I had two domain names sales recently and I wanted to share how they happened and some reasons and tips as to why these tips / reasons helped make the sales happen.

Domain number one is a four figure sale as is domain number two. One is a .com and the other is a .net . I have owned both domain names under three years.

CloudCash.com which I sold for $2,000 .

What helped me sell the domain name?

• Time
• Exposure
• Ease of contact
• Patience
• The Domain

I had several offers for the domain name since I owned it from March 28, 2007. Most offers came in directly from the domains parking page at Fabulous.com and the For Sale banner link on the parking page. With most offers, the offer amount was in the ranges of $50-$250. The offer that lead to a sale was $200. I countered with $3,200 and after two more emails the $2,000 price was met.

The back and forth emails took about 2 weeks.

Time: I picked up the domain via a hand reg on a drop in March 2007. This sale did not take place overnight and took nearly 3 years to happen! If I would of rushed or want to rush to sell, I would likely of sold it in the $250-$500 range which still would of been a nice ROI. Time allowed for the right offer to come in that I was happy with.

Exposure: Would I have recieved the offers that I did without the For Sale banner link on the parking page? I think my odds are a lot less if I did not. I also had the domain name listed on Sedo.com and Afternic.com but the offer came in because the interested party visited the domain name directly! Somebody could of potentially found the domain while using the Afternic or Sedo services, but this time it did not happen. I think if you are selling a domain, get it listed in as many places as you can!

Ease of contact: This goes along with exposure but I think it is very important on the page / website of the domain name the interested party lands on, that it is EASY for them to contact you. "Signing up" or requesting a bunch of info CAN shy away an interested party. A simple contact form is often what an interested party will contact you with. This also includes having a For Sale link on a domain name parking page. Be sure to have your Whois information up to date as well. The whois info is updated at your domain name registrar. In this contact information, if you like, in the "company" section you can put This Domain Name Is For Sale. Clearly that is just an option but can help as each day more and more people become aware of whois data records.

Patience: I received about 10 offers on the domain since I owned it. That’s about 3 a year. It is a lot easier selling a domain name for a couple hundred dollars. Getting into the four figure range can be a bit more challenging and likely will take more time. If you are happy with an offer, accept it. If you are not, time is your best friend (if you can wait).

The Domain: Really ANY domain name can be wanted or needed by somebody! If it is wanted or needed by somebody, this means they will pay you money to get it. It is a large world out there with lots of people! Your peers may not like a specific domain name but there is no reason not to go out on a limb and invest in domain name you think holds value! Clearly it helps to own domain names that are clear and make sense. The better the domain name you own, the more likely it will sell.

With all domain name sales, I always use a third party escrow service. Afternic and sedo offer in-house. In the case of CloudCash.com, the domain name was registered with Moniker.com, so in the options that I offered the buyer (EscrowDNS.com, Sedo, Escrow.com etc) I included Moniker’s Escrow. Plus I really like Moniker’s escrow service.

Second Sale

Domain name number two is still in escrow, so I can not share the sales price yet but it is a four figure sale. The domain name is AutoAccessories.net .

I purchased this domain name about July 27, 2008 and used all of the same things I explained above. The difference with this domain name is where the buyer came from! The biggest difference with this domain sale is the Exposure section!

I had the domain name listed with Sedo and Afternic and an easy contact directly on the landing page of the domain via the parking page. A nice feature using Afternic and the Expanded Promotion level (20% sales commission) is Afternic is partnered with a lot of other services and in some way makes the domains listed with Afternic and expanded promotion, on to their partner sites like Network Solutions, Godaddy and many more.

In the partnership with Godaddy, Afternic lists it’s DLS domains in and on Godaddy. In the case of AutoAccessories.net, a Godaddy user either came across the domain name doing a search directly on Godaddy.com using either the exact keywords or similar keywords or doing so using Godaddy Auctions (auctions.godaddy.com) . Since I use the PRICE system (and category) Afternic has in place, my Buy It Now price and domain are listed at Godaddy. The interested party at Godaddy can still "place and offer". Since in the Afternic pricing model, there is a Reserve, Floor and Buy It Now. The sales reps have the range of the Reserve to Buy It Now to work with.

Please keep in mind, if you have your domains listed with the Afternic service and have Expanded Promotion selected but NO PRICE, I do not think your domain will be listed at Godaddy! This is a large crowd of buyers you are passing up if you do not have prices or the expanded promotion set. All domains I have seen that are listed on Afternic and then listed on Godaddy, have a Price!

My rep at Afternic contacted me yesterday and simply told me the domain sold. I didn’t have to do anything beside list, price and select a category. The domain sold between my Floor Price and the Buy It Now! Keep in mind that Afternic will not contact you about the prices you set. The floor price and your buy it now price is like saying, Sell it between these two prices! The reserve price means, do not sell it any lower then that! The sales reps use these prices and will always work For You to get the most for your domain.

Without my added exposure, this domain name sale may not of taken place! That is why I think it is important to list your domain name in as many places as you can. Just listing them is not enough. You have to use the FEATURES they offer as well, like pricing, category, description etc.

The more exposure, ease of contact and patience you have, the more likely you will sell your domain name for a higher amount. I hope these tips and tricks help you in some way to sell a domain name you may have for sale.