Good keyword with bad extension: worth it?

[ingridk]

hey guys
well,i want to know if worth if i buy an domain already registered in top tdls,in an bad extension..
example:

Freehoroscope.com has sold by $xxxxxx
would worth if i buy Freehoroscope.cc ? or Freehoroscope.se or Freehoroscope.whatever ? ( they are registered,its only an example)
byebye

 

[Spade]

Personally, I wouldnt. You'll need to not only research the keyword sales history, but also the ccTLD's sales history. How well does it sell? if at all? I think in most cases you'll find the answer is no.

Justin

 

[sashas]

I'll go with Spade on this one. Liquidity of your portfolio is vital, and obscure extensions don't provide that.

 

[Spade]

Liquidity of your portfolio is vital

Agreed!

 

[DNabc]

Sometimes you do get lucky, but if you don't want to wait some time for the right buyer...

 

[Krossat]

Well what i would say is consider the following if you do wish to go for domain + bad ext:

1. Get GOOD single keywords
2. Go for cheaper extensions which have low renewals.
3. Keep your price markup as low as 15-40% depending on the keyword you use.
4. Develop a small minisite for the idea you wish to present to the buyer.

Wel personally, I only go for cctlds when i wish to keep single keywords as collections rather than small term flips.

 

[ingridk]

thanks everybody,but and if is a great keyword like business,furniture,money,porn with an bad extension,still kills the value of the domain?
i see that flowers.cc is for sale at sedo by $5K,and as i know,.cc is a bad extension,and flowers isnt a sooooo strong keyword..

 

[randomo]

thanks everybody,but and if is a great keyword like business,furniture,money,porn with an bad extension,still kills the value of the domain?
i see that flowers.cc is for sale at sedo by $5K,and as i know,.cc is a bad extension,and flowers isnt a sooooo strong keyword..

People can list domains for any price they want. That doesn't mean a buyer will pay it.

I have sold about 70 .cc's, averaging 2x reg fee; that's some profit, but not very much, considering the time it takes to buy and sell. I have also sold a few .sc's & done much better, largely because an end-user found me and bought one.

So, while I think it is worth diversifying your portfolio with some strong keywords in non-premium extensions, don't make it the main part of your domain strategy.

 

[-REECE-]

thanks everybody,but and if is a great keyword like business,furniture,money,porn with an bad extension,still kills the value of the domain?
i see that flowers.cc is for sale at sedo by $5K,and as i know,.cc is a bad extension,and flowers isnt a sooooo strong keyword..

flowers is an extremely strong keyword (very frequently searched for, very high PPC, very high profits for businesses).

To answer your question.. I think sex.anything is worth the regfee, as is porn.anything, provided the regfee isn't something crazy. If you can get sex/porn.anything for less than $50 annually, I'd say it's worth it. A few more names fall into that... Business.anything would be good as well, I'd stay away from furniture though. You need extremely strong keywords to make any profit (or even see your money back) on these third tier extensions.

 

[floatingworld]

Reece and Krossat between them are about right but I would also ask the question re any keyword name 1 extension at a time. My most visited name is a .biz but .biz is a lot cheaper than .cc...... I now only have 1 'trophy' .cc but a number of 'trophy' .biz names

 

[goodkarmaco]

I agree with Reece

 

[tpruby]

Being very new, I must say that I completely disagree with alot of the experienced domainers feeling toward lesser tld`s and STRONG keywords.

This popular opinion being expressed would have to be applied to .de .co.uk and .ca....which are excellent country tld`s. I know that none of you would claim that these are nearly worthless lesser tld`s....which means that there are many exceptions.

Meaning, if some markets have taken off presently, for example, who is to say that the .in market doesn`t explode in 15 years time once internet use increases in India and in South East AsiaÉ

Then will we all look back and say `I wish I had bought a handful of premium generics for reg fee`.

I have to ask myself, why would domain investing be any different than any other type of investing. In that investments are more likely to grow over the long term, rather than the short term.

Secondly, speculative markets, high risk comes high reward. I think it is far better to invest in a generic premium word with a lesser tld, than to try and hand reg a .com that makes very little sense.

