Confused with RickLatona's Domain Pricing. Am I missing something??

[holdem8]

Hi all...

I an subscribed to RickLatona.com's newsletter which emails me supposedly good domains with good prices and I am very confused. I did some research on the domains and I cannot find any reasons why they are priced so high..anybody have a clue?

I thought these are supposedly good generics to be even priced so high and yet, from my research, I am baffled...am I missing something or are there any other intrinsic values in the domains that I am not aware of?

Some examples below...

ChristmasForum.com "christmas forum" : Google Global Exact search 480, CPC $0.19. Price: $12,500

FormalEvents.com "formal events" : Google Global Exact search 210, CPC $2.68. Price: $37,500

LatinComics.com "latin comics" : Google Global Exact search 260, CPC $0.19. Price: $11,000

BankWatchlist.com "bank watchlist" Google Global Exact search 210, CPC $0.19. Price: $8,700

 

[InsanerDomainer]

HollywoodBars sounds like a good name to me (without doing any research). An established tourism site might be interested in it. But just think of all the big, established department stores and other retailers who could be interested in ChristmasForum. And they wouldn't be limited to use it to promote such a tiny geographical area. It's in a higher league.

 

[Jingles]

HollywoodBars sounds like a good name to me (without doing any research). An established tourism site might be interested in it. But just think of all the big, established department stores and other retailers who could be interested in ChristmasForum. And they wouldn't be limited to use it to promote such a tiny geographical area. It's in a higher league.

It might not be limited in a way that HollywoodBars would be limited to a tiny geographic area, but considering that people are really only thinking about Christmas for about 2 months out of the year I would definitely say it's got it's own set of unique limits going on. I seriously can't imagine a steady flow of visitors, members, etc. at ChristmasForum.com in the middle of summer.

 

[Zujo]

most of us rely on hand regging and hoping for the best.

lol i think you have just motivated me to stop reading domain forums

Somebody please PM me if there is a forum for people who don't 'rely on hand regging and hoping for the best'

 

[CDM]

good thoughtful discussion here nonetheless. carry on

 

[hal]

not every domainer can afford to lash out an invest 100,000k in ten or more domains, most of us rely on hand regging and hoping for the best.

Problem with this strategy is that your renewal fees will quickly build up, and your sale prices will be limited by the quality of the hand regged domains.

Why not save up $500-$1000 and make an investment in a more liquid domain?

 

[equity78]

Problem with this strategy is that your renewal fees will quickly build up, and your sale prices will be limited by the quality of the hand regged domains.

Why not save up $500-$1000 and make an investment in a more liquid domain?

I agree. The biggest problem is you don't know why someone is here and their background. Not everyone is doing this in the same way for the same reason. Joshua makes a good point about so-called experts. I have talked to many who were not doing in real life what they pontificated on Namepros.

Domaining is not science, its art. One person looks at a Picasso and says "That sold for what ? I could have bought a beach house." Someone in the art world looks at that person as a fool. Who is right ? Both, depending where you come from, your background, you will have strong feelings.

Recent sales have shown that, most who are not into the rug business could not understand $405,000 for Arearugs.com. To someone who understands it was the price.

Another point about valuation is someone's personal attachment to the name. Some people say I will not sell a name for less than x amount. Ok, the name resonates with them, they may never get their price, this has little to do with domain values and more personal attachment.

Some people say, "I love this name, I would never sell unless it is for more than I ever thought it would sell for. So they put an outlandish price.

As far as newsletters go, some may feel they are getting the shaft but there is no need to get upset. If you have the same high price demands your name would not sell anyway so you did not miss out on something.

I think people think the bigger success a newsletter has had and the perceived deep pocket reading list that they would sell for more than the worth of the name. Its the same in Domains Wanted,

Looking for two word .com product name budget, $300
Reply I have average average.com $300

But if it was Looking for two word.com product name budget $5000
Reply I have Average Average.com $5000.

The perception by a lot of people, bigger budget, deeper pockets, I can sell the same name for more that is worth less.

Domainers is also too wide a net for one industry, saying the current people looking for myspace typos in domains wanted here, and Rick Schwartz are both domainers, is like saying Vanilla Ice and Frank Sinatra were both entertainers. Again IMO

 

[biggie]

My confusion with domain pricing comes from the fact that the "rules" for it seem to change daily. One day search count is important, the next day, search count is out, brandability is in...the next day we're back to search count.

