Beginners Always Hand Register Domains Impulsively
I started my domain name journey excited to sell some domain names that I thought nobody could’ve possibly thought about but would’ve been in high demand by many buyers. This type of thinking resulted in the “hand registration” of a couple of domains based on the trends I thought were significant at the time, without much in depth research, not realizing the domains that would’ve been in very high demand were long before registered. Here’s how I sold my expiring domains on ebay.
Learning Which Domain Names to Purchase comes with Experience
This doesn’t mean that hand registered domain names are not valuable as there are many quick & extremely profitable hand registered flip that do not make the headlines. It’s just very likely that they are not as valuable as the domain names previously registered within the niche you that had more appropriate keyword combinations. The key is to do in depth research on a particular topic before hand registering any domains. On the flip side, if there is a major news item and certain keywords become apparent an impulsive hand registration could result in a massive sale. When to make a call comes with experience within the domain name industry.
How to Recover From Bad Names
Many domain name investors with a little more experience are knowledgable of rookie mistakes and expect domainers to hand register bad names impulsively. I believe every domainer started out in this way. The more experienced investors always refer to these names as “Pigeon Sh*t” and they advise rookie domainers to “drop” these names and start over. Dropping domain names means signing into your domain name registrar and hitting the delete button on domain names. In the mind of the more experienced domainers, this advise helps the rookie domainer to forget the bad names, save on renewal fees and start over with a clean slate. As this is not bad advice, I think there is a lot more to learn from your bad hand registrations than dropping the names.
There is a beauty in getting that first sale, the rewarding feeling of actually handing over the domain name to a new individual by push or auth code even if its just a few dollars. The most prominent investors always look down on low valued sales (less than $1000) and speak about less mature investors in a condescending manner. However, everybody has to start somewhere. My thought is to NEVER delete a name (Of course with the exception of those names that infringe on trademarks or that are abusive to internet users and are injustices against humanity). It’s better to allow it to expire or sell it for a low price, even if its $0.99. You just never know what might happen while holding onto to the name. There is no loss in holding the name until it expires as the registration fee has already been paid. A $0.99 sale is better than $0.
I Sold My Expiring Domain Names on Ebay
There are many platforms that allows for domain name auctions, like Godaddy, Sedo & NamePros just to name a few, but in my experience these are not necessarily the best for liquidating names quickly.
NamePros allows for up to three (3) active posts at any time for their free membership accounts (More Info Here). Lists may be posted, but the competition is very stiff as most domainers are more interested in selling rather than buying. Your domain lists tend to get lost and requires a lot of “bumping” to get the posts in front of the right eyes.
An overlooked platform is Ebay.com. Based on reading many blogs in the domain industry, it would seem as if Ebay.com was a more popular marketplace for domain names in the past but has seemed to dip in popularity in recent times.
Ebay allows you to list up to 50 items for free (no insertion fees for auction-style or fixed price listings). Their buy it now is also free. Upon auction expiry, the relisting is also free indefinitely. There is also the option to relist automatically.
I have personally sold five (5) domain names (within one month) that I had planned on allowing to expire to end up losing my registration fees. I know what you may be thinking, this is a lack of patience and I should’ve waited it out. Well, experience teaches wisdom and I know my portfolio. I know a little bit more what I need to do to make larger sales. There is no need holding onto names because I believe they are valuable.
There is also no harm in making back a portion of the registration fee, no matter how low it is. A lot of domainers look down on domain sales that are very low, but the math is pretty simple. SOMETHING is better than NOTHING.
Below, is a breakdown of the domains I sold, the registration fees, the prices they sold for and the time it took to sell them on ebay listing as auction-style:
- Domain Name: BrowserTraffic.com
Purchase Price: $0.99
Selling Price: $3.25
Time Listed: 5 days
2. Domain Name: TheBigDataSystem.com
Purchase Price: $12.17
Selling Price: $13.65
Time Listed: 10 days
3. Domain Name: DataScienceChina.com
Purchase Price: $12.17
Selling Price: $3.25
Time Listed: 37 days
4. Domain Name: AugmentScreen.com
Purchase Price: $11.88
Selling Price: $3.25
Time Listed: 26 days
5. Domain Name: TheSimulatedEnvironment.com
Purchase Price: $11.87
Selling Price: $3.25
Time Listed: 31 days
NB. Ebay charges a 14.769% fee on each sale. So you can do the math, For example, the $3.25 becomes $2.77.
There are a few more names that I am trying to liquidate that I am pretty confident will be sold before they expire:
- AugmentMyScreen.com
- DomainValuePredict.com
- AWorkFromHomeCareers.com
- LegitimateWorkFromHomeOpportunities.com
- WorkingFromHomeOpportunities.com
I encourage domainers to try new things, and ways to save money. Yes it requires effort to list names on Ebay, but these earnings can go back into renewal fees and registering/buying better names from other domainers. I will also add that this opens opportunities for more sales. One transaction is a gateway to many more possible transactions by virtue of creating a sale history and also adding contacts. These contacts may refer your domains to other possible buyers. The second sale is always easier than the first.
Let me hear your thoughts on this concept in the comment section below. Tell me if you have been successful in listing your domains on Ebay.
