How Do You Set Your Domain at a Price That Will Sell?

By | August 15, 2011

It’s perhaps the top question that people selling domains always seem to ask last: what is the right price?

Selling, after all, is a bit of an art form. And whether you’re selling an antique to a pawn shop or selling your company’s services to a high-end company, finding the right price match is integral to making sure that you can seal the deal. You don’t want to come across as too expensive, of course, but in many situations, being too cheap can be just as bad.

The problem is, there’s no real way to measure your website or domain’s value except by using some valuation tools – none of which actually guarantee that you’ll actually receive the price your domain is valued at. So where do you go from here? Well, keep reading, because we’re going to tell you how the experts at WebsiteBroker.com price their domains.

Three Ways to Do Your Homework

Doing your homework before you list your domain for sale is absolutely critical, because you want your site to sell quickly. Sure, you can re-adjust your asking price for a domain when you don’t get any offers, but if that sounds like an appealing way to do it, you have more patience than a lot of domain sellers out there.

So here are a few ways to do your research and find out a reasonable asking price:

1.       Look up the asking prices for similar domains. And we don’t just mean domains within the same niche as yours – look at the asking prices for domains of a similar quality. You’ll start to get a good feel as to what these domains can fetch. And keep in mind: the longer a domain’s been listed for sale, the less likely it is that their asking price is reasonable.

2.       Make sure you know your niche. Once you’ve done the research above, it’s important to remember that each niche is different – a top-quality domain name for “watches” will probably sell for a lot more than a top-quality domain name for “biodegradable band-aids.” So use your common sense.

3.       If you can, monitor who’s getting the offers and ask yourself why the price looks so attractive – and ask yourself what kind of price you might ask for your domain to attract similar attention.

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Once you list your domain for sale at a price you determined using the research we just discussed, you’ll hopefully get a few decent offers. But if you find that offers aren’t coming in — or the ones that are simply aren’t up to your asking price — try re-listing your site for a reduced price. You don’t have to bend so far to the market’s whim that you end up feeling hosed in the end, but you should be willing to make a concession or two along the way to a domain sale.

It’s tempting, especially after all of your research, to expect more out of a buyer, but remember that every sale is ultimately about what you’re willing to sell your domain name for and feel happy about at the end of the day.