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Selling Domain Names

People have made money from domain names since the beginning of the internet. The key to making money from domain names is value. Someone else has to find value in the name. A seller can create value for a domain.

Revenue

Domain Flipping

To flip a domain, a seller buys a domain and sells the domain for a higher value. For domain investors to flip a domain might take weeks or months.

Some domain names cannot get flipped because they do not have value for others. The domain name bitcoin.com has value to anyone involved with Bitcoin. But supremerumham.com only has value for me.

Parking

When someone parks a domain name, ads get placed on the domain, and revenue comes from clicks.

The domain investor gets paid every 1,000 clicks that happen on a domain. The exact amount per click varies between services

Leasing

Some domain owners might lease their domain names out to others. The difference between leasing and selling is control. The seller still has control over the domain. The owner gets monthly revenue from the domain.

At the same time, the lesser adds value to the domain name. They increase the domain’s SEO and backlinks. If the owner ever wants to sell the domain they can get a higher price than before leasing.

Broker

Domain owners can pay for a service to sell their domain. A broker will find a buyer through their network. Another option for a broker is to auction the domain off and promote the domain auction.

The broker service will determine the value of a domain and sell it for the appraised price. Some brokers will only sell high value domains. They will not try to sell domains that they do not believe can get sold for less than $1,000.

Bulk Order

Experienced domain owners might buy hundreds of domains at once. They will sell them all at once.

Brokers might buy the bulk order. A broker might buy 100 domains for $10,000. Each domain needs to sell for at least $100 to break even. The brokers know some domains might sell for $100. But there are a few that will sell for $1,000+

Expenses

Purchase

A seller needs to purchase the domains. The domain registration costs less if the domain gets registers for multiple years.

The purchase price for a domain ranges. An unused domain can get bought for $2.99 up to $60. The price depends on the extension .com, io, and others. Buying a domain from a seller will cost $100+. The greater the value, the higher the purchase price.

Broker Fees

If a seller chooses to use a broker, they need to pay them for a successful transaction. Most fees get priced on the total sale price. Some brokers will charge 9%, others charge 20%.

Renewal Fees

When a seller buys a domain, they own it for a minimum of 1 year. Finding a buyer might take more than 1 year.

After a year, if they cannot find a buyer, they need to renew their ownership. The renewal price will cost more than the purchase price.

Domain Auction Fees

Another option to flip a domain is to put it up for auction. Some brokers have an auction house. They charge extra for auctioning.

Transfer Fees

After the sale of a domain,, it needs to get transferred to the new owner. The domain registrar, domain marketplace, charges a fee to transfer the domain.

The transfer could get worked into the price of the domain.

Revenue Reducers

Up-Front Fees

Some brokers will charge sellers upfront to sell domains on their platform. The upfront fees are monthly, and there is no guarantee that a domain will sell.

The Process of Selling A Domain

  1. Build Value

Generate Traffic

Not all domains have value when they get purchased. A seller can build the value of a domain.

To build value sellers need to generate traffic. One method for generating traffic is creating backlinks. Backlinks will increase a domain’s rank on Google and get organic traffic.

Next, a seller can create social media handles for their domains. Posting on social media with the domains in the bio will lead to traffic for the domains.

Creating a simple website on the domain will generate traffic. A seller can promote the project to generate traffic. I suggest building something such as a calculator or a guide related to the domain name.

2\. List for Sale or Auction

Once the domain has enough value, an owner can sell it. An owner can promote the domain listing to increase the eyeballs on it and the likelihood of a sale.

How to Value A Domain

I struggled to find a clear answer to this. But this information is as far as I know.

Extension

Different domain extensions have different values. The extension “.com” has the most value out of all the other extensions. The ".com" domain gets called a TLD, top-level domain. They are the most valuable because they are the most common, which makes the domain memorable.

Keywords

If the domain name contains words that have high search traffic, then the domain has more value. The domain name bitcoin.com has more value than supremerumham.com.

Traffic

Are people searching for this topic? Does the domain itself have any backlinks? The more traffic a domain gets then the more value it has.

Problems

Finding Valuable Domains

The internet has billions of domain names. Millions of them have value, but many of those millions have owners. How does someone new to domain selling find a valuable domain name on their own?

Revenue Ideas

Domain Appraisal Standard

Every appraisal service or software gives a different number for the same domain. There is an opportunity for a company to set a standard for domain appraisals. Once the standard gets set, they can sell their standard to each appraisal service. This will give sellers an accurate domain value.

SEO Service

Some sellers might not want to spend time on SEO and backlinks. If a service would offer to increase their domains’ Domain Authority, they might pay them.

My Opinion

People think that no one buys and sells domain names anymore. But some domain names have sold for millions of dollars in recent years. The thinking benefits the industry. Since people think that, people trying to find “get rich quick schemes” do not enter the industry. Fewer people in the industry means there is less competition for valuable domains!

Building value for a new domain takes time. For a seller to get a domain’s Domain Authority to even 5 creates value for the buyer. Since getting a domain’s DA from 0 to 5 is more work than getting the DA from 5 to 15.

Conclusion

As trends become popular, then more domains have value. In 2000, bitcoin.com had no value. Now, the domain name can sell for millions.

Someone new to the industry can learn about the great domain names that have value. Then, use that knowledge and buy high value domains to make money.

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