64 karma · joined August 1, 2014
Usage data (or a rough proxy for it) here: https://ntldstats.com/parking/tld The names not used are parked.
Art Of Negotiating A Domain Name Purchase
This is the step that 99% of people SCREW UP.
I see so much bad advice about how to approach someone to buy their domain... "contact them and say I see you're not using xxxxx.com, I have a little project I'd like to use it for... would you be willing to let it go?" etc. etc. etc. HORRIBLE ADVICE.
People that are sitting on domain names don't keep paying the registration fees every year for fun, even if they aren't using the name. They know it has value. So don't insult their intelligence making them think they should do you a favor by letting you have their unused domain.
Many Domain Owners Think They're Sitting On A Lottery Ticket
Many domain owners think that one day someone is going to come along and give them millions for their .Com no matter what it is. The fact is, domains are only worth what someone is ready to had you a check for. (A tip to all you wannabe speculators.) I've seen many GREAT domains never get sold, so always keep that in mind. Anyway, because domain owners have this thinking, they are very reluctant to NAME A PRICE. So forcing them to start by naming a price isn't something they want to do, because they're hoping YOU offer some ridiculously high price that they will then counter to go much higher.
Because of this, you MUST start out on first contact with an offer (more on this in a second). The approach of "would you be willing to sell xxxxx.com? If so, how much?" isn't going to cut it; one of the main reasons is that domain owners of decent domains get TONS of emails all the time asking them that, and when they've replied in the past with a price or try to start negotiations so many people are only willing to pay $100 or some insulting price.
So what do most domain owners do? IGNORE YOU. That's right. So if you've ever contacted a domain owner after looking them up with a Whois search and they didn't reply, it's not because they didn't your email (which makes you think that follow-up fax or phone call will do the trick; HINT: it won't.) It's because they think you're like everyone else that thinks they can buy the domain for $100 or so.
Here's how you get their attention and get the ball rolling...
Rule #1: You must start out by making an offer in your initial email.
Rule #2: This offer must be high enough to get their attention and make them at least THINK.
NOTE: Rule #2's amount will depend on how great the domain is.
The two magic price points I have found that work the best (they depend on how valuable the domain is) is either $1,000 or $2,500.
If it's a great domain then $5K-$10K is usually the starting point. These amounts are enough to get anyone's attention. I've bought many $100K+ value domains for $15K-$20K by starting with a $5K or $7K offer.
By starting with at least something that gets their attention they will take you seriously. This is the first step or you have no chance to make a deal.
In most cases for decent 2 words domains, the $1K to $2.5K opener works best.
* TIP: Always know your seller if possible. Do a Whois on who owns the domain, visit the domain in their email address or do some Google searches, etc. You'll often find a struggling Web designer is sitting on a great domain. $1,000 cash to that person is a lot of money. So this also goes into the process of deciding what to open the offer with.
The key here is not to insult someone with a lowball offer, but offer enough to make them know you're a serious buyer.
So here's a sample initial contact email to send... (and I'll explain the rest of the language I use)...
Subject Line: Whatever.com ($2,500?)
Hi,
I see you are the owner of Whatever.com. I'm in the process of trying to find a domain name for a client I am building a web site for and think your name could be a good fit. I am contacting different domain owners as we have it in the budget to buy a cool name and Whatever.com is on the list we came up with.
Would you be interested in selling it for $2,500?
Let me know and I can have the funds wired to you next day or PayPal'd to you. Just let me know your PayPal address.
Thanks for your time.
-YOUR NAME -------------------------
Let's breakdown why I used that language...
1. You've positioned yourself as not the future 'owner' of the domain. You're just managing a budget for a project. This helps because as they will usually counter with a higher amount, you'll play the "sorry, I just don't have it in the budget to go that high" to work towards a price you want. You'll also be able to play the "let me see if the client can approve a budget increase to accommodate that price" etc. etc. This also allows you to play Good Cop, Bad Cop in a way. You're just someone trying to get the deal done to do your job (build the site). You're also presenting yourself as someone LESS EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN THE NAME -- which will potentially keep the price down. (Trust me, it works very well.)
