In the past I got asked a few times for the fastest ways to sell a domain name. Before I delve into that question (which is primarily aimed at beginning domain investors and not seasoned domain professionals) there’s two things to consider first:

Selling something quickly usually means selling your domain for less than what you potentially could sell it for. Let’s face it though, most domain investors don’t have the luxury of waiting around for the best buyer to come along. In the end a profit is a profit and personally I don’t like holding domains for many years. Especially since there’s never a guarantee that there will ever be a buyer for your domain in the first place.

Which brings me to my next point… There may be millions of people every day looking for a domain but that doesn’t mean they are looking for your domain. I’m going to be brutally honest: most domains owned by most domain investors will never sell. Five days ago there was a post in Namepros titled “Have you actually sold a domain?” which may be an eye-opener for some people. Don’t let anyone fool you, domaining is not easy. There’s a steep learning curve and it takes a lot of work and dedication to start making a profit in this business.

Anyways below are 10 tips that will help you with selling your domain inventory more efficiently.

1. Focus on quality, not quantity

This is the single most important tip; if you have a great domain buyers will usually find you. It’s that simple. Having said that, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. In other words, don’t spend your entire budget on a single good domain name. If, for example, you have a $2K budget then it would be wise to buy one great domain for $1K and spend the remaining $1K of your budget on 10-20 good domains to increase the odds of getting that one sale that will pay for all your other domain purchases and get you some profit.

Anyways, what defines a “quality” domain? Here are some pointers:

• The domain is short, brandable and memorable. The shorter the better.
• The domain uses a popular extension (obviously the most popular extension is .COM).
• It passes the radio test. This basically means that when someone mentions your website on the radio visitors will be able to type it correctly into their browser. Example: Csite.com would fail the radio test as it can be interpreted as SeeSite.com, CSite.com, CSight.com, SeeSight.com, SeaSite or SeaSight.com.
• It makes sense. The domain MailingList.com makes sense, ListsMailing.com does not. For new gTLDs this is just as important. Travel.agency makes sense. Icecream.agency does not.
• It has good search stats and a high CPC. Research every domain you wish to buy by using the Google Keyword Tool.
• There are no (or very little) alternatives. Try to own domain names that buyers will want to have simply because there are no alternatives. A domain such as CoolBalloons.com will be a hard sell because you can find alternatives such as NiftyBalloons.com, WickedBalloons,…

This list is far from complete but it can point you in the right direction.

2. Make your own landing pages

There’s plenty of good reasons to build your own landing pages for your domains:

• You are in control. You decide on the message you want to share with your visitors. You can market your landing page in any way you see fit and even add social media functionality.
• There’s no middle man. This means more money for you since there’s no commission to pay.
• Most end users are inexperienced when it comes to looking for and purchasing aftermarket domains. If you build a smooth user experience for your visitors it will increase chances for a sale.

An example of a landing page for one of my own domains can be found at Sorcerous.com .

3. Price your domains and be realistic about your pricing

Yes I realize you can leave money on the table with a BIN but let’s face it: Almost nobody starts with a high offer. Around 95% of all offers you will receive will be lowball offers. In any case, in my 7 years of domaining I have tried “Make offer” landing pages and “BIN” landing pages. My conclusion was that I made more profit with the BIN pricing approach. Plus, with a BIN system in place buyers know exactly what to expect and won’t waste their time (and yours) if the domain is out of their reach. Just make sure your pricing is realistic. Look at similar sold domains to get an idea on how much to price yours. Another good idea is to use charm pricing.  Example: Don’t sell your domain for $5,000 USD. Sell it for $4,988 USD.

4. Have a personalized sales pitch ready

When you do end up negotiating with a potential buyer it is crucial that you find out the person behind the email as fast as possible so you can send him or her a custom sales pitch. Doing this research will often also help you in finding out how important your domain is to the interested party. If, for example, the buyer wants to acquire your domain as an upgrade to their existing business you usually won’t have to negotiate much, they will want the domain badly and will pay your desired price (if not outrageously priced).

5. List your domains on as many marketplaces as possible

Most of my end user sales are coming from my landing pages but most of my domainer sales are originating from listing my names on as many domain marketplaces as possible. The best known marketplaces are Sedo, Flippa, Snapnames, Namejet, Afternic, 4.cn and Godaddy. Listing your domain names on those marketplaces is a great way to get free exposure.

6. Create your own domain portfolio site

Creating your own domain portfolio site is a sure-fire way to increase sales. Of course it can be a daunting task to build a domain portfolio website but on sites such as Freelancer.com and UpWork.com you can find many talented coders who often will do this task for a reasonable price. There are also sites such as NameInvestors.com who offer a turnkey domain portfolio solution. I haven’t tried them so I can’t give you my opinion on their services. Anyways, as I’m also a web designer I decided to make my own domain portfolio website.

7. Offer leasing and payment plans

As I mentioned before on my landing pages I prefer selling domains with a BIN compared to listing them as “Make Offer”. That said, I didn’t stop there. I also added a payment plan and a lease option to all my landing pages to ensure giving potential buyers as much options as possible to acquire the domain they want. I actually have quite a few customers who opted for a lease and I love having this recurring income every month 😉 .

8. Make sure your WHOIS records aren’t private

I never quite understood why some domain investors are keeping their WHOIS information private (unless of course their domain is trademarked, even though that won’t help much). A lot of times when potential buyers are looking for a domain name they use WHOIS records to find the email address or phone number of the owner of the domain so they can easily contact them with an offer or simply ask for more information. Making your WHOIS private may protect you from SPAM but it will reduce the amount of offers you will get on your domain.

9. Optimize WHOIS records to optimize sales

That brings me to point 9: The WHOIS records are a great tool to promote your domain(s)! You want to make sure that the world knows your domain is for sale. This can easily be accomplished by editing your WHOIS information by either adding “This domain is for sale” next to your company name, by adding an email address such as thisdomainisforsale@yourdomain.com or by adding the text “this domain is for sale” in the second address field.

10. Use a broker

There are many qualified brokers that can assist you with finding the right buyer for your domain. An extensive list of brokers can be found at domaining.com.

Hope you found this information useful and I’ll catch you later!