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Redirect to a potential buyer

helloworld

Top Contributor
If you're a lazy seller like myself and you own some high traffic domains, do you think there would be any value in creating a redirect to a site that you haven't contacted but would obviously track stats and then removing it after a month to entice the potential buyer to contact you ?
 

Chris.C

Top Contributor
You'd need a very switched on buyer to even know what there web traffic is currently and I think this method will come across quite adversarial...

I tend to find people don't respond well to threats during negotiations and no one likes to "feel" exhorted, which is how I imagine they'll "feel" even if they have no right to feel that way.

And that's what great salesmen do best, they manage the "feelings" and "emotions" of buyers to close the deal. They get customers to "feel" like they have "won" at the end of the deal.

If you give someone the choice of "losing" and "not winning" you're guaranteed to have an unhappy customer at the end of the process even if they got a bargain.

I get that you are trying to "show" people the value of the traffic, but I have doubts that they will see it that way if you don't get their permission to demonstrate the value upfront (ie they'd have to know it's only on a "trial" basis).

Alternatively if you want to remain a lazy seller, and your domain is high traffic then you're probably better off engaging a broker who can sell the "value" of the domain in a "positive" rather than adversarial way.

Best of luck.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
No way, it is giving away money. Even if they were interested I would not give away the traffic unless it was already earning nothing.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
NOTE: this is a long post, so go grab a beer.

helloworld, read all this below, you will like it at the end i think.
redirect is really hard to convince a person to buy, its just hard for them to think your stats are honest, my feeling is you to do a 1 page lead gen site and feed the leads which has worked for me, and there's a few other ways to do it which i will explain later.
snoopy, i agree with you , but chris c's point are more in tune i feel.
helloworld: i'm dealing with this same issue myself right now and pondering the possible outcomes, assessing what the buyer will think. frustrating !
kinda like when someone phones you when they have let their domain drop and you purchased it !
i agree with chris c as to the knowledge that potential person you wishing to sell to has, for me right now with my potential client and thus the reason i'm struggling BEFORE i even contact them is i keep remembering a simpson's episode where homer is talking to the dog and the dog hear " bla bla bad bla bla dog bla bla bla.........."
and i remember talking to my own dogs when i was younger and saying in a VERY nice friendly voice, " you have been a bad dog and i'm going to chain you to the washing line" whilst my dog waged his tail in excitement !!!
the dog wasn't bad but i was just experimenting, i also then said in a HARSH voice " YOU HAVE BEEN A GOOD DOG SO LETS GO FOR A RUN IN THE PARK " and he dropped and put his chin on his feet.
i hope you all get the analogies ?

helloworld: my frustration is i have phoned the guy and i always get the " soup natzi " and can't get to the decision maker ! this guy will WANT this domain if he just knew it existed but i've been tracking him and he seems to be "domain illiterate" .

i'm obviously using the wrong keywords on phone calls to get access to talk to him.

at this moment the soup natzi's ask, " whats it about " and i say a variety of things and the common reply is " i'll give him your phone number and if he rings you he rings you and thats it "

so the guy never answers the phone as he has a few staff BUT i am not going to give over the domain name to the plebs, as i think i will loose the high ground, and happy to keep the domain but would like to get rid of it for other projects.
-------------------------------
now the ending LOL
helloworld: i have a directory site and listings, i'm presently rebuilding it for responsive so i have chosen to not bother with the current site and use my time in the rebuild, last month a client that chose not to renew their membership rang me and said " can you remove our listing as we keep getting inquiries " !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF

so make it BLATANTLY obvious that the leads are coming from your domain.
the only problem is if no leads come from your domain ! traffic is a useless number i have found, results/enquiries is the first stage, conversions which often are called results are the 2nd stage, for me conversions are " money in my bank account" NOT someone coming to the website !!!

but as i was saying to a dnt member just yesterday via phone, leads are leads, its up to the business to convert, unless its an eccommerce store then its up to the website to convert and that happens through design and ease of use/functionality .
SO, using redirects i don't think will work.

i think you have a few options: if you think your traffic is convertible, and you want to take away the chris c issues of exhorted, winning or losing, which are ALL valid points then you should "bet the farm"

ring them, say i have a great domain for you and i'd like to do you a deal, i'll give you the leads for X amount of time and then we can talk, this way THEY know what you are doing, you know what you have to do and there really is nothing to lose as at present you are already lost :)

they may say F off, and then go do it anyway, then you can come back and say in 6 months " here are the stats....... i'm going to offer this domain to you FIRST or i will just keep it or may make it available to others " this then is no problems with auda IMO
don't go nasty, but i feel by coming in easy .

