SnapNames: Initial Experiences

Today I put my first 20 domain’s up for sale on SnapNames.  I decided to give SnapNames a shot as I’ve found it a lot of work managing my domain sales through multiple services. While this is great for evaluation – I wanted to get an expert on my side to help me sell some of my domains. This is the advantage to SnapNames – you are dealing with a real human.

I had a 45-minute call with my account manager today to discuss each of my domains individually and how we thought they would do on the service. Obviously there is no magic formula to tell exactly what price a domain will sell for – but the account manager was great at providing insight into which domains had the highest potential. This was a useful exercise as we were able to spend a few minutes on each domain discussing it in detail.

With all 20 complete I felt a sense of accomplishment. The process of setting-up the sale on SnapNames is a bit more involved than Sedo or Afternic but provides for a very streamlined sales process in the end. The process is:

1) Come-up with initial prices for domains with account manager

2) Transfer domain registrar to SnapNames

3) Account manager places domains up for auction

4) Domains sold are negotiated through the account manager who ensures that you are paid for your domain and that the transfer goes smoothly.

5) Collect money for domains sold.

6) For any domains left unsold discuss new strategies with account manager and put into auction again

What I like about this process is that you account manager helps you come-up with the starting prices. This is nice because you can benefit from their experience watching these domain sales every day.

The account manager is makes money based on the domain sale price. It is essential that you know the account manager is on your side. If you think of a real estate agent, they are usually on the side of the buyer because they are commissioned by the buyer. Luckily, with domain names it’s the opposite – they are commissioned by me the seller, and thus you know they are on your side. This also means of course that they will want you to get the highest price possible for your domain – because they make more money too!

By having the account manager negotiate the entire sale this saves me from having to negotiate with the buyer and ensure that I get the money and the domain transfer is successful. This is a stressful part of domain selling and I am looking forward to handing this task over to the experts.

Transferring your domain registrar to SnapNames makes the sale even easier as you don’t have to contact your hosting provider and go through a complicated procedure to transfer the domain.

These are my initial experiences – so far very excited about the service. I will continue to post updates on my experiences with SnapNames, Sedo, and Afternic as well as all of my current flips!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton