I always like to look at reported domain sales and this is for a couple reasons. The majority of sales that take place at sites like Afternic.com and Sedo.com are to End Users. As a domain seller, that’s who you want to purchase your domain!
Reported sales at sites like NameJet.com, SnapNames.com and Bido.com are more likely to be wholesale / domainer purchases. From time to time you will see an end user at these auctions, but I think the majority are not.
Now do all end users and domainers make wise purchases? No, but many times they do. This gives you the chance to see what they are buying, for how much and using Whois.sc you can see (most of the time) who they are and what they are using the domain for.
It amazes me many times that DNS never change from what the past owner had, no matter what price is paid for the domain! This is one big clue it wasn’t a domainer who purchase it.
Some domains you will see go into action right away via domain forwarding or up as a site, some it may take a month or two, but if you look into many domains after purchased, the new owner doesn’t even change the domain name servers. Why would they do this? I think many (end users) do not know How or do not fully have a plan in place when they purchase the domain.
So keeping in mind that the majority of End User domain sales take place at Afternic.com, Sedo.com and "Private Sales" (see DnJournal.com each Tuesday for an all in one place reported domain sales), if you do not have your domains listed with those two main services, you should consider it. Your domain landing pages are vital as well, so look into what domains sold, and what "was" on them (parked, custom lander etc).
How can one tell if the Buyer found the domain directly on these services? Most you can not tell, but you can use Whois History (paid service at Whois.sc) and look at the past or current DNS. Many times a domain will be parked using the service it sold at which increases the chance of a sale. I think the majority of the time, an interested party will Directly Visit a domain name and take direction off of that.
Some domains like Eamo.com, I simply use domain forwarding directly to the listing page. You as the owner have to weight out if parking $ are more important then a clear for sale page. The method I used for Eamo.com will clearly show the domain name is For Sale, but will not earn me any parking rev.
Since no two domains can be the same, it can be hard to use it as an exact guide to what you should be buying or how you are offering your domains for sale. You CAN dig into what has been sold and see what the main things they do have in common to help you.
- Domain Extension (.com, .net, .org)
- type of domain (Brandable, Call-to-action, Keyword Strong)
- Traffic, Links, Popularity
- Was the domain parked, had a landing page (Archive.org)
Here are the past couple days worth of reported sales at Afternic and Sedo.
Afternic
Now by "me" (Domainer) looking at those 21 sales, it makes me scratch my head! Why? I would likely only own 4-5 of those 21 domains (LoanDepot, D4, AmericanBrands, maybe PitchingCoaches and CostumeBargains). One thing in common, most were .com and all were either .com or .net. The other common thing in this list, tells me the majority were purchased as Brandable domains (starting a company, product or service).
LoanDepot.com is not a keyword domain (besides Loan). It’s for a brand. PitchingCoaches.com is the only pure keyword domain but KelvinJones.com, D4.net, Mancke.com (surname), Shamy.com (surname) could be considered keyword domains also but are more likely for brands.
The * simply means that an Affiliate referred the buyer via Afternic. Another nice thing about Afternic, the way the domain is displayed above, shows Exactly how the owner displayed the domain in their account. I think it’s always best to capitialize the first letter of each keyword like CostumeBargains.com is. Most seller Bulk upload domains and never take the time to adjust how the domain looks to interested parties….
I Looked into LoanDepot.com and it had a small lander page offering the domain for sale. The domain was listed on Afternic and Sedo ($19,999) but did not show the price on the Sedo listing page. I saw the price using Whois.sc . The new owner has yet to change DNS…. lol
Sedo
Sedo’s sales appear to be similar with .com and .org this time leading the way. Again, many "brandable" style names minus TPE.org (very nice sale, but also a nice domain).
LindaSmith.com is a very popular / common name. Since only one Linda Smith can own the .com, I see that as a smart move on. Now one would think a "Linda Smith" would be who purchased it, but "Linda Asbill" is the new owner. Maybe she is expecting a surname change.. not 100% sure.
Again, DNS has not changed from BuyDomains DNS (past owner). The domain was parked and listed with Sedo and Afternic.
Make sure you use this vital domain history to help map out what could help you with your next domain name sale or what you should be purchasing. History is very important, so be sure you look into as much history of a domain sale as well.
RedDomain
Caught your tweet about this page. Nice information and thanks for sharing with us.
Would like to see some observations about afternic, hearing differing opinions about them.
Leonard Britt
DomainSuccess.com sponsored a webinar this week with Rick Schwartz who mentioned that most companies just don’t get it and that domainers will have to be very patient before companies begin to realize what they are missing. It is fairly easy to find real companies with so-so to horrible domains. What is their decision-making process? Probably like most domainers – they think of something and it isn’t available so they try another and another until finally something pops up. More experienced domainers start to look for drops and may even begin to bid against other domainers for the top drops. But how many domainers ever attempt to buy top domains on SEDO and Afternic? Well, I’ve tried on several occasions but what sort of response do you receive? The seller wants anywhere from $2000 to $50 grand for a nice name but sorry I’ll find something else. And while we can argue about the value of generic domains, if a small businessperson doesn’t really understand why they should pay more than $100 for a domain then when they receive a counteroffer of several thousand they will migrate to these low-quality domains.
nythemes
I sometimes wonder if domainers “get it”, why do they run their blogs under such terrible domains. Can you smell the hypocrisy?
Kristoff Barnes
Good point nythemes – I’ll take it a step further. If your main objective is to sell wholesale to other domainers, so be it. You can pretty much brand your site anything you want. Use the ubiquitous DN prefix + cool, catchy, industry term.
However, if you plan on targeting end-users, you need to speak THEIR language. They’re not tuned into to “domainer-speak.” Everything (from your domain name -> articles and blog posts) should focus squarely on what’s important to them.
Ask yourself, do you have a clear understanding of your target audience? I think many domainers are simply failing to properly communicate a clear message to the appropriate audience. If your primary model is wholesale D2D then focus your message on that market. If you want to appeal to end-users then you’re going to have to craft an entirely different message for that market. Want to sell to both? Setup 2 distinct channels. Create a clear and laser-focused strategy and scrap the mixed and incoherent messages…you’re just confusing your audience.
Jay Lohmann
Jamie,
I have to agree with you on two points. STUDY all the auction venues and see what sells – however.. I have such a tough time trusting most of the results. Pick any weekly sales report at DNJournal and I am so amazed the domains that sell – and for pretty amazing prices. Newbies, enter this market slow, just a few domains at a time and make sure you sell some before hoarding en masse….and know that you will not get rich quick this late in the game. Buy for $10, Sell for $50 quick, not hold out for $5000 when the name isnt worth it. You’ve 5X’d your money, now buy a better name. Rinse. Repeat.
Veteran – stay the course, trust your experience. there is a lot of churn in the market caused by people with more money then sense. Those DNJ reports will start to make sense someday soon – hopefully.
Jay Lohmann
InvestInURLs.com
Steven Ellis
Great commentary on the weekly domain purchase list. I purchased pitchingcoaches.com because it’s the perfect keyword match for my pitching coach directory, called “Find A Pitching Coach.” Thought it might be cool to let you all know where the domain ended up. Keep up the good work. I’ve enjoyed reading your blog.
Steven Ellis
Former Chicago Cubs pitching pro
Jamie Zoch
Thank you for stopping in Steven! I would be interested in hearing more on how you came about purchasing the domain. I will drop you an email if you do not mind.