Domainer doubts value of premium domain names

[Havela]

I found this blog post by Eric Borgos refreshingly original and honest:

http://www.impulsecorp.com/10-reasons-why-i-am-eager-to-sell-my-domains

When you have been around domaining forums and blogs for a while, you discover that there are many myths repeated and reinforced on a daily basis, and nobody really questions the content of these myths (not in a constructive manner, anyway). But I found Borgos' post refreshingly free of almost all such ruminations. In particular I was intrigued by this statement:

9. I had tried building minisites on all of my parked domains, but that totally bombed. They got almost no traffic and made no money. I also tried building real sites on some of the bigger domains and those did not do well either. None of these sites ever came close to being worth what the domain alone was worth, which made me realize it did not make sense for me to use premium domains for these sites. In the future when I build new sites, I will hand register domains for them instead.

Isn't he effectively contradicting the gospel according to all successful domainers - that endusers should pay for a premium domain because it is so much easier to build traffic then?

If even a successful domainer thinks it is better to hand reg domains for websites, how can we convince endusers that expensive domains are worth spending money on for that exact same purpose?

 

[equity78]

I know Eric a little and have done some work with him, he is not a typical domainer and has certainly been around the game for a long time. He just wants to go in other directions and takes a practical approach, at the end of the day 90% of all domainers will never extract the value from domains that Frank and Rick do imo. So I think Eric has owned a lot of domains and sold a lot too, he knows how many repeat offers he has had, he also knows how many times holding out has worked and how many times it did not work out in getting a domain sale.

Some people just want to make a profit and move on they don't need every last penny or have unrealistic pricing expectations.

 

[Havela]

Some people just want to make a profit and move on they don't need every last penny or have unrealistic pricing expectations.

I have no problem with that, in fact that's my philosophy too. Whatever floats your boat.

But he is dropping a minor bombshell in saying there is no point in developing valuable domains because they will never earn back the money spent on acquiring them. If endusers were to take that literally, there would be no secondary market for domain sales. Wearing his enduser hat Borgos actually says that he prefers hand regging domains for his developing projects, and he appears to know what he is talking about as far as development is concerned.

This is exactly the opposite of what e.g. Silver, Schwartz and Linton say every day, which makes it so interesting.:imho:

 

[freedom30]

This is exactly the opposite of what e.g. Silver, Schwartz and Linton say every day, which makes it so interesting.:imho:

...yes, his grasp of technological advances and modifications in terms of the utilization of cyberspace and how it relates to and affects the present state of domaining being one of his motivating factors for using a differing technique of selling than the other sages appears to be spot on.

The techno-developments of this century are changing the scenery as Borgos more than infers...

 

[SearchEngineZ]

1. Internet users in general are switching away from websites (which use domains) and instead using mobile apps, Facebook apps, and Twitter hashtags, which means 5-10 years from now domains might have a lot less value. So far it has not made much of a difference in domain values because most companies still get a domain in addition to all these other types of media, but that could easily change over time.

Apps are not growing at the expense of websites, he is very wrong about this. I have 100 apps on my iPhone, and I have visited presumably tens of thousands of web sites in the last few years - do the math!

Imagine a small business owner telling a customer they don't have a website, oh but we do have an app!

 

[equity78]

Look people cannot just read a blog post without understanding and knowing the writer. Eric has said he is burned out, been doing it for 18 years. He builds sites that are not high end and not ecommerce sites, he does what he likes and knows how to make money doing.

I think he would like less risk and being married with kids makes you less of a risk taker most of the time, compared to a single person in their twenties. He did not say domain investing sucks he is just level headed and realistic imo.

 

[Havela]

Look people cannot just read a blog post without understanding and knowing the writer.

I need to disagree with you on that one. Actually people do that every day. When you're a blogger you put something out there, and, if you are lucky, people take an interest in what you wrote and will discuss it without knowing you personally. That's what blogging's all about.

