Decide When to Sell Your High-Profile Domain

One of the most difficult parts of selling domains is simply deciding when to do it. In an ideal world, you would want to snatch up a domain immediately prior to a high-growth period, park it to generate revenue, and then sell it before growth slows down. However, the price growth of domains is often very difficult-if not impossible-to predict.

For this reason, deciding when to sell often will have a lot to do with your domain portfolio, rather than growth considerations. For instance, if you purchase a large block of domains in a particular niche, and they have experienced low price growth over the course of 8 months, then you may decide to put them up for auction, so that you can avoid paying to re-register all of them.

Overall, your choice of what to sell and when to sell it should depend on both portfolio and growth considerations.

How To Create Your Site Listing

One of the most difficult parts of the selling process is creating your site listing. Of course, the best strategy for doing this will depend on the marketplace in which you decide to sell.

At a minimum, your post should include the following things (if allowable):

1. Traffic and sales documentation.
2. Screenshots of the Alexa rating, DMOZ status, status.
3. A screenshot of the number of Google-indexed inbound links that are pointing at the domain.
4. A description of why the site is valuable; and why you believe it will continue to grow in value over the course of the year.
5. A professional appraisal (for sites worth over $500).

If you include all of this information in your site description, you will remove all of the uncertainty on the buyer’s side; and give yourself a much better chance to make a large profit off of the sale.

Additional Strategies

When it comes do domain sales, there are roughly three different approaches you could adopt-and each depends on the price of the domain being sold:

Type #1: Low-Priced Domains

For low-priced domains that you purchased from the primary market for $10, there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that you should consider selling domains that are experiencing weak price growth in bulk; and you should do so several months before they are set to expire. This will help you to a) avoid the re-registration fees; and b) allow you to re-coup at least some of the original registration fee.

Type #2: Mid-Priced Domains

For mid-priced domains (which you probably purchased in the secondary market), you should consider listing them in a low-cost marketplace several months after you acquire them. This will work especially well in marketplaces that permit hidden reserve prices.

Listing them in this way allows you to feel out the market for your domain. You can see whether there is any serious price growth; or whether there is virtually no difference. Additionally, if you get a strong enough bite, you can sell the domain immediately.

Type #3: High-Priced Domains

These are domains that contain one or two words; or consist only of an acronym. They can cost anywhere form $500 to tens of thousands of dollars. When you sell a domain like this, you have to include a high reserve price; and purchase an expensive domain appraisal.

Additionally, you should move very slowly through the process. Take time to put the domain up for auctions several times if needed, but avoid selling it hastily and before you can get a strong feel on its market price.