AfternicDLS Blog – News and updates from AfternicDLS, the world’s leading premium domain seller

We’ve posted before about why you should always set a Reserve Price on your listed domains, and the benefits of doing so. But this post is about another Afternic trick-of-the-trade.

First, to briefly review, an offer that meets your Reserve Price guarantees that you will sell your domain for at least the amount of that offer. Then, an auction starts for your domain, and it sells to the highest bidder. Don’t confuse it with the Minimum Offer, which is the minimum amount you are willing to let other members submit to you.

But there’s another way to take advantage of Afternic’s auction format even if you did not set a reserve price:

You can start an auction even after receiving a bid. Do this if the bid is acceptable, but you’d like to field more offers. Your auction will be publicized via Closing Soon (it’s on the Afternic home page, on this blog, distributed via RSS, etc.). The bid you received is still binding both to you and buyer for 7 days from the time it was submitted. And in the meantime, any higher bids are gravy on top of the bid you’ve already received.

Here’s how to do it: when you get an email informing you of the bid, click “Accept this offer or place a counteroffer here” Then under Seller’s Actions, click “Increase Exposure and Sell Your Name”. (see the red arrow in the image below)

A dialog box will appear, asking you to confirm. Click “OK”. Your domain is now in auction!

One tip: always respond to offers quickly! It is an especially good idea in this case. The auction lasts only until the bid that kicked off the auction expires. For example, if a member submits an offer to you on Monday, and you don’t start your auction until Friday, the auction will only run for three days. Take full advantage by running your auction for as long as possible.

If you are buying a domain, you can end the auction by offering a seller’s asking price. If the seller does not have an asking price (“Buy It Now” price), send the member a private message asking them what they would accept to end the auction. This is another reason why starting an auction is a good idea for sellers.