Posts Tagged ‘end-users’

We have all had experience with writing to end users. Whether it be a constructed well thought out sales letter or a generic template you personalize for each email or snail mail it is all for the same goal, sell your domain names. I have been asked quite a bit about how to not sound like a domainer and more like a professional looking to liquidate domain names.

I have picked up some great tips in the past months from Josh over at NameFlipper.com. I have analyzed how he writes his emails and to be honest they are genius compared to standard templates i see floating around the forums. The emails are always super short and straight to the point with out providing to much information. Kind like of setting a lure for a fish, you want them to bite but you do not want to start reeling in until you have them on the hook.

So that brings us to what type of tone you want to set in your emails. Well first off you do not want to sound like a domainer but rather as a professional in the technology sector. Whether this means saying you are a software developer or website creator they all sound better than the title “Domainer”. Just like everyone has seen around the community and it has been discussed a million times, the general population frowns upon domainers as a whole. No matter what you do we are not getting away from that stereotype in the near future. So projecting yourself as a professional in the technology industry gives you points right away and shows that you are willing to do business.

Bringing out the professional tone means that overloading with information is really just going to turn people off. You want to be able to give them a piece of what you are offering and then put the pressure on them to make the next move. For instance let them know you are trying to liquidate your domain for a fair price and if they do not respond in a certain amount of time that you will move on to the next candidate. If they are truly interested they will respond. Writing out details and trying to explain why the domain would be good for their business makes you sound desperate. Like i said if they are interested they will ask, no reason in writing a 5 paragraph email that is likely to be looked at as spam.

Now that you have the tone of the email set and the lure has been placed its time to cast the line. The signature part of your email is extremely important. This is where everything ties together and shows that you really mean business. Always include a business like salutation, i.e. regards or thanks. Up next include your full name. Under that your title, i.e. Software Developer. After the title put your company or website, try to make this a non-domaining website. Last but not least include your PHONE NUMBER. I can not tell you how many times i get calls over emails when an interested party wants the domain right away. Also do not forget to send the email from the email address that corresponds with the company listed in your signature, i.e. ExpandHosting.com – ross@expandhosting.com would be appropriate.

Selling to end users is not easy and is a very daunting task. It is something that i have been pushing quite a bit the past couple weeks and i do not average TONS of sales. Though when i do get a sale it is well worth my time compared to the payout. Sounding professional for me has changed quite a few things when it comes to end user sales. I see quite a bit more response, increase in amount of sales and an increase in the size of the sale.

If you have something to add feel free to do so.

So you have finally gotten a response email from an end-user but you are so excited you have no idea how to respond. The worst part of the whole situation is that they did not put a figure on the domain name itself but wants some answers to questions about the domain name(s).

Some common questions an end-user will ask you when contacting you about a domain name after you have contacted them are:

How old is the domain name?
Does it get traffic?
Why do i need this domain name?
What is the page rank?
How much are you asking?

Now these are just some common ones that you will see on your adventures. Yes i know some of it is just basic knowledge to go look up in a whois query and half that information is right there. Thing is most people in this world have no idea what a whois lookup is and what it does. I have found that responding in a polite, straight forward, and truthful way brings back a response to your second email. Whether that next email comes back with a counter offer or not they are sure to know you mean business and you will treat them with respect. This is key when dealing with customers. Now lets answer some of those questions.

How old is the domain name?
The domain name is 4 years, 7 months, and 25 days old. [Pretty straight forward, its a simple question that deserves a simple response]

Does it get traffic?
Yes, the domain name itself does get a fair amount of traffic. I have included screen shots in this email of traffic from November 2007 – May 2009. You can also check alexa and compete.com(include a peramalink to both). [Again coming straight forward with traffic details before they even ask to see a screen shot, also providing a second source for trust]

Why do i need this domain name?
The reason this domain name will become a great asset to your company/website is because it summarizes the niche that your company/website is in. On top of that i have noticed that you are using AdWords to pay for traffic that comes from these keywords. The domain name gets quite a bit of traffic that converts very well. Now imagine if that traffic was coming straight to your site instead of having to pay for the keywords at a search engine? [This is a pretty tricky question considering it will be different for everyone. This is something that you will have to be preparing before you even send the email to the end user.]

What is the page rank?
The page rank of the domain name is a 1.[Straight forward and to the point. No need to dwell on this at all.]

How much are you asking?
I was looking at to let this domain go to you for $1000. Considering that (relateddomain.com) sold for $1300 and (relateddomain.com) sold for $1500 i think this is a fair price. [Also make sure that if you are the first one throwing out a figure that you ask a bit more than what you would settle for. This gives you a bit of breathing room when negotiating and will hopefully set around what you wanted for the domain name, if not higher, in the first place. Always try to find comparable sales that back up your domain names value, this way you can not be called out. Like i said be truthful and straight forward]

Now for some negotiation tips:
Tip #1: Set your price a little higher than what you would settle for
Tip #2: Always be prepared for the next question
Tip #3: Include your phone number in every email. Sometimes end-users just want to get down to business and talk to a real person
Tip #4: If you do not want to sell for their price, do not sell for their price. Its your domain name.
Tip #5: Be truthful, they do research just as we do. Do not put it past them to put your name or email in google
Tip #6: Know your facts before they are questioned
Tip #7: Do not be afraid to link to sites like compete.com, estibot.com, or even a domain site. If it proves your point go ahead and do it. They will respect you more if you can prove your facts, even if it is on a domain site.

