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Tutorial: Selling Domain Names on Major Marketplaces

Are you concerned you’re leaving money on the table by not listing your domain names in the right online marketplaces? You probably are.

This tutorial walks you through a 10-step process to list your domain names for sale at major marketplaces. You don’t need to do all the steps, but the more you do the more purchase interest you’ll receive.

Steps to sell your domain names at major marketplaces:
1. Organize your domain names for sale
2. Set pricing for your domain names
3. Hang a for sale sign
4. Select the right marketplaces
5. Sell domains on GoDaddy.com
6. Sell domains on Flippa.com
7. Sell domains on Sedo.com
8. Sell domains on DomainNameSales.com
9. Sell domains on Afternic.com
10. What to do after the sale

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Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/sell-at-marketplaces/

Are you concerned you’re leaving money on the table by not listing your domain names in the right online marketplaces? You probably are. Stay tuned to get the biggest results with the least amount of work.

Hi everyone, I’m Michael Cyger, publisher of DomainSherpa.com, and this is a DomainSherpa Tutorial where I not only talk about the strategy of passively selling domain names on marketplaces — I show you the tactics, on screen, of how to do it.

Imagine you want to sell your house but you never told anyone it was for sale. Your game plan was to wait for people to knock on your door or send you a letter and make you an offer.

In this case, you might wait until the end of your life without receiving an offer.

If you want to receive as many offers as possible for your home, you need to put up a “for sale” sign and publicize the sale in as many places as possible – like local newspapers, regional magazines, the real estate Multiple Listing Service and other marketplaces like Zillow.com.

The same rules apply to domain names you own and want to sell.

When selling domain names, there are similar steps you can take that will make you more successful.

This tutorial will walk you through a 10-step process to list your domain names for sale at major marketplaces. You don’t need to do all the steps, but the more you do the more purchase interest you’ll receive.

Steps to sell your domain names:
1. Organize your domain names for sale
2. Set pricing for your domain names
3. Hang a for sale sign
4. Select the right marketplaces
5. Sell domains on GoDaddy.com
6. Sell domains on Flippa.com
7. Sell domains on Sedo.com
8. Sell domains on DomainNameSales.com
9. Sell domains on Afternic.com
10. What to do after the sale

1. Organize your domain names for sale

Before we can list our domain names for sale, we need to develop a list of domain names for sale.

This may be an easy task if you only own five or 10 domain names, but if you have hundreds or thousands of domain names it may take some time.

I have most of my domain names at the domain name registrar called GoDaddy, and you can see that all my domain names are categorized into folders so I can manage them more easily.

I have a folder for domain names related to DomainSherpa.com, one folder related to iSixSigma.com – another publishing website I own, a folder for domains I want to drop, and a folder for domain names that I consider to be my investment portfolio.

The investment portfolio folder includes domain names that I have plans to develop but would consider selling if the right opportunity presented itself. The investment portfolio is the list of domain names that I will use for illustrative purposes in this tutorial.

I can tell you that it took a good few hours for me to go through my list of about 550 domain names and put them into folders, and I often had to go over my domain name portfolio multiple times to determine if I consider certain domain names to be an investment or part of one of my brand portfolios, or – if they were investment grade or should be dropped.

The next thing to do is get this list in an easy-to-manage format, so I’m going to sign into my GoDaddy account, go to More > Export List, type in a list name, select “from a list” in the “Domain list” pull-down menu, then select “Investment” from the “Folders” pull-down menu. Obviously, you’ll need to select the appropriate options given your own organizational system at the registrars you use.

Then I click Next, Next again, CSV format if you want to open it up in Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheet, and then “none” for the lower pull-down menu, which – although unlabeled – I believe is asking if you want compression on the download file. Then go to your email program and look for the download link.

When you get the email notification, you’ll go back to your GoDaddy account and click More, Manage Exportable Lists, download icon, then click to open it in Microsoft Excel if you have it installed.

We’re going to use this list to import into the various domain name marketplaces, so being able to copy an entire column of domain names is a requirement.

Remember, if you have domain names at other registrars then you’ll need to include them in your list. In my case, I have two domain names that are ccTLDs that GoDaddy cannot manage for me – angels.vc and seo.io – and another at another registrar – surveys.xyz, so I’m going to add these to the bottom of my list.

2. Set pricing for your domain names

Many of the domain name marketplaces allow you to sell your domain names on a “Make Offer” basis, meaning that you’re listing the domain name for sale but if someone is interested in buying it then they need to contact you and make an offer.

In some cases, you may have domain names that you know will never be worth more than three or four figures, and it would be a waste of your time to negotiate sales prices on each of these. In such cases, you may want to set “But It Now” pricing for these domains.

Doing so allows you to take advantage of impulse purchases by those searching for domain names. Often times if you can set a price, registrars can include your domain names in the domain name search process.

