discuss Estibot is a failure, why do domainers insist on using it?

[jamesosix]

Seriously, its such a flawed piece of software and yet all i see in domain circles is "estibot this" and "estibot that"

Why do domainers insist on telling other domainers what esitbot apprises something at? It is actually starting to make me question whether a particular domainer is serious or not.

I'm going to start saying "my folks appraised this at xxxxxxxxxx value, because they probably have a better insight to a domains value versus estibot!!

Is it just me that feels this way?

I say we should start considering NOT using estibot EVER because it is full of s***.

Discuss.

 

[dbdomains]

You seem to be passionate about this.

Yes - as a value estimation tool, it leaves a lot to be desired. But it doesn't only provide value estimates, as I recall. I am talking about the estibot site, not just the appraisal tool.

It has helped me quickly see related domains for sale, related sales and their dates and prices, and it used to have fairly accurate Google search numbers. It also used to show the ads/advertisers who were targeting the domain keyword, but now I believe that is a pay feature. These things have helped me to determine the value I would put on a domain I own or I want to purchase. I have not used estibot in a long time as I have since found other tools that I like to use better.

I agree with you about the valuations. From my perspective, I would not rely on estibot's valuation feature.

@dbdomains
How is Estibot a tool?...I still don't understand...yes it can be a tool with regards to marketing to an end user who doesn't know any better but it is not a tool in it's own right! If you have sold for 20% of it's valuation to several hundred times then it's obviously worthless for the job it is intended for.

Please explain in just one example how it has assisted you through it's valuation in either pricing/valuing or selling a domain in any way other than to an uninitiated end user whose spending his/her companies money.

 

[dbdomains]

@dbdomains - What valuation tools do you like better?

I don't really like any of the few that I have tried. When I buy domains, I do my own research. I look at past related sales. I to some Google keyword and trends research to see how many people are searching for the keyword(s). I search for the keywords in Google and Bing and look and see how many ads come up from what advertisers. I visit sites about related topics and try to see how active the communities are. If it's eCommerce related, I try to determine overall market size, how many people want to buy related products on line, etc. I run it through my own recall and "radio" tests. I do a lot of the stuff that many investors on this board do. I have tried domainindex also and it has flaws too.

 

[Kate]

What is unfortunate, is that many newbies buy their first domains and build a portfolio based upon estibot appraisals. They end up with a pile of junk that won't sell.

In fact you can punch pretty much any domain into estibot, even oddballs extensions with no established market, and it will almost always be appraised at regfee at a minimum. It's like, you have nothing to lose, no matter what you register.

 

[Firmjudge]

Truly estibot free services to "some extent" is a Joke when it comes to domain name appraisal and traffic index.

But we can not completely overrule its paid services as it offer some vital hint that makes one feel consoled to employ it services.

BTW, you shouldnt have thrown the deal away as domain appraisal is a must do task for all potential domain buyer prolly you were lazy then or you were not interested.

Also inform this forum how to correctly apprais a domain apart from google keyword and adword.

 

[DomainVP]

I stay away from 'valuations' all together. A domain is worth what someone will pay for it, and what the owner is willing to sell it for. If I owned TheWorstDomainEver.com and I was approached for 'pricing' the conversation would eventually lead me to suggesting xx,xxx for the price.

If they say no, then so be it... but if they say YES then it's a successful transaction. The upside of xx,xxx far outweighs a sale of a few hundred dollars. It's a risk I take, and I will either prosper or fail with it.

If you read the sales charts, there are many domains on there that are would be 'appraised' for $xxx selling for five figures.

If you are a domainer and I am familiar with you, then we can discuss reasonable prices to part with assets. When people eMail me out of the blue, to me, they are an end user trying to gain possession of my property under the guise of a 'teacher' or 'domainer' or some other fabricated story.

As for Estibot itself, it's for inexperienced domain owners. There are millions of domains out there, and most of them are owned by people that are inexperienced and are looking for some kind of valuation. It helps when you are going to sell a domain to an inexperienced buyer (morality ?), but other than that it's just a nice website with meaningless stats on it.

 

[vicky4712]

Seriously, its such a flawed piece of software and yet all i see in domain circles is "estibot this" and "estibot that"

Why do domainers insist on telling other domainers what esitbot apprises something at? It is actually starting to make me question whether a particular domainer is serious or not.

I'm going to start saying "my folks appraised this at xxxxxxxxxx value, because they probably have a better insight to a domains value versus estibot!!

Is it just me that feels this way?

I say we should start considering NOT using estibot EVER because it is full of s***.

Discuss.

I think estibot is a quite useful tool ,since you get an insight about the value of your domain name.There might be some flaws in estibot,but still it gives you a rough idea about the price of the domain in marketplace.But in the end it doesn't mean the domain has to sell for that price.Lot of domains with low estibot price have been sold for a huge amount in the recent past. The seller should be expert enough or have the skill to determine the value of the domain names for which the domain would be sold.If someone really likes and want to acquire a domain name they're going to buy it if they can afford it.

