Domainers Need Thick Skin

Now there is a New “Escrow Integration” tab in “Settings”, which allows BIN buyers self-check out prior to interacting with a broker. As a seller, you can set fees, select who pays fees for BIN names and let buyers initiate transactions including brokers in “accept offer” transactions. This will make closings much faster for your buyers and is yet another improvement in the fastest growing Domain Name parking and sales platform. As an added benefit, With each improvement comes more publicity, which will only increase the exposure of the platform, allowing you and I to sell more names.

I recently wrote a post about the ins and outs of the InternetTraffic.com and DomainsNameSales.com platform, so if you are looking to get your domain names there, it is worth a read and may save you some time. What I really didn’t do in that article was give my opinion of the platform, not that my opinion means much. I mean I’m a newbie with little experience and I really haven’t utilized other similar platforms to their fullest potential, so I have little to compare to. I can say, however, that I have received many more offers and inquiries through the InternetTraffic.com and DomainsNameSales.com platform in the last 4 months, than I have with all of the other large popular platforms from which I have tried selling domain names over the last year.

Regarding the parking side of things, there really is no comparison. In my very first week, I made more parking revenue than I had with another large and popular parking outfit in over 6 months. In fact, I have since had several domain names that have earned more revenue in one day than all my names combined for one quarter at the other parking lot.

The benefits of increased parking revenue, combined with domain name sales management at your fingertips, through use of the Domain Sales app for the I-phone, are some of the best reasons why I like and recommend the platform. Additionally, with this being the second released improvement to the platform in only the first four months, it is obvious that this tool will only be tweaked to perfection. Let’s face it, if you make money from it, Frank’s making more money from it!

Getting Around InternetTraffic.com and DomainNameSales.com is a post of some helpful tips for those not familiar with the platform.

Getting Around InternetTraffic.com and DomainNameSales.com

As most seasoned domainers are aware, after Frank Schilling signed a domain parking contract with Google, he quickly opened up a new domain parking company, Internet Traffic. For folks who have tried the new parking service, it is obvious that Frank is providing his customers with a higher revenue share than most others, which is one of the reasons the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. InternetTraffic.com operates a very lean, no-frills operation, whereas other parking companies attend trade shows, are adding staff and have increasing overhead expenses. The result is that more revenue is passed to the portfolio owner.

This past Fall, Frank opened up his Domain Name Sales platform to those clients who used his parking service and also introduced a new app for managing sales inquiries. The platform allows the clients to choose how and who handles inquiries on their domains and Domain Name Sales will even broker them for you, utilizing seasoned brokers who know how to get a deal done. You have the ability to also broker your own deals or have them handled by industry giants like Adam Dicker, Andrew Rosener, David Clements and a number of other well know brokers.

While the platform has been well received, it may be a little intimidating upon your first visit, as there are a lot of things you can do to tailor the platform to better fit you specific wants and desires. You will need to spend some time at the site in order to figure out how to get the most out of the platform. As everybody likes to save time, I though I’d put together this post with some important things that I have figured out using the platform, as I think you may find these important too.

First of all, you can sign-up through InternetTraffic.com, whose log-in serves as a portal to DomainNameSales.com. Be sure to read the terms and conditions upon signing up, as there are a number of restrictions regarding the domain names that can be uploaded to the DomainNameSales.com platform. Here you will also learn that the minimum payout to you, the Publisher, is $500 USD and rolls over each month until at least $500 USD is accumulated. The T&Cs then go onto to indicate that you are responsible for your own taxes and also includes indemnity, termination and other standard language. There is also discloser that the company is not located in the USA and terms regarding fraudulent traffic.

If you click on the NameSales Platform tab on the Internettraffic.com website, you can see an informative video that describes some basic ins and outs of the platform. The Outlook tab on the website will provide you access to some pearls of wisdom from Frank Schilling. The Client Login tab will provide you access to your account, where you can add, manage and sell your names. The Domain Names for Sale tab serves as a portal to DomainNameSales.com, where your names will be listed for sale, if you so choose.