Most seem to think $12,500 for ChristmasForum.com is reasonable, are you kidding me?? A few weeks back I had my HollywoodBars.com basically beat into the ground here, alot felt it was a poor name.....So then tell me all you wise domainers, what makes ChristmasForum.com so much more valuable than HollywoodBars.com?? Seriously, I really want to know, I want specifics.

I stand by my first post in this thread.

Hi

domainers who make big sales, make their own rules

and everybody who wants to be like them, try to follow that lead

if you listen and let, the appraisers here or there, "define value" of your domains for you....then you can only fault yourself for believing the limitations on roi

lol i think you have just motivated me to stop reading domain forums

Somebody please PM me if there is a forum for people who don't 'rely on hand regging and hoping for the best'

there is no such place

even those domainers who sell million dollar names, may still hand-reg and hope for the best


hand regging is still a very significant, and quite profitable part of domaining.

imo...

 

[holdem8]

Hi

even those domainers who sell million dollar names, may still hand-reg and hope for the best


hand regging is still a very significant, and quite profitable part of domaining.

imo...

Ya man...I know, hand-regg is still my most profitable way. Just sold one for $15K, hand regged 1.5 years ago.

 

[InsanerDomainer]

Ya man...I know, hand-regg is still my most profitable way. Just sold one for $15K, hand regged 1.5 years ago.

That's just awesome. I'm trying to figure out how much you have to let them age before they have a chance at fetching a price like that. Wonder if 1.5 years is typical. That's not that long, really.

(Yes, I know it has to be a good name, before anyone jumps all over me. A lot of people seem to get off on belittling hand-reggers on here. :p )

 

[holdem8]

That's just awesome. I'm trying to figure out how much you have to let them age before they have a chance at fetching a price like that. Wonder if 1.5 years is typical. That's not that long, really.

(Yes, I know it has to be a good name, before anyone jumps all over me. A lot of people seem to get off on belittling hand-reggers on here. :p )

It is not a matter of ageing the domain. I hand regged MagicTouchScreen.com I think about last year, parked it at SEDO and sold it for $800 a few months later without even marketing it. I have sold loads of hand-regged names for a few hundred bucks without marketing them because of the quality. Handregged DNMojo.com, put up a simple script, and sold at $3,200 a few months later too.

Another example is garrarufa.com which I won at snapnames for $60. There were no bidders and I won it automatically. Slapped up a site with about 5 articles, got it ranked in 1st page of google. Sold it a few months later for $5,500.

The trick is to find a good niche, research like hell and grab a generic within that niche. Then build a site on the keyword, get it ranked and sell it off. If you hand-regged high quality names, you will get offers even if you park them and not develop them.

I hand regged WLanBridge.com a few weeks back, parked it at SEDO and I already had an offer. You will also need to have good negotiation skills to get good prices for the domains. (read Negotiations for Dummies, it is well worth it!) You just need to think from the buyers point of view. Think how much the domain will bring to their business and you can gauge how much they are willing to pay for them.

FYI, the $15K domain was HHOGenerator.com. Small niche but I guess I was lucky to have managed to sell the idea to the buyer. I also hand-regged CNGStation.com and CNGStations.com about 1-2 years ago and had an offer of $2,500 a few months later which I declined. That was a bad, silly and greedy decision...shucks.

Cheerio and good luck!

Al

 

[InsanerDomainer]

It is not a matter of ageing the domain. I hand regged MagicTouchScreen.com I think about last year, parked it at SEDO and sold it for $800 a few months later without even marketing it. I have sold loads of hand-regged names for a few hundred bucks without marketing them because of the quality. Handregged DNMojo.com, put up a simple script, and sold at $3,200 a few months later too.

Another example is garrarufa.com which I won at snapnames for $60. There were no bidders and I won it automatically. Slapped up a site with about 5 articles, got it ranked in 1st page of google. Sold it a few months later for $5,500.

The trick is to find a good niche, research like hell and grab a generic within that niche. Then build a site on the keyword, get it ranked and sell it off. If you hand-regged high quality names, you will get offers even if you park them and not develop them.

I hand regged WLanBridge.com a few weeks back, parked it at SEDO and I already had an offer. You will also need to have good negotiation skills to get good prices for the domains. (read Negotiations for Dummies, it is well worth it!) You just need to think from the buyers point of view. Think how much the domain will bring to their business and you can gauge how much they are willing to pay for them.

