Selling Domains Via AdWords
December 23, 2006 | Filed Under Domains | 2 Comments
There is an interesting thread over at Dnforum.com right now where a bunch of guys have been having good luck selling domains through an AdWords campaign. The theory is that you’ll reach more potential buyers by targeting the keywords that comprise the domain name (with and without extension) and you won’t spend a fortune because there really aren’t that many people who type domain names right into google. Of the people who do type domains right into the Google search field, how many are going to type in the domain you’re trying to sell?
Most of the people giving this a try are going through AfterNIC to sell their domains, and have the ad’s destination URL set to their landing page there. There are some people using Sedo, though I haven’t seen many reports of success yet. I seem to be the lone loon trying to sell the domains on my own (which is fine… I figured someone should be different just to make the discussion interesting).
The CTR on my ads is 20-ish%, but I’m not getting a tremendous number of impressions per day either. I have gotten a few clicks. No inquiries or purchases yet. Part of that might have something to do with the prices I’m asking for the domains, but they’re worth enough to me to sit on for a few years longer if I don’t get the price I want.
This definitely seems to be a good way to reach a broader audience and particularly end-users who aren’t as tight with the purse strings as domainers. The only problem with using AdWords for marketing your available domains seem to be the cost associated with marketing high value, single dictionary word domains because the number of impressions and the cost per click can make it too expensive to continue the campaign for very long.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Google easing into domain business afterall
December 17, 2006 | Filed Under Domains | 4 Comments
Remember when I said Google can’t see behind privacy protected domain registrations because they don’t actually manage any domains? Well… Google just announced they’ve added domain registration to the Google Apps for Your Domain Beta. Adding a domain to your Google Apps account is only $10.00 a year to register AND host AND get private domain registration to protect you from Evil spammers.
So this begs the question…
Is Google finally using their registrar license to manage domains for the general public?
Nope. They’re partnering with GoDaddy and Enom to provide the registration services. I doubt it’s a coincidence that they chose to partner with the registrars that have the first and third largest shares, respectively, of the domain market. Via these partnerships, there are now at least 20 million domain records to which Google (presumably) has full, behind-the-privacy-screen access.
Abhilash previously suggested this type of situation might be possible, and honestly, I didn’t think any of the registrars would get into bed with Google like this because the risk of clients becoming upset and transfering out in droves wouldn’t be worth taking. Sort of makes me wonder what kind of financial incentive they received.
I guess we’ll just have to watch and see how this plays out.
Popularity: 13% [?]
