An important part of any business of investment in liquidity. Liquidity increases prices because it give a buyer or investor the confidence that at some point in time it can be turned into cold hard cash. One source of liquidity in our market is domain sales newletters. A newsletter with a larger reader base can put a domain in front of thousands of people looking for quality names. While there are certainly many smaller or private newsletters, prior to today there were 3 big newsletters, Media Options, Toby Clements, and Justin Godfrey’s newsletter.
Those three do a heck of a job presenting a daily list of quality domains for sale. Although most people I know already are, if you are not signed up for these three, I would highly suggest getting on their list. They all do a pretty good job giving perspective on what leading investors consider quality names and their current value. Like all lists, there are going to be good days and bad days, but I always find it amazing how Andrew Roessner and Toby Clements keep their lists stocked full of good names on a daily basis. It’s a testament to their connections in the industry.
Today’s email from Domaining.com states they too are going to start a daily list. It makes sense. They have a huge list of people receiving their daily newsletter so he might as well try to monetize it. There are very few companies that have a newsletter enrollment equal to that of Domaining and I’ve always felt it was underutilized. Andrew appears to be helping Francois pick out names to put on the list. It also appears that the only day with names will be Monday. There is a big flaw in the list as I see them and that’s the $100 charge to get on the list. Every list I’ve ever seen charges if a name is sold. Charging before a name is sold won’t work. One, very few people will do it. Secondly, charging only for a sale keeps the prices in a reasonable range because the brokers want to get paid and they don’t get paid with unreasonably priced domains. The email stated it was for buyers that only buy when there is a good deal. I think Mr. Carrillo will find that people are always looking for good deals but they don’t have to be cheap. Quality names will still fetch quality prices. It’s human nature to want to want to feel like you got a good deal, whether you actually did or not. Once the price is changed there should be 4 big newsletters.
As a reminder through a sponsored headline it cost $150 to advertise a domain in our newsletter, here we are talking about $100.
But this is not important, the idea is not to sell listings (this option should not actively promoted). The primary idea is offer to domain brokers who flip domains from owners a way to reach a large audience of domainers. All the deals with these selected brokers are based on sales commission as you can imagine.
For many reasons we do not have interest to broker domains ourselves, we are simply offering this listing fee option to offer a way to be present in the newsletter to anyone who estimate he owns a good and well priced name with strong sale chances.
With all due respect, Francois: You are a great engineer; but this will not work out for domains other than brokers’. Unfortunately most domainers are cheap folks. They will not risk their $100/domain name. You might have already missed the boat anyways, but charging for newsletter listing is like a joke! You developed many sites for each of your ideas, but three folks, with much simpler implementation, through their newsletters; have been making tons of money. And it looks like you missed a big revenue opportunity. Now, instead of brokering domains through your own newsletter; you are letting brokers use your email list and on the other hand trying to charge to ordinary domainers.
My business is not to be a broker (plus I don’t have the skills) :
– No time to be spending my days reviewing submitted names.
– I don’t want be declining submissions because I don’t like the names, or the prices (or both) and have owners pest against me (everyone thinks his domains are the best and nobody like to have his submission declined ).
– I don’t want to compete with brokers, I prefer having them as partners.
The $100 listing fee option is only away to not totally block the access to this newsletter to domain owners.
If you are a owner and want to try it, then simply list your names at CAX, we should pick a selection of good deals each week from this marketplace that we will feature for free.
An RSS feed of the domain sale newsletter is available here 24H after delivery:
http://www.cax.com/rss/newsletter/
I think newsletters are for the inept. Think about it it. You need to be told to buy a multi thousand dollar domain??? I have always believed newsletters are for people that cannot function without being told. It is obvious they are pandering another persons name so why is it special in any way? Newsletters are for people that need to be told what to buy. For seasoned domainers, we just see the desperation and move on. Besides, in most all situations the names are horribly over priced and many times pretty shallow. I will stick to doing my own thing and searching end users…..
Two words for newsletters… COWBOY POSTERS LOL!!!!!
I agree with Francois’s strategy of charging a flat listing fee. And here is why:
Option 1: Charge only if the domain sells. Then everybody who thinks he has an amazing domain will list expecting to sell. That includes people who own such gems as Palin4President-2014.cc priced at $44,000. And the end result will be a clogged mess … like GoDaddy.com. The good deals will be lost in the crowd of junk.
Option 2: Charge a flat fee that is relatively high. That makes everybody think twice–as they should–about the quality of their domain, the fairness of the price, and the likelihood of a sale. Sure, the owner of Palin4President-2014.cc could still pay to get listed. But eventually, he would become discouraged and stop taking up space at the top of the newsletter.
I’m a domainer too, and I don’t like paying up-front fees either. BUT it’s a necessary deterrent to keep the quality of listings relatively high. For people with junk domains or for people with good domains that are not quite priced to sell, the newsletter won’t work for them. But for people with good domains at good and fair prices, the newsletter will pay off again and again.
And that’s better for ME as a domain buyer!