I just read a great post at dotweekly.com about feeling like an “end user” when buying a domain name.

I was typing out a comment and it accidentally turned into a book, so I figured I’d post my “reply” here:
(I wonder if longwindedcommenter.com is registered)

I’m actually going through that End User love and feeling right now as well.

Although I sell some domain names, I also like to develop them. Seeing things from an end user perspective can be very enlightening (and sometimes frustrating :)

For example, as a domainer, with a “good” domain listed on Sedo, I hate it when I receive lowball offers. My usually reply is an offer that adds a few zeros to their first offer. Although I shouldn’t, I think I sometimes feel insulted by the low offers, as if the person is trying to get something for nothing. But when I think about it, who doesn’t want the lowest price on the domain name they want to buy.

Yesterday, as I was domain Christmas shopping for myself, I saw a good domain on Sedo that sort of fit my criteria for a site I wanted to develop. This domain probably would sell at a decent “wholesale” price if it was listed on a domainer forum like NamePros or DNForum, but I think because I was bidding through Sedo, the domain owner may have been worried that I might be some big fish corporation trying to throw a lowball offer, so they did what would I have done, and added like 3 zeros to my offer (which made me promptly end the negotiations :) Thinking about it from their side, what seller doesn’t want to get the most for what their trying to sell.

Sometimes, I think not knowing anything about the buyer like in a Sedo setting can really hinder negotiations. Sellers may feel that if the bid is coming through Sedo, they may have found that “dream” end user with big pockets instead of dealing with a real person with realistic budget and plans for the domain.

At the same time, knowing too much about the buyer can also lead to unrealistic expectations of domain value. Most domainers will do all types of Sherlock Holmes worthy research when they receive an unsolicited email inquiry about one of their domain names. If they find that the buyer is really a rep from MegaCorp Inc, listed on the Fortunate 500 list, this can artificially inflate the sellers value of the domain name. This overvaluation based on the buyer can cost domainers $1000′s of dollars. If they are thinking “miiiiillions” and the buyer is thinking a strong 5 figures, domainers could pass up a realistic offer from one of the best buyers they could ask for. Just because the company makes billions, doesn’t mean they will spend millions on your domain name. Some will, most won’t.

For me, as a domainer that leans slightly towards the end user side because I like to develop websites, that’s one reason why I love the domainer forums. You can find some nice hidden gems. When a domainer only sees type in earnings, extension strength, or resell value, a developer can see long term potential earnings value. I don’t know if that would make me “domainer curious” or “end user curious”?

As a domainer, how do you swing? What have you learned from putting on the “other side’s” shoes?

Although not everyone agreed with the move for domaining.com to switch to a paid monthly membership model, I can say from first hand experience that their domain for sale listings do generate sales!

I listed a domain for sale this week and a buyer was found within a few hours! I woke in the morning to a nice notification email from Francois saying the domain had been sold, the payment had already been collected, and all I had to do was transfer/push the domain name to the buyer (who was cc’d on the email).

I replied right away and the whole transaction was completed by Noon. Buyer had their shiny new domain, I received my payment (minus commission) from domaining.com and there was peace in the world. Well, the peace in the world part was an exxageration, but it was a pretty nice feeling to sell a domain that I had listed for sale on namepros a month earlier with no luck.

One of the keys to selling any product or service is that you have to have to put your product in front of the *right* buyers. Domaining.com puts your domain in front of a larger volume of interested parties, which gives your domain a much better chance of selling.

I think this method of monetization for domaining.com could fit a very nice gap in the domain name aftermarket. It was nice to not have to haggle back and forth or bug the buyer about payment. When I got the sale notification, the payment was already taken care of and all I had to do was push the domain to the buyer. I like things easy :)

I’m happy to be one of the Latest 10 Sales on the domaining.com homepage :)

Google announced via its Adsense blog today that they will be expanding their Google for Domains program to all publishers. Instead of showing “page not found” or DNS errors, users can now see contextually targeted ads, links and search results when publishers use the Google for Domains feature.

Previously, Google Adsense for Domains was only available to large domain portfolio owners with very high volumes of traffic. They also worked with parking programs and registrars to show relevant content and ads on unused domains.

Now, smaller publishers who have unused domains can use the Google Adsense for Domains program to show ads and content on those unused domains. Without the need of signing up with a third party parking program who usually take a cut of the revenue.

Could this be the domain parking killer?

If domainers can signup directly with google instead of using a third party service like Sedo/Fabulous/etc, what benefits to domain parking programs offer to domainers?

Not to get too political (ie: political rant comments will be deleted), but I thought it was worth noting from a domainer perspective that just 2 days after being elected President of the United States, Barack Obama has “registered” a nice little dictionary domain to help transition into his presidency: change.gov

The site seems to be getting bogged down with traffic, but here’s a couple of screenshots of what you can find there.

Via: mashable.com

The domainer community forum NamePros.com is holding a live domain name auction on Thursday, October 28, 2008 at 6PM EDT.

There are several names listed in the auction queue that are available for prebidding.

A few LLLL.com (L.etter – L.etter – L.etter – L.etter .com domain names) are up for auction, including the CVCV (Consonant – Vowel – Consonant – Vowel letter combination) domain name CORU.com. The prebidding on that name is at $260

Some interesting aspects of this auction help it to stand out among the “auction house” or “domainer conference” type sales that have been seen over the past few months:

1. Anybody can add their name to the Live Auction queue
2. Although there won’t be time to auction all names, the prebidding process helps to bump the quality names to the top by showing that there is buyer interest
3. Seller’s Choice option for sellers. Defined as:
   

   “by electing this option, your auction will start without a specified reserve. Then after your name is auctioned, you will have the choice between accepting the high bid or canceling it by paying the high bidder a buyout fee equal to 20% of the winning bid price (capped at a maximum of $8.00 or 400 NP$)”

4. Listing fee for the auction is paid for in NP$ which is the local “currency” of the online forum. Each listing is 200 NP$ (which equals about $2.00 USD)

Of course, by having a more “open” listing policy, the quality of the names is a bit more loose than auctions that are pre-vetted, but I’m glad to see the variety allowed in the industry to let more “questionable” names compete and let the buyers decide.

Like my great grandma used to say “One mans regfee is another man’s gold.” (she was quite the forward thinker, that lady. Nobody thought she was senile way back then when she kept saying regfee :)