2. You mention that you're contacting several domain owners (i.e. making multiple offers). You're playing up SCARCITY, one of the most powerful emotions when it comes to sales. For all this person knows they could reply and say "okay, I'll sell it" but you may come back and say, "sorry someone replied to our email first and now we have a domain."
3. By closing with the "we'll pay you right away" it makes the offer more REAL. Many of these domain owners get offers that people back out of and have no intention to actually pay. And you're also ASSUMING THE SALE by saying, "what's your PayPal address?" :-)
Again, all of these things are very, very powerful and I have tweaked this initial contact email over the years.
ADDITIONAL TIPS
Let's say you initially offer $2,500 on a great name and the owner counters with, "I couldn't sell it for that, I've had higher offers. I would never sell it for anything less than $10K."
FIrst, you must IGNORE anything they say. You'll get the "I've turned down higher offers" response a lot. In the example response about $10K above, unless you would love to have it for $10K, just reply with something like this... "While I do think your name is possibly worth $10K to someone, we just don't have the budget for that much, sorry. I could probably get something more like $5K-$7K approved, but even that's pushing it. Anyway, thanks for your time."
That's it. Cut them off. Trust me, they'll come back to you 90% of the time. Sometimes you just have to be a little PATIENT and you'll save a fortune. Remember to always play up the SCARCITY. "That's just too much for our budget... looks like we'll just go with an alternative name that we've been negotiating for a lot less, even though we preferred your name. Thanks for your time and at least trying to work something out." That's NOT what they want to read from you. ;-)
There are THOUSANDS of amazing domain deals out there waiting to happen. I, personally, buy domains all the time this way. In fact, this is probably a good time to negotiate some deals as many people need the cash more than in recent years.
FINAL TIP: It's not uncommon to settle on a final price that is 30% of what their original asking price was. Keep that in mind as a general rule of thumb. I've had many deals for great names where someone "really wanted $60,000" and we closed the sale around $20K.
Hope this long novel will help some people. Best of luck to everyone.
Thistle is a healthy food and juice company based in San Francisco, California. We do on-demand deliveries of healthy food and juice. We started in 2013 with a small juice stand and have grown quickly to now serve fresh juice and food to over a thousand customers daily. Our mission is to deliver nutrition that is both fast and healthy and we are committed to being organic, local, and sustainable.
SOFTWARE ENGINEER - FULL TIME - SF OR REMOTE We’re looking for a full stack engineer to lead the development of our web and mobile apps responsible for delivering food and juice products to customers. As our first technical hire, you’ll be creating the foundation on which we develop future products, from driver delivery logistics to inventory management systems etc. There are lots of fun challenges to be solved, come help us engineer the future of fast healthy food!
Duties and responsibilities will include: Architecting the technology we’ll need to delight customers during the ordering experience, manage inventory, and optimize driver delivery logistics Managing a team (as needed) to execute on the design and development of our mobile and web apps Creating product roadmaps and prioritizing features Developing and implementing split testing systems Hiring and managing the tech team Key things we'll be looking for:
Full stack engineer (comfortable with Ruby, JS, iOS / Android) Interested in picking up new languages (e.g. native iOS / Android) Excited about our juice and food and willing to learn about our product Salary will be competitive and equity / stock options will also be available
PRODUCT MANAGER - FULL TIME - SF Duties and responsibilities include: Driving the definition and execution of product go-to-market plans Creating product roadmaps and prioritizing features Helping translate business needs to tech requirements Collecting and analyzing data to inform product direction Developing and implementing split testing systems Hiring and managing the tech team
Key things we are looking for: Experience in consumer web and mobile product development User experience savvy Deep understanding of new web and mobile technologies Excited about our juice and food and willing to learn our details about our product
Other positions we'd like to fill: Design intern - introduce yourself and email your portfolio to talent@drinkthistle.com Operations person - someone telling our drivers where to go and what to do - huge need and a good opening for a smart person who likes to roll up their sleeves.
Help us create great products that make healthy living accessible and appealing!