Sedo account and to list a domain name.
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Check For Domain Squatters
Another consideration to consider is to check if your chosen name is already taken by someone else who’s just keeping it to try and sell it off to you at a more expensive price . This happens more often than it should, especially with popular names that are easy to remember or pronounce.
Ensure that you search for all variations of your domain name before making a final decision. You should do this just in case there’s anything sketchy about the domain name youre interested in.
Doing this in the initial stages will save you trouble down the line if you find that squatters hold you at ransom for a specific domain name thats close to the one you had originally chosen.
Is The Distribution Network Strong
The potential to get your domain name in front of the right buyer is vital.
Listing in a distribution network such as Afternic can get your domain name in front of millions of potential buyers each month. Afternic is owned by GoDaddy and it will automatically list it with GoDaddy as well as over 100 other companies such as Network Solutions or Register.com.
Do you know people who could benefit from the domain name? Why not reach out to them and see if they have any interest in using the domain? If you are working in an area of the domain space you are familiar with, you should be able to convey the value proposition of your domain name for the potential buyer.
Keep it short and only approach people you know and think would be interested in the domain for their business.
You do not want to start sending spam emails. You want to have conversations with people you know would appreciate the ability to own the domain.
Letting a great name you purchased at a fair price to make a profit sit in your account, instead of getting it in front of the right buyer, is like finally finding that pirate treasure map but framing it to admire in your living room instead of following it to the booty.
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Selling Domains And Selling Websites Are Two Different Things
This article has talked about domain name sales, not website sales. But, its worth taking a minute to talk about selling domains attached to websites.
Sometimes when you see that a domain name sold for a certain price, that sale price included the website and its files attached to the domains. The value of an existing website is easy to calculate, usually based on the income earned by the site. The domain name can be part of that value, but most of it is based on the amount of money generated.
Websites are often specifically developed to be sold. That can start with an established site that is given a quick cosmetic overhaul and flipped, or it can start with only a domain name.
The seller buys a keyword-based domain and then creates content based around that keyword to try to attract traffic to the site. If they can establish enough traffic to create advertising revenue, they have a sellable website.
If that sounds like a speculative and potentially costly way to make a website sale, it is. But the risk can be reduced by studying keyword popularity, employing successful SEO tactics, learning how to createor discoverattractive content, and keeping your hosting costs low with multi-site reseller accounts.
Beware New Tld Promises
Every time new TLD extensions are released, there tends to be a feeding frenzy of buying new domain names.
TLD refers to the back part of the web address like .com, .net, or .org.
While there are often going to be some winners with every new batch, many people drastically overestimate how much a new TLD domains worth will actually be worth.
This is a case of since there are so many different extensions now, theyre really worth less and less. After so much time, the .com is the gold standard with some sites cutting out a .net or .org reputation.
Although even those last two are far less common now than they were even ten or fifteen years ago.
Most people dont care about owning a domain name of their brand with .xyz or .increasinglyobscurelocation.
Unless you have dibs on a really unusual one that you know there might be interest in, its best to stay away from these. Theres way more hype with these than there is actual value to follow up.
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Have Realistic Price Expectations
We all hear in the popular media about those rare six and seven-figure domain name sales like sex.com, hotels.com and beer.com, but what folks dont realize is that these deals represent less than 1% of all the transactions.
Ive seen many first-time sellers both under price and overprice domain names dramatically. For the best traction setup an auction and try to promote it to your connections on LinkedIn or social media.
The most common issue seen on Flippa are overvalued domains. Certainly a positive attribute for domain parking is that it is extremely cheap to keep that domain for years, essentially just a few dollars to keep it registered. Because of this, many greedy domainers will set their prices unreasonably high, expecting millions of dollars when that perfect buyer comes along. Unfortunately, those buyers are few and far between. So, if you dont want to sit around for years, you might be better off lowering the price to something a bit more reasonable for the quality of the domain.
The typical secondary market .com domain name sells for around $2,000, and the majority of the rest of the domains that sell change hands for less than $5,000, so keep that in mind when you price your domains.
You probably arent going to retire on the proceeds of your domain name sales, but it might help you pay off your mortgage faster.
Also, I would encourage you to read the interview with Tim Mayeur who is one of the most successful domain sellers on Flippa.
Registrant Transfer Process And Procedure
Buyer
The buyer needs to agree to certain legal obligations, as detailed below, and check that they are eligible to hold the .ie domain they want to buy, before exchanging funds.
To check if they are eligible, the buyer should contact the sellers Registrar, who can submit an application to us here at the Registry. .
The buyer will need to show:
- A real connection to the island of Ireland by proving their commercial or personal identification .
- Once we have validated the buyers connection to Ireland, this acts as an effective guarantee that theyre eligible to hold the .ie domain name.
NOTE: Administrative fees apply to the processing of the buy requests. Please contact the sellers Registrar for further information.
Seller
Once youre ready to complete the sale, please contact your Registrar, and authorise the Registrar to use the authcode for your .ie domain, in order to complete the sale. .
NOTE: There are no registry administrative fees associated with processing a sale request . However, the sellers Registrar will very likely charge a fee for their services. Please contact the sellers Registrar for further information.
If you want to read more detailed information on the Process and the Procedure, please see section 3.6 on page 20 of the Registration & Naming policy.
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Got Any Tips On Finding A Good Domain Name
You bet. While it’s really easy to register a domain, having a good domain strategy helps you register the best domain name possible. Here are some hints:Make it easy to remember. This is why many businesses get domains with their business names in them. Some people even choose their business name only after they have a domain they like.Don’t register one that’s trademarked, copyrighted, or being used by another company. This can lead to losing the domain and legal problems.Shorter is usually better because they’re easier for customers to remember. It’s also easier to get matching usernames for Facebook, Twitter and any other social media accounts you have.Got a local business? Include your neighborhood, city or country in your domain so local customers can quickly see where you are. Check the list of geographic domain extensions .berlin .nyc to see if there’s one for your area.Avoid numbers or hyphens. Anyone who hears your web address won’t know if you’re using a numeral 5 or “five”. If your business name has a number in it, register both versions with the number and with the number spelled out .Get more than one. As traffic to your website increases, you may attract then attention of copycats who’ll snatch up similar domain names in hopes of drawing traffic away from you. Register similar or misspelled domains early so this won’t be an issue later.
Is The Venue Trusted And Well Known
Its important to feel confident that you will get paid and that the buyer will get the domain name they paid for.
Pick a place that has good ratings with recognized bodies such as the Better Business Bureau or licensing from a trusted government source.
This will make it easier for the buyer to pull the trigger on the domain purchase as well knowing they can trust the brand that is selling the domain.
A trusted brand is vital when selling a domain.
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What Not To Do
In my experience and also talking to hundreds of entrepreneurs in my DMs and through my video comment sections there are two main things you dont want to do:
Hands down these are the two that come up the most for big NO-Nos in the domain flipping community.