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Hey everyone, noticed there isn't a flip-side to the equation guide on appraisals. There's a guide here for Appraisers, two in fact. There's none for the people asking the questions.
GUIDE: Read this before you ask for an appraisal or register a domain!
A lot of people here have been asking for appraisals on some weird domains lately and I wanted to put together a bit of a guide and recommendation for people on what they should and should not be registering. The appraisals forum is a big reason people come to NamePros initially, so I think it's important that the established users continue to monitor it, but it becomes tiring when we see person after person registering horrendous domain names.
Please read all of this before asking for an appraisal and ideally before you even register your first domain which you hope will turn into a gold mine. If you've already done that, read it anyway and refer back to it before you register your next domain. This is valuable advice, and I'm sure others will add to the thread with additional tips on how to avoid burning your ~$10 over and over.
The Ten Commandments
Here's ten rules to remember, refer back to these before you register your names.
1. Do not register anything which is trademarked. If it is, it's worth $regfee and you're probably looking at either a potential lawsuit or UDRP claim. Unless you have some major, major reason why - stay away from trademarks.
2. Say your name out loud. Say it with any punctuation or numbers you put in there - ie. domain-example1.com will be "domain hyphen example one dot com". If it's unwieldy, not pronounceable, or you stumble over it, it's probably worthless.
3. Stay away from exotic extensions until you know what you're doing. Stick to .com and .net. Don't worry about the rest.
4. If your domain has more than one word, would you say it out loud to someone? ie. "RadBikes.com". "Hey man, I got a rad bike today". Sometimes, words just do not go together! ie. ToastyBikes.com "Hey man, I got a Toasty Bike today!"
5. Does it have any meaning to anyone else? Type the words into google. Look at how many results it has. The example I used before of "Rad Bikes" has 23,000 results. "Toasty Bike" has 104. Which do you think will be easier to find an end user for?
6. Would you pay another domainer on here $25 for it? If not, why are you paying $10 for it and why do you expect someone else will pay $x,xxx for it. It isn't going to happen. You need to see value in your own domains first.
7. Ask a friend. Ask a housemate. "Hey, does (Keyword)(Adjective).com sound like a good domain name?". Try and ask someone who is and someone who isn't familiar with domain names. You'll be surprised how many domainers have delusions of grandeur about their awful domains.
8. Who are you going to sell it to? There's a 99% chance the mountain will not come to you, you have to go to the mountain. Parking the name, listing it for $5,000 and waiting - you have a good chance of turning 80 before selling it. If you can't think of who will buy it (I don't mean "An insurance company. It has insurance in it.", I mean "ACME Insurance, it's relevant to them because it's BudgetInsurance and that's what they do") you probably should reconsider registering it.
9. Why isn't it registered? There's millions and millions of .com's registered. Why isn't this one? There's a good chance if it's a brilliant name someone's already thought of it, bought it, and probably sold it! Question why it hasn't been already - it's probably because Dog-Suitcases.net isn't that great a name.
10. Has it been dropped before? Look at its WHOIS results on DomainTools and you may see it's been registered before but dropped. Question why. Why did someone else pay ~$10 for the name but then let it expire a year later? sdsinc recommended you check out HosterStats.com to help with these checks.
11. Keep learning. Revise your strategy. I started out with 10 commandments, now there's 11. Don't be afraid to admit you made an error. Leave the domain, park it, list it for sale for $XX and read, read, read. Then try again.
Guys, feel free to add to this. I've also published it on my blog since I figure it'll be useful to people outside NamePros as well
GUIDE: Read this before you ask for an appraisal or register a domain!
A lot of people here have been asking for appraisals on some weird domains lately and I wanted to put together a bit of a guide and recommendation for people on what they should and should not be registering. The appraisals forum is a big reason people come to NamePros initially, so I think it's important that the established users continue to monitor it, but it becomes tiring when we see person after person registering horrendous domain names.
Please read all of this before asking for an appraisal and ideally before you even register your first domain which you hope will turn into a gold mine. If you've already done that, read it anyway and refer back to it before you register your next domain. This is valuable advice, and I'm sure others will add to the thread with additional tips on how to avoid burning your ~$10 over and over.
The Ten Commandments
Here's ten rules to remember, refer back to these before you register your names.
1. Do not register anything which is trademarked. If it is, it's worth $regfee and you're probably looking at either a potential lawsuit or UDRP claim. Unless you have some major, major reason why - stay away from trademarks.
2. Say your name out loud. Say it with any punctuation or numbers you put in there - ie. domain-example1.com will be "domain hyphen example one dot com". If it's unwieldy, not pronounceable, or you stumble over it, it's probably worthless.
3. Stay away from exotic extensions until you know what you're doing. Stick to .com and .net. Don't worry about the rest.
4. If your domain has more than one word, would you say it out loud to someone? ie. "RadBikes.com". "Hey man, I got a rad bike today". Sometimes, words just do not go together! ie. ToastyBikes.com "Hey man, I got a Toasty Bike today!"
5. Does it have any meaning to anyone else? Type the words into google. Look at how many results it has. The example I used before of "Rad Bikes" has 23,000 results. "Toasty Bike" has 104. Which do you think will be easier to find an end user for?
6. Would you pay another domainer on here $25 for it? If not, why are you paying $10 for it and why do you expect someone else will pay $x,xxx for it. It isn't going to happen. You need to see value in your own domains first.
7. Ask a friend. Ask a housemate. "Hey, does (Keyword)(Adjective).com sound like a good domain name?". Try and ask someone who is and someone who isn't familiar with domain names. You'll be surprised how many domainers have delusions of grandeur about their awful domains.
8. Who are you going to sell it to? There's a 99% chance the mountain will not come to you, you have to go to the mountain. Parking the name, listing it for $5,000 and waiting - you have a good chance of turning 80 before selling it. If you can't think of who will buy it (I don't mean "An insurance company. It has insurance in it.", I mean "ACME Insurance, it's relevant to them because it's BudgetInsurance and that's what they do") you probably should reconsider registering it.
9. Why isn't it registered? There's millions and millions of .com's registered. Why isn't this one? There's a good chance if it's a brilliant name someone's already thought of it, bought it, and probably sold it! Question why it hasn't been already - it's probably because Dog-Suitcases.net isn't that great a name.
10. Has it been dropped before? Look at its WHOIS results on DomainTools and you may see it's been registered before but dropped. Question why. Why did someone else pay ~$10 for the name but then let it expire a year later? sdsinc recommended you check out HosterStats.com to help with these checks.
11. Keep learning. Revise your strategy. I started out with 10 commandments, now there's 11. Don't be afraid to admit you made an error. Leave the domain, park it, list it for sale for $XX and read, read, read. Then try again.
Guys, feel free to add to this. I've also published it on my blog since I figure it'll be useful to people outside NamePros as well
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