I had a delicious Mapo Tofu at home tonight that I picked up from a Japanese market on Sawtelle. Perhaps, by now, you have noticed a pattern in my culinary preferences — I generally like to eat with chopsticks.
Afterwards, I walked to the Coffee Bean underneath the old Spago on the Sunset Strip, where I can blog, immersed in the essence of freshly brewed coffee, accompanied by a Brazilian Jazz soundtrack.
In a recent post, I touched upon domain name auctions. Domain auctions serve many purposes and benefit both buyers and sellers. Results can be mixed, often ending in lower than expected sales prices. However, there are some strategies that can help, and sometimes, you might be handsomely rewarded with a bevy of bidders and a generous sales price.
One advantage to auctions is that they can offer a small degree of liquidity for good domain names. This is especially true if you set a very low opening bid and a reasonable reserve, or no reserve at all. If you want to move product, and are not seeking the highest return, auctions can help.
One of the more important decisions that you will need to make is whether or not you will have a reserve price at all. A reserve price is the minimum price that you are willing to accept. It is rarely made known to the buyers until they have exceeded it. Some auction houses, such as Go Daddy, charge a few bucks to have a reserve price.
By having no reserve and a very low opening bid, you might generate more interest, but you might get far less money than you might have expected. With a reserve and a very low opening bid, you can have comfort in knowing that you will not undersell your prized domain.
My opinion is that you should consider putting domains up for auction that you really want to move. You then let the market dictate how much they are worth. If the domain you are auctioning is a premium name, perhaps a reserve is in order. I recommend setting a reserve that affords a comfortable, but not generous, return. That’s the goal, but you may need to work a little to get there.
Once your domain name is on auction, it’s a good idea to promote your auction. One easy first step is to point your domain name to your auction page. Most registrars make it easy. You copy the URL of the auction page and paste it in the domain forwarding, “Forward To,” box. You would probably not want to do this if you have a developed website residing at this URL.
Then, you might consider sending a tasteful email to potential end users, informing them about the auction. One can also contact end users by phone or post. It’s a good call to action.
Lastly, some newsgroups, such as Namepros.com, feature an “external auction” section. In this section, you can link to the auction page.
We currently have a number of domain names on auction. MM.tv is on auction at Sedo.com. We were going back and forth, negotiating with the buyer. We sent it to auction with his last $6,000 counter. I believe that it’s worth quite a bit more, and I am comfortable letting the marketplace determine the closing price.
So much to tell, so little time. I’m looking forward to discussing auctions in more depth sometime soon. Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.