In order to get your names onto the platform, you will need to change you Domain Name Servers (DNS) to buy.internettraffic.com and sell.internnettraffic.com. How you changing your DNS varies from registrar to registrar, although it is a common practice and there are likely easily directions at your registrar on how to get that done, if you do not already know.

Now that you are signed up, DNS has been changed and you have added names into the system, you will get a confirmation e-mail indicating that your names have been added, assuming you passed an ownership confirmation. Once your names have been added, one of the first things you should do is log into you account and go to the top tab labeled Domains and choose Portfolios from the drop-down. In the center square, next to the number of domains in your portfolio, you should click List. Here you will see a list of your names and the categories that have been automatically associated with your names. Review these and make sure they are in line with your desired settings. There are lots of categories and sub-categories to choose from and the more specific you can be, the better you’ll find someone looking for your name. Here you can also make sure that all of your names are listed for sale, which brings us to the next tip.

In that same center square under the My Portfolios tab, you’ll see a flag icon and Configure For Sale & Banner, through which you can edit the for sale banner language that appears on your domain name’s landing page. The Export icon is a great way to get a full list of your listed domains, categories, subcategories and for-sale or not indications. The icon you’ll like the most under the My Portfolios tab is Stats. It is here where you can access your parking revenue information. Simply choose your desired date range and click the Generate button. Now, when you enter this section of the site, you default to the Portfolio Level tab and you will only see your total revenue on a daily basis for the date range that you choose. If you want to drill down to the domain names, simply click on the Domain Level and generate another report. If this is your first peak and some time has passed, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised, assuming your names are generating some traffic. Now that we covered that, let’s move onto the even better side of this platform, selling domain names!

Before you get started setting up your platform, click onto the More dropdown tab, and click the Broker Directory. Give some thought as to whether you want to broker your own deals or utilize one of the listed seasoned professionals. If it were me, I’d reach out and connect with any potential broker prior to choosing them. Form some relationships and see who you are comfortable with. Also take note that commissions vary from broker to broker and can be determined by simply clicking on their name under the Broker Directory. Now that you’ve done your homework on potential brokers, let’s visit the Settings Tab at the top of the platform. Here you will find many options on how to deal with an incoming inquiries. Don’t get intimidated.

First, you want to double check that all of you information is correct under My Sales Profile, Company Profile and Owner, the top three tabs at the left under Settings. The next tab, Brokers Selling for Me, will provide you a list of active brokers working on your behalf. If you haven’t yet chosen any, the default will be DomainNameSales.com and inquiries would be handles by Frank’s team. The next tab, For Sale Configuration, is an important one. It is here where you can set/change your minimum offer and fixed pricing options, if desired. Next, be sure to set your e-mail notifications up, so that you can keep posted on new inquiries, offers or other messages. The next tab is pretty cool, Negotiation Templates. Here you will find suggested default language or you can create your own for general negotiation (i.e.quoting prices, dealing with offers), Cordiality (i.e. thank you, escrow started, out-of-office) and personal templates. Some real nice flexibility here!

The next Out-of-Office tab will allow you to set those days and times where that is applicable. The Automated E-mail Followup tab allows you to set time-frames of automatic follow-ups to inquires. The tabs under Auto Assignment are all associated with assigning brokers to your portfolio. Keep in mind you can have names in separate portfolios and separate brokers for each portfolio. This way, you can test the water with different names and different brokers to find what suits you best. The Advanced Inquiry Distribution (AID) module is a powerful tool that comes into play when you are a acting as a broker or self-brokering your own names, and you have inbound leads which you want to delegate to others who work under you. Filtering parameters such as the language of the inquiry, the Country of origin or the source (e.g. phone, email, registrar, third party sales platform) of each inquiry, can be used as criteria to allocate leads to different salespeople or sub-brokers.

The Payments tab allows you to set up how you receive payment, Paypal or Wire. Here it states that the minimum payout is $100, which contradicts the T&Cs indication that it is $500. While I have earned over $100, but less than $500, I did not have my payment option yet set, so I’m not sure what the minimum payout really is, but will edit this post once I know for sure. The last tab in the Settings section is where you can change your password.

