I had a chat with some of our partners and I asked the question “If you own domains and wanted to liquidate today, what are your options?” The answer I got from most? Not much!
Let’s explore further:
1. Finding an end user
Two words: GOOD LUCK!!
2. Traditional marketplaces (Sedo, Afternic)
Since these have millions of domains listed the chances to get noticed are slim to none. These places are great when end users are looking for you but from liquidity standpoint, don’t hold your breathe.
3. Message boards
By far the best option out of the three however, gaining exposure is hard as you compete with many other listings during the day.
Additionally, many sellers do not understand buyers are tired of wasting their time. It is not just considering your domains and your prices but for sellers, the equation is how many considerations do they need to go over in order to find a deal? This is an essential question for sellers and by understanding it you increase your chances many times over to sell your domains.
What is the solution to liquidity?
1. Do not waste buyers’ time.
If you are truly interested in liquidity, let the market decide the true market value of your domain. Do not guess what they will pay.
2. Make sure exposure is there.
In order to get the most for your domain you have to make sure your listed property has the exposure it needs to have. Less exposure = less money.
These are the issues and thoughts we go through building Bido. To serve our marketplace better our eyes are always open, we always listen. If you were to liquidate today, meaning, if by end of day you had to have money in your pockets, how would you go about it? If you ever had to liquidate, did you find the process easy, or hard?
Thanks in advance for your input!
Have a great day, and happy bidding!
Sahar
Approach large portfolio holders - that is, send your names over to places like NameMedia / BuyDomains for review… I had to do this a couple months back. Of course, I would have probably not taken the prices they offered had I not REALLY needed the money at the time, but NameMedia has done for me what no forum, no auction, no marketplace, not even a digital pawn shop could was willing to do… they gave me cold hard cash for some decent domains… no, you probably can’t liquidate *TODAY*, but they had a turnaround time of about a week for analysis and funds disbursal, at least from my experience.
You forgot to mention domain brokers as a way to sell your domain.
There are several of us out here. We are few in numbers but all have our successes.
Does anyone know of a domain broker list out there?
Besides me I know of Alan Hack, Kevin Leto, Eric Rice, Rick Latona, Lara Morgan… any more out there?
Regarding finding end users, I wrote about the process I use at http://SellingToEndUsers.com so anyone can jump in and pro-actively try to find, qualify and pitch their domain directly to end users.
I think one important point is that liquidity generally comes with an urgency. Bido currently does not have any timeframe attached for reviewing submitted domain names. If I have a domain name and need cash fast, I have no idea how long it will take to have it reviewed and get a response back. Also, I think one good improvement to Bido would be getting a minimum offer from bido and a timeframe for auctioning, rather than declining a submission because the asking price is high.
—-answer—-
Bido has a long way to go before it is as efficient as we want it to be. As for minimum offers, we’re moving away from the concept of bido guarantee into letting the market determine value. Long term, we believe it to of more importance than an insurance policy.
Cheers
Sahar
I don’t think the seller can command a price he wishes unless some enduser is really interested in it.
btw, i just stumbled upon the .net and saw it is for sale on sedo who is your competitor
lol
Great post Sahar.
Exposure and the “right” selling price of a domain name is the key.
Sahar:
Great post. I could not agree more that finding the right buyer is of paramount importance to maximizing the sale the price of each domain sellers are looking to divest.
The DomainNameWire picked up the important issue of targeting “end users” today too.
Link below -
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/07/01/buydomains-does-dirty-work-of-targeting-end-users/
Pete
I am interested in purchasing domain portfolios of those attempting to liquidate, so please contact me at info@leadluxury.com.