How to Sell Domain Names — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:00] Here are my top tips, my top 3 to 85 tips into selling your domain name. Hey, Chris, I got the options of companies to acquire the raw version of the brand. And we're going to send the best to the planet.

[00:12] Check that out over at MediaOptions.com. Check out ChrisZacker.com. Check out DNX.com. Check out ChrisZacker.com because I do a daily podcast over there. This last week I had someone kind of reach out to me in a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts.

[00:25] He's like, hey, Chris, why don't we do a contest where we give you a domain name, an average domain name, and you try to go out there and sell it, and you kind of go through and give us your tips as far as what you did, but it can't be one of your good ones, right?

[00:38] It's your brokering. It can't be one of those. It's got to be an average domain name. Now, I understood what he was saying, okay? I'm not going to do this challenge because I'm just too busy right now, but I understood what he was saying. He was saying, like, how do you, with an average domain name, how do you sell it, right?

[00:50] How do you go out, and how does the average domain investor make money? How do they sell domain names? So I thought what I would do is I would do a video with several tips. Now, it's not going to be all-encompassing, but it's going to have some really solid value here.

[01:03] I'm going to keep going until I run out of breath. Okay? We're out of breath. Okay. So, I have shared in other videos the three Vs. Okay? Not Gary V, but the three Vs into selling your domain name.

[01:16] The first one is value. Like, you have to value your domain name and price it correctly. I've reached out on a lot of domain names and their price. Like, in a million dollars, right? I want a million dollars. One person's like, I want $7 million for this domain name.

[01:29] and I'm like, ah, thanks. You're in a different galaxy, man. You're in a different galaxy. Okay, it's got to be priced right. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't domains that are priced in $7 million range.

[01:41] I mean, there's some that are just amazing, phenomenal domains. And I've sold a lot of domains in the $1 range. Okay, but it's got to be priced correctly. Now, I go over my formula for domain valuation.

[01:55] Okay, my formula for domain valuation is one, it's raw equity. what's the raw equity of your keyword. Okay, so for instance, that's like the amount of times that it's searched. Now, if you take a domain like quilt.com, for instance,

[02:10] I mean, it's searched a lot of times, okay, hundreds of thousands of times, and there's people that are willing to pay for that, okay, the CPC. And so that combination there is what we call the raw equity. Now, you can take a portion of that, let's say 20%, 25%.

[02:22] There's many different other factors that we have in there that we treat this, but that gives you the raw equity for your keyword domain name. Now, listen, if your domain name has no raw equity,

[02:34] price it accordingly. Price it accordingly. So there you have brand equity, how many brands are out there that call themselves that keyword, and then there's perceived equity. That's why voice.com sold for $30 million because, well, quite honestly, he is a billionaire, right? He had money, and it was voice.com.

[02:47] It's like this product that he's going to build and launch, and it's going to be worth billions of dollars when he's done. It's called perceived equity. perceived value as far as what that founder and that startup person can do.

[02:59] Okay. So, number one, 3V is valuation. You've got to make sure your domain is priced correctly. Number two is validity. Make sure that you're going after the right companies. Okay. Who would be the right person for your domain name?

[03:13] Remember the four strategies for domain name strategies. Number one is your brand. Okay. It's the brand. And, I mean, is it the raw version of this brand? Does this domain create simplicity and make the path more effortless for the consumers?

[03:28] Okay. I'd say if it does, then it's probably a good company. Okay. Is it a sub-brand? Okay. Most brands, they have many different sub-brands. They have many different or they utilize many different brands within their overarching company.

