Domain Name Sales Launches Re-Designed Website

Domain Name Sales has rolled out a totally re-designed website this evening, and because of its considerable end user reach, it will likely have an impact on all of us.

After spending about an hour checking things out, my first reaction is “wow” this is pretty cool.  I want to share some of the things I’ve noticed about the new website, and I welcome you to share things I missed. I think you’re going to be impressed with the changes.

  • You’ll first notice that the home page looks less like a trading marketplace and is more focused on educating the visitors about the value of a good domain name. This is critical because I assume many visitors don’t have much of an idea about domain names, and this education will likely keep them on the site longer.
  • The DNS phone number is prominently displayed at the top of the page under the logo. It seems quite clear that the company is encouraging phone conversations with potential buyers.
  • A link to the  buyers guide   is prominently displayed, and the guide offers a thorough overview of the value proposition of domain names, and it also makes the negotiation and purchase process on DNS very clear. There may be a perception that buying domain names in the aftermarket is somewhat opaque, but this makes things a bit more transparent for the buyer.
  • When you click the “for sale” link at the top of parked domain names, you’re taken to a completely different inquiry form than the previous iteration. Visitors can sign in using Facebook or LinkedIn, which may help domain owners see who inquired about their domain names more easily.
  • The sale inquiry page offers some compelling reasons for the visitor to try and buy the domain name. One issue is that the domain owners need to be certain to optimize their landing pages. For example, I don’t think the bullet points for HoneyBees.com are as accurate as they could be.
  • When the buyer connects using Facebook or LinkedIn, the domain owner receives an email informing them of the inquiry. In the back end user panel, the prospect’s LinkedIn information is listed nearly in its entirety. This is great because the domain owner doesn’t have to visit that person’s LinkedIn page, which would likely show up under their visits.
  • Once the buyer is connected via LinkedIn or Facebook, the buyer is taken to a streamlined page to make an offer and send a message.
  • If a visitor goes to the Domain Name Sale website after clicking the “for sale” link, there is a gentle reminder strip at the top of the page encouraging them to return to the inquiry form. This is a nice feature so domain owners know that their traffic can easily return to the page they started from and may be less likely to inquire about a different domain name.
Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

27 COMMENTS

  1. Working on a Saturday? Tsk tsk 🙂

    Great observations and article.

    Seems pretty cutting edge but not sure I like the new for sale lander pages. You can’t see the buy it now price until you log in. I guess capturing the visitor’s information is more important than showing them the buy it now price? It is handy to know who is inquiring about a domain so I guess it’s a trade off they considered.

    Amazing that Frank et al can innovate so much and be so creative and make Sedo look silly.

    Sorry Sedo people, you are great but the upper management is asleep at the wheel and has been for year.

    Frank is eating your lunch and dinner.

    • Karen’s out in Boston with some of her girlfriends from grad school, and I am watching Hailey tonight 🙂

      I am hopeful that Frank’s team is doing behind the scenes testing to see how different landing pages and inquiry forms impact sales.

  2. Wow, the new site is amazing. Sharp and modern. Immediately educates buyers. The landing page is also incredible – specifically hypes up that particular domain; even though it’s basic and generic stuff it sounds good. The landing page background images are also well done.
    The whole site looks like the real deal.
    Awesome job, I hope it’s a permanent change.

    The only thing I’m confused about is showing the DNS broker phone number so prominently on all landing pages. Previously I think the DNS phone # only showed if you had them designated as brokers … what if you have a portfolio set to “self-broker”- if a buyer calls, any idea how that would work ?

    • Good point. Also I have a portfolio set to “self-broker”, only because I think they should have a maximum in commission fees (for instance $ 8,000), or commissions with different percentages as the price increase

      Anyway very good changes, much appeciated.

      I noted also that results given from serch engines (first line of the page appearing when someone clicks to make an inquire for a domain) are understimated

      Now they can start to selling pro-actively 😉 going to call-emailing directly the prospects (in this case commissions can be without maximum…)

    • Putting a limit on sales commission is very shortsighted.

