Someone DM'd me on NamePros last week asking for outbound advice. I'm not going to name him or the exact domain—no point embarrassing the guy publicly—but the conversation stuck with me because it's a pattern I keep seeing with new domainers.
He started urgent. Needed help, things weren't working, what was he doing wrong? So I asked the obvious questions: What's your outbound process look like, and what name are you actually trying to sell?
His response:
"I try to outbound for this domain 'xxxxsshop.com' and find emails of potential end users through search engines. I email end users through their emails used on their websites. In my email signature I use my portfolio website link, Instagram profile link and my mobile no.
I use the Gmail address related to my domain name to send emails to end users. I use email tracking on some of the emails I send to end users from which I find my emails have been read but not getting any reply from end users.
Maybe I am using a domain name related to a Gmail address, which may be the reason for not getting a reply from potential end users. Brother, please give your honest advice about what I am doing wrong and what I need to do."
Look, the guy was clearly putting in effort. Finding prospects, tracking opens, actually following up. His basic setup wasn't even that bad for a beginner. But none of that mattered because of one fundamental problem.
Here's what I told him:
"I'll be straight with you. The problem isn't your outbound strategy; it's your domain name. It's not good. It's hard to hear, but it's the truth. You're not going to sell it because no one will see value in it. Find a better name to sell. I hope you appreciate my honesty and are not offended by it."
That was it. No long explanation about why. No detailed breakdown of valuation factors. Just the truth he needed to hear even if he didn't want to hear it.
You can't outbound your way out of a bad domain
This is the thing new investors get backwards. They think if they just hustle hard enough, send enough emails, perfect their pitch, they can sell anything. It doesn't work that way.
Outbound can put a solid name in front of the right buyer at the right time. That's useful. But it can't transform a weak domain into a strong one. It can't create value where none exists.
The domain this guy was trying to sell? Generic. Awkward. The kind of name that furniture businesses (or whatever "xxxx" was) would never actually brand themselves around. They either already have something better, or they're looking for something way cleaner and more memorable than "xxxxsshop.com."
No amount of email tracking or Instagram links in your signature is going to fix that core problem.
The advice nobody wants to hear
I actually respect that he was putting in work and asking questions. Most people don't even get that far—they just list their names on a marketplace and pray. But sometimes the advice you need isn't about refining your technique. It's about accepting that you're trying to sell something nobody wants to buy.
If the name sucks, outbound won't save you. Period. It's not a sales problem at that point. It's a quality problem. And you can't pitch your way around quality.
This is brutal to hear when you're new and you've already invested money and time into a name. I get it. But grinding away on outbound for a domain that was a bad investment from the start is just throwing good time after bad money.
Where beginners actually go wrong
The real mistake happened way before this guy started sending emails. It happened when he bought or registered the domain in the first place.
New domainers don't spend enough time learning what actually makes a name valuable. They see a keyword, think it sounds good, and assume there's a market for it. Or they register something because it "could work for" some vague category of businesses they haven't really researched.
Then they're confused when nobody responds to their outbound. The problem isn't that they need better email copy or a professional email address instead of Gmail. The problem is they're trying to sell something that has no market.
If you're just getting into this, spend way more time studying what actually sells and for how much. Look at real sales data. Understand why certain names move and others sit forever. Don't just register or buy something because you personally think it's decent.
And for the love of god, don't take it personally when someone tells you a name isn't good. That feedback is how you learn. Getting defensive or making excuses about why it's actually valuable just keeps you stuck making the same mistakes.
Outbound isn't magic
I use outbound. It works. But it works when the name is actually worth owning in the first place. When you're reaching out to someone who genuinely would benefit from upgrading to your domain. When there's real value being offered.
If you're sending dozens of emails and getting zero replies—not even rejections, just silence—the first question shouldn't be "what's wrong with my email template?" It should be "is this name actually any good?"
Most of the time, if you're honest with yourself, you already know the answer. You just don't want to admit it because that means accepting you made a bad investment.
But sitting on a bad domain and endlessly running outbound for it is way worse than just cutting your losses and moving on to something better. Your time has value too.
What I wish I'd said
Looking back, maybe I should've been less blunt. Or explained more about why that specific name didn't work. But I also think sugarcoating it would've been worse. He would've kept grinding on that domain, convinced that just one more tweak to his process would make it work.
Sometimes the kindest thing you can tell someone is to stop wasting their time. The name isn't going to sell. Not because you're not trying hard enough, but because it's not a name anyone wants badly enough to pay real money for.
That's a hard lesson. But it's a necessary one if you want to actually make it in this business.
Learn what's valuable, invest in that, and then use outbound to connect the dots. In that order. Trying to do it backwards—buying first, then hoping outbound can somehow create value—is just setting yourself up for frustration.