The first decision you have to make when listing your domains at a brokerage is whether to set prices for them or not. Many will just set all their domains to “Make Offer” and be done with it.
I decided to go the fixed price route with most of my domains. The way I see it, you stand to get a lot of offers from domainers bottom-fishing for cheap domains when you don’t set a price.
At the same time, many potential end users who are window shopping shy away from making any sort of offer because they don’t want the hassle. They may go looking at other options for their domain name and never come back. With fixed prices you can generate a lot of impulse buys from end users who are checking out your domains and like the price.
Fellow domainers will likely take a pass though. They may still contact you by email but you have set the tone for the negotiations with that initial price rather than the other way around.
On the other hand, valuing top-quality premium domains is much more of an inexact science. Quoting a high price on the sale page can scare off end users who may have been willing to negotiate.
I go the “Make Offer” route with the best domains in my portfolio. I think a page with both a fixed price and the ability to make an offer is a good balance. Ideally, I think the offer option should be de-emphasized when you have both. If the buyer is really interested in the domain they’d notice that secondary “Make Offer” option but it wouldn’t deter impulse buyers much.
Afternic and Aftermarket have the dual option. Aftermarket de-emphasizes it more than Afternic. When I’m targeting end users with my sale pages I always try to put myself in their shoes when I decide which route to take.
Besides auctions, a fourth option is reverse auctions. It’s a nascent format that’s being tested by DNX. Domains begin at a set price and then continually drop in price until they are sold or they reach the minimum set price. Over time, the reverse auction format should gain more traction for sales to domainers.
This post was written by domainer Matthew Crowder. His domains are listed over at BuyNamez.com.
August 8th, 2013 at 1:15 am
I always try to list my domains in more than one places. With “Make offer” you can get 2 or more offeres at the same time and that won’t create any problems. But with “Fixed/Buy Now” you can not do that, potentially you can sell domain at two places at the same time. In my opinion, from this angle “Make offer” brings a lot of of advantages. What are your thoughts on that?
Thanks.
August 8th, 2013 at 11:13 am
Mark,
Our recommendation is fixed price and Fast Transfer to maximize the sales velocity of your portfolio. Once the domain is sold it is transferred automatically to the buyer’s registrar account. Businesses like this approach as they feel comfortable about a fixed price domain with a familiar registrar brand.
If you list on multiple platforms there is a slight risk of a redundant sale so it’s important to pull your names from other marketplaces once they’re sold but these cases are rare if you’re prompt about managing your portfolio.
Make Offer on the other hand gives you a chance to negotiate directly with the buyer, potentially increasing your margin on a given domain, but in our experience this dramatically lowers your sales velocity and overall revenue. This is why we price the vast majority of our domains.