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Selling a Domain
Selling domain names is a popular practice on the Internet. People sell domain names for many reasons. Sometimes they’ve registered a domain and find they aren’t going to use it. Some are involved in domain sales as a primary or secondary job: they buy and develop domains, and then sell the website for a profit. In today’s domain-competitive market, premium domain names can be sold for between $500 and $5,000 or more. |
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If you have a domain name you’d like to sell, or you are interested in getting in to the practice of buying and selling domains, there are a few things you should know about domain sales.
When you’re considering a domain sale, the first step you should take is valuing your domain. It is important to determine a fair market asking price for your Internet domain name. You should decide on the minimum amount you will settle for in a domain sale, as well as an asking price that will likely be higher than your minimum. Valuing a domain name will depend on several factors, including the provider it was purchased from and the capacities of the name itself.
What’s in a name? Well, quite a bit, when it comes to Internet domain names. The domain name is perhaps the primary consideration in the price you’ll be able to sell for. The best domain names to sell are simple and easily remembered, such as water.com or dogtoys.com; as these are highly coveted by Internet marketers who plan to invest money in a premium domain name. Having a memorable domain name without a lot of dashes, numbers or oddly spelled words can help to bring a better price on the Internet domain name market.
You can sell a domain name right from the Internet. There are a number of ways to go about selling a domain name. The three primary methods of Internet domain sales are doing nothing, selling it yourself, or enlisting an escrow service (a company that specializes in selling domain names) and paying them a commission to sell your domain name for you. It may not seem that “doing nothing” is a viable method of domain sales, but in reality this happens all the time. Internet marketers or companies who want a domain name that is already taken will often use a database such as Whois to determine the current domain name owner, and then contact them with an offer.
Many people choose to sell their domain names themselves. There are several ways you can sell your domain name: the first and most common is to develop a simple, basic web page parked at your domain advertising the fact that the domain name is for sale. With this method, anyone who locates your domain name through a search engine or domain registrar search will know that the domain is up for sale. When you create a sales page for your domain name, be sure to include an e-mail address for interested buyers to contact you through. You may also want to include your asking price, if you are selling at a comparatively cheap price.
Another way to sell a domain name yourself is to redirect the domain name you’re offering for sale to another website you own, and post the details of the sale there. There are many free programs available on the Internet that will allow you to redirect a URL to another website. You should also consider listing your domain sale page on search engines or on free Internet classified websites, to increase the likelihood that it will be found by interested buyers.
If you have a great domain name that you are sure will fetch a high market price, you may want to consider enlisting an escrow or resale service to sell your domain name for you. There are many online companies that specialize in selling domain names and netting the highest price possible. Again, this is similar to the process of selling a house; with an escrow service, you are basically hiring a real estate agent who will take a commission from the sale price for their services once your domain name is sold.
Many people choose to sell a domain name through a resale company because of the legal matters involved in domain name transfer. As with any legal transaction, there is paperwork that must be filled out in order to complete the sale. An escrow service will handle the paperwork for you, and act as an equitable third party to protect the interests of both the buyer and the seller of the domain name. It is a good idea to investigate several escrow services and get a “feel” for their company before listing your domain name for sale through one. You should find out whether the company responds quickly to questions about their services, and whether their answers are relevant to your concerns.
Whether you decide to sell your domain name yourself or use the services of a resale company, one of the best ways to earn money through a domain sale is by building an active website at the domain name. If you are willing and able to invest the time and effort in developing a high-traffic website, you will realize the benefits in resell profits when you undertake a domain transfer sale. If you can develop an informative website with a large following, your domain sale will be similar to selling an active franchise store with established customers as opposed to an empty building with commercial development potential. The buyer will pay a higher price for your domain name because it comes with an established customer base, and therefore better money-making potential.
The completion of any domain sale involves collecting payment and making arrangements for a domain transfer. Many people who buy and sell domains use an Internet money transfer service such as PayPal to collect payment for a sold domain name. This is only natural, as online transactions go hand-in-hand with Internet business such as domain name sales. When it comes to the domain transfer, the actual method will vary depending on several factors. The process is relatively easy if you registered your domain name through a free registrar that provides an “instant transfer” option. You can simply have the buyer open an account with the registrar and then “push” ownership of the domain to that account. Some registrars make the transfer process difficult; if that happens, you can request the seller to open an account at one of the free instant-transfer registrars and have them instigate the process through e-mail confirmation. A third option, which is not commonly used but still exists with some registrars, is to file physical documentation via fax or snail-mail that authorizes the transfer.
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