Transfer, Reg Path Domain Sales Services — Comparing Instant

Fresh sales channels are opening up for domainers thanks to efforts by Afternic, GoDaddy, and Sedo.

Over the past week Afternic turned up two fresh partners in its Afternic DLS Premium program and Sedo extended the beta of its SedoMLS program to sizable domain holders.

Each fresh partner that gets integrated into these systems means more domain sales. Afternic has found that, with each fresh registrar partner it adds, sales go up — it’s not just the same number of sales being spread across more partners.

The key to this sales channel working is two fold: getting into the registration path when a person is searching for a domain name and having instant transfer capabilities. That means that Mr. Modest Biz can search for a domain name, find your domain for sale, add it to his cart, purchase it, and get the domain name instantly in his account.

Here’s a comparison of the three major services available today:

Registrars providing instant transfer for each service is notable on two fronts: they provide a sales outlet for your domains and you need to have your domains at an instant transfer registrar in order to participate. Your domains don’t need to be at the same registrar as where the domain is sold; it just has to be at one of the registrars in that channel’s network.

Both Afternic and SedoMLS are quickly expanding their reach, and I expect more partners for each service in 2011.