Take, for example, if I search for venture.com on GoDaddy. I can see at the top of the page the it’s not available, then GoDaddy recommends some alternatives that are available for registration fee, then it recommends Premium domain names that are available for a higher first year price. If you mouse-over the information icon it says, “While GoDaddy does not own these domains names, we are one of a select group of registrars that can introduce you to the sellers.”

Without setting a buy it now price in GoDaddy’s marketplace, you wouldn’t be able to have your domain name highlighted in the domain name search process.

I’ll show you how to become one of these sellers later in this tutorial.

What you’ll want to do…

The final advice I’ll provide is that marketplaces charge a commission ranging between 10% and 30%, so make sure your pricing includes this range and that you’ll be happy with the net sale price after commission. See below for a summary table of commission by marketplace.

3. Hang a for sale sign

At the same time I list my house for sale in MLS, I put up a yard sign saying it’s for sale. You never know when people are driving through the neighborhood and might notice your house for sale.

The same is true for your domain name. Many buyers start by typing a domain name into their browser to see if it’s registered and what’s on the website. So we need to hang a for sale sign up.

And our domain name for sale sign needs to service the same purpose as a house for sale sign – it needs to provide a contact name, telephone number and URL.

There are many marketplaces that provide this benefit to you and act as a lead funnel, or you can do what many brokers do and create your own landing page on your website to gather purchase inquiries.

I won’t spend the time going over the pros and cons of each option on this tutorial. But at the end of the day, if a user types in one of your domain names to see if it’s available – which a lot of people do – you want to direct them to a page that has contact information and a form to generate a sales inquiry.

I personally prefer to use the DomainNameSales.com platform as I can list it for sale and also generate some advertising revenue from the parked page. If I type in diagnose.com, for example, you can see the landing page displays advertising and there’s a banner saying the domain name is listed for sale. Clicking the link in the banner takes me to a sales inquiry form.

The process is simple to point your domain names at the DomainNameSales.com platform. Select every domain name in my Investment portfolio, change the domain name nameservers to custom, and set them to:
buy.internettraffic.com and
sell.internettraffic.com

Then go to DomainNameSales.com, go to the Domains pull-down menu item, and click Portfolios.

I’m going to create a new portfolio called Investment.

In the advanced settings area, you can customize the message you want in the top banner.
http://domainnamesales.com/domain/{DOMAIN}
{DOMAIN} is may be for sale. Call (206) 347-0977 or {LINK}click here to inquire about purchase or lease{/LINK}.

Then go to DomainNameSales.com, go the Domains pull-down menu item, Portfolios / Affiliates section, Add New Portfolio and add my Investment list.

4. Select the right marketplaces

Now that we know what domain names we want to sell and have priced any domain names we might want to sell as part of a checkout process, it’s time to find the best marketplaces to list your domain names for sale.

There’s a concept known as the Pareto Principle also known as the 80/20 rule (http://www.isixsigma.com/tools-templates/pareto/pareto-principle-8020-rule/), states that 80 percent of what you get comes from 20 percent of the effort. In essence, we spend time and effort doing things that don’t matter and we need to focus on the vital few inputs that produce the results we want.

Applying the Pareto Principle to domain name sales, if you listed your domain names for sale on every marketplace available you would likely find that roughly 80 percent of your sales leads come from 20 percent of all the domain name marketplaces. If that’s true, then we should spend our time on the ones that matter.

In my opinion, the domain name marketplaces that matter most are the ones that get the most amount of traffic. More eyeballs equals more potential sales.

So I use a tool to see which websites get the most traffic. The website tool I use is Alexa.com.

While Alexa.com is not perfect, it is a ranking system that basically audits and makes public the frequency of visits on various websites. According to Alexa.com, these are the most frequented domain name marketplaces on the Internet as of the publish date of this tutorial, along with their Alexa.com worldwide ranking in parentheses:
1. GoDaddy.com (69)
2. Flippa.com (1,267)
3. Sedo.com (1,541)
4. DomainNameSales.com (5,509)
5. Afternic.com (10,610)

Do you have another marketplace you were considering? Plug it into http://www.alexa.com/ and look for the “Global Rank” number. If the Alexa rank is lower than those listed above, meaning it’s more popular, then consider listing your portfolio there instead or in addition to, and post a comment below to let others know the marketplace and it’s Alexa global rank.

If the Pareto Principle tells us there’s a point of diminishing return to our efforts, I’m only going to list my domain names on these five marketplaces.

5. Sell domains on GoDaddy.com

GoDaddy charges a Premium Listing commission fee of 30%. To sell in GoDaddy Auctions, you need an Auction account that costs $4.99 per year; the commission fee is 10%. Other details and minimum fees can be found at http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/3501/what-are-the-commission-rates-for-premium-listings and https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpPricing.aspx.