the next thing is TRACKING TRACKING TRACKING, you gotta have your stats because the first thing they will say to you is " ahhh , no i got nothing from that........." and you have to be able to come back with " wellllllllll sorryyyyyyyyy..... but you did "

i have the same problem with a client who always says " ohhhh my site doesn't bring me business" and he ranks number one, and i say to him " ok, i'll delete you from google today " and he says " ohhhh NOOO, don't do that ! " i say " greg, i track you emails MATE, i KNOW what your getting from the email so don't sh*T me " . he doesn't question me anymore LOL

look i know this was a longggggggggg winded post, sorry, but it just expressed what i am also trying to solve so if anyone can add to this ( and have survived my post LOL ) then please post some ideas.

helloworld: hope this helps, please post what you decide to do and the results as i would like to know as i think its a really interesting subject that needs brainstorming and could benefit many.

thus why i took the time to brain dump my thoughts.

tim
 

helloworld

Top Contributor
Thanks for all your thoughts. I was really just trying think outside the box. I know i need to pick up the phone more, but it's such a god damn inconvenience lol.

Like most It realted people I am not a great salesman haha.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
EVERYONE is a salesperson.
i hear this "i can't sell" all the time and i'm not having a go at you helloworld
think about it, you SELL yourself to your family and friends by trying to be what you think they want you to be !
you sold yourself to all your girlfriends so far, you pitched who you were, what you could do for them and then provided the product !
you sold yourself to employers you have worked for.
you sell yourself to your friends to keep them as friends
the hardest sell is the one that is not you, that domain you want to get rid of, but you have to think that its probably PERFECT for them, just not for you, thats the " friends sell" when you are at a pub and palm off the blonde to your mate because you prefer redheads.
if you have children you sell to them, "do you want a sandwich" ? no we want ice cream , " well this sandwich has yummy avocado on it"
everyone is a salesperson.
i've written this before, what you need to do is get more NO's , just get NO's , we call it "burning doors"
but burn the doors you never even wanted anyway so you can practice, get your WORST domain and try to sell it, burn every door you can find that has anything to do with it eg: snoopydogs.com.au , go contact every hotdog person in australia and try to sell it to them, go get 100 NO's , FEEEEEELLLLLLL the pain of the NO but you will learn alot from it and really have lost nothing.

then go do it again

just remember IMO never sell something you NEED to sell, cut your teeth on things you don't need to sell.

seasoned professionals BORN salepeople can sell ice to eskimos, people who think they can't sell need to build the skills

Like most It realted people I am not a great salesman
you stated this as a negative, this is a positive, you are IT, so just talk what you know, salespeople are best when they are selling WHAT they BELIEVE IN, selling something you do not believe in you will never be good at.

i can sell ANYTHING, first thing i do is find something to believe in, today i got a phone call by accident as i had a redirect on a clients site opps, i sold a water cooler ! , yep, i know the clients product, i think its great and i sold the girl as i know the client is currently away.
if you want a watercooler go to
Code:
filteredfresh.com.au

sales is simply about knowing your product and a domain is a product, have the facts, have the stats, have the speils like ned talks about, and have the balls to ask the right price.

do the numbers, what are they going to make from the purchase, just like a bricks and mortar shop, good, even average domain names are under valued in my view,

think about it, i use dubbodentist as a fun thing, but lets do some numbers.
last time i went to the dentist it cost me $300+ and that was with my medical benefits, a domain name renewal costs @ $25 for 2 years but i charge $99 so they don't have to worry about it.

so for 1 appointment in 1 year $350 + $50 is a good deal, essentially all future years are DIRT CHEAP
but we all should know a bricks and mortar needs a website, so add a small web presence at $3000, so now its 10 clients in the first year, but each year after its all profit, and the site lasts 3-4 yrs?
so profit on website is a bare minimum of 10 clients per annum x 4 x $300 = @ 12K
but they will always have the domain
and 1 client every 5 weeks is logical and most likely they keep the client for many years
so some little domain name like DD should be worth $3k

so in closing: don't cut yourself short nor cut your offering of a domain short.
$3k is just $60 a week for the first year !
coffee = $4 a cup x 7 = $28
coke = $4 for 600ml x 7 = $28
beer= $4 a stubby x 7 = $28
so if you said to someone, you know what, all your coffee next year and the year after and the year after will be FREE...........would they buy ?
thats how to sell any domain for $3k and thats whats happening, but sorry everyone.........its not being "reported"
tim
 

James

Top Contributor
I wouldn't do it, better too collect revenue and monitor traffic yourself and then show this data to the potential buyer.
Most referral traffic for clients is soo skewed with junk referrals at the moment as well.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
the filtered fresh site has many referring sites and feedback from my client is they have a 99% conversion rate, i monitor it all and i think we have had about 3 dodgy forms filled out in 3 years and none of the forms use recaptcha either.

tim
 

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