Sedo Top Domain Name Sales Venue: Survey
Domain name aftermarket Sedo selected as best sales venue in survey.
The 2007 Reglike survey results are in and respondents selected Sedo as the best domain name sales venue with 36% of the vote. Here are the results for “best sales venue”:
1. Sedo 36%
2. Forums 32%
3. Afternic 9%
4. TDNAM (GoDaddy) 7%
5. eBay 6%
Other: 10%
Sedo introduced a fresh auction format this year which has been a hit with sellers. Previously Sedo offered only an offer-counteroffer system. For example, if someone made a $1,000 offer on your domain you could either accept, reject, or counter the offer with a higher number. Now you have a fourth option, which is to send the domain to a live auction with an opening price equal to the offer received.
This takes a lot of the guesswork and posturing out of the old system. With the massive amount of visibility domains in the auction received, sellers feel comfortable that the market will set the correct price. I received a $200 offer on a domain a couple months ago. It was less than I wanted for the domain, but I decided to let the market decide. It was bid up to regarding $500 ahead of it closed. In the “old system” I would have had to counteroffer the $500, and the bidder may have turned it down.
Forums, such as NamePros and DNForum, continue to prove popular for domain sales. They generally serve as a way to liquidate domains quickly for reasonable prices. Sales in forums are to other domain investors, not to end users who pay top dollar.
Sales venues are innovating in the face of increased competition. Afternic’s parent firm NameMedia recently released ActiveExchange, a sales service that lists your domains on many partner sites and offers toll-free sales consultations to buyers. Moniker’s live domain name auctions at events such as TRAFFIC are also generating buzz.