Let me start this section by saying that if your domain names aren’t at GoDaddy, then you can’t use GoDaddy Premium to sell your domain names but you can use GoDaddy Auctions whether your names are at GoDaddy or not.

If they are at GoDaddy, then sign into your GoDaddy.com account. Mouse-over “Domains” and select “Manage My Domains”.

Create a GoDaddy.com account and then sign into it. Then go to the Domain Manager.

When you select a domain name, you’ll have two options: “Sell on Premium Listings” and “List on GoDaddy Auctions”.

If you select Premium Listings, you’ll go through the process of setting a “Buy It Now” price for each of your domain names between $100 to $99,999 USD.

As mentioned in section 2, “Set pricing for your domain names”, this can be of tremendous benefit given that GoDaddy has the largest registrar market share. Setting a buy it now price allows GoDaddy to put the domain name in the domain name search path, allowing a user to checkout much like they would for registering a new domain name, but with a price tag that you set.

To list your domain name as a Premium Listing, it’s sort of a strange process. You have to set prices on your domains, then checkout with a zero cost.

The GoDaddy Auctions process allows you to set one of four options:
1. Offer/Counter Offer (also known as “Make Offer”)
2. Offer/Counter Offer with Buy Now
3. Buy Now Only
4. 7-Day Public Auction

The process for a person to buy your domain name through GoDaddy Auctions is more complicated than Premium Listings. Instead of the buyer checking-out like they would for a hand-registered domain name, they have to have a GoDaddy Auctions account, which adds an extra few steps to the process.

To list a domain name, go to GoDaddy Auctions, click “List a Domain” and then follow the prompts.

The GoDaddy Auction requires that you set a Minimum offer price must be between $10 and $50,000 USD.

6. Sell domains on Flippa.com

In 2014, Flippa started offering a Domains Catalog option. Flippa’s Domains Catalog is a different section from their Auction listings, which won’t be discussed here.

In the Catalog, domains are listed with either “Best Offer” or “Buy It Now” parameters.

The sales commission is 10% and there is a $10 minimum. Other details and minimum fees can be found at http://flippa.com/blog/introducing-flippas-domains-catalog/.

Create a Flippa.com account and sign into it. Then click on the Selling… “My Domain Catalog” link, then “Add more domains” and follow the three step process to enter your domains, price your domains, and review your instructions.

I really wish there were a way to either upload a spreadsheet or set minimum offer or buy now pricing more easily for large portfolios, but since this is such a new system I’m sure Flippa.com be improving it soon.

Once the domains are submitted you wait for them to verify you own the domains, and they’ll be searchable and ready for sale through their catalog.

7. Sell domains on Sedo.com

Sedo charges a commission fee of 10% for Buy Now domain names, a 15% for other sales originating on Sedo.com, and 20% for SedoMLS Premium sales. Other details and minimum fees can be found at http://www.sedo.com/us/services/price-list-for-services/.

Create an account and then sign into your Sedo.com account. Then mouse-over “My Sedo”, select “Add Domains”, and follow the three step process to enter your domains, price your domains, and activate SedoMLS Premium.

Let’s walk through the process. I’m going to go to my spreadsheet, copy all of my investment domain names, and paste them into the step 1 box.

Sedo then shows me what they think is a fair sales price based on their past sales data. This tutorial is not intended to discuss setting retail values for domain names, so I’m going to leave the fields blank let people make offers on my domain names.

Two benefits of setting a price include: 1) selling more domain names – it’s been shown that domain names that are priced sell more readily, and 2) increasing the distribution of your domain names to syndicated partners of the marketplace your using.

Now, three detriments of setting a price: 1) if your prices across marketplaces don’t match, you might be obligated to sell a domain name for less, 2) an increase in the value of your domain name requires more work on your part to monitor and update, and 3) setting prices removes your ability to determine your potential buyer’s need and budget.

You can also opt-into the SedoMLS Premium program for syndication of your domain names to Sedo partners, but you need to do an automatic transfer through one of their partners registrars. If you have your domain names at Name.com or UnitedDomains.com, for instance, this might be a good option for you. Learn more at http://www.sedo.com/us/sell-domains/sedomls/.

8. Sell domains on DomainNameSales.com

DomainNameSales.com doesn’t charge a commission if you “take ownership” of a lead and do the negotiation yourself – yes, they’re allowing you to use their system for free in the hopes that you might want their brokers to negotiate on your behalf where they can earn a commission. Their commission is 12.5% only if their brokers handle the negotiation. Other details and minimum fees can be found at http://domainnamesales.com/brokerage.

As we mentioned earlier in this tutorial, DomainNameSales.com can act as a sales inquiry platform. In setting up the system to gather leads, the domain names are also entered into their marketplace and listed as for sale.

