You’ve probably seen Buy Domains price its domain names to end with the numbers 88. Whether the domain name is $4,088 or $40,088, almost all of Buy Domains’ priced domain names have an 88 at the end. That was most likely the result of Mike Mann’s testing from when he owned the company.

Yesterday on Facebook, Mike shared some interesting results from A/B price testing on domain names listed for sale at Domain Market. With his permission, I have shared the information with you here:

Price Point # Sold Revenue Generated

• $250 31 $7,750
• $300 29 $8,700
• $400 17 $6,800
• $450 10 $4,500
• $600 17 $10,200
• $2050 3 $6,150

What this indicates to me is that the $600 price point generated the most revenue for the company, despite not being the level with the greatest number of sales. Obviously fewer sales are required with a higher price point compared to the lower price. Testing like this can help Mann’s company determine the optimal price point for his non-premium domain assets that sell every day.

One interesting thing to me is that there weren’t any tests for pricing between $600 – $2,050. Mike has that covered as he intends to do an A/B test between the $600-700 price range. Should the results be similar, he can continue to increase prices until the revenue number drops off.

Having a large portfolio allows Mike to do testing, and his knowledge sharing can help all of us. We should keep in mind that every domain name asset is unique and the potential sale price could be greater if it was priced after an inquiry rather than listed with a buy it now price, depending on the buyer.

It is interesting that Mike abandoned the 88 pricing and hasn’t adjusted to the popular 99 pricing either. I asked him, and he said, “I dont do 88 pricing because that was my TM for BuyDomains.com, dont want to copy we have tried other test prices but picked that array randomly and now have focus for more tests go for it.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to see continued testing, and hopefully Mike will share his results. If he doesn’t, I am sure it won’t be too difficult to find considering his company owns hundreds of thousands of domain names.

I happened to come across a domain name owned by Mike Mann’s Domain Asset Holdings, and I noticed the company recently changed its landing pages. A cross check with some other DAH landing pages confirmed this. The changes between the new landers and old landers are pretty distinct, and because Mann is often on the leading edge when it comes to domain acquisitions and sales, I think it’s something others should note.

As you can see in the embedded image above (and by visiting an example like PublicEmployees.com), gone are the PPC links that were usually shown. In its place are links to Mann’s businesses like SEO.com, Phone.com, DomainMarket.com, and many others. In addition, links to Mann’s charitable causes are also prominent.

According to Mann, this was a business decision because it is more profitable to upsell and cross-sell his products and services than to earn revenue from the PPC links that were previously on the landing pages. “If we merely sell a few accounts at our other companies with all that traffic its much more valuable,” said Mann.

It’s no surprise that there are brightly colored for sale links and contact information for people looking to purchase one of the domain names. I’ve heard from a couple of people that offers on domain names parked at Frank Schilling’s Internet Traffic are considerably greater than before, likely because of the bright orange strip at the top announcing a name is for sale, and I would imagine the bright green call to action on Mann’s domain names will ensure offers continue to come in to his sales team.

It will be interesting to see how long this change lasts, and it will also be interesting to see if other tests are in the works. It seems like a bold move from Mann though.

As I mentioned a week ago, I am on vacation until the end of July and comments may take a bit of time to be published.

Mike Mann’s DomainMarket.com sold around $36,000 in publicly reported domain sales last week. The high sale of the week was ThreeDiamond.com, which was sold for $10,000. The Whois has not changed for many of these domain names yet, since they are likely pending transfer.

One thing I think Mann does right is that each domain name resolves to a “for sale” landing page, which also has sponsored results PPC links. I would bet that many small business owners have no clue about the Whois database, and they visit the domain name they are interested in buying to see if it’s available. With a huge “Buy” call to action right on the page, it’s easy to see the domain name is for sale.

This is something you might want to consider on your low revenue, undeveloped domain names that you’re looking to sell.

Below are the company’s reported sales:

threediamond.com $10,000.00
moreforyou.com $5,500.00
hybridsoftware.com $2,500.00
earthnetwork.net $2,500.00
discoverygarden.com $2,500.00
twincitiestaxi.com $1,500.00
shoretour.com $1,000.00
defeataddiction.com $1,000.00
potomacsystems.com$1,000.00
alphalifestyle.com $1,000.00
clicktocook.com $750.00
adventuresintechnology.com $650.00
smileforpeace.com $500.00
biddingfrenzy.com $350.00
yippieyeah.com $350.00
laketahoerealtor.com $350.00
propertyobserver.com $350.00
caninevacation.com $350.00
marinemadness.com $350.00
cheerstoall.com $350.00
enterthevortex.com $350.00
supremetransport.com $350.00
thediscountspot.com $350.00
lakeboatrental.com $350.00
ezbrochure.com $350.00
medicareoption.com $350.00
proftitle.com $350.00
creativeendeavours.com $350.00
ecoworker.com $350.00

TechCrunch is one of my favorite websites to read, and I have to say, I spend quite a bit of time on the site. I especially enjoy reading articles by Michael Arrington, Robin Wauters, and Erick Schonfeld, two TechCrunch staff journalists. Unfortunately, I disagree with the portrayal of Mike Mann’s Domain Asset Holdings in yesterday’s article about Facebook’s UDRP filing for 21 domain names.

