Domain forums are a great place to talk domains but many people don’t understand the meaning behind all the responses in the threads and posts. I’ve decided to put together a guide to help users understand and feel comfortable when responding to these terms. I was going to do an eBook and sell it for $20 but I’ve decided to offer it for free for all.
1. $400 offer by PM. What they mean to say is $400 was really never offered. It is my own personal bid because I want the price to be higher and because you can’t see my PMs to know if it’s true or not.
2. $50 Good for 24hrs. Translation: I am not going to give you much time to think about it in hopes you won’t realize that my offers is exorbitantly low.
3. The domain gets 500 hits a day but no revenue because I haven’t tried to monetize it. What it means: I HAVE tried to monetize it in the best way I know possible, but couldn’t make any money. I am going to make you think that you can do better with it
4. Quick Sale Wanted: This is put in the headline to make you think the seller is desperate and willing to take almost anything for the domain. Often selling because of hardship or needs money for school. What appears to someone that is starving for cash usually ends up being someone who wants top dollar
5. Selling because I Need Money For Other Project: Translation: This domain was a bad purchase and I want to get rid of it. The plan by the seller is usually to sell 100 shitty domains in the hopes of getting one good one ie “the project”
6. Domains Selling ‘AS IS” because I don’t have stats on it: In reality he HAS seen the stats and they were so low that they just moved into the “brandable” category. Seven uniques a month is the same as “I don’t have have stats” in domaining
7. Looking for “FILL IN THE BLANK” type domains…Paying top Dollar: Top dollar in this category on domain forums is a little different than top dollar elsewhere. As a buyer you can expect to get $50 domains offered to you at $5000 and as a seller you can expect a $50 offer on a $5000 domain
8. This domain is Ideal For: Many sellers feel that the buyers may not know what to do with a domain, therefore, they let you know that pumpkincarvingtools.info would be a great site for selling pumpkin carving tools. Some sellers are even more generous and they give such great ideas as YTRCE.com would be perfect for a company called Yearly Tile Removal Company Enterprise and you could easily form a tile and grout removing company with this name.
9. Less than Reseller Pricing: End User Prices are the top dollar you can get. Reseller prices are prices in the middle of hand reg price and end user pricing. Lower than reseller must be between reseller and hand register prices. I am going to formally introduce two more here today. Just above Hand Register prices and Almost End User Pricing. Feel free to use these in some of your posts.
10. And finally the legendary “Still Taking Offers” or any response from original poster : It it used when getting no bids or responses to bring the post back to the top. Scorned on by moderators you can use such creative responses to hide your true motive as “BIN now dropped by $2” “Another domain added” (add any name it doesn’t matter) “XXX offer received by PM” (see #1) and ” Test”
PS: Thanks Francois and Domaining.com for the kind words and link
Congrats, one of your best post 😉
Thanks Francois
Hell yeah, Shane.
I almost fell off my chair laughing. Priceless…
Funny and true!
Nice post, thanks.
LOL this article is good. Thanks for spending the time for making us have a good laugh. Will buy you a beer if you’re ever in Hong Kong or Shenzhen China (city next to HK).
I love this guide. It conveys the mentality of many forum posts; not to say that a lot of people aren’t using ‘double dutch’ in what they’re saying, but pretty much you covered all bases.
Congratulations on this great post! I like all of the 10 ‘truths’, especially the 10th! 🙂
Damn it! Now I won’t be able to use the “because I need money for other project” pitch again 😉
Shane,
I encourage you to start on the e-book. Think a bit bigger, expose more of the industry insider know-how, but stay funny — for god’s sake, keep your voice.
This article can be a teaser (on the mini-site advertising the e-book).
You’ve got good perspective, and a great sense of humor, and if you keep the pricing right, I bet you’d sell a bunch of books… Hell, with the iPad out and about, you might even sell a lot!
My Advice to Newbies — By Shane Cultra (Soon to be a New York Times Bestseller)
Well done — and part of the reason domain forum sales boards aren’t the same as they were 5 years ago.
Priceless, but you forgot “Premium domain for sale” 😉
Fun Stuff Shane!!
Great post.
haha, this will now be part of forum FAQ on Acorn Domains, great post!
Re: #5: Stats mean nothing. I’ve had dozens of names that were receiving no traffic at Godaddy. Move some to Sedo and they’re receiving hundreds per month. Move the same to Smartname and – back down to barely nothing. Move those back to Godaddy and they’re suddenly getting 2 to 3 times more than Sedo and a heck of a lot more than they used to at Godaddy.
The domain name industry is the most non-transparently industry going. When are these parking providers going to divulge the stats and the method behind reporting them? As far as traffic stats go – I dont think they’re worth a wasted breath speaking about them as I do not believe any stat from any person or from any parking provider. There is no basis for them and no standard by which to judge PLUS the shady responses from the parking providers is enough to raise both of my eyebrows at times.