At What Point Does A .com Become Interesting To You?

[RogueWriter]

In terms of searches a month at google, where the .com is unregged, what level of traffic, generally, will it take before you decide to register that domain? 1,000 searches a month? 2,000? 10,000? What's that magic number for you?

Obviously, there are other aspects, such as competitiveness of the keyword, etc., but figuring all other issues are average, at what type of traffic level does your hand start hovering over the buy now button?

I just thought this might be an interesting discussion to have.

 

[Jaco]

It's pretty hard to pluck an English language .com that represents a search phrase of over 1K out of the open namespace anymore.

Still, search volume isn't the end-all, particularly if you're reselling.
There are names with 12 searches per month that I wouldn't trade for names with 1200 searches per month.

 

[Vito]

As for search volume/traffic I always do my homework but the #'s never really play a significant role in my investments.

For me, First off if it is something that I am very interested in, passionate about, or have a vision for...
I really could care less about search volume.

Secondly, "price" is a monstrous factor.

This is a very broad question, I guess my answer to "When does your hand start hovering over the buy now button" is really desire, and price.

Interesting question though, I'd like to see what others have to say also.

 

[RogueWriter]

Well, for example, I am looking at nineteen two word .coms, each of which has google search traffic ranging from 2k to 9k a month. I realize there are many, many other two worders out there that would be looking at better traffic. The niche itself is fairly lucrative, though, so I am ambivalent.

In my case, perhaps I should have split out the question, between a one word or two word search term/phrase.



dotstop.... I am a lot more open to 'vision' with .tv, I am much more likely to pick up one of those where I see a potentially interesting project. Perhaps that is a strength, or a weakness, lol, I don't know. With .coms, I am much more 'cut to the chase', look at the stats kind of guy.

 

[Vito]

dotstop.... I am a lot more open to 'vision' with .tv, I am much more likely to pick up one of those where I see a potentially interesting project. Perhaps that is a strength, or a weakness, lol, I don't know. With .coms, I am much more 'cut to the chase', look at the stats kind of guy.

Gotcha on the vision of .tv and if you know anything about me, It is that I am a huge .tv fan, but of course .com is first. So, lets say my vision is to sell a product called the dot stop, and it was a...stopwatch, I guess what I am saying is that term thedotstop really wouldn't mean anything to anyone else because I created the brand. Now of course depending on how serious I was with that product, I could care less about the search volume on stopwatch.com, net, org, etc. I am gonna get it.
and every other vwersion of that word also and redirect it to my main site.

I think you are asking this question from a reselling point of view...correct me if I'm wrong here?

Even then it would be an impossible question to answer.

Heres a great example. I just sold a 5-L.com this morning for $150. It is not even a word, but I created it on a hand reg beuse it sounded and looked pretty cool. That had no search volume at all. None. I offered it here, and I don't think I even got a $5.00 offer, lol

I am sorry, I don't think I am really helping at all.

 

[RogueWriter]

Yeah, I am talking about an already existing one or two word term that is already in common usage. Specifically, generic product or generic niche product.

 

[Vito]

Yeah, I am talking about an already existing one or two word term that is already in common usage. Specifically, generic product or generic niche product.

OK gotcha.
Are you asking this from the perspective of hand-regging that term and flipping only, with no development plans?

If there are 19 other very relevant terms still available for hand-reg, I would say it is going to be hard to make any $ on just one with that term, while someone with the same thoughts as you, could go hand-reg any of the other 18 terms, unless of course you plan on doing more than just a quick flip, ya know?

 

[SpareDomains]

my best pay per click earner only shows 260 exact searches per month with the adwords keyword tool and was wide open to grab at reg fee, since then I have received many offers to buy it well into xx,xxx range so although higher searches usually means more traffic I seem to find a few with under a 1,000 exact searches that produce good revenue whether I just park them or turn them into product stores, most important for me is does the domain make sense, does it describe a commercial product/service that has many end users as the bigger the field of prospects the more offers you can expect, I have some that get a lot of traffic with 1.00 and under clicks and some that get less traffic but get up to $11+ clicks so no exact science to it, if it's .com and describes a competitive product I'm usually interested depending on the price.

 

[RogueWriter]

OK gotcha.
Are you asking this from the perspective of hand-regging that term and flipping only, with no development plans?

