Domain Flipping: How I turned $150 into $6,000

I am happy to report another successful 5 figure domain flip with an exact match keyword product domain. After months of off and on negotiations, I sold the domain to a happy end user in highly competitive ecommerce niche.

While I cannot reveal the full details about the domain name, I will share with you the whole process and some sales tips to help you achieve similar success.

Find Undervalued Domains

If you want this to work well, then you should consider investing a few hundred dollars into a good product domain in a well defined niche. Luckily, I found this domain name because I am quite familiar with the niche and know a thing or two about the target audience. This goes back to buying what you know. Start looking around in industries you know well for undervalued domain names either via Godaddy, Sedo or simply typing the domain into the address bar.

The domain was an exact match product domain with 2 keywords and only 9 characters. It’s easy to remember, easy to type and has tons of branding opportunities. Buyers love product domains because it’s easily defines their product and converts more browsers into buyers.

In this case, I typed the domain into the address bar and noticed it was for sale. I offered $100 for the domain but received a counter offer of $150. I quickly bought it and sent the wire transfer as payment. Within 3 days, I owned the domain name.

Park the Domain and Monitor Monthly Traffic

Once I owned the domain name, I parked it immediately to see how much type in traffic the domain received. This is a very important step because direct traffic is super valuable and gives you an excellent idea of how many end users want the domain name.  In this particular case, the domain name received around 50 to 100 type-ins per day. I will thrilled and knew that an end users could benefit from owning the domain name. You can even take it a step further and install Google Analytics to get more precise stats. This is also helpful when you want to sell the domain. Buyers love stats and they help you sell the domain for more money.

Create a Simple WordPress Website or Logo

With all these type-ins, I wanted to increase the perceived value of the domain in the buyer’s eyes. I quickly installed WordPress and built a simple 3 page website with a bit of unique and generic content. The key here is to increase the perceived value of the domain name. This will also force Google to index your domain and receive even more traffic. The domain started receiving comments and I even got a few emails from people looking to buy stuff. All of these things increase the value of the domain and make it easier to sell to the right buyer.

I also placed a simple “This Domain Is for Sale” link in red font on the homepage and received a couple dozen emails from potential buyers. The average offer was pretty low, but it gave me confidence to wait for a larger sale price. Every offer is great because it shows you own a valuable domain. You never know who is behind each email.

Don’t spend a ton of time on this. A small WordPress website is enough to generate interest. For some domains, you can create a simple logo at Fiverr for $5 then place a “This Domain is For Sale” link below the logo along with your email address.

Contact End Users

Once I had everything in place, I began contacting potential end users by searching Google for the exact match keyword. I contacted every single website on the first 4 pages and all of the advertisers. One of the top 2 advertisers in the niche showed great interest and we spoke over the phone. I did a quick Google search and noticed he was ranking high for many keywords and spent a lot of money on advertisers. SEMrush is a great tool for researching a website’s ad budget.

At first, he wanted to lease the domain but the leasing deal fell through. His first offer started at $500 and we went back and forth for about 2 weeks. He then went on vacation and I set the BIN price for $15,000.

Finalize The Sale

When he returned, I was willing to settle for $5,000 because $15k was a bit much for this particular industry. Many of the customers are younger and it’s not as lucrative as weight loss or insurance. I continued to receive lowball offers of $500 so I figured settling at $5k was a great ROI.

Eventually, he asked me “What was the best price I could offer?” I threw out $6k and after an hour or so he gladly accepted. I setup an escrow transaction for $6,000 and he even offered to cover the fees. Within 2 weeks, everything was completed and I turned my $150 initial investment in $6,000.

Now, I could have probably waited until the end of summer to sell the domain for more but I am more than happy with the successful sale. If I hadn’t setup a quick WordPress website and tracked daily traffic with Google Analytics, I would have received much less for the domain.

Conclusion

If you want to sell your domain for more money, then I advise putting in a bit of extra work to maximize the sale price. It’s all about increasing the perceived value of the domain and finding an end user with a healthy budget. Always seek to contact as many potential buyers as possible because you never know how much more you can receive. The 2nd highest offer was only $2,000 so I made an extra $4,000 by contacting 1 more person.

It starts out with having a valuable domain to begin with then simply tracking everything so you know how much your domain is worth. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below!