FYI, the $15K domain was HHOGenerator.com. Small niche but I guess I was lucky to have managed to sell the idea to the buyer. I also hand-regged CNGStation.com and CNGStations.com about 1-2 years ago and had an offer of $2,500 a few months later which I declined. That was a bad, silly and greedy decision...shucks.

Cheerio and good luck!

Al

Very interesting info, thanks. GarraRufa... got to ask if you bought that before it became a big fad or afterwards?

I'm trying to get FleasTicks.com ranked right now. Not my greatest name, but it's a good experiment. I hear it takes a while to get a newly registered name out of the "Google sandbox" though. A few months?

 

[holdem8]

Very interesting info, thanks. GarraRufa... got to ask if you bought that before it became a big fad or afterwards?

I'm trying to get FleasTicks.com ranked right now. Not my greatest name, but it's a good experiment. I hear it takes a while to get a newly registered name out of the "Google sandbox" though. A few months?

Garrarufa.com was won very much after the fad. If you checked out Google insights for the trend, I bough it much after the other part of the foothill of the trend chart. As you can see, HHOGenerator.com was also sold very much after the fad.

As for the Google sandbox, it will depend on your luck and also on the competition in the niche you are in. Sometimes you are just experiencing the "Google dance" and not sandboxed.

Cheers, Al

 

[fm1234]

I don't want to single out Latona or any other particular "domaining celebrity," but bear in mind how many newbies must be subscribed to his and other similar newsletters. Domains that "sound good" ("Christmas forum? Heck, everybody loves Christmas! Maybe I should buy it!") with big price tags make the newsletter sexier to someone who isn't actually spending time each day doing real research, split testing, developing and prospecting, etc. and builds credibility for the newsletter author in that segment of the domain buying market that has not yet gotten burned out, or at least jaded, by that kind of thing. Who would listen to Latona if he posted a bunch of .infos for $5 OBO in each newsletter?


Frank

 

[Gunner Steele]

As the owner of one of the domains below, I just wanted to give some insight into my domain BankWatchList.com, and the discussion on pricing and my take on Latona's newsletter. For the record, I'm a huge fan of the newsletter, and I'm stoked to have my domain listed there.

The FDIC has an internal list of banks that are in distress, or have the possibility of failing - that they call the 'bank watch list'. While they don't publish this list of banks, they do report how many banks are on this list, on a regular basis.

Not only is this an internal term at the FDIC, but a widely used term throughout the banking system and the financial media that reports on it.

As for pricing -- I've been reading and watching Rick Latona's newsletter for a year and a half - and there is always a solid list of domains every day, that for many of them - I could make a case for the pricing if I was a buyer that day. Most days, I'm not buying... Some domains, I just have to scratch my head and wonder - either for the price being too high, or too low. For example - in today's newsletter they list:

HIVScreening.com $400

This is an absolute steal.

Short (ok, not too long), to the point, passes the 'radio test', keyword rich, .com, has parking and development opportunities. This would be an easy flip for a skilled end-user-salesperson to a medical testing company with a domain name like CraigMedical.com, EasyKit.info, or PrivateMDLabs.com. One huge benefit to this domain is the keyword-benefit that it gives to someone running Google Adwords campaigns. The price per click on this domain is $2.22. For someone who buys this kind of traffic, if having this domain got them even 200 type-ins over the lifetime of the domain, it paid for itself. Also - having this domain would likely increase their google adwords quality score, and therefore reduce their per-click prices - giving them a fairly quick and measurable ROI.

Sure, the pricing seems to be generally slanted towards end-users, site developers, or people already well informed and working in these niches represented - but there's also something in there for flippers, speculators, and even parkers -- every day.

Back to BankWatchList.com. One thing that was also mentioned in the newsletter along with the domain and the price - is that this is a site (blog actually) for sale, with documented traffic going back for 1 year. I can provide Statcounter.com and Google Analytics traffic reports and stats going back over 1 year, that shows a steady increase in traffic - with current average monthly unique visitors at 2000/month. 7-8% of this is direct type-in traffic.

There are plenty of companies that are buying this traffic, and similar financial related traffic - and people are always going to wonder if their bank is safe, and the FDIC is always going to have a bank watch list.

So, 2000 uniques/month * .20 per click (rounded 1 cent for round # sake) = $400.00 per month that someone would have to pay for this traffic. At a sales price of $8700, it seems like it would take you approx 22 months to break even on this site - on a price per click basis.