Borgos wrote a lot of interesting stuff in this post. I'm sure he would be happy that his post receives such a good response.

 

[equity78]

No that's not my point, you can discuss it of course you can, my point is I don't think without knowing someone's risk profile and their finances I can take everything they say at face value. If someone is looking to lessen their risk profile then they may say sell domains for less, Rick may have a different view because he may have a higher risk level for domains.

 

[impulse]

Hi, this is Eric Borgos. In no way did I mean to imply that end users should not pay high prices for domain names. I think a premium domain is the best investment they can make for their site/brand. But, I was not really a typical end user for the sites I built. I built very small, somewhat pathetic sites on domains where I was wasting their potential. For example, with weights.com, I am not in the fitness or weight lifting business so it is hard for me to do much with the domain. A company in that business could make great use of it though. Even if they pay $1000 for a decent domain (instead of a lot of money for weights.com) it is 1000 times better than hand registering a domain. It is just that for sites I tend to build it does not matter as much.

As for what I said about apps taking over instead of domains, I just put it on my list of things to possibly worry about in the future. Right now that has not happened, but twitter hashtag marketing and Facebook page marketing have become viable alternatives to domain marketing so it is something that needs to be considered. Who knows what things will be like in 10 years. I pretty am sure domains will still be popular but they might be just one of many options for an online/mobile presence. By the way, I am typing this from my iPhone which I now use more hours a day for email/web than my pc.

 

[Havela]

Hi, this is Eric Borgos

Hi, thanks for chiming in. I thought you raised a lot of interesting issues in your post and a lot of it made sense. Hope you don't mind I brought the discussion here.

 

[impulse]

No problem. I am happy for people to give their opinions about what I write.

 

[alien51]

There is a big difference between:

1) Looking at a domain, and thinking of building "end-user" type of content over it.

versus

2) Having real, genuine, legit end-user content, and looking for a domain that can serve as a BRAND for the product or service.

Humans in this planet, are looking for EXPERTS. They are not looking for domains.

Domains merely serve as a kind of marketing advertisement. They don't necessarily serve the purpose of the "content" itself.

Domains are like an Armani suit. Not all humans who wear Armani, are beautiful inside. It's the same with websites "wearing" nice domain names, but they actually contain garbage content.

If you are a beautiful person, it does not matter if you are naked. Websites with very useful content, does not "necessarily" need a blockbuster domain name.

 

[m-i-k-e]

If you are a beautiful person, it does not matter if you are naked.

I guess it all depends on where you hang out... no shoes, no shirt, no service.

(I do get what you're saying though)

 

[alien51]

By the way, I am typing this from my iPhone which I now use more hours a day for email/web than my pc.

This means you are now more of an "internet consumer", rather than a developer.

Developing websites, even typing long articles, you would have needed atleast a laptop computer. Sometimes it takes a whole day tinkering on your website. Mobile devices for me, are just for consumers and for saving/collecting data to be transferred to your laptop computer when you get home.

 

[impulse]

I have programmers who work for me that create sites, so all I need to do is describe to them what I want done. I can do that from my iPhone. But, I do "consume" much more on my iPhone as compared to my PC. I save the more important business stuff for when I am at my desk in my office.

 

[alien51]

Have you tried paying for "content" experts ?

You mentioned earlier that you tried building "pathetic sites" yourself.

 

[impulse]

When I say I "build them", I mean I spend a few minutes doing a rough text-only mockup in html with no programming, and then have a programmer setup the site for me. I go back and forth with them by email constantly about all the various aspects of the site while it is being built.

By "pathetic sites", I don't mean they look bad, I mean they are not real online businesses. They are real sites, but nowhere near what somebody would build if they were 100% focused on just that one site and were spending a lot of money to build it.

In terms of content for article type sites, I have used dozens of different writers for various projects. I hardly ever write any of the articles myself. The only place I write all the articles is on my blog at http://www.impulsecorp.com .

