When trying to sell a domain I’ve come up with a few different strategies that should help you reach top dollar. Feel free to try any one of these and let me know how it goes
Use the word “about” as often as you can so that you aren’t held to any real number
Buyer: “How much traffic does the domain get?”
You: About 200 a day
Buyer: Any money from parking?
You: About $5 a day
The truth: It gets 125 visits a day and $3.50
Make up lies that they can’t Google or check using DomainTools
You need facts to back up you numbers. If you have none, make them up but make sure to do enough research to know they can’t find out any info.
Buyer: What makes you think that domain is worth that price?
You: The dot net sold for $10,000
Buyer: I don’t see the sale anywhere
You: It was private
Buyer: DomainTools don’t show any changes in registrar or servers
You: Yeah it was pushed and they kept it on the same host
Use curse words as adjectives to describe the name in all conversations
Nothing says awesome like a curse word adjective. Throws them off a little when you curse in a business transaction
Buyer: Is the domain making any money?
You: It’s making a shitload of money. It’s been a fucking great name for me
Act like you’re tall
I don’t know why but people are always in awe of tall people. They are willing to pay more for things if they think you tower over them. It’s very intimidating
Buyer: How much do want for this domain?
You: $4000. By the way I’m 6′ 6″
Use a completely random comment to throw them off guard
In a last ditch effort to tell the truth but distract them you have to answer the question and then follow it with some really crazy statement
Buyer: Have you ever received a C and D letter from company A
You: Yes and did you know that I lost my arm in a parasailing accident in Playa Del Carmen Mexico in 1998?
Keep answering the question with “What do you mean by?”
Act like you don’t really know your domaining terms. Makes him feel that he might be dealing with a newbie that he can take advantage of
Buyer: What kind of CPC are you getting
You: What do you mean by “CPC”? You mean like “cost per country”?
Buyer: How much money do you make per pageview?
You: What do you mean by “pageview” Is that an editing program?
Make sure to include every three or four sentences “You probably don’t have enough money”
Nobody likes to be told they don’t have enough money. This works all the time in the movies because nobody likes to be told they don’t have enough money. They will always prove they have plenty by paying a little too much for your goods
Buyer: What’s your BIN on the domain?
You: You probably don’t have enough money
Buyer: Give me a price and we’ll see
You: It’s $8000.
Buyer: That’s nothing for me. I’ll take it.
ALWAYS use exact figures
They have to be true if you use exact figures. Why would anyone randomly come up with that number
Buyer: Any parking revenue
You: Yeah. It made $134.27 last month
Buyer: How about traffic?
You: It received 2356 uniques last month
And Finally, Always use the “I have another person interested in the domain” statement
Use it in every email. You can also use this on the forums in the form of a fake PM.
Buyer: I’ll offer you $200
You: I’ve already had someone offer me $300 on Namepros
Buyer: I didn’t see a bid
You: It was a PM bid.
LOL Shane, great stuff!
“Make sure to include every three or four sentences “You probably don’t have enough money”
I believe this statement will get you fast and great deal especially within domainer group since almost all of them ego-centric. Domainers are proud with their possession and always pay more to save their face.
Cool post Shane
I fancy myself as being a bit of a master bullshitter. ‘Catcth Me If You Can’ is one of my all time favourite movies. The power of persuasion and confidence/perception tricking is amazing and you can get away with so much whilst still operating within the law, unlike the guy in the film.
Here’s one of my favourites…
If you ever need to provide a copy of a bank statement to verify or prove anything, always block out your actual account balance and any other transactions that you want to remain private using a solid rectangle using Paint or Photoshop or whatever. However, do it so that you are covering more of the area of the numbers than necessary.
For example, if your account balance is say, $2,567, instead of obscuring the figure with the solid rectangle just enough length to cover the dollar sign and the four digits like “XX,XXX” make the blocked out area longer, so it looks like you are obscuring a larger figure like “XXXX,XXX”. Now, the person that is looking at your documents will have reason to believe that the balance of your account is a six figure sum. And who’s to say that it isn’t?
This should NOT be used for fraudulent purposes! Just a bit of fun for making it appear like you have more cash than you actually do.
All the big dogs in business like Branson (one of my heroes) did stuff like this in their early days to get where they are now. Perception is everything!
Anyway, I’m off to go and test drive a new Bentley.
You know Shane, I am a domain investor, developer and time to time sell some domains off (if the offer is right). I use the same tactics you mentioned but when I go out and inquire about domains and have these same exact tactics used. Just makes me wonder if I am going to get a$$ raped in price or worth continuing with negotiation.
Who said it best, they never buy domains from another domain investor (or domainer)…? The sad part is, its mostly domainers who own category killers as they bought it off years ago off some guy who didn’t know the true value.
Very funny and spot on! Thanks for the laugh!
Ha, funny post. There is some truth in your tips, some stuff that probably won’t work, and one piece of advice I wouldn’t use (to lie about anything during the sales process). But I can see you posted this to help others, and partly for a laugh. Good one.
This was all in jest. Just having a little fun.
In jest, indeed. I feel a great swell of pity for any idiot who takes this seriously. lol Professional domainers know better than to do ANYTHING outlined here.
Randy,
The true idiot is the one that can’t see this was a joke. You could possibly be the biggest stuck in the mud on the Internet. I use stuck in the mud because I imagine you are 80 and this would be term you use. Move along