Domain portfolio management SaaS provider Efty is known for its range of sleek landing page designs that offer a simple and easy way for potential buyers to get in contact with you. Today, however, Efty releases its ugliest landing pages ever.
Those landing pages have been purposely designed to be ugly and archaic. Doron Vermaat, the founder of Efty, told me about what the new landing pages hope to achieve:
the idea is that by making the buyer work a little harder, you attract a higher quality type of buyer, those that really want the domain. And, by not having the domain actively “on the market”, as offered for sale, your position in the negotiation could be very different than when you are a motivated seller.
Readme.txt
The first landing page is dubbed “Readme.txt,” taking inspiration from an old 404 error page. Simply, the page displays your domain name, an email address, and a basic contact form that collects potential buyer information. Users are also able to add a custom description that you can add via Efty’s platform.
Under Construction
The Under Construction landing page is based on a very early 2000s web page that features some equally-2000s gifs. Again, the landing page contains a contact email address and a contact form.
Geocities
The third and final ugly landing page takes its inspiration from Yahoo!’s Geocities project which was launched in 1994 and acquired by Yahoo! in 1999. Again, there’s an email address and contact form.
Vermaat confirmed to me that while Efty hasn’t tested these against other Efty landing pages, he expects these to generate fewer inquiries, but the inquiries received should be of a higher quality.
It seems that these landing pages may be best suited for highly valuable, ultra-premium domains in a situation where the owner is open to offers, but is holding out for the right, motivated buyer to come along. In any case, these are a fun alternative to Efty’s current crop of sleek landing pages.
This goes to the heart of what is the job of a landing page?