End user email - advice needed please

[HWW]

Hi everyone.
I would appreciate some "end user" contact advice please.
I usually just develop names that have potential or flip the ones that I don't get around to or turn out to be duds so my experience with end users has been limited to the few times they have contacted me.

Today I started gathering details on two names due to expire at the end of the year that I have not had time to get to (and I am trying to reduce my portfolio by 80% to work on other things) when I discovered that "NameOne.com" is regged in the .org and .net by a political action group (who also run another site where they own the .com, .org, .net with a few million members)
and "NameTwo.com" is the name of a band (going for 8 years)who changed their band name to my sites exact name in January - and as I own the .com they are stuck using the .org

So - Im thinking this time round it may be worth my while hitting them up to see if they are interested in my .com's as both would certainly benefit by having the extension surfers would assume their website was at but I am unsure how to proceed. The domains are only average, ok keywords, multiple use, so Im not sure how to word the contact email or if to name a price and say its negotiable or ask for an offer.

Can someone assist me to navigate the minefield of "end user sales" .... obviously Id prefer to sell to an interested end user than sell at reseller prices but Im feeling lost and don't want to blow "first contact".

Cheers HWW

[copper]

Why don't you just renew those two names and wait for them to contact you?
Surely you can afford $16 to renew those two.

Also, you don't get as much as when enduser contact you first
and there is some risk of UDRP when you contact them first.

[HarrisonJ]

Just try contacting them and asking if they would like to buy it. When they ask you the price, tell them how much you want. If they reject, no loss.

[Gerry]

and there is some risk of UDRP when you contact them first.

so true.

[HWW]

Thanks everyone, I am hoping there is very little risk of a UDRP as I had these domains long before the others got theirs and both domains are suitable for multiple uses so I reregged and hit them both up with a brief email stating I was planning on putting the names to auction later in the year but was willing to sell if they are interested - now I'll wait and see.

[adomainstar]

Hello HWW,

Below is the sample email that you can use to contact your end user : ( Hopefully it can help you )



Subject : I found your website,

Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.

The domain name ________.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.

We noticed that you own ______.net and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.

If you would like to consider acquiring this domain name, please reply to this message no later than this coming February 21th 2009. I would be happy to discuss a price that suits your budget. In the event I do not hear from you by that point, I will contact my next (INSERT NAME HERE) candidate.

If you are interested in purchasing this domain, it can be purchased at sedo.com (price includes Sedo's Domain Escrow Service to protect both parties) by clicking on the link below:

http://www.sedo.com/search/details.p...ain=domain.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this message. Looking forward to hear from you.

Best Regards,
___________________
(Your Name)



I wish you good luck

[HWW]

Adomainstar thank you so much!
I wish I had waited before sending my much more amateur attempt
- that was exactly the inspiration I was looking for!
Your help is greatly appreciated and I will certainly be using it in the future.

[petrosc]

Also, you don't get as much as when enduser contact you first
and there is some risk of UDRP when you contact them first.

If the name cost him reg fee then he might be ok with the risk of UDRP. The worst that can happen is to loose the name... i guess.

Oh and over at NameFlipper.com there are templates for end user emails as well as successful negotiation examples.

The site is not working today for some reason, but bookmark it and visit it later

[hnh]

Make sure your email is professional and to the point. The end user will either get it or they won't; they don't need to be convinced. Thus, what you say in the email doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't look like spam.

[HWW]

If the name cost him reg fee then he might be ok with the risk of UDRP. The worst that can happen is to loose the name... i guess.

My domains are 12 months older than theirs so I'm thinking as I had it first and they are multi use non trademark names and I have not placed a competing site up that I'm safe as far as a UDRP is concerned?
... oh and I'm a she

Oh and over at NameFlipper.com there are templates for end user emails as well as successful negotiation examples.
The site is not working today for some reason, but bookmark it and visit it later

Thank you - when your site is back up I will take a look

[petrosc]

Sorry about that

If they can prove bad faith then the age of the domain won't help much IMO, but the fact that they are multi-use generic as you say will make it hard for them to prove bad faith. As long as your names are generic you can contact them. At least, I would, and I accept the slight risk of a UDRP+loosing the name.

About NameFlipper.com , not my site, I just happened to stumble across it a few hours before I read your post and I thought you could use the templates

[Mike Cruz]

Hello HWW,

Below is the sample email that you can use to contact your end user : ( Hopefully it can help you )



Subject : I found your website,

Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.

The domain name ________.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.

We noticed that you own ______.net and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.

If you would like to consider acquiring this domain name, please reply to this message no later than this coming February 21th 2009. I would be happy to discuss a price that suits your budget. In the event I do not hear from you by that point, I will contact my next (INSERT NAME HERE) candidate.

If you are interested in purchasing this domain, it can be purchased at sedo.com (price includes Sedo's Domain Escrow Service to protect both parties) by clicking on the link below:

http://www.sedo.com/search/details.p...ain=domain.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this message. Looking forward to hear from you.

Best Regards,
___________________
(Your Name)



I wish you good luck

Lol, this looks exactly like a spam email I get every couple of weeks, I delete it...

If the OP decides to use this, I would suggest going through it and fixing the errors with the grammar as well as actually providing your name AND company name (if you have one)

Good suggestions from all btw, has helped me as well, thanks!

[exxe]

Lol, this looks exactly like a spam email I get every couple of weeks, I delete it...

If the OP decides to use this, I would suggest going through it and fixing the errors with the grammar

Just curious, what grammar errors did you find? And yes, it looks like a spam.

[katherine]

Yes, this draft looks like the appraisal scam mails...

[HWW]

Id never cut and paste anyway - but the suggestion gave me good points to work from, so thanks again Adomainstar.

For those that thinks it looks spammy - thanks for your opinions
- would you care to share your own non spammy looking email templates for further inspiration?

[thedomainster]

I have sent a couple of emails like this, and I remember one name that I sold for $2500 this way..

Here is the email that I sent:

------------------
Hello,

I own the domain name *****.com, and it is currently for sale.

I have received a couple of offers, but I thought I would see if you are interested in this domain before I sell to someone else. It looks like you offer a great service, and I thought owning this name might help you protect you brand identity.

Please feel free to email me if interested.

Thanks,

My Name

------------------

I wasn't worried about the UDRP at all based on my name, but if there were ANY question about UDRP, I would definitely leave out the "protect your brand identity" line. Maybe you could say something like "increase your web presence" or something similar instead.

I like to be short and to the point. I agree with hnh, they either want it or they don't. If they are serious in their business or web promotion, they have probably already checked into your domain name. In my case they contacted me back quickly, we negotiated the price, and we were both happy with the resulting sale.

Best of luck!

[Mike Cruz]

Questions for everyone. I just started contacting end users and I had a question as I don't know if I feel comfortable with the information I provided in the email.

Would you go over payment methods in the initial email or wait for a response? I think that including the information about the payment methods would kind of scare them away (I linked to Moniker Escrow, sedo Escrow, Escrow.com sites, thinking this will help them feel a bit more secure about a potential transaction) but now not so sure.

Thanks in advance and sorry if I am high-jacking the OP, but I think this will help him as well.

-Mike C.

[draggar]

I would stay away from financials in the opening email.

[CanSpace]

So long as you aren't asking extortionate prices, I don't see why they wouldn't appreciate the offer. Just say you no longer have a need for the domain yourself and decided to offer it to them first before letting it expire (at which point someone other than them might grab it).

[Mike Cruz]

I would stay away from financials in the opening email.

DOH, thanks... going to need to revise some things in my email.

-Mike C.