The price per click basis drastically undervalues this traffic, though. To take a look at my referrer logs, it is a who's who of large and small U.S. banks, corporations, brokerages, and Wall Street firms. These are business customers. To put your ad or website in front of these types of potential customers costs much more than $0.20 per visit... There are major ad campaigns and online marketers that spend upwards of $20.00 per click to reach these very people, and have daily Google Adwords spends into the six figures. To these folks - this traffic is almost free at this price.

The problem is, however, how do you reach these major marketers with the huge budgets? For a domainer like myself, Rick Latona's got a much larger reach -- almost 8,000 people read the newsletter - so I started there...

I just added an affiliate program and links to BankWatchList.com just over a month ago, and have made 2 $50.00 sales already. Because I'm not clear on how the program pays yet (there are 2 CPA payouts - $5 and $50 per action), this represents either a total of $10.00 in commissions, or $100.00 in commissions to me. Either way, it's a hell of a return....

GS

p.s. - I know you're wondering, "if it's such a great domain, with great returns, why are you selling it?"

Good question.

I'm getting married in three weeks, and I'm getting covered up with bills... Believe you me, I'd rather not sell this domain, and rather not sell it at this price - but.... well, you know -- weddings are quite expensive.

Hi all...

I an subscribed to RickLatona.com's newsletter which emails me supposedly good domains with good prices and I am very confused. I did some research on the domains and I cannot find any reasons why they are priced so high..anybody have a clue?

I thought these are supposedly good generics to be even priced so high and yet, from my research, I am baffled...am I missing something or are there any other intrinsic values in the domains that I am not aware of?

Some examples below...

ChristmasForum.com "christmas forum" : Google Global Exact search 480, CPC $0.19. Price: $12,500

FormalEvents.com "formal events" : Google Global Exact search 210, CPC $2.68. Price: $37,500

LatinComics.com "latin comics" : Google Global Exact search 260, CPC $0.19. Price: $11,000

BankWatchlist.com "bank watchlist" Google Global Exact search 210, CPC $0.19. Price: $8,700

 

[Archangel]

I haven't read all of this thread but most. I should tell you though that Rick DOES NOT COME UP WITH THE FIGURES for his newsletter. It states on his site the it's not his job to appraise the domains & that submitters have to give their domains a price. It's not Rick who labeled the Christmas forum domain $xx,xxx.

 

[Gunner Steele]

Good point, Archangel.

I forgot to add - I set the price for my domain....

GS

 

[Domainate.com]

I don't think Rick always prices domains to sell. I can't imagine he priced ChristmasForum.com what he did seriously expecting someone to drop that kind of coin on it. What it does is make the other names look like better deals. The only thing ChristmasForum could possibly have going for it would be a forum about Christmas-related sales/deals/etc., but even still that wouldn't be obvious by looking at that name so it's not a very good name for that purpose IMO. Who knows though - he has all his sales to go off of and makes his determinations however he sees fit. I'm just sorry he decided to institute his min $200 commission per name - I was going to send him about 50 or so names for his medical/pharmacy week and upon seeing that, sent him 2 instead. We've sold quite a few names through his newsletter but that may come to an end with that decision of his.

 

[Archangel]

I could see a developed ChristmasForum.com easily. I'd love to own it but not at a $xx,xxx price. It could be used for, just to name a few things:

Holiday recipes
Decoration ideas
A hub for families to plan a holiday a la FaceBook
Giving/reading holiday stories
Contests ie "Best decorated houses"

And on and on and on...

And Christmas isn't a 1-day thing: Many ppl start their holiday plans months in advance. The downside is the site might be dormant the majority of the year but it'd be very lucrative during the appropriate season.

I don't think Rick always prices domains to sell. I can't imagine he priced ChristmasForum.com what he did seriously expecting someone to drop that kind of coin on it. What it does is make the other names look like better deals. The only thing ChristmasForum could possibly have going for it would be a forum about Christmas-related sales/deals/etc., but even still that wouldn't be obvious by looking at that name so it's not a very good name for that purpose IMO. Who knows though - he has all his sales to go off of and makes his determinations however he sees fit. I'm just sorry he decided to institute his min $200 commission per name - I was going to send him about 50 or so names for his medical/pharmacy week and upon seeing that, sent him 2 instead. We've sold quite a few names through his newsletter but that may come to an end with that decision of his.