Create a DomainNameSales.com account and sign in. Go the Domains pull-down menu item, and click Portfolios.

I’m going to create a new portfolio called Investment and start fresh.

In the advanced settings area, you can customize the message you want in the top banner.
http://domainnamesales.com/domain/{DOMAIN}
{DOMAIN} is may be for sale. Call (206) 347-0977 or {LINK}click here to inquire about purchase or lease{/LINK}.

9. Sell domains on Afternic.com

Afternic charges a Network level commission of 15% with a $60 minimum and a Premium level commission of 20% with a $120 minimum. Other details and minimum fees can be found at http://www.afternic.com/sell-domains.

Create an Afternic.com account and sign in. Click the “List Domains” and follow the process to enter your domains.

On Step 2 you’ll set the promotional level and pricing.

According to the Afternic.com website, the Network promotion level reaches 32 reseller websites and 25 million qualified buyers each month, and the Premium promotion level reaches 100 reseller sites and 75 million buyers each month. And I’ll throw out a caveat to the GoDaddy marketplace discussed earlier: because Godaddy is part of the Afternic Partner network, you can actually list a domain registered through a third party registrar at Afternic as Premium listing and it will syndicated to GoDaddy’s search function as a Premium listing.

The Afternic Premium promotion level is similar to the GoDaddy Premium and SedoMLS Premium options. To select the Afternic Premium level, you must have a Buy Now price and it must be registered at a participating registrar.

For pricing, there are three fields you can fill in:
1. Buy Now
2. Floor
3. Minimum

The Buy Now is a fixed sales price. If you set this, a person can buy the domain name for this price. The Floor is the lowest price you would sell the domain name. And the Minimum is the lowest offer someone can make for the domain name.

So if I asked $10,000 for a domain name, would take $5,000 and didn’t want to see offers for less than $1,500, I would set a Buy Now price of $10,000, a Floor price of $5,000 and a Minimum of $1,500. Afternic will then negotiate for me, try to get as close to $10,000 as possible but won’t sell the domain for less than $5,000. And Afternic is incentivized to get as much for the domain name as possible as they’re compensated by commission.

10. What to do after the sale

Once a domain name is sold, it’s your responsibility to remove the domain name from other marketplaces.

You would think that once your registrant information changes on the domain name that the marketplaces would realize it’s no longer for sale, but that’s not the case. Do yourself and the buyer a favor by removing the domain name in each of your marketplace accounts.

I hope this tutorial helps you list your domain names on marketplaces to maximize inquiries and sales.

Please post a comment below if you have any questions or would like to see a tutorial on another topic.

Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/sell-at-marketplaces/

Commission Summary

Some minimums may apply in sales. Read the marketplace notes for details. Thanks to Choo Jen-Sin for the 2015 updates.

Domain Marketplace Commission Buy It Now Pricing Range
GoDaddy.com 1, 2 20% ($15 minimum) Commission for Domain Sale up to $5k
$1000 + 15% of amount over $5k Commission for Sale above $5k
$4000 + 10% of amount over $25k Commission for Sale above $25k
Auctions: $4.99/year + Commission Above
$50 to $99,999
Flippa.com 3 10% $1 to $100,000,000
Sedo.com 4 Buy Now: 10% 4a
Other Sales on Sedo: 15%
SedoMLS Premium Sales: 20%
(Commission exclude VAT for EU residents)
$90 to $10,000 (unless appraised higher)
DomainNameSales.com 5 Self-broker: 0%
DNS Broker: 15% ($175 minimum)
$1 to $100,000,000
Afternic.com 6 Network Level: 15%
Premium Level: 20%
$1,500 to $49,999,999

4a: 10% Sedo Buy Now commission is for a sale originating on Sedo’s Domain Marketplace if the domain is also parked with Sedo.

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68 Responses to “Tutorial: Selling Domain Names on Major Marketplaces”

  1. Jason says:

    Good article. One thing to add that the “Buy it Now” Pricing is not set in stone, if you email them you can get a higher limit.

  2. Prashanth says:

    Thanks for this Awesome tutorial Michael,

    Since this link is taken down: https://www.domainsherpa.com/domain-characterization, Can you please give some tips on how to differentiate between good and crappy domain names.

    Thanks in Advance!

    1. Hi Prashanth,

      It’s a good domain if it has:
      1. Type-in traffic
      2. Parking revenue
      3. Offers or inquiries to buy
      4. Whois lookups (download your domains at GoDaddy, and this is an option to select)

      If it doesn’t have any of those, then it’s likely crappy or you know something someone else doesn’t. I can’t determine what you know, but if you don’t know much or haven’t been successful investing to date I will point you to (shameless plug for my elearning course) DNAcademy.com, the quickest way to move from novice to intermediate/advanced investor.

      Hope that’s helpful.

      Best,
      Mike

  3. DT says:

    Great video! Really good overview. Thanks for this.

