It’s time to set up your domain names on eBay! Before we do this however, there are a couple of important things to take into consideration:
1) If you are new to eBay, you should take some time to read their website and get to know how their auctions work, as well as the applicable fees and listing options.
2) You can lose a lot of money buying into the bells & whistles so avoid purchasing any add-ons when you list your domain names. You do not need a featured listing, a highlighted auction title, or any of that silly stuff.
3) Your feedback rating is very important with anything you sell on eBay, whether it’s domain names or children’s toys. People judge you based on the feedback you have received so if you have any negative feedback, I would suggest creating a new eBay account.
If you are brand new to eBay, there is little you can do to generate positive feedback quickly, other than to ensure that you follow through with your auctions, keep open communication with your buyers and be prompt when pushing your domain names after they have been purchased. Never make them wait more than 24 hours for their domain.
4) Open a Paypal account; it’s almost required in order to sell on eBay these days. People prefer Paypal and it just makes things a lot easier.
You can open and verify a Paypal account within a couple of days, so do your best to set this up prior to listing your auctions.
5) Choose a relevant eBay username. Don’t try to be trendy and pick some crazy sounding username, choose one specifically for domain and/or site flipping. Something like DomainExperts or DomainTrends would be just fine. If you end up not liking what you chose you can change it every 30 days.
When you list your auctions on eBay, you should start them all off at $.99. Do not place a reserve on these auctions, and do not add any restrictions or limitations of any kind.
Just set them up individually, and list them at $.99 each to start. For beginners the idea of paying $8 for a domain name and listing it at $.9 is nerve wracking however with a lower start-up price, you will entice more bidders to participate and your auction will boost up in price quickly.
Once people become attached to the domain, they will create a bidding war against any other user who tries to take it away from them and you will see your auction soar as it gets closer to the end of the time, so don’t be too nervous about losing money. Note: If you have paid more than the basic registration of a domain name, meaning that you have purchased a domain name for more than $7-9, depending on what you paid for the domain you may want to start the auction off on a higher amount, just be aware that the lower the start-up bid, the more activity it will receive.
By not listing a reserve fee you will also be able to list your domains on eBay at a lower cost, as eBay charges sellers a fee for including a reserve price.
You should also pay attention to eBay listing sales, which occur from time to time and feature reduced fee auctions.
Whenever you see one of these, list as many domains as you can and save yourself a bundle in listing fees. I also do not recommend that you feature a BIN (Buy It Now) price either, as you may end up short-changing yourself if you list the BIN at a lower price than others are willing to pay. Let the auction determine its own price and run its course.
When selling your domain names on eBay, always choose a relevant category. Personally, I always use: Computers & Networking – Web Domains & Services – Domain Names – .com
Also be sure to include a direct headline to your auction listing, which describes the domain name you are featuring. Include the domain name in full within your auction title (example: www.Domain.com not just domain.com) And most importantly, ALWAYS include a domain “idea”, something that can provoke thought and get potential buyers to consider the various options that are available to them when using the domain name: Example: www.BusinessLinks.com – Premium .com Directory Name
Within your listing you will be asked to enter in additional information including the Type (which is Domain Names), the extension (.com) and a brief description.
Always include the domain registrar, the age (unless it’s brand new than do not include it), and utilize the free option to include a gallery picture just because research has shown that auctions showcasing a photo of any kind will receive more attention.
When creating the body text of your listing, you want to provide as many ideas as you possibly can, as well as giving them as much information relating to the auction as possible, such as: Payments Accepted and your terms (Payment is due within two days of auction, etc) Transfer Time – How quickly you can push the domain over after payment is received, (I always include “Transfer Within 24 Hours Of Payment Receipt”) And a link to any other domain auctions that you currently have going. This is very important and it’s a great way to inter-link your auctions and encourage multiple purchases from your buyers; since they can purchase as many as they like and pay all at once with the eBay checkout system. The link to your other auctions is available under “Sellers Other Items”. Just right click and choose “Copy Link” and create a new link in your listing that links to one another.
This takes time but it’s definitely worthwhile!
Also be sure to include how long the domain is registered for, so buyers can determine how soon they will be required to renew it.
There are a lot of buyers who will not purchase a domain name that is due to expire within two months, so if you have just registered the domain name, then be sure to emphasize the fact that it is only expiring in a year’s time.
When listing your auction, you can choose the time frame in which it will remain active. I typically choose the 7 or 10-day auction plan.
Be sure that you are available on the day that your auction ends and that you answer any questions that you receive during the course of your auction (and you can expect a handful).
Also be sure to include contact information, a gmail account will suffice and is easy to manage. www.gmail.com
Once again, choose an email address that relates to the domain industry, but avoid “domain flipping”, “domain flipper” or terms like that. [email protected] or [email protected] will give a better impression to your potential buyers and will simply look more professional. When someone purchases a domain from you, depending on the registrar that you use, you may be required to obtain specific information from your buyer in order to push the domain into their account. For NameCheap, all you need is the buyers NameCheap uername which is quick and simple, another reason I tend to use them for domain flipping. With GoDaddy.com however, you are required to have more information available regarding your buyer and their GoDaddy account. Simply create an email draft within your gmail account that thanks your buyer for their purchase and requests the information that you need. By doing this, you can simply copy and paste that email to each buyer after a successful sale and let them follow up with their information.
If using NameCheap be sure to include the fact that they must complete their NameCheap profile entirely or NameCheap will not allow incoming domain pushes.
It only takes a few minutes for them to fill out their profile, but it’s required and will save you time from attempting to push a domain only to be told that the buyers profile is incomplete. Once again, be sure to communicate with your seller and push the domain to them as quickly as you can after you have received payment.
I would also recommend not accepting echecks from Paypal as they take time to clear and will delay the process and cause more work on your end by having to remember to check when it has cleared, etc. And finally, be sure that your buyers pay you BEFORE you push the domain to them. This might be obvious to you but it needs to be said, as I have talked to many new domain flippers who push the domain immediately only to never receive payment. Once the domain is pushed over it’s not always easy to get it back.
The most activity that will take place within your auction is during the last hour that it’s available.
This is when the bidding wars start to happen and people attempt to outbid each other or snag it at the last minute. Because of this, you want to pay close attention as to when your auction will end. If you list it on a 7 day auction plan, and you start the auction on a Saturday, it will end the following Saturday.
The problem with this is that the weekends tend to be slower online in general, and on eBay , I have also experienced fewer bids and less activity if my auction ended on either Friday night, Saturday or Sunday. My suggestion is to make sure that your auction will end on a weekday, any weekday will do. I tend to use the 7 day auction plan and list on Mondays regularly, so I keep a schedule and routine going that is easy to follow (and remember).
Another important thing to remember is the times that your auctions will end in between one another.
For example, if I list two auctions on Monday and it takes me ten minutes in between listing them, they will expire ten minutes apart.
This isn’t always wise because if you have one buyer interested in both auctions they may not have the time to focus on bidding on both.
Therefore, I suggest timing your auctions 15-30 minutes apart, meaning; create one… go for a short break, come back and list the second and so on.