Morning Folks!!
There has been a lot of talk about the 'End User.' But I am not too sure domainers even know what an end user is or looks like when they see one. See there was an auction last week. An end user bought the highest priced domain but domainers think he too was a domainer. WRONG! Div bought Ad.com NOT as a domain industry pro. He bought it as an end user and now has the chance to transform Skenzo into a mainstream powerhouse. This domain puts Skenzo right in the middle of Madison Avenue and not even they know what has really happened.
By acquiring Ad.com as an END USER, Div has the chance to transform his business into something priceless. He has a chance to disrupt things on several levels. So my surprise is that nobody recognized the end user when they saw one. Maybe we need to pass out t-shirts with END USER in big bold letters.
Now as far as end users......both Moniker and Rick Latona spent countless hours courting end users. It works a TINY little bit. In this case, enough to show what happens when you have a real auction and you mix it up and have the right audience. As I have stated now countless times....End users are coming one domain, one project, one need, one use at a time. They will likely never come in mass. We all hope they do. We will see many more auctions like this if that were to occur. But stop thinking it will happen overnight. It will happen, but we could still be a decade or more away. You can't force them to get the religion. It will happen when it happens. But when and if that day ever does come, it will make major art auctions look like stuff for rookies. Imagine not domainers selling to end user, imagine end users selling to end users. What does an auction for Loan.com look like if auctioned by Bank of America and 10 banks are there? Now THAT is an auction and that is likely something we may never see. At least in our life times.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Donnie Goodwin
Rick,
Thanks for a good comment about the importance of take out end user. It also causes me to recall that in market economics there is a well established concept that says,”supply can create its own demand.” The great example being the Xerox machine.
Rob Sequin
Great insight into Divyank’s thinking.
“End users are coming one domain, one project, one need, one use at a time”
So true. The owner of a Cuban restaurant came to me a few weeks back and bought my CafeHabana.com as reported in DNJournal.com. He knew the power of a good domain that was right for him.
Nice when they come to us but we have to reach out to them too.
I have my selling-to-end-users process posted at my http://SellingToEndUsers.com page so anyone can read about the process I use.
All free, complete info, no membership or cost or obligation. (Hope you don’t mind the link out)
You just need to put the time in, offer them the perfect domain (like citynamelawyers.com to lawyers in that city) and price it right and you’ll get sales.
Lonnie
Can’t agree more
Danny Pryor
End users are what make the internet work … that’s why that banner you have telling everyone to target PEOPLE and not SEO scores! @Donnie, supply has created its own demand with our group of TurnpikeInfo.com sites, where the names were all available, and now through careful development we garner over 1,000 uniques every month! And it’s still growing – we’re targeting the user – and now we’re selling sponsorship slots! BTW: We following much of Rick’s own formula on that one. It works.
Steve M
Never a doubt that it wasn’t a”D-2-D” sale.
One has only to look at all that Div has build & created; and over an amazingly short time period at that; to realize that Ad.com will have little if anything to do with PPC (unless he controls that, too).
Was it”worth” 1.4 mill?
Once we see what he and his team do w/it, there will be no doubt.
Rick London
Even though the auctions do a good job it is not enough. To attract end users, hundreds of thousands of dollars would have to be spent in business publications, advertising age, direct mail etc to reach the proper end buyers. Until that happens most sales will be bwtween domainers.
Were the two auctions a success? I do not think so. Other than AD.com what sold for big money? NOTHING.
The better domains were priced to high and as usual most of the sales were from 10-75K. The auction houses profited and will does these again.
J.R. Jackson (Internet's $8-Million Man)
I appreciate the information in regards to selling to end-users. I own around 1,700 domains and while I have been able to sell a few directly to an end-user I find it very difficult to get to the decision maker. I’m going to test market a few domains by taking ads out in industry related publications which pertain to the specific market I’m targeting.
J.R.