IS IT TIME FOR AUCTION SITES TO MARKET TO END USERS?
January 27th, 2010 Posted in Aftermarket, Domain Auctions, Domain Conferences, DOMAINFEST, General Domain NewsAs a domain appraiser for almost a decade, I started out confused after reading the domains that sold at “no reserve” at DFG yesterday. I had 13 “zero reserve” domains accepted by Moniker Auctions for the DFG 2010. I expected some bidding on several of these domains, because most of them get enough traffic to pay for their annual renewal fees and a little more.
However, what I’ve just read is that my domains below, which could have been purchased for $100 (I think that’s the minimum bid), (UPDATE- During Moniker’s Extended Auction, the minimum to buy any domain is $300) were not sold. Really? Am I that lame now? Should I close my doors and say “hell, I have no idea what people want”? Or should I take about 2 minutes to analyze the reality of this failure by the domain auction services to sell obviously generic brandable domains for $300 or more?
I chose the latter. I analyzed the situation and thankfully, came back to my ongoing rant I’ve been screaming for over five years now:
DOMAINS ARE NOT SOLD AT VALUE UNLESS YOU GET END USERS INVOLVED. Obviously, the domain conferences have stopped trying to reach out to “end users”. Now it’s even become a “nice domains for cheap” isn’t enough for other domainers to get involved — they’re all in “sell mode”. So, for the auction sites, it’s a “come kiss your sister and cousin, they’re cute” sales plan. “Let me hook you up with your aunt, and you can pay me 15% of the escort fee.” Ewww. In other words, we’re selling to each other. There are no widespread “end user” markets being approached, educated and lured into these domain auctions. It’s a wholesaler’s game, and WE ARE IT. So all the domainers you know are aware of your domains, but there’s a few hitches in their expectations: Every dollar they spend on a domain is considered carefully. If they don’t have a buildout or resale plan in their heads already, your NO RESERVE DOMAIN, regardless of how wonderful it is, will not be sold at these auctions. Sure, the one word naturals will sell, even in ccTLD’s… hooray for that.
But here’s my list of ZERO RESERVE DOMAINS, which would have been bought for $100 $300 if you were the only bidder, seemingly a reality at this point:
wirelessaccess.net, $0 (WIRELESS ACCESS . NET)
worldsubjects.com, $0 (WORLD SUBJECTS . COM)
learningcompanies.com, $0 (LEARNING COMPANIES . COM)
livecomfortable.com, $0 (LIVE COMFORTABLE . COM)
securealarmservice.com, $0 (SECURE ALARM SERVICE . COM)
simplewebservices.com, $0 (SIMPLE WEB SERVICES . COM)
perfectspanish.com, $0 (PERFECT SPANISH . COM) SOLD FROM THIS BLOG POST, DOMAIN NOT AT AUCTION
bargaincruiseships, $0 (BARGAIN CRUISE SHIPS . COM)
unlimitedwebservices.com, $0 (UNLIMITED WEB SERVICES . COM)
advancedreservation.com, $0 (ADVANCED RESERVATION . COM)
administrationservices.com, $0 (ADMINISTRATION SERVICES . COM)
autographguru.com, $0 (AUTOGRAPH GURU .COM)
billingcompanies.com, $0 (BILLING COMPANIES . COM)
Any of these domains could have been purchased for at least $300, which I believe is the minimum bid on a “no reserve” domain. No bidders? Is DFG populated with a lot of attendees who are only networking and trying to sell sell sell… and the cycle of incest has finally ended? Is it all just Pimps now? Have we all become Pimps who have no street location to sell our wares?
Do I need to market to real “end users”? Is this apparent failure to sell clearly generic domains for the minimum price ultimately marking the FINAL POINT where domain auctions have to bring in end users?
Do domain auction sites, live or silent, now have to step it up to reach out to the relevant companies that would be interested in these domains in order for the auction sites to actually EARN their commission? Heaven forbid!
Here’s the facts: Most of the above domains make enough PPC rev to pay for their renewal or close to it.
Is it the economy, or do these domains suck? I can handle the opinions… but I know similar domains to these have sold in the past for $1000 or more. I just think it’s the failure of domain auction sites to market to real buyers. Period. So, I think I will get some outside readers to my blog.
THE BIG DEAL: All the above domains are available for purchase for only $99 EACH. Buy three and pick a fourth one for free. Contact me directly at “successclick-at-gmail.com”. Paypal payments only.
19 Responses to “IS IT TIME FOR AUCTION SITES TO MARKET TO END USERS?”
By bigfishion on Jan 27, 2010
They suck. Anyone could buy better expiring domains on any given day and only pay reg fee.
By Ms Domainer on Jan 27, 2010
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I hear you about targeting end users.
However, I doubt if the people running the auction are going to target end users (not at 10-15% commission).
Perhaps the seller needs to get involved in writing emails to potential end users.
Maybe this is the time to “hold,” until the economy improves. If your domains are at least paying for themselves, then I see a win-win situation.
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By Michael on Jan 27, 2010
It doesn’t make sense for them to market domains to end users except for the premiums that have a chance of selling for high-dollar amounts.
