Day 2 did not disappoint. After a very late night, I knew it would be hard to keep up with blogging, but many folks who have not been able to make it have said they appreciate the recaps and a few people have thanked me for including them. So here is a recap of Day 2 at NamesCon!
ICA Broker Meeting
It was nice to start the day with the ICA broker meeting where I got to see many familiar faces and meet some new members. So here is what we discussed… actually… “what happens in the Broker Meeting, stays in the broker meeting.” 🙂 I will say that we had some fruitful discussions about how we as brokers can better serve our customers. If you are in the domain business in any fashion, I recommend joining the ICA, which is our industry association.
The Secret to Premium Domain Deals – Andrew Miller
Andrew shared very openly about his experiences as a broker. Here are some key takeaways:
- Andrew Took a note from Rick & Kate’s playbook (from yesterday’s session)… “slept on” a $2M offer… ended up getting $7.2M.
- Not a fan of publicly disclosing domain sale details. Likes to use NDA’s.
- Don’t assume who the logical buyer of a name will be.
- “My success has been due to my network. Spent 25 years building his network” ~ Andrew. I agree, that “your network is your net worth.”
Become Your Own Domain Broker – Jeffrey Gabriel, Saw.com
Jeffrey also shared lots of great insights from his brokerage experiences. Some key takeaways from this session:
- “Yes is great. No is ok. Maybe will kill you.” – Get a yes or a no from your prospects.
- Not always about price… may be about timing.
- “Should I close the file?”
- Don’t accept offers too quickly, and don’t give them 1-2 weeks to pay
- After the sale – offer to help with the transfer or anything else and most of all, ask for referrals
- You’ve got to put in the time… you’ve got to grind and sell! You are a salesperson. (emphasis mine)
- ⅓ of buyers settle and end up with Plan B
- GTLD & CCTLD sales have risen year over year by 35 – 50%
- .net is dead (Note: This point was quickly countered by Braden Pollock)
- Young CEO’s move on from a .com without hesitation
Right of The Dot Auction
This is always a highlight at NamesCon. I enjoy auctions in general, and when you add domains… well, what’s not to love? One of my favorite wins was the Christian Calvin NFT and art piece, which was appropriately won by NamesCon’s own Christian Jaeger.
I had a handful of domains accepted into the auction, but unfortunately, none of them made the live portion (as a side note, still taking offers on 5GWireless.com).
Congrats to those who had sales and best wishes for follow-up sales in the extended auction.
I Met Squadhelp’s CEO, Darpan Munjal
I just got into brandable domains a few years ago, and Squadhelp has quickly become my brandable marketplace of choice for a few reasons. First, as I shared with Darpan, I had a false sense of “man this is easy” in that I sold 2 names on the platform within my first 6 months, having only 13 domains listed. Let me tell you, it’s just not that easy 🙂 That said, I also love the fact that Darpan is known for sharing data points (follow him on Twitter) to help domain investors see what is working well in the brandable space, based on what he sees at Squadhelp.
A few pointers that Darpan mentioned were:
- Pay attention to their suggestions and implement recommended edits.
- Create a search engine optimized domain description
- Enter contests
- Add a logo to your white label marketplace listings
Darpan also shared that he is excited about the new landing pages that will be coming out soon, so I am looking forward to seeing those as well. My advice is to take advantage of the wholesale marketplace to both build your Squadhelp portfolio, and keep inventory moving. Additionally, take advantage of the White Label Marketplace as this is a free feature that allows you to get additional exposure for your Standard and Premium listings.
Meeting with Josh Reason of DNWE
If you aren’t familiar with DNWE (Domain Name Wholesale Exchange), let me introduce you to an amazing service. DNWE allows you to discreetly list your names for sale at wholesale prices to other domain investors (maintaining public price integrity). Conversely, a domain investor can also pick up great deals on the site. I have purchased several great domains at amazing prices and I have also sold several domains, so I am a big fan. Check them out!
ICA Dinner
Thursday was “ICA” day for me as I attended 3 events held by the ICA, including this dinner, where we had amazing food, and drinks, and honored the recipient of the Lonnie Borck Memorial Award, Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire.
Dynadot After Party
I want to say the Dynadot team really made an impact on me at NamesCon. From the time I met the team at their booth, they made me feel like family. They invited me to their “after party” where I got to meet their CEO Todd Han, and hear his amazing story about how we started the company. I found an old interview on Domain Name Wire where he tells the story, so you can hear it as well. I also learned that they will be celebrating their 20-year anniversary this year, so a big congrats to Todd and the team!
Are you Dot Linked?
Prior to NamesCon, I met Richard Morris of Domain Gourmet via LinkedIn. This led to us having a great conversation where we learned that we had much more in common than just domains. He shared his interest in the .link TLD, which is one that had really not captured my attention. As most of you know, there are just so many new TLD’s, that it’s hard to keep up with all of them. I was intending to meet up with Vaughn Liley, the General Manager at .link at Richard’s suggestion (noting that Vaughn and I both had attended the University of Maryland), however Vaughn was unable to make it.
At the Dynadot party, I had the pleasure of meeting Sebastian Krüger, who is the Business Development Manager at .link and we had a great chat about the use case for .link as so many platforms exist to use as a “link in bio” such as LinkTree.
And yes, I ended up registering a few .link domains. Thank you, Richard!
Porkbun Anyone?
I love pork buns… I really do. Which is why I thought this was a really odd name for a registrar, but hey… you can make any name work as a brand, right? I know a lot of domain investors love Porkbun and they jumped all over my radar this week. First, I won a domain in NameTap auction that was registered at Porkbun while I was at NamesCon. Next, I got to meet the founder Ray King after one of the sessions where he was a panelist. Ray has a solid history in the online space including being the founder of SnapNames and AboutUs.org. Next, the folks at Dot Hip Hop mentioned that Porkbun had great pricing on the .hiphop TLD, and then when I went to register my first .link domains I found out that Porkbun also had great pricing on .link domains as well.
My Biggest Takeaway from Day 2
My biggest takeaway after watching Braden Pollack moderate for two days… if the domain business ever goes away, Braden might be able to make a living doing standup! 😉