 

[elevator]

Sure! but do you know that if you are not savy with what you are doing; the end user will get you cheap before you know it.
Estibot is just a software that says their makers feelings about certain keyword but it does not always represent general feelings of the real price of a particular domain. It based all her appraisals on previous sales of alikes domains or keywords. If I don't believe in something does not mean such tool is not good for other people, the only thing in virtual domain world is there are no known two equal domains, ever seen; it is unlike brick and physical world and this is why we may not have any accurate tools for appraisals. Even manual appraisals are done by comparizm of previous sales, keyword type, niche, ppc, cpc, age, and some other factors. IMHO. Cheers.

 

[jamesosix]

I think estibot is a quite useful tool ,since you get an insight about the value of your domain name.There might be some flaws in estibot,but still it gives you a rough idea about the price of the domain in marketplace....

No it doesn't.

People need to stop using the free service because it it is wildly inaccurate when it comes to appraising domains and any domainer who knows his stuff know estibot is a POS.

 

[Templr]

Personally, I don't use estibot or any generated system to value domains for many reasons.

So far, many have just mentioned the appraisal tool. But I would love to hear from ANYONE who is making $$ from the paid subscription productivity tools?

 

[S-B]

@ shane- tbh i am dissapointed you didnt counter offer. you acted emotionally which to me means you were not really serious about buying the name. Imo, ANYONE WHO IS SERIOUS OFFERS OR COUNTER OFFERS.

I did not act emotionally at all. I am not going to waste my time or his time by offering him what it's worth when he's pricing the domain $50,000 too high.

do u wanna win or be right?

I don't need to win when buying. The only time I need to win is when selling.

you didnt like his initial answer? well guess what? its called being "professional"- u suck it up.

Please don't insinuate that I was not professional. I will have "2 dig in2 u."

we all deal with low ballers everyday but we still have to see whats possible.

Not seeing how this is relevant at all.

ur a pro, so keep being a pro.

All day "errverday."

 

[verbster]

Seems to me many of you are placing unrealistic expectations on Estibot. It shouldn't be expected to do something that even domainers can't do very well. Even most domainers can't agree on an appraisal, let alone predict the selling price, two very different things.

For example (taken from dnjournal.com), who here would have appraised autism.rocks at $100,000? Does that mean a seller can now expect close to $100,000 for something like cancer.rocks?

Or how about the strangely spelled "catapault" (with only 77k google returns vs "catapult" with 13 million) that sold for $29K. Who would have appraised it for over $1000 or even $100?

Estibot shouldn't be expected to be accurate across the board because it has no capacity to be subjective. All it can do is look at the numbers available and run its algorithm. Given the dynamics of domaining, I'm amazed it gets close even part of the time.

Want to give it a real test? We could easily do that with people who are pretty sure of some upcoming sales.

 

[disaac81]

Do not really use it, although I see it may help some, depending on your purchase criteria.

 

[bytedo]

If you think Estibot is a joke, you never used another tool which name misses me now. Don't come across it anymore but used to come up on searches for domain appraisal a couple of years ago. If that tool gave your domain anything lower than a $1000k appraisal then you knew it was grace delete time.

Estibot is not just a domain appraisal utility, it has other data that could be useful. But to base the worth of a domain solely on it is folly indeed.

 

[RU]

I sold BitcoinExchange(.)info for $1k on NamePros. Estibot says $65. No more Estibot for me.

 

[Kate]

The valuations are especially crazy with new extensions, that have no established aftermarket. If only people did their homework.

 

[kemjika11]

What am abt to say might start world war 3 up in here but I have to say it.

It seems some people are in denial of estibots relevance or status in our industry. No one is saying live by estibot but you still have to acknowledge its presence and use of it validates it as a positive for the users and our industry. Also Its not really free...someone said that.

 

[Name Trader]

I use Estibot. It's valuations are cranky. But you get used to viewing those valuations thru the cranks But I do like the feature of which other tld's are available, without doing a registry search. It's not real-time but it's close enough for me. I also like that search stats they provide. Plus all those other tools they provide, which I use only rarely. I'm just saying that I am one domainer who uses them daily, but parse their valuations with a pinch of salt.

 

[rubencouto]

I use Estibot (through Valuate) to get a broad idea about frequency, searches, cpc, competition and estimated value. Of course it’s not accurate when compared with the actual sales. Estibot is not an end-user!!!

To help price my domains I also use DomainIndex, GoDaddy’s appraisal tool and past sales records at Namebio. And, even so, at the end of my calculations, I’m not sure if the domains are overpriced or underpriced. While the domains sit there at my showcase website, I’m pretty sure they are overpriced… Whenever I sell one, I tend to think it was underpriced…

 

[Dominic Belley]

I think Estibot should only be used as a reference and only for " keywords.com " domains.
No derived words and only .com !

 

[Omar Negron]

I've had domains estibot said were worth $x,xxx.

I couldn't get anyone to buy them at even $20. haha. Estibot is usually promoted on popular domain blogs to get that affiliate $$$, which is why it is highly "recognized" as the go to tool. A lot of their algorithm is based on CPC and ads I presume but a domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I had a domain that was valued at $0 according to Estibot and sold it for $xxx.

-Omar