[03:44] I did a post on this in the options. I'll try to find the link and I'll put it in below. But it's a good post. It's talking about all the different ways and different domain name strategies in depth. Okay. but your sub brand is one of those then from there you go to marketing campaign

[03:56] domain name okay is it a marketing campaign domain name is it something they're going to use maybe for a short period of time maybe it's gonna be for a book and I talk about how you look at some of the best markers in the world they have different domains so Russell Brunson for instance he just launched traffic

[04:10] secrets okay I think if you haven't bought his books you can buy them I'll put a link in down below I mean he's like the Bible okay for marketing in my eyes but he utilizes click funnels you little eyes and tracks with traffic

[04:22] secrets expert secrets I mean he has a very robust very robust domain strategy and the list goes on and on as far as companies that I mean look at the top companies is in the stock photo space I there are like many of them are owned by the same company okay So that what we call marketing campaign domains They also the sub and then there the defense of nature and this is just how

[04:47] do you keep competitors and keep other brands out there in your messaging. And when I first started in the domain space, it was like, ah, you know, you probably need your .com, maybe the .net, .org, but I really don't need more than that. And I've subsequently changed that because I believe you do.

[05:01] I believe you do. I believe it's very important to the domain, the defensive strategy, just keeping companies out, keeping companies from launching. And, I mean, depend upon your strategy or your growth strategy. Listen, if we're going to go from a zero to a billion dollars overnight,

[05:16] maybe you're just so quick, you just dominate it, okay? You dominate it, and there's just no, there's no, let's say there's no, you know, you dominate it because you spent the money, okay? And in each of these instances, really, you're putting money in, you're investing money.

[05:30] And I always say that. Don't be fooled by these companies that maybe launched on the .co or got a different version from the .com or created like other words. Don't be fooled that they didn't pay for it.

[05:42] Okay, they didn't pay for it because I guarantee you, I guarantee you they paid for it. Okay, so that's like what is the right company? And, you know, I have one of my other thoughts here on viability.

[05:54] like you gotta pick the right company and I might come back to if I do I'll say it if I don't watch the video okay the next thing is is there's value value

[06:07] visibility I'm getting in front of the right person but many times all reach out to the company I reach out to the CEO or reach out to the chief marketing officer I might reach out to the someone in lower level digital marketing and

[06:19] maybe someone in like a legal person and what happens is that from one of them Okay, one of them will get not interested, you know, stop emailing us. We don't want it. But then from maybe the CEO or the CMO, I say, hey, what's the price, right?

[06:32] What's the price? Now, there's a couple reasons for this. One of the reasons for this is that those depend upon the position. They may just not understand the global overarching strategy of the company.

[06:46] And because, you know, that's fine. Like, it's not a bad thing, you know. Not every position needs to understand that. okay they need you very dialed in and very bossed into their position and but okay but here's what I do know okay if you hear the wrong person that says no

[06:59] they can say no or not yes then effectively you've like killed the opportunity so make sure that you get it from the right person and that's going to differ for the domain name like let's say you have a domain name you're like this is great for this company it's a fortune 500 company and but your domain

[07:14] name is really maybe substantive in nature maybe it could be a good marketing campaign domain name but maybe it's in like the four to five figure range and you reach out to the CEO like that doesn't work that way right and they're

[07:27] gonna say I mean they're like they're so high as far as strategy goes they're not in the weeds as far as maybe a smaller marketing campaign domain from one of their sub-brands and they're gonna say like stop emailing me or put you on the

[07:39] spam list so like don't do that okay think about this strategically there needs to be a strategy for how you reach out now there's no video I did I talk about timing how important tiny is timing is for some your domain and one of the

[07:53] strategies that you're doing is you're getting it on their radar well I'm getting deep here but my philosophy is the global worldview and then there's self you okay the global view is that hey I just don't need to summon you like

[08:05] I don't need to make them important and I mean what you're doing you do outbound is you're getting in front of someone saying, hey, you're kind of bouncing it off of their worldview. What does their worldview tell them?

[08:18] Now, if it aligns, it's like, boom, you sell it to a minion in a heartbeat, like super quick. And that does happen. There's dominions that we sell within a week to two weeks. I mean, it just happens. The worldview aligns right on with the minion we're selling,

[08:30] the pricing, the visibility, the validation, the right company, the right price, the right person, and it's like, boom, we get the sale. But I can tell you this, 99% of the time, that's not the case. It just isn't the case.

[08:42] Like, their worldview doesn't line up. They're saying, you know, since the ratings are important, I don't need it. Why do I need this to maintain? Like, the world's falling apart, right? There's COVID virus. I'm locked in my house. I can't go to the grocery store.