    1. Alex Rossou says:

      sedo.com is very interesting. There are huge amount of great domain names one can choose to buy.

      For example, a domain name like ticket·de has more than 200 bids to this date (Although the actual price is about 490,000 Euro!) – and a domain name musica·ly has more than 150,000 viewer each month! which is quite a big number for a parked domain name, so it guarantees a successful business as soon as one lunchs a website in these domain names!

      I couldn’t find the same feature in other domain buy/sell providers

      1. Hi Alex,

        I’d be very cautious about “domain names with bids” as we have zero insight into how the data is collected and stored, and why types of data hygiene Sedo uses. If you can point me to a detailed explanation, then I’lll change my opinion. But data is easily gamed — I can submit 100 fake bids to drive up the numbers on my domain name for sale at Sedo, and that means nothing to someone who buys the domain name from me.

        The same is true for many other areas of the domain name industry. Domain name registrations, for example, is the vanity metric of choice nowadays. Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. There are many better metrics.

        Go in with open eyes. Do your due diligence. Think out of the box when buying a domain name to verify that data is as you expected before you buy.

  4. Michael says:

    Amazing video! What I love about your videos is that I’ll come up with a question in my head and you always answer it (like you read my mind)… I love it!

    I’ve watched a ton of interviews etc. But on average how long does it take for a sale to be made off of a “good” domain name? I notice some people buy a ton!

    1. Good question, Michael. Unfortunately, there are too many factors involved to determine that figure, including desirability, price, negotiation skills, communication skills, etc.

  5. Woo Kim says:

    Hi Michael thank you so much for another fantastic video.

    I am just starting out and this info has been great help.

    Keep up the good work!

  6. Choo Jen-Sin says:

    @Michael, thanks for the great tutorial.

    You might like to update the Commission Summary as there have been several updates since the video was made.

    GoDaddy / Afternic
    20% ($15 minimum) Commission for Domain Sale up to $5k
    $1000 + 15% of amount over $5k Commission for Sale above $5k
    $4000 + 10% of amount over $25k Commission for Sale above $25k
    $50 minimum BIN

    DomainNameSales.com
    0% Commission for Self-Brokered
    15% ($175 minimum) Commission for DNS-Brokered

    Sedo
    $60 minimum Commission
    Commission exclude VAT for EU residents
    $90 minimum BIN

    Best

  7. Fred says:

    Is there an online platform to manage a domain portfolio, specifically as it relates to the various selling platforms? In other words, I’d like to be able to login to a single site, put in a domain and a price, then have that domain added to all the various sales platforms. Then, I’d like to be able to easily update my selling price on all the platforms by modifying the price once on this domain manager.

    I’m currently using Sedo, GoDaddy and Afternic to sell my domains, and keeping my 1600 domains updated requires way too much time since I’m doing it one at a time, on each platform. One price change means doing three separate updates.

    Does such a wondrous, magical platform exist?

    1. I wish, Fred. If there is one then I’m not aware of it.

      1. Fred says:

        Thanks.

        There’s an opportunity for someone. I’d pay for this. Today.

    2. Choo Jen-Sin says:

      Protrada.com allows one to list in GoDaddy, Sedo & Afternic under one platform.

      However, one can not update the pricing from the Protrada platform.

  8. Mark U says:

    Thanks Mike, great stuff (as always)!
    1] You mentioned in a couple replies that you would come up with a similar tutorial on brandables. Just wonder if you had a chance to do it.
    :-)
    2] From a practical angle – if we take the following example: domains are registered with GD and parked with DNS [ domain name nameservers are pointed to DNS], what one can do to list domains in as many places as possible?
    Say it’s a brandable domain, I want to give it the highest possible exposure and I would like to avoid any situation where it’s listed as BIN/Auction in more than one place.
    What are you thoughts on this?
    For example, would this be the best option: GD Premium BIN, Flippa Catalog “Best Offer”, Sedo “Other Sales”, DNS Self-broker, Aftenic “Network Level?

    Thanks.

    1. Hi Mark,

      Yes, your comments were being caught by the Akismet spam filter for some reason. Thanks for your email — I was able to search and approve this comment. But I’m afraid your previous comment that was improperly tagged was removed. Sorry.

      I’m hoping now that I’ve approved one comment future comments will go through.

      These are good questions.

      The largest brandable marketplaces are listed here: https://www.domainsherpa.com/domain-name-marketplaces/ I have a to-do item on my list to create a video for them as well.

      GoDaddy owns Afternic and will likely give you the best exposure to sell your premium domain names in the registration path. I suggest you list them with a BIN price only in Afternic if your domains are at GoDaddy. In that way, you can opt into the Premium Network option and fast transfer and maximize sales. You can watch a video on the topic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPJ8y-pwY38

      Then list your domains in all the other major marketplaces with a make offer option.

