Best Way to Package and Sell Domains

Put a bow on it and sell it for all it's worth?

[physics]

I have several domains that I'd like to sell - they're short, keyword rich .com's and are focused on geo-targeted lawyer-related phrases.
There are a lot of different things I could do with these domains I guess, but what I've been thinking lately is trying to sell them to law firms in the appropriate states.
The plan is:

1) Put up a 'skeleton' site with some (limited) content
- Plan is to use a 3rd party service to host them so once they're sold I don't have to maintain the software and neither does the client.
2) Slap on analytics so I can track the keyword visits
3) Get links to the domains - try to rank for the key phrases in the .com
4) Based on keyword visits estimate the value of the domain
- I.e. if getting 1 visit per day for 'foo' and foo is worth $10 on Google Adwords
then one might say that the site is worth $10 x 365 = $3,650 / year.
5) Then base the asking price off of the above calculation.
Question is, how many years to include in the asking price estimate? 5, 3, 1?
6) Contact large law firms in the state and make a proposal - appeal to their marketing side.
I have someone who's good at phone sales for this (I'm not ;) ).
Some selling points:
- The domains/sites should be thought of like purchasing advertising.
- These are short, memorable domains - great for putting on bus, etc. ads.
- If you get only one client through this domain it will pay for itself.
- ... other suggestions?
Some concerns:
- I'm not sure how to get through to the right people.
- Will they see the value in this advertising?
- How to find firms that 'get it' - maybe look at top 10 ranked sites in Google and Adwords advertisers for the main key phrase.
7) At the same time, put a notice on the page that lets people know this site is for sale, click to inquire.
- Automatically email them the asking price and more info if they fill out the form?
8) Profit!

This idea has been brewing in my head for a while but I get the feeling others here have more experience with this and would really appreciate any feedback or tips you have. Thanks!

[Webwork]

Sounds about right. For professionals I'd snip the "inquire about" notice. Throw some link love to lower ranking professionals.

The right people will come looking for you IF they're in the market.

Look for my posts/threads about valuing domains based upon their "converted lead value". Forget PPC equations. They're secondary. The real value is in the converted lead value to an enduser-consumer of those leads.

[physics]

Thanks webwork.

So no 'inquire about' huh? Is this because it looks too spammy / desperate to have a for sale sign?

You think if I throw some link love to lower ranking pros they might notice me and become interested in buying?

I'll have to research more about converted lead value but I hear what you're saying and that could be a very good selling point also.

[Webwork]

I'd suggest subtlety. Maybe a little article about internet marketing, SEO and converted lead values? :) Let "them" be the ones "wanting".

A little lower down link love may accomplish 2 things. 1) Create some higher up link envy; and, 2) get the "lower down" guy to pause and think.

[trader]

Look for my posts/threads about valuing domains based upon their "converted lead value". Forget PPC equations. They're secondary. The real value is in the converted lead value to an enduser-consumer of those leads.

Hi Jeff, Where can we read that valuable information? I looked thru some threads but did not find it.

[Webwork]

Trader, it's late (bedtime) here in NJ but you might start here:

converted lead value [google.com]

[edited by: engine at 8:20 am (utc) on Aug. 29, 2009]
[edit reason] fixed broken link [/edit]

[johnnie]

You forgot the:

8.?

[greenleaves]

to get through to the marketing people you can offer them a free listing on your site. Then once you have the ears of people in charge of advertising, then mention that you received an offer from x competitor to buy the site for $#*$!x. Ask them if they might be interested.

[man in poland]

Hi physics,

Unless you have bags of spare time to fiddle around with these sites by building content and links, (assuming they are really excellent domains) my advice is:

a) Pick the top three potential buyers of your domain
b) Choose a fair price (probably lower than you'd think / like) - don't use any hocus pocus formula to explain how you reached your calculation - just say the price and be done.
c) Offer the domain to the 3 potentials at the same time, for the same price, mentioning the others you are offering to, and that you will accept the first positive reply, with no price negotiation.
d) Rinse and repeat with the other domains

Good luck!

[weeks]

In this case as laid out by physics, I have to agree with the Man in Poland. Webwork's methods are wise and solid where you're working is a broad market or specific national or larger market, but for geo-targeted domains physics descirbed this approach might not be worth it. Indeed, putting out that data could distract from the value and under-cut the price.

Look at the margins per customer the industry. A lawyer gets just one good client or a real estate broker sells one house via the web and can be thousands of dollars.

[Bennie]

I just did exactly this. It was a very good deal for both of us as some websites were partially developed, one fully developed to proove the concept. They bought the 'full set' so to speak.

I had a relationship with a solicitor that pitched it to their firm and it all made sense. They now own the category defining locals geo's associated with law in their City.

To help justify/explain it I used the cost of them buying the equivalent traffic from Google. Also told them to look at it as a minimum 4 year monthly cost to business. Which soon equates to not much.

I found getting to know someone in law with an interest in web development and marketing to be a big help. So if you can find a local meet up with legal people and online marketers, I'd be getting along and having a chat - rather than cold calling (which I can imagine would really piss legal people off, I'd sent a letter from a firm rather than contacting them yourself).

[weeks]

I found getting to know someone in law with an interest in web development and marketing to be a big help.

Right. Every market category is different. (Or, rather, weird. They are not always logical.)

[physics]

Thanks for the suggestion man_in_poland, I like the way you think :) I don't want to have to spend too much time on these but also want to get a better price than I would just selling to domainers/domain name collectors. Even if I do as you suggested - it seems it would be good just to put a skeleton site up so there's something there when they type in the domain, no?

greenleaves, I like your suggestion of offering them a free listing on the site and then using that 'in' to convert them to a potential site buyer - sounds a lot better than just cold calling for a sale.

And, as Bennie said, cold calling law firms doesn't sound like the most fun thing in the world - would a professionally written letter be better?

Also, I agree Bennie that it's always nice to have connections and am trying to work with some of my law-related connections to get an 'in' with some law firms or people interested in these kinds of domains.

Thanks for the help and suggestions all!

[Hissingsid]

then one might say that the site is worth $10 x 365 = $3,650 / year.

I wouldn't pay $200 for a domain that got one visit a day. IMO you can discount the first few 1000 visits a year as just background noise. Those visitors didn't come for the right reason or anything approaching it and are therefore worthless.

Looking at the auction site results it seems to me that it is very hard to get a value above $1000 by using low input value-adding activities for a domain that wouldn't be worth that anyway.

I recon the best strategy is to be realistic in your valuation and turn over volumes of domains rather than trying to squeeze every cent of value out of each domain you have. Of course there is a balance and you don't want to give away really good domains only to regret it at a later date.

Just my 2c

Sid

[physics]

Hissingsid, thanks for the opinion. I guess this is why I want to target the end-customer though, i.e. large law firms that already spend tens to hundreds of thousands to millions on advertising every year (for the higher end, think the firms on the cover of your yellow pages or the ones that run state wide and national commercials). You, as a savvy webmaster, might not pay $200 for a site that gets one visitor a day but the law firms might be willing to pay ten or more times that just to have a great domain name to put on their ads or just to have a shot at one of those searchers becoming a client over the next few years (in which case they might make bucketloads of cash). We're talking about companies that sometimes pay $20+ per click here... $3,560 might sound like a drop in the bucket to them. I'm sure if I sold these domains to domainers or small webmasters I'd not get very much for them and it's not even worth my time to sell them for a couple of hundred dollars each ... but I know they're worth much more and to me it seems worth the time investment to get a factor of 10 or more improvement in sales price.