[08:54] Like, I just don't need it. Okay, that's another whole other topic, and that's trends in the marketplace. And, I mean, you've got to be strategic here, okay? I mean with the world locked in and depending upon the type of business you going after or let say it a restaurant I mean they not thinking about the main thing Most companies when you have this major confusion that out there they trying to project out

[09:17] let's say, three weeks, six weeks, two months, three months, saying, okay, where is this going? Am I even going to be around? You know, what's happening maybe to the food in my freezer, in my fridge, right from a restaurant? Is it going to be around?

[09:29] Am I imposing it around? Is anything, is the world going to be around? you gotta give it timing timing is super duper duper important and I've actually said that quite a bit lately

[09:43] you gotta wait for the dust to settle a little bit yes there's trillions of dollars going into domain purchases and there's still business that's being done I've got a lot of business in the pipeline right now the majority of business is going to get done after this takes place

[09:57] there's just too much chaos the dust needs to settle a little bit but that seems to settle. So timing is super important. And one of these things as far as the worldview goes is that you're just trying to keep on their radar.

[10:11] You're trying to keep a good conversation going. And so don't jump ahead of yourself and be like, hey, you're going to miss this opportunity. Someone's going to buy it and this is it.

[10:23] Because the worldview is such that I don't care. Scarcity doesn't work at some point because you've got to understand the strategy of selling. Okay? You don't want to introduce scarcity. You don't want to introduce these other things

[10:35] when their mind is just like, I just don't need it. Like, I don't understand their needs. Now, they could be the perfect person for this. They could be at risk for not acquiring this domain name. But that's an evolution of the process.

[10:47] Okay? It's a process as far as how you talk to them, how you work with them. Okay? It's what I call worldview. And even then, when they get worldview right, there's a thing called self-view. Okay? self-view is that they have to understand and believe that they can do it. And so what I've

[11:01] seen with many founders is that they are building, let's say, one of these scalable startups, okay, they're building a billion-dollar business as unicorn pre-this COVID crisis, okay? And

[11:14] actually, it's now too. And they're like, okay, great, I understand it. My investors understand it. I need to create clarity. I need this domain name. And yet, if they don't believe, like, hey, I can take this, let's say, for $300,000 purchase or $250,000 purchase

[11:26] or a million dollar purchase, I don't think I'll get the return that I from this purchase. They could know it intuitively. They could go and they could spend,

[11:38] you know, go maybe hire five people. But they pass on their brand because in the end, it's a moment of truth. It's a moment of commitment that a founder has. Now, it's interesting that, you know,

[11:51] investors, I wish I could find some of the articles, but in my talking to some of these startups, Like, when you own the blog version of your brand, this sends a very powerful signal to investors and to the VC community and to your consumers and everything that, listen, we're serious.

[12:06] We've doubled down on your investment. We've created this simplicity and this clarity. Now, if you listen to any of my videos, any of my videos, my podcasts, or any of my blogs, as you know, my thesis for your domain name equals your brand, equals your brand equity.

[12:20] Okay, brand equity is this trust, it's this loyalty, it's this long-term customers. It's what allows you to stand away from and apart from your competition. It allows you to make more profits. If you're just a commodity, it's a race to the bottom.

[12:33] It's a race to the bottom. It's a race to who can get a price cheaper. But when you're a brand and you have brand equity and you create clarity, when you create clarity for your brand, then it's a completely different conversation.

[12:46] So I don't even know what I was on. I don't even know where I was at today. I think I was talking about trends and timing in the marketplace, okay? So that's what I would do, okay? If I had a domain name, of course, I would say, okay, is there value?

[13:01] Is there a timing right? Now, I've seen some domains centered around, like, remote telehealth, remote doctoring, and I think those domains are going to be super valuable.

[13:16] I think they're going to go up in value, okay? Look at the travel domains. I think they're going, it's going to be tough. All these Instagram stars that made money, they made their livelihood on taking pictures of different resorts. I mean, overnight, they're crushed.

