It’s good to be back in Australia – particularly in Far North Queensland. We are so fortunate to live in this great country.
The picture above is of Castle Hill in Townsville. I walk up there most mornings (today included). The views from the top are sensational – you can see directly across the Coral Sea to Magnetic Island. There is truly something magical about the flora and fauna in this part of the world. Apparently there are are around 50 bird species either visiting or residing on the hill. Not to mention the snakes!
All we need now to make it even better is some rain. 🙂
Reflection 1
I’m glad I didn’t stay an extra week in the USA as I was originally planning to. If I had, I would have been in New York where they are experiencing the worst blizzard in many a year. “Snowzilla”!
Got to give a big shout out to our national airline Qantas. I flew internally in the USA on American Airlines, and whilst their planes are new and very comfortable, in my opinion their service standards and friendliness are not a patch on Qantas.
I also love the fact that if you’re loyal to Qantas, this pays off in many ways. We all have a choice where we spend our travel dollars, so recognition and privileges are so important these days.
Reflection 2
I mentioned this before, but I love travelling. Because it seems every time I do, I sell heaps of domains!
Whilst I was away on this trip, I sold 14 domains – a couple of which were decent 5 figure sales. More about these transactions next week.
Analysing it, I think it is because I use the fact that I’m away to create a “sense of urgency” with my prospective buyers. I often tell them (truthfully) that they’ve caught me at a good time because I’m overseas and I need the dough! 🙂 I still make sure that the price is a win / win though.
Reflection 3
I was looking at some results of ‘.au domain sales” on Flippa yesterday. Not talking about domains with websites or revenue – just straight out domain names.
The results that I have seen are disappointing. And that’s being polite. When a domain like Boy.com.au goes up for auction and only attracts three bids (with a maximum of $US315), then you know there’s a problem. Plenty more examples like this.
There is also another major issue in my opinion. I was chatting with a fellow domainer yesterday, and he has been trying Flippa out with some of his better domains. Not only are the bids few and far between – and very low – but potential buyers also have the ability to leave what can be quite disparaging remarks / questions. Like questioning the pedigree of the domain.
On the face of it, that may be fair enough, but it seems like this is a tactic employed by a few buyers to “cast doubt” into the minds of others. That way the price stays low. Sorry if that sounds cynical, but that’s what it looks like to me.
The other problem is that these comments remain on the WWW. So anyone who Googles the domain in future will come across the listing on Flippa; see the comments and the pathetic price it was passed in at. Apparently if you want to get rid of the listing on Flippa, you can do so if you pay a fee. Hmmm.
—————————————————————————————————
Until next week …
Best wishes for your online success.
In my view, Flippa is crap.
Australia and the rest of the world needs a marketplace for QUALITY online businesses and QUALITY domain names. There is a real niche to be filled here. Listings need to be thoroughly screened for quality by the agent in charge, and quality of listings should be the focus of the marketplace, rather than quantity.
Due to laws pertaining to incorporation, trademarks, .au presence requirements etc, an Australian agency to fill this niche would thrive. Think about it -if you’re the owner of a high quality, cash-flow positive website like GolfBalls.com.au, and considering selling, where do you start? .. Most business brokers don’t have a clue re. valuing and marketing the sale of an eCommerce business. But Flippa’s ‘trash and treasure’ sale-by-vendor marketplace is hardly a viable alternative either.
No surprise to me that Flippa struggles to attract high bids on .com.au names. Another good example is CarRentals.com.au, which is worth five figures to investors, and six figures to end users, but too has likewise failed to gain any traction on Flippa https://flippa.com/5854948-a-top-10-domain-name-in-the-car-hire-and-car-rental-market
@Ned
I tested the Flippa auction platform with an “com.au” domain name (i.e. carentals dot com dot au)
There are many examples of successful use of Flippa in the “com” market
I deliberately selected a quality name and used a hands-off approach and basic listing in order to see what the level of organic inquiry would be
Needless to say, it was very disappointing
The question now is whether I do another test and pay the premium fees
Personally I am in no rush to do that, because the “heckling” is a major disincentive, as is the pain of getting a “com.au” validated
Even at the .com level, Flippa does not compare to the effectiveness of DomainNameSales.com, Namejet or even Sedo.
DomainNameSales.com teaches us that the more you screen your inventory and qualify your buyers the higher the sale. It also teaches us that, to achieve the best outcome, domain names should NOT be sold in a ‘marketplace’ but should be managed by agencies. This is why DomainNameSales.com, Igloo.com and to a lesser extent DomainGuardians.com (here in Australia) have been so successful.
Are you a .com.au investor wanting to sell? If so, why not list your name on the aftermarket graveyard at Netfleet.com.au. Netfleet achieved only one aftermarket sale at the five figure level in 2015 (Generate.com.au @ $13k). #FAIL
The failings of the Netfleet aftermarket are well documented
In the last 12-months I have had not less than 4 $x,xxx sales that have never settled
Yep @Greg.
Meanwhile more than half a dozen .com.au domainers are each clocking five figure sales privately every month.
The problem of Flippa is that there are too many domain investors looking for low balls deals….there is no serious end users…I think.