I have found a dictionary-word domain that I am interested in buying. The domain has been in use for several years, but it has only 2 pages and is not monetized. The owner's email is listed on the site. A google search for domain-name.com does not show it listed for sale anywhere. What would be a good way to approach the owner, to see if he is willing to sell it for a reasonable price and to escrow such a sale?
Email him, definitely include a price. Don't state your price as high as you can pay on the first email, leave some room for negotiation. For example if you can pay $1000 @ the most I would suggest you offer him between $400-600 (depending on the name quality of course) He will either accept or counter your offer, watch his move and see if you can afford his price. Tell him something along these lines... ----------------------------- Dear Ownerofthedomain, While I was surfing the net I came across your website. I am emailing you because I am interested in acquiring "domainname.com" from you. I was wondering if you would be interested in selling this domain name. I am offering $400 USD, I'll also cover all escrow fees to assure a safe transaction for the both of us. I believe the price I'm offering to be fair because ...(go to namebio.com or google some similar name sales and give the owner some stats). Hoping to hear from you soon, your name email phone number Good luck, just be sure to do some research before making any offers. Offering too much will show you as an end buyer and will give the seller false ideas (he will counter you high) Offering too little will come off as you not being serious. You have to offer just the right amount.
Thank you for the informative reply, SemihG! I own a small business, in my own name, that is similar to the domain I want to buy. The owner of the domain could easily figure out why I want his domain, and might raise his expectations for how much I am willing to spend. So, my thinking is to use an anonymizing service like Sedo or GoDaddy. Does anyone have any tips on those or other middlemen for domain purchases?
Its a tough thing to do, because most of the time the people that own them will counter with some ridiculous offer. I was looking at a domain name and emailed the person and they wanted $X,XXX.XX for it when it had poor traffic and no income. I just decided to wait until it expired and choose something else. (I only had a few months until it expired). You can always go through Godaddy or Sedo, but they charge I think $60.
I get offers out of the blue for various domains every few weeks. If they don't include a price in the first email I don't even bother responding, because I don't know how serious they are and I haven't found it worth the effort to go back and forth with jokers.
If the owner don't monetize for only 1 year, they may consider to sell the domain But if he/she has been the owner for several years, he/she may want to keep it for investment..since it is a virtual real estate
I tried to purchase the domain through Sedo. They accepted my $60+ negotiation payment and the next day emailed this reply: From the email, I can't tell if Sedo contacted the domain owner or not. If they had made him the offer he might have countered, or maybe not, but evidently I'll never know. The email continues with an offer to appraise the domain (for an additional payment). I think I'll pass.
I believe it is gone. I wish I knew if Sedo had sent him the offer and received a rejection, or if they just decided that my budget was too low and never contacted the domain owner.
It seems like SEDO determined that whatever you told them you were willing to pay was far too low to even have a chance of being accepted (in their opinion). You should just contact the domain owner yourself (but realize SEDO has a lot of experience in domain acquisitions so you should probably reconsider what you are willing to pay as too low of offer might not even get a response). Forget that you don't think the domain is currently making money, there are six figure domains that aren't currently monetized at all. You can create a different email address and use your first name (or a friends) to keep them from knowing why you want the domain.
If Sedo charges 60$ just to tell u that the value of the domain is more than your budget then i feel they are stealing you. Maybe you should contact the domain owner including your personal identity even the phone no and see what the person has to say to you
Maybe that would be good idea to place the offer on the forums (domain name related): WTB domain name. If you contact the owner directly you might have the offer with higher price. Also that is recommended to check the forums to make sure if that domain name is on the sale. Perhaps that has been selling
It's best to contact the owner directly instead of looking for forums on which it is for sale on as that's gonna take a long time and a lot of effort.
do u have a budget ? dictionary words costs normally $xx,xxx btw sedo is bs if u taking their service for brokering they are doing good because of auctions see a domain owner response below when he get a mail without price
Actually, I think, you just ask domain owner I am interested to buy this domain. If he reply positively, then you may ask price from him. Than you may provide your price. Its gental way.
Start by contacting the owner with your contact information. They may or may not respond but it's worth a try since it's free. If they don't reply consider using a paid service to work on your behalf.
Absolutely not true chandan! So you receive a $500 on a hand regged domain 5 years ago which could be sold for $5000-10,000. You wouldn't reply? Sry to say but that is not how a real salesman would respond (by not responding) Every salesman or anybody who is associated with a business set of mind will consider every offer, at the least they will counter your offer but most likely you will get a response. As per the buyer: It was not wise of you to contact Sedo, it sounds like you just got hassled by them. A few years back I had an appraisal from them for one of my premium domains, they appraised it somewhere near $2000 USD the domain ended up selling for $15,000. You have to understand that they are not fortune tellers or real experts of the industry, in fact this industry is still way to young to be predicted with significant accuracy. If you wish me to contact the owner of the domain name on your behalf, as an educated domainer. PM me.
I've had bad luck with this. There was an exemployer who owned about 100 domains that had been unused. As soon as I offered to buy the one, he realized how valuable it was and then wanted 15,000 for it. Be careful. If you know its expiring you can try to bookmark it so you can bid for it, but that is risky.
When I emailed someone the other day. It wasn't a valuable domain and they were sitting on heaps. A seperate person emailed back saying offers over $7000 considered. I offered back that perhaps they forgot the decimal point in the price.