Selling Your Domains

Now that you have secured your domain or domains, you will want to sell them. The question is of course, "where can I sell and for how much"? There are actually a lot of places on the net that you can list your domains. One of my favorite places is Afternic.com. Afternic is by far the largest of all listing sites for domains. You can see what is listed and what kind of prices other people are asking. This is a great feature because let's say you have a name that is catagorized in the real estate section. Here you can see what other names are priced at but better still you can see what names have been selling and what their prices were. This is an absolute must. You don't want to price yourself out of the market by being to high in price. Also goes for being to low. There really is no set rules on prices. Some names that make no sense to you are premium merchandise to someone else.

Another place to list is Sedo.com. They have a large selection of names offered. One thing I would like to add here is that Sedo.com cateres more to the European market. So if you have a name that is regional to North America it may not sell very well or even get noticed.

Setting Your Price

That is always the toughest question to answer. Everyone may feel they have that special domain name that is worth millions. Fact is, it's only worth what someone else will pay. While statistics show that that names do sell for over $1000.00, that vast majority sell for under the $1,000.00 price tag. Keep this in mind when pricing your domains.

Let's do a bit of math here. You fetch a domain name out of your head, register it for about ten bucks. You get a membership at Afternic.com for about $20 bucks. List your name for sale on the Dutch auction on the Afternic Bazaar . Your name can start your out at a high of $600 and is allowed to work it's way down. Let's say the name sells for what the average name on the Bazaar sell for, and that is about $160. You can pocket a cool $140 in no time at all. You now have enough money from just one sale to purchase or register another half dozen names. The reason I mentioned having about $100 to start is because you will want to aquire more than one name. You will want to have about 6 names that you can sell. Some of your names may just be dudds but I have even seen dud names sell for $40-$50 on ebay. So you see there is hope.

Domain Name Appraisals

Getting you domain name appraised is not a bad idea. While the end appraised price quote you get may differ from one appraiser to the other, it does give you a sort of ball park figure in the term of dollar value. When you are planning on selling a name you think should fetch over $1000.00 it is always good to get an appraisal. It's added comfort to the next would be buyer.

Getting your domain appraised is not an expensive proposition either. Most appraisers charge around $25.00 and up. This will give you a price based on letter length, type of extention, present potential. future potential etc. The more expensive appraisals can cost in the hundreds of dollars. These types of appraisals usally are done when there is a website with traffic and are well established.

Navahost.com has been doing appraisals for quite some time and have an excellent track record for being one of the better online domain appraisers. Prices range about $8.00 for a short metric type appraisal to the mid $20.00 range for a more in depth appraisal. A very small price to pay when one has a name valued in the hundreds or even more.

Transferring Your Domain

Once someone has bought your domain you go through with the transfer. This is done at your registrar. If the buying party has an account at another register, you get the information such as account number, the buyers name and address etc. Then you proceed with transferring the domain over to the other party. Once the WHOIS has been changed to reflect the new owner, you know all has gone well.

If the buyer does not have an account of any kind, then the best way is to just open an account at the same registrar in the buyers name and transfer the domain over. Your hoster or register will get in contact with the new owner by email and ask if the transfer is approved and OK.

Getting Paid For Your Domain

Getting paid is always an issue to be dealt with. One does not want to release a domain without getting the money owed to them. One of the safest ways is by using what is called an escrow service. There are many different escrow services available on the internet. Be aware that you do a thorough check before committing yourself and your domain with any specific escrow agent.
At the time of this writing I myself have been approached by a potential buyer who wished to use an escrow agent that I had never heard of. Remember that if you are the seller, you are the one who has to pay the escrow fees, so it's best that you are comfortable with an escrow agent of YOUR choice.

Most escrow fees range from 10% of the selling price and beyond. I have dealt with Afternic.com on many occasions and have always had good service. Their rates are 10% of the selling price. The minimum fee is $60.00 on the Afternic board and $30.00 on the Bazaar.

Promoting Your Domains

Promoting your domains aside from parking them with a parking and reseller site is an absolute must. With the average name taking 260 days to sell, exposure is very important. Building a website like I have is is one way of promoting your domains that you have for sale. There are also many other ways to promote your domains. I have had some success by promoting my names with this website at a place called Adlandpro.

Adlandpro is a site for the work at home, networking, home biz types hang out. By building a small simple website and posting your domains that you have for sale they are added into the submission that Adland does and eventually out into search engines. By having a custom Adland page made out that they provide, this page is submitted out to various search engines and directories. Having an additional site with information about your domains for sale will only add to the aspect of better prospects and sales. There are times that Adlanders are looking to buy a domain that would reflect their home biz or venture. It's a good place to start.