      Good luck!

      Best,
      Michael

      1. Mark U says:

        Thanks a lot Michael. And it’s all good, no probs with the old comment, that was a long time ago, don’t even remember what that comment was about.
        Not sure why Akismet didn’t like them though…

        I haven’t watched the Afternic video yet (will do that later tonight) but judging by your reply it looks like it’s better to go with Afternic Premium Network than with GD Premium. Similar exposure, but cheaper – is it because of that? 20% against 30% ?

        Thanks.

        1. Afternic is owned by GoDaddy since 2013 (http://domainnamewire.com/2013/09/19/godaddy-acquires-afternic-from-namemedia/).

          The Afternic network includes but goes beyond GoDaddy.

          The extra commission cost is worth the exposure (https://www.afternic.com/sell-domains).

  9. Dreifort says:

    would you recommend AfterNIC’s domain appraisal service?

    1. If you’re referring to https://www.afternic.com/arrival/appraisal?rid=2987, I would not. All automated appraisals are likely going to be either high or low.

      You might as well do the free Estibot.com appraisal (one per day). Or go to a discussion forum like DNForum or NamePros and ask others for an appraisal — it’s likely to be just as good or bad, depending on your view.

  10. lanceTuts says:

    How can I add a domain on godaddy.com for sale on free of cost?

    1. You can list a domain name for free, but if it sells on the GoDaddy marketplace then you owe GoDaddy a small commission. You can read exactly how the process works at https://support.godaddy.com/help/article/1525/understanding-go-daddy-auctions-listing-options.

  11. Codexmart says:

    I have parked a domain on afternic.com, Can I add my domain on flippa for selling?

    1. You can. But if it sells at both locations simultaneously, for instance, then you’ll owe both marketplaces a commission. So make sure it’s not listed for a Buy It Now price on Afternic if you’re listing it for sale without a reserve on Flippa.

  12. Tia says:

    Would Afternic premium would cost more to sell domain names with them?

  13. cherrytrade says:

    hi,
    between flippa and afternic which do you suggest i sell my domain

    1. It depends on the name.

  14. Victor says:

    Thank you very much Michael. I am new to the domain makerting bussines and greatly appreciate all the information you have given through the video tut.

  15. MaryPT says:

    Hello sir,

    I am new to domain name marketing, it is my learning time and I have gathered approx. 50 domain names but I’m not sure if they should be called premium name.

    I will like to know your insight on my portfolio, please do let me know by evaluating my portfolio with your suggestions so that I can improve more.

    Mary

    1. Hi Mary,

      Great to hear you’re moving along your plan.

      We don’t do free portfolio reviews, nor does DomainSherpa provide consulting services.

      You can, however, submit your portfolio to a panel of Sherpas for review on the DomainSherpa Review. You can learn more at https://www.domainsherpa.com/join-review/, watch previous shows at https://www.domainsherpa.com/review/ and submit your portfolio at https://www.domainsherpa.com/review-portfolio/. We’re currently at capacity, but if you send me an email (following the instructions on that page), I’ll let you know as soon as we open up the submissions again.

      Happy holidays,
      Michael

    2. branddo says:

      Hi Mary,

      Here are some tips to identify the premium domain names

      1- Exact match word(s) that name a product, service, industry etc.
      2- Short names / acronyms
      3- .com
      4- One-word brandable names
      5- Domains with a high search volume
      6- Names with high advertiser competition
      7- Is the TREND positive or negative?
      8- USE YOUR INTUITION and COMMON SENSE

      Regards

  16. DomainX.org says:

    Thanks for the good selling strategies.

  17. Lynn says:

    Thanks for the great article Michael!

    I listed my domains on Afternic and Sedo. It seems like I can pay less of a commission through Afternic Premium and still have most of the benefits of Godaddy Premium so I have not listed my domains yet on Godaddy.

    I also found some of the domains I registered in the last month cannot be listed as Premium on Afternic because they were registered within the last 2 months on Godaddy. I called Afternic and found this was because of Godaddy’s requirements.

    Finally, I took a looked at the number of sales in the first couple of months this year on Afternic/Godaddy, Sedo and Flippa. It looks like Afternic/Godaddy had 5x more sales than Sedo and 50x more sales than Flippa. So, I am focusing on Afternic/Godaddy and Sedo.

    I also heard DomainNameSales wants a minimum portfolio size to be listed. Any idea what this number is?

