There’s a saying in real estate: You make your money on the buy, not on the sale. The same is true for domain names, but selecting solid brandables can be tricky. We need information to inform our opinions and develop our skills. So here are some tips for making savvy purchases that can increase the likelihood of profitable sales when it comes to brandable domains.
RIDING WITH THE KING
TOOLING AROUND
GOIN' WAY BACK
NAME BIOGRAPHIES
BUCKET OF BRANDS
SEARCH ME?
ESTIMATED VALUE
CASE STUDY: GlamourTrain.com
Evaluating a brandable domain name has objective and subjective aspects to it. The ideal is to buy names with popular keywords, good synergy, and moderate to low competition. This provides the basis for a smart purchase and increases the likelihood of a profitable sale.
FREE BRANDABLE DOMAIN SUGGESTIONS!
If you click ‘LIKE’ at the bottom of this article, I will private message you a UNIQUE hand-picked, brandable domain name that's available for hand registration. This is my way of saying "thanks" for reading and ‘liking’ my blog post.
RIDING WITH THE KING
- There are exceptions, but generally speaking, your best shot at finding a buyer for a brandable domain is with the dot com extension. There is a reason why the inventory at top brandable resellers like BrandBucket, BrandRoot, and Namerific are 99% dot com.
TOOLING AROUND
- Check DomainTools. Older is better and if it’s never been regged -- proceed with caution.
- Have the dot net and dot org versions ever been registered? Are they registered now? If yes, that’s a sign of demand and value.
GOIN' WAY BACK
- If there’s been a prior website or business built on a domain name, it’s an indication of prior demand. Check your domain for past websites at the WayBack Machine.
NAME BIOGRAPHIES
- Check the root words and/or sounds in your domain for similar sales at NameBio.
- Using SalesReef.com as an example, search for dot com stats starting with the word “sales”. Then search for dot com stats ending in “reef”.
- Sort the results by highest price first. Disregard the highest listing and focus on the 10th search result. If it’s above $2,000 or $3,000 that indicates market strength.
- You can also sort the search results by date. If most of the sales were in prior years then that root word may be out of style and not so desirable or marketable now.
BUCKET OF BRANDS
- BrandBucket now has an inventory of over 20,000 names. If none of the root words or sounds in your domain come up in a search at BrandBucket, you need to ask yourself why.
- You can also check NamePros, BrandRoot, and Namerific to see what they’ve got listed.
SEARCH ME?
- Check Google for other versions of your name. Continuing the previous example (SalesReef.com), you'd type in: SalesBooth.com, SalesWorld.com, SalesMonster.com, etc. If these domains are parked, or worse yet, still available for hand registration, then that’s a sign of weak demand. It can also mean that potential buyers have a lot of other choices besides the version you own or are considering to buy.
ESTIMATED VALUE
- Estibot gives you a valuation based on search volume, cost per click, similar sales, and other factors. While it’s not always accurate, especially for brandables, it’s one more piece of information to consider. You can also use Epik for free domain valuations or DomainMongrel.
CASE STUDY: GlamourTrain.com
- Pros – Several brandables beginning with ‘glamour’ are listed at BrandBucket. Existing companies include Glamour magazine, GlamourQueen.com (Neiman Marcus), and GlamourUs.com. There are also many companies with brands ending in ‘train’ (e.g., SmileTrain.com, SleepTrain.com, MealTrain.com, SoulTrain.com, TechTrain.com, GlimmerTrain.com and BigTrain.com).
- Neutral – 6 years old. Sale prices for domains starting with ‘glamour’ are mediocre.
- Cons – No names ending in ‘train’ on BrandBucket. No prior registrations for GlamourTrain except dot com. No prior websites, and the Estibot valuation is $0. Lastly the pairing of ‘glamour’ with ‘train’ is not strong compared to words like ‘gal’, ‘girl’, ‘queen’, or ‘world’.
Evaluating a brandable domain name has objective and subjective aspects to it. The ideal is to buy names with popular keywords, good synergy, and moderate to low competition. This provides the basis for a smart purchase and increases the likelihood of a profitable sale.
FREE BRANDABLE DOMAIN SUGGESTIONS!
If you click ‘LIKE’ at the bottom of this article, I will private message you a UNIQUE hand-picked, brandable domain name that's available for hand registration. This is my way of saying "thanks" for reading and ‘liking’ my blog post.