Let’s say every one of your domains had an end user bidding on it. Individually they may have gone for low $x,xxx… that’s low $xxx in commission for each domain to the auction house. If they spent the 3-4 hours it takes to market them to end users, they’d make almost no profit.
In my opinion, you shouldn’t be trying to use a broker or auction house for lower-end domains, because you know it isn’t worth it to them to put in any effort to sell them. You should be reaching out to end users yourself on these ones.
By Troy on Jan 27, 2010
Yep… no more hookers, now we all be Pimps!
By Louise on Jan 27, 2010
Hi, Are you allowed to do that? It was announced domains that didn’t sell will go into the extended auction through Thursday the 4th. Likely some might sell by then – don’t give up hope!
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Louis,
Yep, I can promote my domains, but I should have had a contact email for Moniker/Snapnames ready before I posted it early this morning. I do now, since several people are now showing interest in the domains and Moniker still controls their purchase at the auction. I appreciate your concern, but I NEVER give up hope! Good things always happening, just over that hill.
By admin on Jan 27, 2010
Hi Michael,
The auction process is fairly automated, and it doesn’t take them hours to process any domain unless it is a five figure domain or more. I wouldn’t expect anyone to spend time “individually” promoting a domain name to an end user, they should do “themed” auctions, or pick several themes, group the domains and then contact the end user market relevant to the themes of the auction. That way, if they were selling domains all having to do with “contractor supplies”, then they accept domains into that group for the auction category, and contact an industry related publication and take out an ad. That way many end users who can select from the group have a nice large pool of domains to choose from. Why am I posting my ideas here for free? Dang!
By admin on Jan 27, 2010
Hi Ms Domainer,
See my response to to Michael above. It’s all about holding “themed” auctions and grouping relevant domains together and contacting the market publications for those business categories.
I don’t expect anyone to hand promote each domain individually for only 10-15%. I wouldn’t do that either! lol
Thanks for writing!
By admin on Jan 27, 2010
Yes, Bigfishion. That’s your opinion, and you can’t get these domains for the reg fee. Everyone has an opinion and that’s good. Thx for your post, now who the hell are you?
By Open Domain Market on Jan 28, 2010
I have noticed this for some time now and started the site sigmaNames.com to offer an Open Domain Market.
Anyone can list the quality names there and the interested party will contact the owner directly.
But, success of this site depends on the participation of domainers.
I am currently marketing the site to end users via Google PPC.
By Emily Robbins on Jan 28, 2010
I agree in so many ways with the ultimate message of this post — auction companies NEED to start marketing to end users.
The auctions themselves are starting to become meaningless because you are correct in saying that we are only selling to each other and that means the only way to sell a domain is generally for way below it’s value.
While I agree with other commenters that it is unreasonable to expect the auction companies to spend time marketing individual domains to end users unless we’re talking 6 figure domains, I do believe that more MAJOR efforts need to be put into educating Madison Avenue and the business world in general about the inherent value of generic keyword rich category defining domain names.
I currently have InternetServiceProviders.com and HomeBusinessOpportunities.com in the TRAFFIC extended auction at proxybid.com/ricklatona for $35,000 reserve price. Considering the adwords spend each month by end users for phrases ‘internet service providers’ and ‘home business opportunities’, either of these domains would be an absolute steal for an end user.
Perhaps we, as domainers, also need to spend more time working *together* on figuring out best practices for we ourselves to market to end users. After all, the more that end users become educated about the value of domain names, the higher the value of all of our domain names.
By Jeremy on Jan 28, 2010
Not trying to be harsh here but I think those domains just aren’t very good. Like bigfishion says, I can find better domains for reg-fee or at least reg+drop fee all day long.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Jeremy, any good domainer can definitely pick up domains like this for a reg fee. But they just can’t get these, can they? I doubt you’d be able to get “Perfectspanish.com” for less than an hour’s worth of fishing around in a drop list, but then again, what’s your time worth to you? I charge $100 an hour minimum. Just answering you wasted about $3.50 of my time. Thanks for your opinion tho, and be sure to email me a list of ten of your “best” reg fee domains, which of course are better than mine, and I’ll post them for you here. Of course, you’d have to sell them for $100.
By Rashid Mahmood on Jan 30, 2010
The enero6 domain has been updated (now expires in 2012) and Martine Bejasa’s name has been removed.
Maybe the so-called Chinese hackers was just a red herring.
What a bunch of sleuths!
I certainly learned some new tricks today.
By Carlos on Feb 4, 2010
Stephen, what’s up with giving those who gave their opinion about your domains a hard time?
you say “Is it the economy, or do these domains suck? I can handle the opinions…”
which I interpretated as asking for opinions, which is probably what Fision and the other guy thought too. But you’re questioning who they are and what their domains are if they didn’t say they were good. I was going to give my opinion too…but don’t feel like getting bullied. Chill out dude. Afterall, you asked.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Carlos,
I swear I didn’t mean to give anyone a “hard time”, even though that was the purpose of “Big Fishion” and those who took the “time” to constructively post that my domains could easily be obtained for OOTB fees using expired or free floating domain searches. However, first, I HATE talking to “shadowy” losers who use “handles”, because in this business, being anonymous only counts once you’ve bought a domain for five figures or more and you don’t want the price to be known.
