One in the crowd!
This is what your domain name is when you submit it to a live domain auction or any domain auction really. One in the crowd. Unless your domain is one of the headliners due to it being an amazing domain name, the rest kind of are just "in the list". Your domain will get it’s 15 seconds of fame if it is in the live auction when the auctioneer calls the lot, but will people know it is there?
Will the auctioneer hold the passion about the domain name as you do? Is the auction company just into your domain name for the commission? Do you expect the auction company to reach out to the right buyers?
Here is a funny little example of how your domain can be lost in the crowd.
This morning I was doing a little research for an idea that I have been tossing around. The domain I was thinking that would work well is SmartLink.com . Like most people, I visited the domain name directly to see what was on the page and SmartLink.com happens to forward to ATT.com .
My first thought… they won’t sell but I will check whois just to make sure they do own it. Whois shows AT&T as the owners so I moved on and decided a domain I own already will work just as good, SmartSold.com .
Since the Moniker.com live auction is taking place today, I thought I would breeze through the domains that are going to be in live auction today to see if anything jumped out at me.
WHAT.. you have to be kidding me…. that has to be a typo… what…
That is what I was thinking when I saw the lot # 200!
Sure as shit! Lot # 200 for today’s auction for the Moniker auction, SmartLink.com with a reserve price of $10-$25K.
Without being a domainer, I would never even know Moniker.com is even around, let alone know they are selling a domain that I had been looking into purchase. Even a search on Google brought up nothing about SmartLink.com being for sale or is going to be in an upcoming auction in the first couple pages of results or "news" on Google. Nada!
I think it is vital for you to promote your auction. This doesn’t have to cost a bunch of money but will take a little bit of work on your end.
Just submitting and having your domain name accepted into auction is not enough IMO for it to sell at the price you want! You need buyers to know it is For Sale.
Promote, Promote, Promote!
The site for the domain should be goal number 1. Have some info directly on the domain, so if or when people do visit the domain, they know it’s for sale, when, how much and how to bid! I think this is Very Important!
I would do at least one press release either via a paid post on a blog or domain related site like DotWeekly. You can even pay for a press release if you choose from a large service if the pricing of your domain is fitting. Forum posting. Yes, forum postings get indexed in SE’s and most offer a for sale section. Twitter and Facebook at a minimum but I would put most of my focus using services that get your domain into places people interested can see it.
Most domain auctions are busy, with a lot of lots (domains). Today’s Moniker auction (total list) has 2,157 domain names in it! Yours is one in the crowd, so make people that would or could be interested in it, know that the domain is for sale by promoting it!
Interesting side note ~ Is AT&T really using Moniker Auction to sell it’s domain? It appears to be by having lot # 200 from the screen shot above but clearly SmartLink.com could be a typo mistake by Moniker of what really should be listed… like SmartLinks.com (plural) etc. I would expect this not to be a typo as Yahoo did sell Contests.com in a Aftermarket.com auction!
Great point, very wise thing to do.
There are also forums that have advertising related areas. My Marketplace has a classified listing type to promote external auctions.
Any one extra visitor could be a bidder!
October 28th, 2009