Hope this helped some people along if they were stuck with an end-user. If you have anything to add or just think i am a complete retard, please leave a comment below. I would love to hear some stories to see if this is working for anyone !

So we have discussed what an end-user is and how to find them. This part is all about how to contact an end-user and a description of a couple methods that i use. These are pretty simple but they take practice to master. I am not saying that i am the best, i am far from it, but i do think that these are great skills to build on and progress through this channel with.

End-User Contact

First thing you need to know about how to contact an end-user is where to find the contact information. Most sites will have a contact page that is either a contact form or email. Some go as far as providing an address. So go ahead and find that contact info on their page right now and examine how it is displayed. If you can not find the contact info or they just simply do not list it, run a whois search on the domain name. This will give you all the contact info you need, even if it comes up as privacy protection. Just send an email to the supplied email address and it will be forwarded to the owner of the domain name.

Now that we have the contact info we need, we are going to focus on the hardest but most fruitful method around, “The Cold Call”. Yes that is right the phone call that could change your life forever. This is by far the most personal and in touch way you can contact an end-user. Although it is the hardest method to master, it can be your best weapon when it really comes down to the grind in a domain negotiation. Most companies that want to buy a domain for a decent amount will for sure want to talk to you over the phone or even meet. So having these skills is not only going to benefit you in the case of a cold call but also in the event of a call period.

Cold Call Tip #1: Speak clearly

Cold Call Tip #2: Make sure you are talking to the right person. If you end up talking to the wrong person or that person says not interested try talking to someone higher on the ladder.

Cold Call Tip #3: Know your facts. Be ready to answer some off the wall questions and explain why they need YOUR domain name. Do not be afraid to throw out a price but do not do it if you have to. You want them to offer you an amount if you can.

Cold Call Tip #4: Know the company and be polite to anyone you talk to, no matter if they are the lowest peon on the ladder.

Cold Call Tip #5: Keep you goals in mind and do not give up or be nervous. Anyone on the other side of the phone can smell you being nervous.

So now that you have some tips of the method you are most likely not to use lets move on. LOL, just kidding about that, in fact it will become your most effective weapon in the long run.

Alright now its time for the “Snail Mail” approach. I do not recommend this to many people at all but it is a weapon i recommend perfecting if you are in the long run with end-users. I would use this with your small to medium size businesses along with personal end-users. This is valuable because you can almost be certain that the letter ends up in the hands of the decision maker, assuming you send it to the right person. This is why it works with the smaller to medium sized businesses because who does not like getting mail? Large businesses are smart and most likely discard a letter from someone expressing some crappy domain name, they have bigger fish to fry.

Letter Tip #1: Make it personal

Letter Tip #2: Proof read the hell out of the letter before you send it.

Letter Tip #3: Get all your facts in to about 3 paragraphs in the body of the letter. This is the most important selling point for a future contact. Do not string it out and try to explain a million different things, make it simple and to the point.

Letter Tip #4: Find the one person with in the company that is the decision maker and send 1(ONE) letter to that person. If you send multiple letters to multiple people it will look more spammy than anything and be thrown out.

Letter Tip #5: Include you phone number, address, and FULL NAME.

At this point you are probably saying to yourself, but Ross i want just want to get the feel before i dive right in with those methods. Well you are in luck, the EMAIL is up next.

Here is the most common way to contact an end-user without doing any sort of harm or any nervous jitters. Its simply creating an email to send out to your potential end-users. This is by far the easiest and confident way to contact an end-user. You can easily clear 100 emails in one day if you really put some work in to it. So here are some tips and a simple template of what i use:

Email Contact Tip #1: Make it unique and personal.

Email Contact Tip #2: Super simple is your best friend. This is different than the snail mail because you will not need to explain anything really at all in your first email, that will be your second email after initial interest.

Email Contact Tip #3: Try your best to no throw a value on the domain before the end-user does. Put this ball in their court for as long as possible. If you have no other choice but to shoot, put the price a bit above your wanting price so you have a little bit of negotiation and breathing room.

Email Contact Tip #4: ALWAYS include your contact info in your signature. Some end-users will not even mess with the email and just directly call you if they are interested. So be prepared for this.

Email Contact Tip #5: NEVER and i mean NEVER let them know you are a domainer. Use words like web developer or investor. Most people in the real world have no idea what a domainer is or just despise us for the most part.