If you now explore the Inquiries tab on the top of the Platform from any location, you can have access to your inbox, which will house any new inquiries that have come in for your names. In fact, this Inquiries tab is where all of you negotiation correspondence can be found. As inquiries come in and move through the system, they are automatically and/or manually moved along to the other various tabs that you see, including Responded, Flagged, Reminders, Forwarded, Sale Pending, Sold, Archive and Trash. For those of you with the corresponding Domain Sales Phone app, you will see that all inquiries are filed either under Active or History.

Thanks for checking this out and if you found it helpful, please share it from here. Let’s close with a quote from the platform creator.

“Assume that everybody can see what you are doing and then live your life that way – you will find that generally you are treated right.” – Frank Schilling

Getting Around InternetTraffic.com and DomainNameSales.com

Getting Around InternetTraffic.com and DomainNameSales.com

VinsDomains has a great track record of working with businesses and individuals to establish an online internet presence by providing a targeted domain name that will increase site traffic and provide a sustainable brand/online identity. VinsDomains.com has a wide variety of domain names for sale that will work for a variety of different types of businesses. Whether you are taking your business online, starting a new business, launching a new product or starting a new blog, we can help you find the domain you need!

What is a domain name? Technically, a domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet (Wikipedia). However, if your visiting this site, you already know that a domain name is much more than that. Your domain name says more about your business than you realize. Your domain name provides the foundation of your online business. The stronger the foundation, the more you can grow, which is why VinsDomains focuses on low competition keyword string domain names, call to action domain names and brandable domain names that are a right fit for your business.

VinsDomains was started in 2012 and is owned and operated by me, Vincent Jacques. I am a Professional Engineer, with over 25 years of experience in the environmental engineering field, primarily associated with environmental due diligence and remediation. Over the years, I have started and sold several environmental companies and currently serve as the New England Regional Manager for Bock and Clark Environmental, LLC.

During the evenings and weekends, I operate Resell Domains LLC, which is the legal domain business my operations functions under. In my spare time, I write songs, play guitar and like to sing.  I am a PADI certified diver, an avid philatelist, and a long standing member of a 12-person monthly wine club, Vino Rouge.  I absolutely love music and do not shy away from the title DeadHead, having seen his fair share of Grateful Dead concerts.  I live in Narragansett, Rhode Island with my wife and two children, who are growing too fast!  Update…they’re all grown now and college graduates!

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Some of the featured domain names for sale at VinsDomains.com can be seen at the right side of this page, although there are many others to choose from as well, which you can see by browsing our category listings.

What are you waiting for, start to grow and protect your internet business with quality aftermarket domain names, as can be found here!

Newbie Domaining

Newbie domaining – well, perhaps you read my six-months post, so I’ll try not to be repetitive. If you have not, looking back, I had actually learned a couple of things by then and perhaps its worth a read. You can check them out here. Anyway, this week does celebrate my one year in the domaining world, as evidenced by the numerous domain names that I let drop this week. As happens to most newbie domainers who visit GoDaddy for the first time as an introduction to domain names, I was amazed at what was selling on their auction platform and for how much. I was also awestruck by the number of domain names that I thought of that were “actually available” to register (hand reg) like HardJudgement(.)com, RollingLogs(.)com, ShoulderOfGiants(.)com and a lot of other pigeon shit names, as Rick Swartz would call them. What was I thinking? Nothing but $$$, which allowed me to waste a bunch of $$$.

In one of the 6-month posts, I talked about a thread I started at DNForum entitled, What’s The Most Important Thing You Have Learned Domaining, which got a lot of participation and is something I read from time to time, as it is chock full of notable tips and reminders. Anyway, if somebody were to ask me that same question today after one year doing this, I’d answer… Take your time and do your homework! Now that it is tax time, it is pretty evident that I wasted a lot of money lining the pockets of others because I didn’t take my time and I did not do my homework, at first anyways. Remember, patience is a virtue and nothing is easy!