 

[alien51]

So what you are trying to say, is that you own domains that you believe is worth say $20,000 dollars, and yet the best content you can produce yourself cannot generate enough revenue to match your perceived domain value.

I'm just trying to troubleshoot what has been bothering you with your business model, as was quoted in the original post.

 

[impulse]

Yes, exactly. If for example Weights.com is worth $50,000, I could sell it and invest that money and make maybe $3000/year from it, which is $250/month. When I setup a site at Weights.com with around 100 custom written articles, it only got around 25 visitors a day and made around $10/month. So, I am better of selling the domain if can. This does not mean somebody else who is better at SEO could not buy it for $50,000 and add articles to it and make a lot of money. I just was not able to.

 

[cdboard]

I am reluctant to put mini-sites on a couple of my best domains for a different reason. I don't want a buyer to be discouraged because he does not like the website I put on a valuable domain - either the content, the design, or even the page URLs.

I think a buyer of an expensive domain might want it to have a clean history. as much as possible.

 

[Havela]

Yes, exactly. If for example Weights.com is worth $50,000, I could sell it and invest that money and make maybe $3000/year from it, which is $250/month. When I setup a site at Weights.com with around 100 custom written articles, it only got around 25 visitors a day and made around $10/month. So, I am better of selling the domain if can. This does not mean somebody else who is better at SEO could not buy it for $50,000 and add articles to it and make a lot of money. I just was not able to.

So, returning to my initial interpretation, what you are saying is that unless an enduser is able and willing to spend substantial amounts on content and SEO, they would be better off hand-regging a domain for their business - in your opinion?

Not trying to put words in your mouth; these are questions I have been pondering myself.

 

[biggie]

But he is dropping a minor bombshell in saying there is no point in developing valuable domains because they will never earn back the money spent on acquiring them. If endusers were to take that literally, there would be no secondary market for domain sales. Wearing his enduser hat Borgos actually says that he prefers hand regging domains for his developing projects, and he appears to know what he is talking about as far as development is concerned.

This is exactly the opposite of what e.g. Silver, Schwartz and Linton say every day, which makes it so interesting.:imho:

:talk:

Hi

you really need to stop reading these folks blogs!


I mean, if you can't read these opinions, without taking every single spew literally....then you'll be forever confused.



with all due respect them them, no mo-fo can say what an end-user will or won't do, or like.... before they make that choice.

fickle they are, just like us.

what works or doesn't work for one "persona" is not the determining factor or end consequence, for every other mo-fo down the line.


success and failure is not to be measured by a celebritys' results, but by your own.


live in your own world, find your own path.

imo...

 

[alien51]

with all due respect them them, no mo-fo can say what an end-user will or won't do, or like.... before they make that choice.

fickle they are, just like us.

what works or doesn't work for one "persona" is not the determining factor or end consequence, for every other mo-fo down the line.

It's just an opinion. I'm not sure why you are on fire.

 

[Havela]

you really need to stop reading these folks blogs!

I mean, if you can't read these opinions, without taking every single spew literally....

It's just an interesting topic for discussion, that's all. This is the forum for domain name discussions, right? Isn't it refreshing with something else than the eternal newbie 'I've regged mygoddawfuldomainforyou.wf - where can I sell it yesterday at a fantastic price?' thread?:hearts:

Borgos came across as intelligent, experienced and - not least - an original thinker. Refreshing with a different voice imo. I shall start reading his blog regularly anyway. Not by that inferring that he possesses the eternal truth or anything.

 

[freedom30]

Borgos came across as intelligent, experienced and - not least - an original thinker. Refreshing with a different voice imo. I shall start reading his blog regularly anyway. Not by that inferring that he possesses the eternal truth or anything.

...as will I start reading his articles. It's refreshing and also called balance and is something that is sorely needed in the realm of the domainer sages that we have been expected to gaze upon in awe and wonderment...