Determine What You Are Willing To Pay For A Domain Before You Make Your First Bid
Monday, November 06, 2006
When buying a domain name you must determine what you are
willing to pay BEFORE you start the negotiations. I think this
is an obvious "rule" but I have to remind myself of this every
time I attempt to acquire a new domain name.
Just yesterday, I found two domain names that a client of mine
would like to use for his business website. Both are available
and "parked" at Sedo with a "minimum bid" listed on the pages.
One is a .com and the other is a .biz (different names for
each).
I submitted a bid for the .com extension at the suggested
minimum bid amount and the seller responded with a nice email
accepting the offer and we are going to purchase this domain
(this is how it is supposed to work, right?). Could the seller
have held out for more? Maybe... but he was guaranteed a sale
with my offer today and who knows how long it would take to
find another buyer for more money, right?
For the .biz domain name I did the same thing. I submitted an
offer for the minimum bid amount (keep in mind that based on my
knowledge of .biz values the offer we submitted was more than
fair). The response came back with a counter-offer that was 15
times higher than the suggested minimum bid amount! I did
respond back to the seller with a slightly higher bid (which is
the upper limit for what this .biz domain should sell for based
on current .biz sales) and stated this was my final offer and
that if they wanted to sell today I would pay this amount. I
doubt they will even respond back to me. To me this is just bad
business... if you want big $$$$$ (note the number of digits
they wanted) for a domain name you should price it accordingly
upfront and not try to "bait" buyers in hopes they will try to
"win" the purchase after you get them started bidding.
The point of this story is... do some research and find out the
value of a domain name based on recent/similar sales (reference
my post on Domain Sales - Year to date data 2006 plus all-year
data for 2005 and 2004
http://www.domainphilosophy.com/domain_philosophy/2006/06/domain_sales_ye.html).
Then, decide for yourself the maximum YOU are willing to pay for
the domain. If a seller pulls the "bait" technique I would walk
away and find a different domain name to purchase.
About The Author: Ron Gallagher operates his web-based
development business (http://www.ROAT.com) and writes a blog
titled Domain Philosophy (http://www.DomainPhilosophy.com).
Writing articles about domains has allowed my blog to become a
FAQ on tips, tricks, and ideas on how to acquire your best
domain name.
posted by Dennis Cheesman @ 5:33 AM,