  18. Melanie says:

    Great show as always, Mike!
    Before watching this, I was just writing all of this out today, in planning on where to sell, pricing, etc… Then stumbled on this video somehow…(Funny how things happen)…
    I figured If I put “make offer” at each of the marketplaces, my chances will be higher, but as you state, if I have a set price on them, I am more likely to sell.
    However, on the flip side, I will only be able to post on 1 platform if I put on auction at a set price, as opposed to make offer, plus as you also stated, I won’t know what the potential buy’s budget is, and could likely sell for more….So I need to do some thinking on this now. Any suggestions on the best route for me to take on this?
    Also, Thanks for all your vids, and tutorials! Please do keep them coming, and keep up the great work!
    I am pinning this one to my tabs!
    Also please thank Adam, Frank, Page, Zappy, and the other Mike for me, as I think they are great contributors to your shows, and have learned a lot from them! :-)
    Kudos & Best Wishes!
    Melanie

    1. Hi Melanie,

      I think every marketplace is going to have a slightly different user base, and given your domain name investment strategy you’re going to have different results than other people. So I’d recommend you systematically try one, then migrate to another, to see where you’re seeing the most leads and sales. Give each a month or two trial.

      Best of luck and keep us posted on how you do!

      Best regards,
      Michael

      1. Melanie says:

        Thanks for your advice, Michael! I most definitely will! :-)

  19. Kevin Fink says:

    Mike,

    Thanks so much for all the coverage — we’re really proud to have made the list.

    One thing to announce — as of yesterday, the fee structure for Flippa’s Domain Catalog has changed (in a good way).

    Old fee structure: 15% commission ($60 minimum)

    New fee structure: 10% commission ($10 minimum) — same as our auction portal.

    We’ve been listening to feedback from sellers, and are happy to oblige with requests.

    Thank again,
    Kevin Fink, Domains Manager @Flippa

    1. Thanks, Kevin. I’ve updated the data on this article to reflect your current pricing/commission structure.

    2. Choo Jen-Sin says:

      Kevin, is the minimum commission removed as well?

      Thanks!

      1. Kevin Fink says:

        Yes, thanks for the correction — the $10 minimum has been waived for transactions $100 and under (just a 10% flat commission all around now).

    3. Jeff Smith says:

      Kevin, Whats the username for Flippa on Instagram & Snapchat

  20. Zac Zarev says:

    Great work as always!

    1. Thanks for watching and commenting, Zac.

  21. Mick Williams says:

    Thanks Michael, love what you are teaching me. Cheers Mick.

    1. My pleasure, Mick. Thanks for taking a moment to comment.

  22. Bradley NYC says:

    Hi Mike

    Excellent tutorial!

    Got a question and here’s the scenario:

    Someone lists on the top 3 marketplaces, in which all three platforms’ auctions end on the same day, or they end on separate days.

    And, say that all three are actively getting bidders, the Reserves have all been met, but one of the platforms bidders is substantially higher that the other two i.e. $8,000; $12,000; and $27,000 — can the seller cancel the other two auctions to go with the platform that will provide the most profit on the name?

    Thank you

    Bradley

    1. Hi Bradley,

      I’m not suggesting that you list them for auction on any site, just that you get them listed and found when people go there to search.

      It’s not a good practice to auction them at more than one location at a time.

      Check the terms and conditions of each marketplace if you’re willing to roll the dice, but I cannot imagine it would be a good practice.

      Instead, set a fair reserve and then them in series.

      Good luck,
      Michael

      1. Bradley NYC says:

        Thank you Mike!

  23. Note that for Sedo, the commission is 10% only if Buy Now AND the domain is parked at Sedo. If the domain isn’t parked there, the commission is 15%

    1. Thanks for the clarification, Jackie. I’ve updated the commission matrix to reflect that point.

      1. Great Michael. Because everything else was right on the mark.

        FWIW, I also list my domains on those, and only those, marketplaces.

  24. Rob says:

    Great show. Good overview of all major selling platforms.

    Two observations:

    First. Ebay. Very popular website, but doesn’t focus on domains. Still many eyeballs, and, by your definition. that would be a good thing.

    Second: It is often difficult to actually negotiate over these platforms. I once got into an offer counter offer on Afternic that was a total waste of time. The prospective buyer kept raining his offer by $25 dollars or so, and I would lower mine by a similar amount. We went back and forth like that for days. I just wanted to be able to send him a message that I expected___ figures at least and if he couldn’t get there, we were just wasting our time. Instead, we went back and forth without a way to communicate except with numbers until one of us gave up. I don’t even remember who. I much prefer a DNS or Voodoo style parking page and response. You can gather information about a buyer and simply type a message to tell then what you want,

    1. Hi Rob,

      Great points. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments.

      eBay used to be a great marketplace but nowadays most of the domain names are low value. Users don’t go to eBay to look for domain name purchases, so they were left off my list. But it’s an exception to the rules I provided, so I appreciate you making the point.

      Each platform has it’s pros and cons. Great point about the information each provides and whether it’s useful to you, as a seller. I will provide your feedback to the marketplace owners when I have the opportunity to do so.

      Best,
      Michael

  25. Mike Craft says:

    Dear Michael,

    Great tutorial.

