SSWT Internet Marketing Forum

How do you sell domain names privately?

I had domain names listed at an auction that didn't sell. Someone is interested in purchasing. What procedure do you follow?? Thanks!

Like most if not all things, this carries a degree of risk.

Ask yourself and the potential buyer 2 vital questions:

1. How can payment be remitted?

2. How can the domain name's ownership be transferred?

While using paypal is a relatively simple solution, problems can occur if the
buyer turns out to be a scammer. So your minimal objective is to get as
much money out of the deal as possible.

This is where it makes sense to use some kind of "escrow" service. They'll
hold ownership of the domain name pending complete payment to you, or
even hold payment in the event a dispute is reported.

Two services I can suggest you have a look at are Escrow.com and also
Moniker.com. Between the 2, the latter might be more advantageous since
you're also dealing with a domain registrar, which Escrow isn't.

Do your independent research, as always. Good luck and good hunting.

very nice informative post there Dave.

robert

Thanks for the information!

I have a buyer who will pay via PayPal and I was just wondering how to make the transfer. I purchased the name from GoDaddy.

How to transfer the domain name to the buyer depends on him/her. Ask if
s/he wants to keep the domain name with Go Daddy or transfer it to their
preferred registrar.

Word of caution: Go Daddy has a 60-day internal rule where they prevent
domain registrations from being transferred to another registrar if any of
the registrant fields (name, address, email) have been changed, no matter
the reason/s. Just something for you to also consider.

Once your buyer answers how they want the domain name's ownership to
be transferred, then ask your registrar for specifics.

Hope for the best, expect the worst, and prepare for it. Good luck.

And thanks, Robert.

If not, there are a couple of forums (at least!) where you can list domains for sale - forums.digitalpoint.com and sitepoint.com come immediately to mind. They both have rules about doing business through them, so you must read carefully. However, there is an active market there amongst people who know the value of a domain name. Hope that helps.

Margaret