He came to Germany to play American football. An injury and a few connections later, he was a domain broker at Sedo. 🏈
On day two of DomainFest 2015, I interviewed Brian Michitti, a senior broker at Sedo, about valuing, buying and selling domain names. 🎙️
📊 In this episode, we unpacked:
- 👑 Why .com is still king
- 📚 How newbies should start
- 💎 Hard and soft value factors
- 🏷️ Bidding strategy
- 🏈 From football to brokering
🎥 Watch the full episode:
👑 Why .com Is Still King
Brian is American but had lived abroad for about ten years, working in Africa, Russia, the Caribbean and Germany. He’d been a senior broker at Sedo for four years and sold “well over 100” names. 👑
Domains are a company’s address on an internet that keeps growing, and their value hasn’t been going down. New extensions are rising, but .com’s average sale price is still much higher than any other. For a new-extension view, read the .CLUB team’s interview. 🔗
📚 How Newbies Should Start
Educate yourself first. He reads Domain Name Wire, TheDomains, DomainInvesting.com and DNJournal daily, plus forums like NamePros. 📚
Then pick a sector you understand, because to sell a domain, you must explain its value. Someone from insurance might buy names an insurance startup would want. For expiring names, Sedo doesn’t publish a list, but providers like Pool.com and SnapNames auction them. For more on DNJournal, read Ron Jackson’s interview. 🔗
💎 Hard and Soft Value Factors
Hard factors: the TLD, traffic, length, Google searches and keyword CPC. Soft factors: how well the name fits its TLD and market. In the UK, “holidays” fits better than “vacations”, so holidays.co.uk beats vacations.co.uk. 💎
That’s part of why .com is so valuable: it works in many countries, often as number two behind the local ccTLD. For an exact match name like hotelsinmumbai.com, he’d estimate value from CPC and potential traffic, maybe low five figures. For another valuation view, read Monte Cahn’s interview. 🔗
🏷️ Bidding Strategy
It depends on who you are. Investors do a lot of hunting and inquiries to find sellers below market value. End users after one name need a different strategy, which Sedo works out with each client. 🏷️
At DomainFest, he’d closed one deal an hour and a half before our chat and had another strong prospect, both six figures, plus talks with Asian partners to bridge East and West. 🤝
🏈 From Football to Brokering
Brian came to Germany to play American football, got hurt, and found an international job through connections in Belgium. Later he consulted on his own. A German government minister he’d met helped connect him to Sedo, which he already knew from his previous job. 🏈
His biggest lessons: valuing a domain quickly and clearly, helped by Sedo’s 18-million-name marketplace and NDA deals no one else sees, and negotiating across cultures with brokers speaking 23 native languages. Sedo offers parking, its marketplace, appraisals, brokerage and auctions, including closed and blind auctions and Great Domains. 🌍
📝 Key Takeaways From the Brian Michitti Interview
- 👑 .com still commands the highest prices
- 📚 Learn before you buy
- 🎯 Invest in a niche you understand
- 💎 Weigh hard data and market fit
- 🌍 Negotiation style varies by culture
❓ FAQs About Brian Michitti
Who is Brian Michitti?
A senior domain broker at Sedo, who had sold well over 100 names at the time of this interview.
How do you value a domain name?
Look at hard factors (TLD, traffic, length, searches, CPC) and soft factors such as how well the keyword fits its TLD and market.
Where can you find expiring domains?
Brian pointed to providers like Pool.com and SnapNames auctions.
🎙️ More Inside A Hustler’s Brain Interviews You’ll Love
- Interview with Team Sedo.com Frank Tillmanns & Sophie Pieck
- Interview with Arvind Reddy Big Time Domainer at DomainX 2015
- Jon Yau Who Bought $250k Domain Against His Wife Consent
- Interview with Simon Cousins Co-founder of Allegravita at Domainfest 2015
What’s the best domain you’ve ever bought? Tell me in the comments. 💬
🔔 Subscribe & Follow Jitendra Vaswani Everywhere
🎧 Subscribe to Inside A Hustler’s Brain on YouTube and Follow Jitendra Vaswani on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, everywhere. 🙌
Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at international events and founded Digiexe, a digital marketing agency, and AffiliateBooster, WordPress plugin designed specifically for affiliate marketers. With over 10 years of experience, Jitendra has helped many businesses succeed online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, with over 20,000 copies sold globally, underscores his influence and commitment to empowering digital marketers.