If there are 19 other very relevant terms still available for hand-reg, I would say it is going to be hard to make any $ on just one with that term, while someone with the same thoughts as you, could go hand-reg any of the other 18 terms, unless of course you plan on doing more than just a quick flip, ya know?

Just asking how other domainers, in a broader sense look at traffic, rather than just me specifically. It was this decision I am considering that sparked the topic, is all. If I choose to go into this niche, I will probably pick up several of the domains, not sure i will get al 19 or not. I would put minisites up on them, and focus on a merchant's affiliate program that I like.



dongsman and sparedomains, thanks for the response!

 

[Vito]

I was thinking about this thread, your question as I regged a few a little while ago.

In my .com product regging, I place a higher value on paid ad's rather than strict search term volume for that term.

I just regged these today,
Shallow Subwoofer/s-com,
and
Black Skinny Pants-com
Even as a 3-worder...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="black+skinny+pants"&aq=f&aqi=g1g-c3g1g-c1&aql=&oq=
Look at the right column, There is definitely a desire to spend money on these 3 words.

When you type these in no matter whuich way, singular, plural, bunched together, whatever...
there are people somewhere who are paying for their ad's to be placed on the front page.
Why they have not purhased the .com, I have no idea, but I'm glad they didn't.

 

[WordWalker]

For those who question the intrinsic value of three and four word domain names, the traffic that is generated from these names is the most targeted, highest quality traffic you are likely to see.

Of the twenty-five mini-sites I have published, my highest producing website has a domain name of five words!

 

[DavidH]

I would rather reg a name that has say 500 exact searches where advertisers are paying $2 per click than 2000 exact searches at $.10 per click

 

[dtagr]

I like to buy based on how many ads show up when I search for the term. I think that has more value than the exact number of searches. I think it's unlikely the "searchers" will purchase the name, but the advertisers should be more likely to. Failing that - how many potential endusers are there.

I'll give you 2 examples:

Regged today - SkiPropertyForSale dot com - not very many searchers (720) decent CPC for parking or mini-siting ($3.50). To me the real value is in the THOUSANDS of real estate agents in ski resort towns all over the world. Lots of potential endusers.
Regged in December - ParkSave dot com - again not very many searches (140), lousy CPC ($1.24). I find the value in being a short and memorable name with over 8000 parking companies (endusers) in the US.

I won't retire from either of these but I expect to make 30-100+ times my $10 investments.

Anyway that's my theory.:imho:

I have heard that some domainers take the exact search column and multiply it by the CPC column and if it passes some magic threshold they reg it. But that's their theory.:bah:

 

[equity78]

I agree with Dong, Search numbers are not the end all be all. I usually never let it get me to reg a name unless its really big. SolarSystem.tv dropped last month. I have no great passion on the topic, but the search numbers were so big close to 500,000 Global exact searches, that I thought about it. But sticking to a formula of regging what either have passion or great knowledge in, I passed. Dynadot having a $12.99 special, I regged it. The name has had 176 uniques and made $6.52 so far at Sedo and its been only three weeks. So I am glad I let search motivate me to reg on that name.

I would think if you are developing the search numbers mean a lot more, I know you know how to build sites RW and you know affiliate marketing so it probably worth the reg. I agree # of advertisiers is another metric that's important.

 

[garptrader]

Five of my seven Godaddy Premium Listing sales in 2010 were .COMs with basically zero search volume. One of those had decent traffic so I was in no rush to sell but the buyer had no idea what the traffic was because it was parked with SEDO and listed at a lower price there. Sales price for that one $3000 (admittedly an anomaly)...

I suspect I'm still missing out on some sales opportunities because I price higher at Godaddy than SEDO - need to continue to experiment with "price elasticity"...

 

[RogueWriter]

Thanks everyone for their replies, I appreciate it!

 

[DomainTalker]

The problem with focusing too much on one thing - say, CPC - is that, on that basis, you wouldn't have regged many of the top generic domains....LOL


EG, say:


BOY.com - with xxx,xxx Searches pm, but only $0.51 CPC


Or,


Husband.com - with xxx,xxx Searches pm, but only $0.07 CPC


Yet, most of us would have hand regged these two domains, if we could.



These decisions are a balance, and a judgement.....The descriptive/representative power of a name, CPC, number of Searches, Commercial Application/potential, target market(s) etc etc.

.