Yesterday, in the first part of ‘Tips For Making an Offer for a Domain Name‘ we talked about what to write in an email to someone who holds a domain name you’re interested in buying.

Here in Part 2, we discuss what to do next, after you’ve sent that initial email off…

2. Find Out About the Domain Name Holder

While you wait to hear from the domain name holder, do what research you can into them, their business, their business model, their web statistics, etc. You want to get an idea of what the value of the domain is TO THEM. This in turn, will give you an indication of what price they might be willing to accept.

3. Consider The Domain Name Holder’s Price

When they eventually come back to you (if they do) the domain name holder will generally do one of four things:

1. Tell you that the domain name is not for sale
2. Give you an outrageous price
3. Give you a low price (because they underestimate the value of the domain name)
4. Give you a realistic price

If the domain name holder either doesn’t reply to you or says they don’t intend to sell, it will generally be due to one of two reasons:

• They really don’t intend to sell the domain name; or
• They don’t believe you are really interested in buying it.

The best way to find out which of these is true, is to ditch email and call the domain name holder on the telephone. If they WOULD be willing to sell the domain name, then calling them up will indicate that you are the real deal.

If the domain name holder comes back with a price…

Firstly, keep in mind, that what is ‘outrageous’, ‘low’ or ‘realistic’ to them, may not be to you. If, however, you’ve done your research, you’ll have a better idea of whether THEY believe they’ve given you an outrageous, low or realistic price.

Based on that, and what the value of the domain name is to you, you can make them an offer.

5. Make An Offer

Depending on your negotiation style, you might make an all-or-nothing offer that is within what you believe to be the range of what they’d likely accept… or you might make a low-ball offer and see where the negotiations take you.

If, for example, the domain name holder gives you an outrageous or realistic price you might want to make an offer that’s on the low end of what you think they would realistically accept.

If they give you a price that seems low to you, you might make an offer that is lower still. You may opt to do this because, if you accept straight away, that may indicate to the domain name holder that you believe the price is a ‘steal’, which may cause them to withdraw their original proposed price.

On the other hand, you probably don’t want to go too low, as you may unnecessarily lengthen negotiations or prompt the domain name holder to reconsider the value of the price.

Again, negotiation via email is a little challenging, given the absence of visual or auditory clues that can tell you more about what the domain name holder would be willing or unwilling to accept.

But it can certainly be done, and the more certain you are about the value of the domain to you… and the value of the domain to THEM… the better the price you’ll be able to negotiate.

Finally, let me say that price is not the only ‘negotiable’ you have to play with in a domain name negotiation.

There may be other things you can offer a domain name holder that (a) don’t cost you much or anything to give, and (b) they would value more than a few more hundred or thousand dollars (depending on the price range you’re negotiating).

Knowing ‘what’ that is, will, of course, require you to do a little more work than simply offering the domain name holder a price. But it may well be worth it.

Related Articles:

• Does Google Hate Affiliate Marketers?
• Twitter Users Want Companies To Answer Them
• Disney Forgets To Renew Club Penguin Domain Name
• ICANN Approves New Generic Top-Level Domains
• Did Australian Energy Company TRUenergy Let Electricity.com.au Expire?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 12:45 am and is filed under Domain Names, Internet Marketing Niche, Kikabink Lab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.