The weather is horrible where I am, and the coffee's free, so here goes:
This business is filled with geeks. If you want to compete with the geeks, you'd better be glued to those numbers all day long, because that's what the big players do.
My partner is a geek. I let him geek.
Me, I'm more interested in the role that relationships and psychology play. This is the vastly underdeveloped part of the game.
You can overoffer on some names and you still won't get a reply.
Why?
Because domain owners are used to the bullshit, to the guy who throws out a number, gets a reply, and disappears.
No owner wants to commit to a price, but parse the offers and decide on his own to sell.
If you contact a domain owner, you must inspire confidence. The pitch is everything, as you're wedged between the spam folder (self-deleting..lol) and the 300 other offers this guy gets every week.
Personalize it to the nth degree. And that doesn't mean:
"Dear ___________________ "
Lol.
Tell the owner that you know about the name, you know about the guy's site, and you know that domain is worth at least 50% more than you are offering.
On top domains, not the ones at the bottom of Overture, never offer less than 50% of what the domain is actually worth to you, and frequently offer close to 100% of what it's worth.
You'd be amazed how often you have a sale.
Domain owners don't want to be insulted, first and foremost. That most people know, but few fail to consider is that if you insult someone one time, you rarely get in the door on any other domain that guy owns.
You're in the wanker pile. Don't want to be there.
Do everything you can to inspire confidence and ease.
And the way to do that is actually to be trustworthy, friendly and brief. If you make a commitment, follow through.
I'm not a fan of DomainKing for a lot of reasons, but the one thing I learned from him, the hard way, was that rep is easily destroyed but not easily built. Treat your rep with care.
If you email a domain owner and he knows your names before you email, you're in for a better ride. Tell him the names you bought and the range you paid. This is very important in deciding whether you'll even get a reply.
In the case of this thread, even one bought domain, no matter how small, with a whois that looks credible, inspires confidence. Make sure your phone number works.
Whatever you do, don't point them to the dnjournal sale you just closed. While tempting, it reminds them how much their name is worth!
