domain 4 char. domain and Politician's name Someones

[kirkins]

I'm new to domain investing and this site and was hoping someone could help me in figuring out the worth of, and also how to find the right people to sell to. Recently was able to purchase a short domain.
The domain is apen.info(so new it still has the godaddy ads)
Apen is the name of a town in Germany and a town in Canada as well as an abriviation for a bunch of organizations.

The other domain is http://stephen-harper.com
Stephen Harper is the current Prime Minister of Canada. I registered the domain a year ago but am thinking it might be best to try to sell while he is still in office.

 

[chrysalis55]

In my view, dot infos are generally a waste of time and money.

Registering a domain containing someone else's name is a big mistake. Very recent court cases have proved that point again.

Stay away from trademarks, and people's names.....and read some more before you spend any more money

 

[kirkins]

What has happened to those domains containing people's names in recent cases?

 

[chrysalis55]

the domains were handed over to the people with the names and fines (thousands of $s) levied.

 

[Rebels]

I'm not sure why people feel .info's are a waste of time. It stands for "information," and I feel if the OP was to develop it into an informational site, and optimized it correctly he should still expect some decent traffic (so long as the NAME.info received enough searches).

 

[wwwweb]

save your money, and spend a few bucks on some proper .com's

 

[maxeaus]

Here's the thing with dot info, IMO. You have a dot Info, it's a town in Germany and a town in Canada. OK so i type in Apen in Google, so what happens?

Well i see a Wikipedia page on Apen, and it tells me every piece of information i am ever likely to need.

Wikipedia is one giant, big .INFO. And it gets top Google position above the .com even some of the time, so what chance dose your .INFO have?

So why would i need to go to your site to find out about Apen when i can use Wikipedia, without any ads, BS or propaganda, etc.?

 

[toorhamza]

.com are the best domains!!!

 

[kirkins]

Here's the thing with dot info, IMO. You have a dot Info, it's a town in Germany and a town in Canada. OK so i type in Apen in Google, so what happens?

Well i see a Wikipedia page on Apen, and it tells me every piece of information i am ever likely to need.

Wikipedia is one giant, big .INFO. And it gets top Google position above the .com even some of the time, so what chance dose your .INFO have?

So why would i need to go to your site to find out about Apen when i can use Wikipedia, without any ads, BS or propaganda, etc.?

I disagree with you here. If you look at the majority of the traffic, with google search insight tool, most of the search traffic comes from Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, & Norway. All of these people likely live close to Apen, Germany. My guess is that they are looking for news or locations in Apen as I have often done for my city or a city I expect to visit soon. Never while searching for this kind of information have I used wikipedia.

I am guessing likely searches would be things like

Apen restaurants
Apen Movie Theater
Schools in Apen

When searching these kind of things for my own city and others I would say only %20 do I use Wikipedia. That said about 60% of what comes up in google in these situations is like you say BS, Propaganda, ect. but you can most often get better information written by locals on sites other then wikipedia.

---------- Post added at 09:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 AM ----------

Just found out the majority of Traffic is just Netherlands & Belgium because Apen is Dutch for Monkey. Traffic from Germany is only 9% of this a significant amount is likely for monkey because Dutch is a popular language in Germany.
I was hoping to build a mini-site on the domain to monetize with adsense while I hold onto it but I'm not sure what I will do since the majority of traffic will be looking for Dutch content.
Does the translation of this domain change anyones opinion on the value?
I'm also interested to hear of any experiences in having a foreign language domain.
I will likely just put up adsense parking in dutch, but this won't help with getting search traffic.

---------- Post added at 09:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:47 AM ----------

UPDATE

on further inspection it seems the english to dutch translation for money is "app"
"apen" actually translate to "monkeys"

 

[chrysalis55]

The fact is, you asked for appraisals, and who to sell your domain to, as a "new investor" in domains.

You got advice and opinions based on your request for appraisals.

If you build a website, then your income from that website will determine its present and future value for that dot info.

Apen, as you know, it a German town of only 11,000 people....the market to sell the domain is limited, especially as a dot info....and the income, regardless of translation is limited also. Build your website and see what happens.

 

[kirkins]

Chrysalis55 it is irelevant that it is a German town of only 11,000 people if 92% of search for the word "Apen" is in context of the word "Monkeys".

I got appraisals based on the premise that it was a small town in Germany and am updating everyone on the fact that the main use of the word "Apen" is monkeys in Dutch. This "fact" of what "Apen" is, changes the premise on which all the appraisals and advice where based on...

Yes its a .info but its only 4 characters long word which actually has a meaning.

 

[chrysalis55]

OK OK OK......the translation is irrelevant.....what is relevant is front page SE placement, and you are unlikely to get that unless your build your website in dutch, and making money from monkies may be more than my minuscule mind can muster during this merry moment.

....and a 4 character dot info, even with meaning, has little or no value....but I have only been in this biz for a mere 10 years, so please prove me wrong in a year or 4.


....and if you really, really knew what you were doing, you would have never registerd the name of the prime minister of Canada.

 

[kirkins]

I don't doubt that you are right, but in the previous post you didn't say much about the translation.

I don't claim to know a lot about domain investing, I bought my first domain a year ago(which actually was stephen-harper.com on Dec.31 2008) and have only been able to make back the cost of hosting, thats why I refer to myself as new to domain investing.

The domain, apen.info, only cost me $15 and I buy domains and build sites for the learning experience and fun of it not just to make money, though it would be nice to prove you wrong about the domain... you are likely right.

I will just create a simple information site on monkeys in English and then translate it with Yahoo Babbel Fish... I'm not expecting to make a fortune here but even being able to increase traffic of the domain up to the point of being able to sell the domain in the low XXXs would feel like an accomplishment for me.