Now that you have some tips here is a template/guideline of what i use when i send email contacts:

Hello Mr./Miss./Mrs./Ms./[To Whom It May Concern],

My name is [YOUR NAME]. I am an independent web developer that develops web properties for clients and myself. I have recently noticed that your [company/website] could benefit from one of my domain names. I own [domain.com] and have not got around to developing it. So i thought it would be a great asset to your company. If you or your company is interest please respond to this email with in 48 hours.

Thanks,

[YOUR NAME]
[Phone Number]
[Company/Website]
[Optional: Address]

As you can see it is super super simple. Really just get the point to them that you own the domain and that it could benefit them if interested. It does not look super spammy nor does it come across as a scheme to make money. Obviously making it personal to the specific company will make this much much better but this was just a simple example.

Some points i would like to point out about this is that i gave them a time limit. Any serious company that sees the advantage of the domain name will contact you with in that period of time. Plus it puts the ball in their court as far as contact goes. This way you do not waste you time with people/companies that just want a figure. Also note that i never state that i was a domainer but a web developer. This is important because it makes you seem genuine and come across as someone trying to improve the end-users company.

Now that you have some tips and methods to contacting end-users go ahead and try it out for yourself. Do not get discouraged if no one emails you back, a very small percentage will be interested in the domain names, even in high end ones. Just keep at it and improve your techniques. If you have something to share or have a story please add it in the comments area. If there are some tips you would like to be in the post just add them below and i will update this post.

Now its starting to get juicy now that we know what an end-user is. This post is all about finding that holy grail. One of the most common questions people ask when in search of this prized jewel is, how the hell do we find the end-users? Well its actually pretty simply and i will explain 3 ways to add to your arsenal of weapons in the battle for the end-user.

Google Search

1. Google is YOUR Best Friend

Yes that is correct google is the map you will need in your quest to finding end-users. The most common and easiest way to find prospective end-users is to type in the keywords of the domain you want to sell directly in to google. This will in return bring results that will show you companies, websites, or people that are talking about those keywords. Do not forget to put the words in “Quotes”. This will make sure that your keywords appear together and you get accurate results.

Now once you have done this task make sure you look for clues in URLs and sites that focus on the direct niche. This will be the key in this method, finding sites that focus directly on the niche. Once you have found the prospective site click on the link and go to the contact page and select you favorite way of contacting the company or person.

2. Using Google Sponsors to YOUR Advantage

This is a variation of the method described above. Type in the keywords like explained in the previous method. Instead of looking at the results, look at the adsense ads and sponsor ads. These are companies that are directly advertising and bidding on the keywords you just typed in. In other words, they would be interested in your domain because they already pay a hefty price to get their ad up there for those keywords. After you find the advertisers follow the same steps as finding their contact page and contact them.

This is a very very powerful method to finding end-user sales. Not only does it find end-user that are directly advertising on those keywords it finds you companies that would be more willing and opening to domain negotations because they “get it” when it comes to online advertising. Figure out how much they are paying per click by going to google keyword tool and putting in those keywords. You can get an average ppc there. After you find out the search frequency and how much an average ppc is to the company you can finding a middle ground for the price you will be after.

3. URL Searching

Finding websites that contain your keyword in the domain name are the exact end-users you are looking for. Obviously these people are the ones that could not get the original domain or just simply had no idea it was available. If they have any sort of common sense they will want to make some kind of offer. Although this sometimes does not turn the best sales there is a higher rate of sale in this area.

To use this method go to google and type in: “inurl:yourkeywords”. This will return exact results of domains that contain your keywords in them. If you were a hunter in the forest, this would be the equivalent to seeing a TON of deer right in front of you. Take you pick and follow the normal contact steps.

If you have any other tips of ways to find end-users feel free to add this. I will include the advice and your link in an update if you contribute !

I get asked a lot these days about how to sell a domain to an end-user and where to find them. So i decided to throw this end-user series together on my blog for so every can run it over and add to it if they want. This first post is all about identifying an end-user and what exactly makes them an end-user.

End-User Money

What is an End-User? Well it’s pretty easy to distinguish an end-user from a domainer. Even though it is easy to take the 2 apart from each other a domainer can also be an end-user. An end-user is basically a person or company that will use the domain for a specific purpose. Whether the domain is being used for the traffic, project, or start-up this is the main reason the person or company buying the domain name is the end-user for the name. This is why a domainer can also be an end-user because they too can develop and use domains for traffic.

Now that we have a general idea of what an end-user is and why they buy domains, i think the next big thing to figure out is if the person or company you are dealing with will be the end-user of the domain name. If a company or person approaches you for the domain name you can almost bet that they have a plan for the domain name and would like it for a project. This is the most common way to spot an end-user. You can also check out the email addresses and names in google to see if they are linked to a company or person with-in that niche.

Doing research on companies and possible end-users is your first step if you are trying to sell your domains to an end-user. Picking the right company or person could simply be typing the domain name in to google and pulling the results. If you take this route you will more than likely be sending out quite a few emails on a daily basis along with speaking with deal makers with-in these companies if you can get your foot in the door. We will touch more on this subject is Part 2.