The first part of this is a guest post by my good friend, Jean-Pierre Khoueiri. He runs a top tier SEO agency and is going to show us how to sell a domain name.
How to sell a domain name part #1:
Ok, so you have a domain name you want to sell someday or even today. You’ll get a lot more for it if it has some rankings already.
The key is to do this fast and cheap.
Get an inexpensive hosting account at your hosting provider of preference.
Forward your domains DNS nameservers to the hosting companies nameservers they provide.
Setup a page with no design elements or the bare minimum. Here is an example of barely any design: http://www.lexusmiami.com/
Get your domain name keywords in the title tag.
Get your domain name keywords in an H1 tag.
Get your domain name keywords at least twice in a sentence that reads well for humans preferably above the fold (top half of the website), if you’re still not sure what above the fold is, see the picture below.
Make sure you have a way for site visitors to contact you in case they want to buy it. Remember you are trying to sell a domain name.
Verify the email you setup or form you create works.
Now you’re all set. Just forget it until you start getting leads.
If you want to get more aggressive you could build links to the domain, but you should also add content in that case so you’re offering something of value. Adding valuable content also makes it easier to sell a domain name. Google doesn’t like when people build links to pages that have little value.
If you have any questions please submit them in the comments section below.
How to sell a domain name part #2:
Domain auctions are the most popular outlet to sell domain names. I advise clients it’s popular because it’s a reactive form of marketing. Simply place your domains for sale and hope for the best. Even though this is an easy way to sell a domain it’s not the most effective.
Think about it, majority of business owners don’t know to check the domain aftermarket, so you’re selling to another domain investor that is looking to make a profit. That eats into your profit margin and ultimately puts you in the domain wholesale business. To maximize your return on investment a domain investor ultimately needs to be in the retail business.
The most popular listing types are: 7 Day Auction, Buy Now, Offer/Counteroffer and Premium Listings. If the domain sale is over $500 it’s recommended to use Escrow.com to secure the transaction. Remember, safety first!
Use this list of popular domain auctions to sell your domain name. They are listed in no particular order:
- Go Daddy
- Sedo
- AfterMarket.com
- Afternic
- SnapNames
- Namejet
- Bido
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Great methodology on selling domains, and getting a business optimized.
From your experience, are Geo specific domains easier to sell?
Hi Mike, that really depends on a lot of factors. I find domains are easiest to sell when the value per lead is worth more than $1,000, it’s product or service specific and has decent exact match search volume, branding ops, and over $1 cost per click. You can find all the stats I just mentioned in the tools listed in the following article:
http://www.nima.co/free-keyword-research-tools/
Hi Mike,
In my personal experience I can sell product specific, service specific and geo domains with minimal effort:
A service specific domain would be: CarpetCleaner.com
A product specific domain would be: smallhumidifier.com
Geo domains that are industry specific are extremely easy to sell:
An example would be: ScottsdaleDUIattorney.com
Great tips. Its silly how easy it can be to rank with a good domain name some times. Thanks again for the info Nima. Keep it coming!
Thanks, George, and you’re absolutely right. I wrote a blog post about Google’s Panda update a while back that agrees with your comment about how easy it is to rank a keyword specific domain.
I started a white paper on a new domain acquisition in December that allowed me to study, track and prove which factors are weighted for local seo. In the process I over optimized because the term was exact match and geo specific.
Long story short, I got to page #1 position #4 and then got penalized. I had to file a reconsideration request form, undo some of my seo efforts and slowly start building again. Proud to say I’m back on page 1 and I learned my lesson.
This article on how to sell a domain name is a work in progress. By the time I’m finished it will be one of the best articles on the web that lists how to sell a domain name. I hope it becomes a resource for many. If you have any suggestions or experience with different tactics that have worked for you I’d love to have you guest post
Great post, looking forward to reading more when it’s finished.
Nima,
That is great article and was a pleasure to read. My first time here but I am sure there is plenty of great information and I thank you for this. Have a great day.
Regards,
Robert