As far as providing experienced and/or relevant content that my readers can review, I don’t want chickensh*t statements from anonymous pussies who say their negative comments while hiding behind a handle. Period. Identify yourself, be a man/woman/animal… but this “let me say something negative but not back it up with my own experience” wastes my time, and my readers’ time. I identify myself in 99% of my posts, so people can say “man, he’s on top of it, or man he sucks”. They can determine their opinion on knowing what my experience is in the industry. If you don’t ID yourself when you make a public comment, then your comments kind of wither like a romantic date in a hail storm in the park.
I expect if someone is going to take apart each one of the domains I listed, and tell my why they aren’t worth $100-$300, they’ll ID themselves and give me their reasons, not some general claim anyone can make without proof.
Take the domain, “SECUREALARMSERVICE.COM” Not worth $300? really? That domain could easily backbrand ANY home/business security service. Then take “BILLINGCOMPANIES.COM” – 66,000 results on google, with 11 adsense ads. Seems like the keywords of that domain are relevant enough for 11 companies to bid on them on Google. So that domain isn’t worth $300? $100? I deal in midrange domains that sell generic descriptive prodservs to companies and other domainers all the time. My average sale is around $750, and these are easy sales to make. I’m not going to post my monthly sales here. My biggest sales source for domain listings is Sedo, and Snapnames is next, when Jonathan lists them on the homepage. After that, it’s just contacts from where I park the domains, with those parked at WhyPark.com getting the higher ratio of enquiries.
Anyway, I will GLADLY allow you to analyze and discuss the value of each of my domains listed in my article, and here’s how I’ll respond, I promise: “Thanks Carlos, for taking the time to do a thoughtful and constructive analysis of my domains and their value.” I promise I won’t argue with you on your analysis. I might ask you a question or two, but I won’t attack you personally, really. Ask anyone who knows me… I’m a nice guy if you do it my way.
So… here’s your chance, my friend. I will not dog you if you present an honest and experienced evaluation of my domains, not just say things like Big Fishion: “gee whiz, mister, I can buy these domains on the drop list for a reg fee — and my daddy can beat up your daddy.” Give me hard facts, hard opinions, based on comparisons, breakdowns, and points on why the domains don’t work. Then ID yourself. These are comment my readers and even myself can learn from.
I do very well in my domain business, even though I’m not even close to reaching my zenith, but just cruising I “LIVECOMFORTABLE.COM” — lol
Thanks for writing, hope you do a report on my domains.
Thanks for writing and I look forward to your review of my domains!
By tonymo on Mar 2, 2010
i agree that auction sites should advertise to end users after all if im paying a $10 – $20 listing fee and expected to pay a % of the ending fee, then id like to see some effort on their behalf.
I think your domains are ok its just the fact of a $300 min bid its far to much, if the names are earning enough to pay for them selves then keep em and let them mature. we all have names that we belive are worth $$$ or $$$$ but in reality there just reg fee
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Hi Tony,
That “listing fee” — is that what you’re getting on the Sedo “travel showcase” auction asking for submissions but seemingly charging $9 per domain to do it? IS THIS FOR REAL? I’ve asked them twice, still waiting for an answer. My exec contact is “out of the country” on Kilamanjaro or something totally irrelevant to domainers, but at least it’s for charity…
By Aiza2010 on Apr 10, 2010
Online entrepreneurs have truly been swept off their feet by the excitement and financial benefits that top online auction sites have to offer.
By Chirag on May 28, 2010
In other words, we’re selling to each other. There are no widespread “end user” markets being approached, educated and lured into these domain auctions. It’s a wholesaler’s game, and WE ARE IT.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
Yep. Many top domain consultants and experts have been lamenting this issue for over five years. But which domain company, making millions a year, is going to step up, set aside a budget, and build a website that defines EVERY reason why a business should own their prodserv domains? Will it be Name Media (BuyDomains.com and Afternic)? Sedo? Demand Media? Godaddy (muuuhahahahahah!), Moniker/Snap? Network Solutions (Namejet?
By sohail on Jun 19, 2010
Online auctioning is without a doubt one of the safest and most rewarding methods for budding online entrepreneurs to begin experiencing the world of e-commerce.
XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:
As someone who helped build one of the biggest online domain auction sites and worked with two others, I can tell you that your assumption is dangerous. Always stay alert and make sure you’re covering yourself at every point. The many areas you can get “disappointed” are too much to detail here. Plus, I hate giving away info for free. I’m a raging Capitalist!!
Thx for writing!
By GreenlightProperties on Jul 7, 2010
Aggressive buyers and tactics – One of the biggest problems with selling with the current turbulent market conditions is that buyers will feel they are in a true ‘buyer’s market’. This means they will feel emboldened by the prospect of being more sought-after than the property they are considering buying. Given this fact, buyers are taking up some practices that have not been seen by vendors for a few years – some of which are just a shift in the landscape and relationship between buyer and seller, other which are a degree more unsavoury or even immoral.