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While I’m only doing this part time, I try and maximize the time I do spend domaining by reading as much as I can from others who are already successful doing it. One of the best things that I did early on was open a Twitter account and follow folks in the domaining world. Follow some of the well known names in the industry and follow who they follow. Soon, you’ll have an abundance of relevant reading material on a daily basis that will inform you of the domaining world, past, present and future. It really is an amazing resource and keeps you in tune with the industry as a whole, without wasting much time. It is also a great platform to sell domain names and I have sold several names through my website, which they found via Twitter posts. Just be sure to not bombard your followers with just domain listings. Be sure to re-tweet articles or posts that you find informative and relevant and also take the time to provide your own insight, inspiring quotes and other tidbits of information to keep your followers following and to have them encouraging others to do the same.

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Another great thing that I did was join and mine information from several domaining forums, such as DNForum and NamePros. You may find the best information there is from threads of the past, as I do, although even today, it’s hard to pass bad advice on there, without getting shredded by the more seasoned moderators. Once you find your way around, you will quickly find that most of the questions you have in your head, have already been answered. The internet is vast and is still growing at an incredible pace, but it has also been around for some time now, so there is no need to re-create the wheel. Learn from others who have already been where you are and you will find the learning curve is steeper but a lot quicker! Don’t just be a stalker on the forums though. Be sure to participate and get your name out there. Perhaps answer some softball questions from other folks who are just starting themselves. You’ll quickly find yourself forming relationships and perhaps closing some deals with them.

As you’ll quickly find, there are numerous outlets to try and sell your domain names. So far in my first year, I have sold most of my names through my own website, although I have also sold names through SEDO, GoDaddy, DNForum and EBAY. I have also received offers through DomainNameSales, Toby Clements newsletter, 4.cn and some other outlets, but have yet to close any of those deals. Every week, I’m discovering new outlets to try and sell my names. Your domain names will not sell themselves. You have to work it. Many domainers simply list their names at SEDO and then wait and hope. That is certainly not the right approach towards success!

As far as my first year in this part time business, I have had three $XXXX sales, several $XXX sales and a bunch of $XX sales, although those were mostly hand reg names that I sold on E-bay. Profit/loss-wise, I can say that I have had a loss for my first year, which will help my taxes, although I also now have a nice inventory of sellable names and have generally made a considerable profit on those names that I have sold so far. Most importantly, I’m getting much better at investing in names that others would like to buy and I do my homework before doing so. That really is the trick of it all and something to study and learn more about on a consistent basis. There is an abundance of weekly publications that discuss the most recent sales of domain names and their corresponding prices. Seek these out and see what is selling. There are certainly some trends and you’d be wise to invest in those types of names, if that’s what you’re doing. With the economy the way it is, there are folks out there who are selling cheap to get out, which creates buying opportunities for you and me.

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In my first year, I also purchased a couple of traffic websites, that are ranking extremely well on search engines and that was a great investment on my part. I paid $300 for one of these sites, invested a little time at monetizing it better, and have already made $665 from that site. Not going to retire with that, but let’s face it, in a full year, the site will make between $750 and $1,000, and its residual income. If I can do that 50 more times, that is a pretty nice side income.

Perhaps a better way to go, however, is take the time to buy a name related to what you are passionate about and develop it. I have developed a handful of websites and have had a decent return through monetization (i.e. Google Adsense, ClickBank, advertising, etc.), although these were sites I really had little interest in and were developed with little knowledge. I’m now in the process of building a couple of sites about things that have great interest to me like wine, stamps and a children’s educational app, and the posts and ideas are flowing with ease. It really is a lot more exciting and enjoyable to put together as well. Looking forward to sharing these with you over the coming months.

Unlike my first year when I haphazardly stumbled into this hobby/side business, I’ve set some definitive goals for this year and the longer term, which has allowed me to focus and chip away at them, moving me in a defined direction. I have no doubt that I will achieve each and every one of the goals, because in my mind, I already have! That was always the key to success in other business I started in the environmental field. Create a goal, carve out steps to get there and start climbing them one by one. It never fails, just believe in what your doing and continue putting that out there.

Thanks for checking in and taking the time to read this!

Newbie Domaining

Domaining | Domaining | Domaining | Domaining | Domaining | Domaining

Newbie Domaining