    I have a few brandables and would like to know if they’d be good enough quality for the brandable sites mentioned earlier, and how they work (same commission matrix you did here).

    I recommend this site to everyone I PM with on DNforum and NamePros. Keep up the highest quality shows available. I love them.

    Mike

    1. Thanks for posting a comment, Mike. It’s now on my list of tutorials to do.

  26. wassim says:

    I think that the best way to sell a domain name is to hire a pro (adam dicker for example via namebrokers.com) .by y the way i’m selling 2 memorable easy to spell and remember domains :

    [Domains redacted, against commenting rules.]

    1. Hi Wassim,

      Adam is great. He recently helped me negotiate a domain name for purchase and did a great job. I highly recommend him.

      Here are some other reputable brokers: xxxxxx

      What you’ll find is that unless your domain name is worth $50,000+ the domain name brokers listed on the link above may not have the time to support your purchase or sale. (The exception being if you have a personal relationship with one of them.)

      Here is a link to our full comment policy: https://www.domainsherpa.com/comment-policy/
      Domain Reviews: https://www.domainsherpa.com/join-review/

      Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.

      Best,
      Michael

  27. JT Sergel says:

    This tutorial couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me. I have a portfolio of about 50 names and I need to get more passive exposure because I’m not actively selling them. Way to cut through the bull on each marketplace and give us the “nuts and bolts”, Michael.

    Keep up the awesome work!

    1. Great to hear, JT!

      Thanks for taking the time to post a comment.

  28. Jay says:

    Great Post,

    Just wondering what your thought are on the “Brandable” niche sites such as:

    BrandBucket
    Namerific
    BrandRoot

    Thanks

    1. Great question, Jay. I’ll do another tutorial or cumulative interview on those three websites as I think they have value in the right situation, with the right types of domain names.

      1. Alex says:

        Hi Michael – Thanks for the tutorial.

        I just want to add two very good websites that accept to list the brandable domain names:

        BrandDo.com
        ExciteMental.com

        Regards
        Alex

  29. AW says:

    I must say that for me it is not so obvious whether it is helpful to list domain names at marketplaces, or rather useless or maybe slightly harmful…
    I’ve been trading with domains since 2005/6, but ccTLD not gTLDs. In the most active time I was having arround 5k names. My total sales: arround 1k names, for all price ranges. But at my Sedo account I’ve got 4 (four) transactions done.

    I use parking only, but this kind of parking which allows me to negotiate with the bidder, which allows me to know who it is, how much can pay not how much is bidding!
    My opinion is that if I hadn’t known the bidder, if I hadn’t been able to negotiate, I would not have close many of my sales. Reason? It’s easy to set Buy Now for $500. But what if you exactly don’t know whether the right Buy Now is $1k or $5k?

    The above situation is not supported at Sedo by their domain appraisal, which has always been useless for me and my domains. I was monitoring selected appraisals by Sedo in regard to SOLD DOMAINS. Appraisals have always been like 1:10, ZERO correlation. Now, let’s imagine that a bidder decides to pay for such appraisal, which shows him a domain’s value like $399! How you may talk with a customer about $3-$5??!!

    What prevented me from account deletion at Sedo is SedoMLS. I haven’t benefited from MLS yet and I still keep opinion that it is easy to set Buy Now at the level of $2,5, maybe $5k max. But in every case you can talk about the same values when a bidder comes from ParkingCrew!

    Last, but not least. Don’t you think, that a bidder makes a bid in such place, where a domain names is parked? That’s why, what’s the reason to pay anything more than 3% for the original Escrow.com, or pay ZERO commission if a customer from the same country believes you to pay based on an invoice?

    Would be happy to see your thoughts regarding whether to park domains at flexible parkings like great ParkingCrew or NameDrive, or lock yourself at a marketplace, which even does not allow you to know who is a bidder.

    1. Hi AW,

      You bring up some very useful points. Thank you for taking the time to post your comment.

      I will say that results vary by marketplace (and parking platform) by the portfolio you own, so there’s no silver bullet for all. It takes some trial and error.

      You never know the right price without knowing the buyer. I make that point as well in the video by saying, “…setting prices removes your ability to determine your potential buyer’s need and budget.”

      For me, if a user finds my domain name and submits an offer at a specific marketplace then that marketplace brought me the lead and deserves the commission.

      If parking revenue is your main criteria, then I think you should try all the parking platforms: https://www.domainsherpa.com/domain-name-parking-companies/ I believe Above.com might be able to rotate your portfolio through most (if not all) of them so you have to do less work to set them up.

      Best,
      Michael

  30. Sam says:

    This is a wonderful resource. I can use it today!

    1. Great to hear, Sam!

  31. Jay says:

    great show mike

    1. Thanks for watching and taking a moment to comment, Jay.

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