First, let’s start with the case. Facebook filed a UDRP for 21 domain names owned by Domain Asset Holdings that included the term “Facebook” in them. Some of these names include FacebookBabes.com, FacebookCheats.com…etc. Some might think it’s a cut and dry case, but with trademark law, there’s very little that is cut and dry.

When I was in college, there was a freshman facebook distributed to all RAs, administrators, and freshmen. I am sure there are plenty of other colleges that did and still do the same. Facebook the company did not coin the term “facebook” despite making it into a well-known brand. That being said, according to Domain Asset Holdings founder, Mike Mann, “those names were registered by accident and we are trying to give them back to them.”

My biggest issue with the article is Robin’s characterization of Mann’s company. The article stated that these 21 “domain names are all currently owned by a company called Domain Asset Holdings, a known domain squatter based in Potomac, Maryland.” The article linked to a legal action for the domain name CustomResins.com, which appears to have settled.

There are two organizations that handle UDRP cases: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and National Arbitration Forum (NAF). According to the WIPO database, there were no UDRP decisions with Domain Asset Holdings listed as the respondent. The NAF database lists two decisions with Domain Asset Holdings as the respondent. Both of these cases ended with Domain Asset Holdings winning.

In looking at Domain Asset Holdings’ nameservers, the company appears to own over one hundred thousand domain names. Having just two UDRP decisions (not including the recent Facebook filing) is quite remarkable for a company with this many domain names. This surely isn’t the sign of a company that’s a “known domain squatter.”

Furthermore, Mike Mann is the entrepreneur who previously sold BuyDomains to NameMedia. I don’t know the purchase price, but I’ve heard it was many millions of dollars. I’ve seen BuyDomains lose very few UDRP cases. Both of Mann’s companies generally invest in descriptive domain names, not trademarks.

For whatever reason, Domain Asset Holdings “accidentally” registered a group of names with trademarks in them and is trying to give them back to the company (according to Mike Mann). In my opinion, the description of Mann’s company as a known domain squatter is quite inaccurate, and I would hope Robin considers changing it.

***Update***

Mike Mann posted a comment on Robin’s article today stating “we have 150,000 names many of which a machine registered.”

As you may or may not be aware, many of the domain names in yesterday’s .CO domain auction held at Sedo are owned by legendary domain investor, Mike Mann. Mike was the founder of Buy Domains, which he sold to NameMedia, and he currently operates DomainMarket.com. He remains the largest non-institutional shareholder in NameMedia, and he is an active philanthropist with Grassroots.org.

Aside from Sedo and perhaps the .CO Registry, Mike and his company had the most on the line with this auction. I asked him for some comments on it, and he was kind enough to reply. … → Read More

In the last couple of months, I have learned about several new domain aftermarket sales websites. Most of the new sites haven’t been started by amateurs, but rather by professional domain investors who make their living in the domain space. Here are a few of the newer aftermarket websites:

DomainMarket.com – This site was founded by Mike Mann, the successful domain investor who founded BuyDomains and Grassroots.org. The company features domain names such as Angola.com, Cameroon.com, Fleece.com, Dusseldorf.com, Females.com, and many other great names. In addition, there are thousands of less expensive keyword domain names costing $500 or less.

SimpleDomains.com – This domain aftermarket was founded by the founders of several websites and businesses on domain names that include Beer.com, Diamond.com, CreditCards.com, Shop.com, and Luggage.com. The company features domain names such as BusinessTravelers.com, TableWines.com, ForeignAuto.com, and GreenInvestments.com. There are also a variety of other domain names in several categories at pretty good prices.

OneOfAKind.com – This website was started by members of the Domain Consultant team, who have over $15 million in domain purchases and sales to date. Some of the site’s showcase domain names include Ring.com, HappyBirthday.com, LifeVests.com and DiamondRings.com. There is a wide variety of names for sale on the site, although most are listed as “make offer” rather than having a sales price.

BestDomainsWebsite.com – This website was started by one of the co-founders of the Targeted Traffic conference, Howard Neu. In addition to regularly priced domain names, they have a list of specials that include TeleconferencePhones.com, FrankensteinMasks.com, and AnimalRightsAdvocates.com.