Mike Berkens has sold a lot of “longer” domains for a lot more money than most expected.
Over the years I have had people ask me, “How does he do it ?” I would say being a skilled negotiator and rich enough to always say no, top the list.
I decided to take a look at some of Mike’s best sales for phrases that are three words or more. This is not a complete list.
FindYourCalling.com, this domain was sold for $30,000 on Sedo in December of 2014. The domain was purchased by a company called Economic Modeling LLC or EMSI, they also registered the .us version while purchasing the .com from Mike.
The stated mission of the company:
Our Mission
Find Your Calling helps answer the question, what do you want to do when you grow up? Our mission is to help you (and your parents and teachers) find fantastic careers and the education you need to achieve your goals. Find Your Calling does this through a simple but powerful combination of assessment and data. First, the assessment measures your interests, then you explore detailed data on matching occupations and colleges that offer relevant programs.
They filed for and received a trademark on “Find Your Calling.”
FindMyMoney.com sold for $24,888 in October of 2015. The sale took place on the Most Wanted Domains website. The domain was registered in February of 1999. The buyer is a Richard Cooney of FindMyMoney Inc.
The site is up but not yet ready for launch. The site is involved with helping people find money from class action suits that they might not have known they were owed money.
ExpectTheUnexpected.com, sold for $25,000 on Sedo in October of 2015. The domain was registered in October of 2001. The buyer was Kinecta Federal Credit Union.
They put together a video for a promotion:
EverythingToLose.com sold for $10,000 in November of 2014. The buyer was Ryan Blair. Blair is the CEO of Visalus a weight loss company. He also produced a documentary about his life and how to overcome challenges in life. The domain points to NTLDocumentary.com. Blair also owns NothingToLose.com.
StepOnUp.com sold in September for $18,888, the buyer was Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The domain points to one page on DiabetesPainHelp.com.
MakeItYourOwn.com sold for $10,000 in July of 2014. The buyer was Luxco, Luxco is a premium alcohol supplier, wine supplier & liquor supplier.
Very cool !
How does he do it ?
ExpectTheUnexpected.com is a great domain. FindMyMoney.com is perfect for the people who bought it.
I never went much for the idea that more than two words in a domain necessarily makes it less valuable – or even that a one-word domain is necessarily more valuable than a two-word. The fewer the characters in a domain the better, of course, but the memorability of name may be most important.
I remember, about 15 years ago, when YourWishIsMyCommand.com was being auctioned somewhere and I was going to bid but got distracted at the last minute and missed bidding. George Kirikos won the domain for $15, if I remember correctly.
I have sometimes thought that the most valuable domain on the Net may be GodDoesntCare.com. I would inquire about it but am concerned He might sue me for libel and trademark infringement…
I live a few streets away from Luxco HQ. Very interesting. Thanks!
Good work! But we all need to know how does he reach out the these buyers, if so how does he know to target them with these phrases? Or are they all inbound?
Maybe he could broker one for me. OwnYourNiche.com
Nice job Mr. Berkins!
Michael Berkens sitting in a cubicle, cold calling on behalf of sundry domainers … If he wants to succeed in this industry, he’d better get cracking!
I can’t even remember but a few months ago I brought home a box of pizza with a really cool phrase on it. I remember looking it up for trademark and checking to see if it was registered and it wasn’t. After all that looking I passed on it because I thought it was way too long over 20+ characters. I’m going to walk by that pizza shop to see if they still use that box.
Most successful domainers don’t like to share their strategy, some have in their blogs only never to speak about it again, you’ll just have to figure out the multiple ways on your own. DomainSherpa will teach you though. Their classes are great.
I like the sound of this, yours sincerely