Selling Domains - Discussion

[domsaleuk]

Hi

I just wated to open up a discussion to get other people's views on how the market is for co.uk domain name sales at the moment. I have a fair number of domains but currently I only try and sell now and then between doing other things and I have not focused on it properly. However when I had a spate of being proactive recently I was quite surprised by what appeared to be the current state of the co.uk market - in terms of general feedback from people involved in the domain industry etc

So my questions for discussion if anyone feels like adding any comments are

a) what do people feel about the general state of the market in terms of .co.uk sales

b) If you are selling co.uk domains what do you think is the best way to make sales - i.e. what works and what doesn't ( direct client approaches, sedo, domainlore, putting domains on pages advertising that they are for sale etc)

c) last but not least why do you think there is such little activity on Acorn in terms of wanted ads

 

[Brassneck]

Can only talk from my experience but:

a) probably at its lowest ebb ever

b) not sure much works at the moment, however people tell me that marketing the right names to potential end users still works

c) think the main people who bought on here were buying as resellers or a few for affiliate / adsense type marketing. With all the Google changes this market is pretty non-existent.


Would be really good to have some more views. Many seem to be quite shy about talking about the realities of the market.

 

[domsaleuk]

Would be really good to have some more views. Many seem to be quite shy about talking about the realities of the market.

Interesting to hear your views on the 3 points and I agree with your comment above.

 

[Bailey]

i struggle to see the best uk selling days ever coming back, Lets face it when the internet was in its well developed stage a lot of companies or whoever came in late and we all benefited as they tried to play catch-up . Now your relying mostly on new launch companies to the internet and the volume just isn't there.

That said good strap-line domains are always going to remain fairly stable or those associated with new technologies

 

[denchomsky]

In my opinion which is that of an educated amateur 'player' is that it's at it's lowest point I have seen in 10 years.

This is highlighted by the sheer number of fire sales of portfolios of pretty good names, for very low prices, and very few buyers.

Domainers are offloading to avoid reg fees and this only fuels the decline and lack of confidence, but of course it's understandable.

In any market where the supply is greater than the demand the prices drop and confidence is lost. But all this only applies to us lot really, no one else cares about the UK domain market so if someone wants a domain they will probably be prepared to pay the same as they would have 5 years ago.

 

[bonusmedia]

I'm not really a seller so difficult to judge. It certainly seems like the general feeling here is pretty downbeat.

There's probably a lot of stuff being offloaded that was never really any good.

I'm buying more than ever - I'd guess at least half of what I buy will turn out to be useless but there have certainly been some bargains recently.

 

[accelerator]

b) Well targeted, well worded letters to end users.

Rgds

 

[Retired_Member38]

a) what do people feel about the general state of the market in terms of .co.uk sales

Depends what you're looking at. A truly brilliant, category defining name could still be worth the same/more than it was before, assuming you have .uk rights too. A far too high % of domains attempting to be sold here are crap though. People offloading stuff that is now worth nothing.

Also I think where some domains lost value, others gained. Google wrecked the chance you could realistically make decent money from 2nd or 3rd tier emd's. But that in turn almost certainly increased the value of true 1 word generics.

c) last but not least why do you think there is such little activity on Acorn in terms of wanted ads

Because every time you post wanted ad on acorn you get flooded with absolute crap and/or completely unrealistic pricing, and/or scam attempts. If someone sends you something that doesn't quite fit what you wanted then fair enough. But when you say you want a .co.uk and 10 people sent you .org's its just a waste of time.

 

[ian]

Strong brandable names will always have buyers within the domainer community; for end-users, a little more patience and foresight is needed. However, if a domain is right, then strong high value sales are still very much possible, but require a decent amount of leg work that many don't seem willing to do, to justify the potential gains. It all has to be approached from a different angle than it was a few years ago, some adapt, some follow the same old rules and wonder why it isn't working.

 

[domsaleuk]

a) Google wrecked the chance you could realistically make decent money from 2nd or 3rd tier emd's.

