How Important Is A Favicon?
by Morgan on February 16, 2012
I received an interesting email from a reader who made a point that I honestly haven’t thought much of until now. The reader had visited one of my websites and said that he felt it didn’t look as professional because it didn’t have a favicon.
Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, a favicon is the little icon you see next to the URL in your browser. For example, on my blog here you can see the little circle with my face in it.
I have never cared too much about favicons however this really got me thinking, and evaluating other sites. It does look like just about every major website does have a favicon and now that I look at it a bit deeper, I do think it adds to the overall branding of the site.
So my question to all of you is, how important is a favicon?
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Selling Domain Names: Negotiating With End-Users
by Morgan on February 16, 2012
Yesterday I did a post about my new favorite tool for keeping track of end-user leads, so today I thought I’d go a bit deeper and talk about negotiating with end-users. Before I do this though I will say for the zillionth time, I am by no means a domain sales expert. People like Michael and Elliot are the real pros since they do this for a living and have negotiated many major sales. What I can share with you is my own experience and what’s worked for me lately.
On top of that, I do talk to a lot of experts about their strategy for selling and negotiating so learn a lot from others. I always feel it is important to know what you know, and know what you don’t know. Then, take the things that you don’t know, and seek experts that can teach you! We are incredibly lucky to be in an industry where experts regularly share their advice.
The lesson I’ve learned about negotiating domain sales prices with end-users is a simple one, the first person to throw-out a price usually loses. So what does this mean? Well I think examples are the best so I’ll give you one that illustrates this point.
A friend of mine wanted to buy a domain name in the 100K-200K range. It was a specific name and he really wanted it so was willing to negotiate to make sure he got the name. He contacted the owner who said he would sell it but didn’t want to provide a price. My friend then pushed back saying that if he wanted to sell the name he’d have to name his price, so he did, $3,500.
If the seller had thrown-out $120,000 he could have made the sale, but throwing out the first price worked against him. I made the same mistake last year as a seller and ended-up selling a domain name to a big company with very deep pockets, in the mid four-figure range because I threw-out the first price.
Now I’m not sure if this advice would work when selling domains to other Domainers however I don’t have much experience in that area so couldn’t tell you. Since most of my income comes from monetization I can stay laser focused on selling to end-users, at end-user prices. At the end of the day you may lose some deals, in January I was negotiating with a major crane company that refused to make an offer and actually walked-away because I wouldn’t name a price. That’s okay with me, I’d rather have them come back a year later or have one of their competitors approach me then leave money on the table.
If you need money now, or rely on domain sales for your income I’m not sure this would be the best strategy, but if you can wait and you want top dollar for your domains, or you want to buy as low as you can, don’t name your price.
Feel free to share your own end-user buying/selling stores in the comment section below. As always, comment and let your voice be heard!
(Photo Credit)
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Help One Of My Contest Winners Pick A Logo And Build A Brand On .CO!
February 15, 2012Back in January I held a contest for MorganLinton.com readers, if you helped me pick a logo, there was a chance you could win a free logo yourself. I had two people win and one of them, William Brister, now has three fresh concepts that he’s choosing between. So I thought it would be fun [...]
Selling Domain Names: My New Favorite Tool For Keeping Track Of End-User Leads – Highrise
February 15, 20122011 was my best year of domain sales ever, and even though this still represents less than 50% of my Domaining income, it’s becoming more meaningful by the day. Along with selling some great domains to end-users like one of the largest diamond companies in the world, Google, and an innovative new software company I [...]
Happy Valentines Day!
February 14, 2012It’s days like today that make me feel like the luckiest person on the planet. It took 24 years to find the love of my life and looking back, I’d spend another 24 if that’s what it took to find Daina. My best friend, wine blogging partner, algorithm designer, and lover – I couldn’t be [...]
How Parking Can Be Used To Pick Domain Development Candidates
February 13, 2012Parking, it has become a bad word in our industry as more and more Domain Investors look for ways to grow their revenue. People were making money hand-over-fist until 2007 when the sky fell and parking became a much more challenging way to make money. That being said, I still know plenty of people who [...]
Scam Alert – New Domain Appraisal Scammer: domain-hosting-shop.com
February 13, 2012One of the oldest scams out there is the domain appraisal scam. Someone contacts you and says they are willing to offer some large sum of money for your domain name. They indicate they are ready to buy but first need you to appraise the domain name at a service that they recommend. Then, after [...]
Domain Development Drops Series Moving To A New Format
February 13, 2012I started a new series on my blog focused on finding domains that are expiring that make great development candidates. I really like sharing domains that I think could become real long-term assets generate passive monthly income. This has turned-into one of my most-read series I’ve ever written…however, typically it takes me hours to find [...]
Domain Development Tools: Make Mockups In A Snap With Balsamiq
February 12, 2012Good afternoon and welcome to my latest feature on MorganLinton.com – Domain Development Tools! Today I am very excited to share a very cool tool that has been incredibly useful in my business, and will probably help many other domain developers out there. The tool is called Balsamiq and it is honestly the quickest and [...]
Brand Building: Picking Patrick’s Brain On ScienceFiction.com
February 11, 2012On Thursday I interviewed Braden Pollock about his investment in ScienceFiction.com. So I thought I would also pick Patrick’s brain and learn a bit more about how he turned ScienceFiction.com into the site that it is today. Patrick has build a real brand on the site which is no small task so I’m excited to [...]
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