Domain flipping has become quite a lucrative business especially with hosting websites online each day and also changing domain names. If you are new to domain flipping and you want to learn how to sell a domain name on GoDaddy or any other domain registrar, this is the right article for you. We’ve discussed the different techniques you can use to sell a domain, and why you need to calculate the domain value to know the best price to sell it.
How to calculate the domain value
Valuing a domain name can be a bit tricky because every domain name is unique. This means that there can only be a particular domain name and there is no way to make a copy of it. Before you decide to sell a domain name, it is essential that you value it to know how much it is worth. The domain name Voice.com, for instance, was sold for around $30 million. Several factors influence the price of a domain, and there are also several tools available that you can use to appraise your domain to find out its value.
Factors that Influence the Price of a Domain
A common factor that influences the price of a domain is the length of the domain itself. Everybody prefers a shorter domain name to a longer one, which makes shorter domain quite difficult to find. The reason is that shorter domain names are easier to remember and type in the address field of a web browser. Due to the high demand for shorter domain names, they are often valued higher than longer domain names. Besides the length of the domain name, the keywords in it also influence the value. If the keyword is popular in a specific industry, it’ll be valued better since they help in SEO.
Brandability is another factor that determines how high you can sell a domain name. If a domain name is easy to brand, chances are most people will want it, and it’ll end up fetching a good price. People and businesses often avoid using complicated, hard to remember domain names. A good domain name should be unique, descriptive, brief, credible, user-friendly, and most importantly, memorable. The last factor we’ll discuss that affects the value of a domain name is its position in the domain hierarchy. Top-level domains such as .com and .net have experienced a massive boom, and statistics show that they are quite in popular use and demand.
How to Appraise Your Domain
As we’ve mentioned earlier, valuing a domain name can be quite difficult, but there are several services available that you can use to appraise your domain and know its worth. One of the most popular domain name valuation tools is Estibot. To use this tool, simply go to Estibot, enter the domain name you want to value in the provided field and click on the appraisal button. A report will be generated showing the estimated value of the domain. You can also use tools like Google Trend to see how often people search for keywords that are part of a domain.
Another great domain valuation service is Valuate (now MediaOptions). The brand offers an official domain name appraisal using up to 20 metrics such as search volume for the keywords, Cost Per Click (CPC), and Google PR rank. If you want a free domain valuation tool, you can also use Godaddy Domain Appraisals. To get started, visit the appraisal site, input the domain name in the search field and click on the GoValue button. The search result will show the estimated value of the domain name as well as information such as the popular keywords that are part of the domain name and its appeal.
Namebio is one other tool that comes in handy for valuing your domain. It is a free database that allows you to search for exact or specific keywords in domains that have already been listed to see how much they are valued. With this information, you can decide how much to sell a domain. You can also use dotDB to see the number of extensions that a second-level domain is registered under. Enter your domain name in the search field to see if similar domains are registered. The more the domains that the result shows, the higher the demand for your domain may be.
How to sell on GoDaddy Public Auction
So far, we’ve explained the factors that influence the price of a domain name as well as the different tools that you can use to appraise a domain name. In this section, we will discuss in detail how you can sell your domain on GoDaddy Public auction. Note that GoDaddy offers 4 different ways to sell a domain – Offer/Counter Offer, Buy Now Only, 7-Day Public Auction, and Offer/Counter Offer with Buy Now. However, we will focus on the 7-Day Public Auction. As is essential, you need to have a value in mind before you can proceed to think of selling it.
1. List your domain on GoDaddy
2. Select 7-Day Public Auction and add listing details
3. Increase Visibility (Optional) and receive payments
List Your Domain on GoDaddy
To get started selling your domain on GoDaddy Public Auction, the first thing you need to do is create a GoDaddy Auctions account if you don’t have one already. After that, log in to your GoDaddy Auctions account and add at least one payment type in your settings page. The payment type that you add will determine how you will funds payments when someone buys your domain at the end of the day. Once the payment type is added, you can then proceed to click on the “List a Domain” link in the top menu where you will enter the domain name you want to list.
Select 7-Day Public Auction and Add Listing Details
Once you’ve entered the domain name you want to list, select 7-Day Public Auction from the list provided. You’ll be required to also provide additional information about your listing such as the Starting Bid, Auction Hour, Category, and Reserve Price. The minimum starting bid price that you are allowed to specify is $20. As for the category, you’ll be given a chance to choose one category for free. However, you can purchase up to four different categories for your listing. Depending on your choice, you can add an optional description of the domain and also specify if you want to sell your current website along with the domain name.
Increase Visibility (Optional) and Receive Payments
The good thing about selling on GoDaddy Public Auction is that you can increase the visibility of your listing. However, this is optional, and you will need to pay for it. While listing your domain, you can choose “Make My listing a Home Page Feature” or “Make My Listing a Category Page Feature” to specify where you want it listed. As part of the listing process, you need to specify the account you want to receive your payments into and read and agree to the terms set by GoDaddy for the auction. You can then click on the “Finish” button to complete your listing.
Other Considerations
As stated earlier, there are several ways you can list and sell your domain on GoDaddy, An impressive thing about the domain registrar is that basic domain listing is completely free of charge except when you add extra features or services. But keep it in mind that once your domain name sells, GoDaddy will take a small percentage of it as their service fee. You are also required to pay an annual membership fee to a member of the GoDaddy Auction. For information about fees and percentages charged by the domain registrar, we recommend that you should check out their Auctions Pricing Page (https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpPricing.aspx).
When listing a domain name to sell on GoDaddy, you must ensure that it’s not expiring in the next 90 days. If you want to list a domain on GoDaddy for over $50,000, you can only do so using the listing type, Offer/Counter Offer. You can sell your domain name that is listed with another registrar on GoDaddy, whether there is an active website content on it or it is just a parked domain. When you list a domain on GoDaddy Auctions, it can take up to 72 hours before the registrar activates it and buyers can start placing their bids.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Throughout this comprehensive article, we’ve explained how you can sell your domain name on GoDaddy. Always remember that you should first calculate the value of the domain name before you proceed to sell it for auction so that you can sell at a good price. Aside from that, don’t forget that to always consider the different factors that influence a domain name value such as the length, brandability, keywords and level of the domain. You should always do an appraisal of your domain name to know its estimated value using tools that we’ve suggested in this article such as Estibot, Namebio, and dotDB.
Apart from GoDaddy, there are other alternatives to sell a domain name such as Flippa, Seo, Cax and Nameilo. Regardless of where you want to sell your domain name, the process is similar to that of GoDaddy. You will need to provide details about your listing such as the starting price, category and so on. The truth is that, making money flipping domains can be quite exciting especially if you get lucky and sell at a high price. And the good thing is that the process is not difficult at all. Why not try selling a domain using the techniques we’ve mentioned in this article!
Simon Bonello is Co-founder of Gain Changer. His main area of focus is Business Process Automation, Software Technical Architecture and Technical SEO