Interesting comments but I question the one above. Did this happen ? or is this the perception in the domain community that has spread like wildfire and stopped domainers buying EMD's and in turn slowed down domainer to domainer transactions and impacted the industry . My view is that perhaps it is the latter. Yes Google made changes making it more difficult to reap rewards from the development of very small sites but did it actually devalue the EMD ??? or does it just mean more effort needs to go into the development of sites ?

Because every time you post wanted ad on acorn you get flooded with absolute crap and/or completely unrealistic pricing, and/or scam attempts. If someone sends you something that doesn't quite fit what you wanted then fair enough. But when you say you want a .co.uk and 10 people sent you .org's its just a waste of time.[/B]

That's interesting - I wonder if there could be something done to change that?

 

[foz]

a) Good. Probably better if .uk did not exist.

b) DNS, sit back and wait. No outbound.

c) Insiders know the .uk/.co.uk confusion (to come), I suspect they are off buying .com instead.

 

[Retired_Member38]

c) Insiders know the .uk/.co.uk confusion (to come), I suspect they are off buying .com instead.

I think this is a massive issue.

I'll definitely prefer the .com if I'm buying to build right now. The .com is always going to be acceptable to end users / not be bad for losing type ins.

Its extremely hard to justify building on a .co.uk or a .uk if you have high hopes for the project... get the choice wrong and you end up with a big site on the 2018 equivalent of .org.uk or .info. And you have absolutely no guarantee you can get out of that mess by 301'ing to the other. Plus even if you can it creates a huge amount of branding issues too.

 

[TallBloke]

a) Good. Probably better if .uk did not exist.

b) DNS, sit back and wait. No outbound.

c) Insiders know the .uk/.co.uk confusion (to come), I suspect they are off buying .com instead.

(b) DNS = domainnamesales.com ?

(c) When do people imagine dot UK will start to gain some traction?

 

[foz]

(b) DNS = domainnamesales.com ?

(c) When do people imagine dot UK will start to gain some traction?

Yes.

When it gets used and exposed by major internet players. e.g. BBC, Ebay, Google, Amazon, News outlets etc. These days may never materialise. Why change when what they have works. Who wants to be the first canary down the mine.

 

[fastworld]

a)
b) DNS, sit back and wait. No outbound.

Never used DNS. Worthwhile? beats sedo? ( can't be hard)

 

[domsaleuk]

a) Good. Probably better if .uk did not exist.

b) DNS, sit back and wait. No outbound.

c) Insiders know the .uk/.co.uk confusion (to come), I suspect they are off buying .com instead.

I find your answers interesting. Your response to the question posed about the general state of the market is that you find it good ... so can you say what type of domains you have that sell - are they all one word premiums or do make regular sales of two word names ?

Also on DNS are you promoting co.uk's and selling co.uks via this method or is it just .com's you are getting enquiries fom here?

 

[foz]

Never used DNS. Worthwhile? beats sedo? ( can't be hard)

Sedo/Afternic hide the lead, with DNS you see the buyer details.

I find your answers interesting. Your response to the question posed about the general state of the market is that you find it good ... so can you say what type of domains you have that sell - are they all one word premiums or do make regular sales of two word names ?

Also on DNS are you promoting co.uk's and selling co.uks via this method or is it just .com's you are getting enquiries fom here?

Mostly average stuff that most on here wouldn't pay reg. fee for.

Most inquiries come off the lander, domains sell themselves not the market place.

 

[signature]

Hi Foz,
I have not use DNS before but I use DomainSponsor, which I guess is similar to DNS. Have you anyone here use DomainSponsor and which one is better, DNS or DomainSponsor.

 

[Retired_Member39]

Sometimes i find myself going around in circles with domaining...

I'm tempted to give DNS another try, many veterans do use different methods so it's never a straightforward answer. I'm currently using parkingcrew who redirect to Sedo if someone clicks "buy this domain", i have actually done quite well out of Sedo.

 

[foz]

Hi Foz,
I have not use DNS before but I use DomainSponsor, which I guess is similar to DNS. Have you anyone here use DomainSponsor and which one is better, DNS or DomainSponsor.

Not really, DNS is a complete CRM at your fingertips plus they capture IP addresses, very handy.