      If you told a real estate agent the max. commission is $ 8k, do you think he would be interested in selling a $ 1/2mil or $ 1mil house?

      It is more difficult and more time consuming to sell a higher priced domain than lower priced domain to an enduser.

      • There are more active home buyers than there are active domain buyers. If the real estate broker had to seek out people who might want a home, it would be a different story.

        Real estate agents don’t do as much prospecting as domain brokers.

      • real estate and domains are comparable only partially, mainly because domain market is not a complete market (renting lacks) and it is not a mature market like real estate.

        Domains have simply replaced almost totally the yellow pages, so domains brokers should do somethingh like what the yellow pages agents did.

        Have you ever done the agent for a normal company, an industrial company for instance? Have you any idea how much work you have to do to earn for instance $ 10,000 in commissions?

        Of course I always speak about broker’s commission perceived for example through a platform without doing anything to find the buyer, not about commissions perceived by a broker who actually chooses to represent a client and actively promote one or more of its domains

      • BTW, within five years real estate agents will earn half and even now is continually increasing the number of people who sell their own homes by themselves.

        When the barriers strenuously maintained by the industry will surrender to internet, RE agents will earn 1/3 than they earn today

  3. Nice report.
    Best thing I like is when you are filling out the inquiry form for a domain, the graphics change on the right hand side as you fill out the various lines to show the domain name on a business card and then on a billboard. Click on the lines to see it: name, email, phone and then message.

    Go to honeybees.com then, “click here”, then click on the form. Its cool.

  4. Imagine the domain market is baseball. We are in the year 1919, and Babe Ruth just switched from pitching to batting. I don’t think the game will ever be the same.

    I love the new landers, and I would bet good money that they convert well, and if they don’t, I bet they will be optimized soon.

    The best thing is, though, from reading Frank’s message, I have a feeling there are MANY more HRs to come.

  5. Yeah, only thing I am not a fan of is their phone # on the landing pages.

    We self broker our leads, and this will lower the amount of call we receive. It will be interesting if they add a feature to switch the number out.

    • I’d like an answer on this too. Where did the phone number go guys ?? I don’t like the social media logins up top really as a buyer, but I bet that forces better quality in the leads . . . or forces the stealth buyers to make a phone call . . . which is now not MY chosing.

  6. if someone wants your pigeon shi*t domains, they will make a concerted effort to buy from you…period- regardless where the domains are parked.

    I get all my inquires from Vodooooo plus high payout.

  7. Good stuff but I dont like blog feeds on the home page. I really don’t want a potential buyer to be sent to domaingang for example.

    The video is awesome.

  8. The work is extremely nice and modern/sharp and informative. However for a sale worth mentioning the lander likely had little or nothing to do with it. Large end users will pay what they will pay, period. Some already have a budget, some will do whatever it takes 6 or 7 figures, neither look at the lander and decide to change…after all they wanted it before they saw the lander and had a meeting. This lander MAY help with the $500 sale becoming low $$$$ but where it matters it won’t. Cost and affect, if you don’t have any brokers on salary, all work on commission and you get a cut of sales yourself and if you get more domainer’s switching over and all it cost you was $XX,XXX or so to set it up, THAT is the good business story here. jmo

  9. The question with using DNS sales team, how often will the direct inquiry for my domain sell someone elses domain?

    I believe that is the biggest problem with using Afternic. Are they interested in selling my domain or more motivated to sell NameMedia’s domain?

    (Full disclosure, Afternic denies that their salesman flip the inquiry.)

  10. I’m really surprised they didn’t choose to go with a responsive design.

    It looks nice, but at least on my Android, it involves a LOT of left-to-right scrolling to see the different elements on the page.

    With so much browsing happening on mobile, I’m surprised they wouldn’t at least factor that in. It’s an oversight for an otherwise nice-looking site.

  11. The question with using DNS sales team, how often will the direct inquiry for my domain sell someone elses domain?

    I believe that is the biggest problem with using Afternic. Are they interested in selling my domain or more motivated to sell NameMedia’s domain?

    Exactly: do you think Frank doesn’t collect all these leads so he can sell his own inventory? Don’t be naive.

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