New domain sales site?

[willbon]

Hey all....

I have an idea which I'd like to share with you......

It seems that there is a gap in the current domain sales market. If you want to sell your domain to an end user the current ways are to have your own site and retail from there or alternatively go to Sedo, Godaddy etc.....

If we put our heads (and domains) together, could we not produce a great place for people to find domains without having to suffer the 'big boys' of the domain sales world?

Just an idea at this stage, but with Acorn members' excellent SEO skills and reasonable attitude to business surely we could have a punt at this?

The general idea would be to have a 'main site' where we could classify domain genre's and market areas where the domain would be listed... a click on the domain name would then open another window where the sellers personal site would take over ....

Thinking of this as a 'co-operative' business mechanics idea, so enabling listings of domains to be at minimal cost (hopefully no more than a few pounds a year for a reasonable number of domains) ..... but most importantly, with a structure of links to and from the site from co-operative members and a dash of SEO, surely this could become a major force in the world of domaining?

.... not to mention the excellent choice that any customers would get!

Anyone got any thought on this?

Thanks

Will

 

[doodlebug]

A new sales site would be nice and one that doesn't have crap and also the people running the site place the domains into the categories and not the seller, I'm sick of for eg, you look on Sedo at sports and get 246hoopballs.net

It couldn't be a co-op though otherwise we would all get a share of each others domains sales, I know what you're getting at though like a syndicate or is that the same ? ok a team together then

Good luck with the Sedo killer but it's a Goliath :wink:

 

[willbon]

Yes.. I didn't mean co-operative in its exact form.. but shall we say...

'for the common good'!.....

Anyone else interested in being David to Sedo's Goliath?

 

[Admin]

I'm working on this but haven't posted about it here as want it to be an End User site.

If anyone has any domains they want listed, PM me the details, prices preferred, UK domains only.

Admin

 

[willbon]

Nice one Admin!....

Any idea about structure / costs / marketing yet?.... any beta site you want feedback on?

... also... There doesn't seem to be any mainstream site that offers collections - .co.uk and .com for sale as a package together.. with / without hyphens etc etc...... I was hoping that this would be a place to enable these kind of offerings.....

 

[vizzo]

I may be stating the obvious, but as I'm new to the domaining side of things bare with me!

The big gap is between a person looking searching for a domain at a domain reg like 123-reg for instance and the person who already has that domain and wants to sell.

In the past I have inputted hundreds of domain names into the search box with 123-reg, Daily or whoever. If it's not available I just try something different. I don't go look to see if it's for sale. That concept is not in most people's thinking.

The ideal, and I know it would be a massive project, is to have a portal that people come to search for a domain, if it's available they register it in the normal way, if it's already registered but available, they are given the sale information.

 

[doodlebug]

I may be stating the obvious, but as I'm new to the domaining side of things bare with me!

The big gap is between a person looking searching for a domain at a domain reg like 123-reg for instance and the person who already has that domain and wants to sell.

In the past I have inputted hundreds of domain names into the search box with 123-reg, Daily or whoever. If it's not available I just try something different. I don't go look to see if it's for sale. That concept is not in most people's thinking.

The ideal, and I know it would be a massive project, is to have a portal that people come to search for a domain, if it's available they register it in the normal way, if it's already registered but available, they are given the sale information.

That's what Sedo do now, if it's for sale with them they tell you, if it's not for sale then they offer an 'aquire it for me' service, if it's available to reg then you get redirected to 1&1.

 

[willbon]

Vizzo... I think as all the decent keyword / brand domains are essentially registered, the market place for domains is changing to where people understand that they must look beyond the 'free to reg' availables and must delve into buying a domain from someone else....

Agreed, the man in the street might see the domain he wants has been regged and try to reg something close to his first choice, but as time goes on it is inevitable that the market for domains will increase to make it commonplace to look at domain sales sites after finding that their domain is unavailable for normal registration.

Most places that sell domains also offer a regging service (e.g. Sedo... goes to 1and1) .... but not many ISP's offer the sales alternative to normal regging service... so you're absolutely right on that count.....

 

[vizzo]

Say someone has a business that they call "bits and bobs". They decide they want a website. they find the releavant .co.uk is taken. I would suggest VERY few people would investigate if its available for resale. In fact most people I would suggest wouldn't even know that it might be available. so instead they search other domain extensions, bits-and-bobs, bitsandbobs4you, buybitsandbobs etc etc etc

I agree that the marketplace is changing/will change. How easily public perception catches up with that is another matter.

I've been designing websites for 6 years and have about 60-80 domain names myself with my own sites on them. It's only recently that I've even considered buying a second hand domain!

I think two things are needed: one is a raise of public understanding that you can buy a second hand domain name and not get ripped off and second is better marketing and a less spammy look to parked domains!

 

[willbon]

Say someone has a business that they call "bits and bobs". They decide they want a website. they find the releavant .co.uk is taken. I would suggest VERY few people would investigate if its available for resale. In fact most people I would suggest wouldn't even know that it might be available. so instead they search other domain extensions, bits-and-bobs, bitsandbobs4you, buybitsandbobs etc etc etc

I agree that the marketplace is changing/will change. How easily public perception catches up with that is another matter.

I've been designing websites for 6 years and have about 60-80 domain names myself with my own sites on them. It's only recently that I've even considered buying a second hand domain!

I think two things are needed: one is a raise of public understanding that you can buy a second hand domain name and not get ripped off and second is better marketing and a less spammy look to parked domains!

I agree.... except Sedo, Godaddy etc do seem to get a fair few customers!

As for the parked domain malarky... That's one of the reasons why I started this thread... it would be nice to go to a domain for sale and find it listed on an attractive and welcoming page!

 

[Edwin]

As for the parked domain malarky... That's one of the reasons why I started this thread... it would be nice to go to a domain for sale and find it listed on an attractive and welcoming page!

That's kind of one of the things I was talking about recently on another thread. If you have decent domains that get typeins (= people are checking them out) then you're probably going to sell a lot more by making your own for-sale page/site than parking them.

The rub is that if you have a decent number of such names, you're almost certainly already doing that. And if your names don't naturally get any traffic, the most gorgeous for-sale site in the world won't change that!