[13:28] They can't even travel. They can't even go to these resorts. And how long is it going to take before companies are willing to spend money? How long is it going to take before they can even get out? They're crushed. So timing is super important. But I think there's definitely money to be made.

[13:41] There definitely sales to be made Okay One more camera here okay is that some domain names you just can sell There no outbound marketing in the world that you can do But you still need visibility You still need to have your domain listed somewhere to

[13:56] make it easy to acquire. If you don't, then you're just... I talk a lot about the domain period. On the bottom of the domain period is lifestyle hobbyists. It doesn't matter what domain you have. It's lifestyle.

[14:11] Like, maybe they're going to blog on seashells on the ocean, right? I mean, who cares, right? Well, let's say the person's got surfing boards and they're renting on Waikiki Beach and, like, you know, it doesn't matter what their domain is, okay?

[14:25] They're not going to be able to utilize surf.com. They just won't, right? Then you go from there, you go to small business hobbyists. Small business hobbyists are the people that buy the domains in the $2,000 to maybe $10,000 range.

[14:37] Now, listen, it's a hobby. It's a hobby for them. they are for the most part they're you know it's like a split a moment type of purchase okay it's like hey you know maybe they got laid off and maybe it happened to me once

[14:49] and you're like what am I going to do and you come up with this idea and this idea entails a brand this brand entails getting a domain name so you're reaching you're searching and you find one it's like $2500 and boom

[15:01] you buy it and it really comes down to of the 10 domains we looked at which one is easier to get across the finish line and so you know Dan.com Dan.com say though you know Google GoDaddy

[15:13] Uniregistry and all these platforms are good they all have their pluses and minuses but I would say you know find one and make it easy to purchase and acquire a domain name okay

[15:25] Etsy.com that's another one okay another your own platform like make it easy you gotta make it easy now that easiness can go into the you know this 10 maybe $15,000 range, okay?

[15:37] You could even do better than that and bigger than that. But, like, some of those domains, you just, like, it's a good domain name. It has some value, okay? Maybe the $5,000 and the $15,000 range,

[15:49] but I just don't know who you would reach out to. There's one domain name and it was a .de domain name that just sold on the radar today and it sold in, you know, pretty good value,

[16:01] okay? Pretty good value, five-figure range. But I can tell you this, like, I don't even know, I mean, like, who would you reach out to, right? So, yes, there's some liquidity, but, okay, this is a whole other topic here,

[16:14] and that is, like, if you get an offer that comes across, and you have one of these domain names, like, consider that that's the best offer you could receive on it. If you pass on it, because of the fact that there's just someone you can reach out to, I mean, you may never receive a better offer, okay?

[16:26] You may never receive a better offer. So, I hope these tips are helpful for you. It's what I would do. Remember to keep it light. like the first contact point is just to get it on their radar.

[16:38] Okay, you're not trying to create, like, you're not trying to create scarcity and, like, hard negotiation, but it's like, do they even want to raise their hand? Okay, this is a global view. They don't even raise their hand.

[16:50] They're not even interested. They're not leaning in. They're not going to buy it. Okay, it's the first step. I mean, there's a process. There's a natural process to the flow of this. So you want to get on the radar.

[17:02] And if you do it right, you can get on their radar and you can periodically check in with them every three months and maybe they'll develop into something else. Maybe they'll develop into something else and you can help them in some other way. But remember those three Vs.

[17:14] Remember the marketing strategies. I went over domain value here. I went over the market, the different market size. I went over timing. I mean, this video is gold, okay? It's gold. What I'm going to ask you to do, if you found value in this,

[17:27] share it up. I just appreciate you sharing it up. I appreciate everyone who shares up my content online. on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on my podcast, and share it up. It's on any value. And it's going over to quicktracker.com.

[17:40] Downloadmybook.com. Strategies is in the footer section. Also, it's at mediaoptions.com, the resource tab. And I think that is a very valuable tool that you can download to understand,

[17:52] in a book format, like I said, 55, 58 pages, the value of domain names with other stories on why domain names are valuable. Thank you.