My wife, who is a teacher dependent on old fashioned PC websites and programs, switched to a MacBook Pro 15 inch. I bought it for her, and she fought hard to avoid using it. Once she got the hang of the incredible Mac OS, she now swears by it. It took about a month for her to convert. The HP laptop she was using before now sits in the closet. Anyone want a nice PC laptop for $100?

Don’t bother writing an email. Get the name and phone number of the person in charge of handling the company’s website.

Analyze the size of the company, and how much of a budget they may have, and adjust your pricing accordingly. You’d be surprised at how many $500 sales you can make for longtailed domains by just offering them at petty cash prices.

For Leonard: DUDE!!!! Good god man… you got a virus from visiting a website? Are you still using a PC? I thought all smart domainers and internet users have switched to Macs. This NEVER happens to a Mac. (And you can run PC programs on the new Macs). I don’t want to start a war here, but Mac’s are rarely infected, if ever, and they run PC programs. Spend the extra few hundred bucks and get one.

I haven’t been hindered by a virus, bug, trojan, or whatever for almost five years, using a Mac. However, when I’m on my PC startup side, I try to be offline. LOL

Ricky - i don’t agree with what you said about the companies contacting you. sure that is how a lot of the domain sales happen, but i know a few domainers (very successful) who go out ther , build the relationshps and achieve incredible sales. The point is you’re going to have to kiss a lot of frogs.

Leonard - sorry to hear about the virus. I revently had my computer wiped clean and Norton taken off. i now use Avira which in my opinion is much better.

Joshua - thanks for the post and i’m glad to hear of the success you’ve had. When calling companies i usually speak with marketing and sales and quite often the head of IT (who buy the way are the biggest lowballers on the planet.)

(a) You have a personal stake in the domain, OR
(b) You can think of at least four end-users who, if the domain were pitched to properly (using the advice in your blog post), would purchase the domain with 15% probability or higher.

Scan drop lists. Pick out & catch .com domains that either fall under a familiar niche or have inferior registered versions (.net, hyphenated versions, etc.) with active sites attached. Be conservative in choosing your prospects. Craft an e-mail pitch such as the one I contributed to NP thread you mentioned. Make sure to include the recipient’s name and the business’s niche somewhere in your messages so as to convey “I’ve carefully examined your website and have determined this domain will be a perfect fit for your group based on my observations.” Spray them from a University or work e-mail address Mon-Thu between 8am and 10am EST, which is the send time range that will maximize your chance of receiving a response.

You are correct that the real money in domaining lies in end-users. I have generated $20K in revenue (on a tight budget) from this practice over the past several months, 90% of it from a combined 70 end-user sales. Only two of those sales clocked in at $1K or higher, and none surpassed $1400. My domain sales average $250 each, but my average ROI across all sales is 20x. Check out my latest post in the “Selling to End Users” NP thread for a general guide on setting asking prices when selling to small groups.

My one curiosity still is, when calling in, who should I ask to speak with regarding my domain? I typically request the director of sales or business development, but I’d love hear success stories from domainers who have pitched to other business staff.

Regards,

Robbie