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Outbound Can Help Plant a Seed

Elliot Silver
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I haven’t done much outbound marketing to sell my domain names recently. I’ve done it on occasion, but it’s less frequent these days. The reasons I don’t do much of it is a combination of not wanting to seem like I need to sell a domain name and not having a ton of success with selling via outbound.

Perhaps I haven’t had much success with outbound marketing because I am mostly choosing domain names that have had less inbound interest. Without these attributes, there’s probably less intrinsic interest in these domain names. I have also typically chosen domain names I am okay selling for less money since most people tend to try to negotiate a better deal if they respond to an outbound email.

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So Many Spam Inquiries Done via Whois

Elliot Silver
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Nearly all of the domain names my company owns are listed for sale on landing pages that clearly indicate they are available to purchase. Even those that aren’t – like this one – have a contact form to allow someone to get in touch very easily. In my experience, the vast majority of inquiries that are done via Whois record are spam.

In my recent memory, I can only think of two domain names that I sold after receiving an inquiry via Whois, and both were a fair amount of time ago. In fact, one was sold on a three year payment plan at Dan.com, and that deal closed two years ago. A second deal ended up being a BIN deal but I don’t recall exactly when it sold.

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Afternic Should Identify “Hot” Names in Seller Portfolios

Elliot Silver
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I regularly visit my Afternic control panel to look at search numbers. I think it’s helpful for me to understand which domain names are getting searched at GoDaddy and how much they may be in demand. Afternic currently shows the GoDaddy search volume for listed domain names in 30, 90, and 365 day increments, as well as by unique and total searches.

I think this data is helpful. I think it is particularly helpful when I see a domain name have a high total search volume but a smaller unique search volume. To me, this indicates that one prospective buyer is searching for one of my domain names multiple times. This could, in turn, get me to add a BIN price, enable or add length to the LTO term, or raise/lower my BIN price depending on the situation.

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.SI, .AI, .XYZ, .IO, .CO, .com

Elliot Silver
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There’s been a lot of talk on domain investor discussion outlets regarding .SI domain names. .SI is the ccTLD extension for the country of Slovenia, and the extension is managed by the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia rather than a marketing firm looking to grow the extension.

Lately, as AI and .AI domain names have grown in breadth and value, a number of domain investors have discussed how .SI can stand for “superintelligence” in a similar fashion to how the Anguilla ccTLD became popular amongst AI startups and companies. The thought, it seems, is that now is an early time to buy .SI domain names akin to 10+ years ago for .AI domain names.

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Create Trust with Corporate Website

Elliot Silver
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If you’re going to manage you own inbound sales inquiries, I think it’s a good idea to create a corporate website.  The website can be a simple HTML website or something that is more fancy, but it should have enough information to help build trust between you and a counterparty. You can also create an email address with the matching domain name to reinforce credibility and make it clear the inquiry is being handled by an authorized representative of the business.

I operate two professional websites for my business – TopNotchDomains.com and Embrace.com. The former is more of a corporate website and the later is more of a marketing website. Both of these websites offer details about who I am and provide background information about my business. The idea is to show counterparties I am experienced in the business of domain names and know I can be trusted to complete a deal.

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Don’t Re-Upload Premium Atom.com Names

Elliot Silver
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I’ve had some decent luck selling domain names on Atom.com. I think their new AI review tool is useful for quickly getting domain names listed for sale at its “Premium” listing level. I tried something I would not suggest doing, and I want to share the result of this error so other people don’t make the same mistake.

I think people use Atom to find a brand name for a business or product more than simply buying domain names at a domain registrar. This has led me to add more domain names I think could become brands. Identifying these domain names from my portfolio of ~2,500 domain names isn’t a quick or easy task. The AI review tool at Atom is a good way to identify domain names that might have a better chance of selling.

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