Appraising common people names as domains?

[ccd32]

Hi, first post here. Glad to find this forum. I'm still a real newbie after 6 years of managing my own personal website.

I have a .net domain that consists of my first and last name, which are both common. The website is for my personal art, and it is 6 years old. Traffic is low but consistent, about 800 unique visitors per month and a few hundred backlinks. My guess is that most of the visitors are people with the same name looking for their own domain. The .com version of this domain is also taken, so evidently people are looking at my .net.

My question is: Is it possible to appraise a domain like this -- one that’s just a common person’s name, such as John Wilson, Mary Smith, etc.?

I’m thinking this might be the type of domain that could be worth a lot to a few people and worth nothing to most people. For example, John Edwards (the former prez candidate) has a very common name yet is very lucky to have johnedwards.com.

I’m asking because I’m about to migrate all my website’s content to another site with a new domain. I will probably redirect my current domain for a while, but eventually I would like to phase it out completely.

When I do, I’m wondering if I should let it expire or try to sell it, perhaps to someone with the same name.

Will any type of appraisal be accurate?

Should I just take it to auction and see what happens?

Or maybe I should park it? (I just learned about this option this week).

FWIW, I’ve tried esibot for kicks. One day it said my domain was worth $400. Another day it said "reg fee." Another free appraisal site indicated it could be worth 2 grand or more.

What is the general worth of common people names, assuming no one famous shares the name?

Thanks!

 

[Keral_Patel]

This type of domains are valuable to the end users. So there cannot be much foolproof way to find its end user price.

EX: I have Lawrencia.com for which I had offers ranging from $75 USD to $2000 USD.

So there is nothing much fixed in this type of domain names.

It depends much on whom you sell it.

 

[Rob J]

the value of name domains can only go up as more people get online. There may be a million Bill Smith's in the world, but only one of them can have billsmith.com .

I'd say hold on to it until the right offer comes in. There's certainly some millionaire Bill Smith's out there, and some day one will decide he wants a blog...

 

[ccd32]

Thanks for the advice. I'll go ahead and hang on to the domain for now. Who knows, maybe I'll become famous and decide to keep it after all.