Are You Actively Marketing Your Domain Investments?

Besides "the obvious" do you have any tips?

[Webwork]

When it comes to domain marketing "the obvious" includes:

• Listing domains at domain forums that allow this.
  
• Putting domains up for auction at auction sites or live domain auctions
  
• Putting a "for sale" notice on a parked domain
  

I was chatting the other day with someone who had a number of domains targeting a specific market. The domains were in the location+service category. The PPC for traffic in this category was amongst the higher PPC rates. His approach to domain marketing was as follows:

• Search for firms, in his target category, that were buying PPC ads across various search engines
  
• Notify those firms of his intention to list the domains at a certain auction site - with or without a reserve. If there was a reserve it was conservative. Contact was by phone, letter or email.
  
• Set up the auction for a future date
  
• Notify any firm that expressed an interest of the date and send a reminder at the start of the auction.

The domains were in the $5K-$30K range of value.

It was working, but took a bit of work. Still, at an hourly rate, the payback was probably in the $500-$1000+/hour rate for time spent marketing. Again, these were decent geotargeted domains with high value leads.

IMHO, domains in the $5K-$25K enduser value range are probably perfect targets for this approach, so long as the potential leads have value and companies are bidding on the related "location+service" words found in the domain.

So, what have you done lately to proactively market your domains?

[pageoneresults]

Putting domains up for auction at auction sites or live domain auctions.

I've seriously thought about the above but still don't have the knowledge to appropriately appraise the domain value. To me, some are priceless. I'd rather "hold" on to them. ;)

Putting a "for sale" notice on a parked domain.

Arrrggghhh! What a bunch of "tire-kickers" that brings. I've been doing that now for over a year and I'm not impressed with the results. Some of the offers are downright drivebys. I think I've received one serious offer on over 500+ domains in that 12 month period. The rest were shopping for deals. Nah, I think that whole parked network is a waste of time for me although it may work for others. In fact, I'm getting ready to move a chunk of that into a new environment of our own. :)

So, what have you done lately to proactively market your domains?

Not nearly as much as I should be doing and every time you post something like this, it lights a fire. We'll see where I end up this time. Last time I got into the parking side of things. Time to try something else...

[Webwork]

Domain auctions, at domain events, only bring domainer-to-domainer value, i.e., "light prices" based upon PPC parking revenue with some slight added value for generic qualities. Still, nothing close to enduser value. Auctions help to build liquidity into the domain aftermarket, allowing domainers to unload their less desirable domains to raise capital for upvalue purchases, etc.

It's easier said than done, but for awhile I've been urging the larger auction houses and aftermarket players to consider aggregating domains that target specific conference audiences. Affiliate marketing conference? Roll out generic product domains en masse - in the proper price range for the audience.

Auctions make sense but only to an informed, educated, interested and invited audience. Domain auctions - at domainer events - satisfy these criteria. However, the audience of other industry events aren't quite up to speed so auctions to such audiences need to follow a period of education. Perhaps as internet marketing penetrates the minds of the various vertical industry conferences the relevant auctions can be successfully launched?