Has anyone not noticed that the quality of hand regged .com`s in the appraisal section are sometimes absolutely terrible?

I only have to look at the .ca, .co.uk and .de markets to tell me that there is significant success in lesser tld markets.

I'd rather look back in 10 years and be able to say that I invested in a speculative market and lost a manageable amount of money, rather than be in a position to say " I could have, but didn't and lost out completely."

Time will tell.

imho

 

[Krossat]

Well i can say this myself "Why not go for .VG single words dictionary" After all in another 50 years domains demand would definitely go up and they are sure to pick up value and my grand grand children would be a happy lot.

15 Years? You are ready to wait that long with a dead insvestment to pickup???

Being very new, I must say that I completely disagree with alot of the experienced domainers feeling toward lesser tld`s and STRONG keywords.

This popular opinion being expressed would have to be applied to .de .co.uk and .ca....which are excellent country tld`s. I know that none of you would claim that these are nearly worthless lesser tld`s....which means that there are many exceptions.

Meaning, if some markets have taken off presently, who is to say that the .in market doesn`t explode in 15 yearsÉ

Then will we all look back and say `I wish I had bought a handful of premium generics for reg feeÉ`

Time will tell.

imho

 

[-REECE-]

Being very new, I must say that I completely disagree with alot of the experienced domainers feeling toward lesser tld`s and STRONG keywords.

This popular opinion being expressed would have to be applied to .de .co.uk and .ca....which are excellent country tld`s. I know that none of you would claim that these are nearly worthless lesser tld`s....which means that there are many exceptions.

Meaning, if some markets have taken off presently, who is to say that the .in market doesn`t explode in 15 yearsÉ

Then will we all look back and say `I wish I had bought a handful of premium generics for reg feeÉ`

Time will tell.

imho

.ca, .de, .co.uk are cctld for large countries with huge amounts of e-commerce. There's a big difference between .ca and .cc.. .cc really means nothing to 99.99999% of people out there. In Canada, .ca awareness is probably above 50% - among non-domainers. In contrast, .cc really has zero awareness outside domaining circles.

.in might be worth looking into -- it represents a big country afterall. But .sc, .cc, .vg, ... are not worth the time or effort.

If I've learned anything in my 8 years in the biz, it's that it takes 2 things nowadays to be successful with domains... 1. money 2. taking risks -- preferably calculated ones.

A well-thought out investment in .in is a calculated risk, putting all your money in .cc isn't. There's a difference between being a speculative investor and a lottery ticket buyer, and lots of newbies seem to liken domaining to buying lottery tickets when they should be likening them to hedge funds or the stock market. It's possible to make alot of money with very little risk, it's also possible to lose alot of money.. And if you buy a bunch of .cc's with the hope that 15 years down the road they might be a goldmine, I'm afraid you'll be very disappointed.

My 2 Canadian cents

edit: In response to your edit -- I'm with you there and that's why I chose to invest in .mobi and LLLL.coms. I've missed enough opportunities in my life (both in domaining and in stocks) for 10 lifetimes being too cautious.. Trying not to lose what little money I do have, rather than chancing it for greatness. Spread it out over several speculative investments to minimize the risk. This is obviously still far more risky (and I'd never normally give this advice to anyone,...) than safer investments like LLL's, but presents an opportunity for real growth.

If .asia, .in, .mobi, LLLL.coms, L-L-L.coms, CVCV.coms, CVCV.nets, etc really took off, you could certainly make a much larger return than the measly 60% you can likely expect on a LLL.com.. But I'm about 100% sure that if you look back on this thread in 1-2 years time, some of the folks who chose to invest in some of the more speculative markets mentioned above will be very disappointed with the negative returns they've encountered.

 

[tpruby]

Well i can say this myself "Why not go for .VG single words dictionary" After all in another 50 years domains demand would definitely go up and they are sure to pick up value and my grand grand children would be a happy lot.

15 Years? You are ready to wait that long with a dead insvestment to pickup???

Would you have traded your McDonalds stock the first year back in 1967? Then chastised others for holding onto a dead investment in something called ' fast food'.

Why would I treat domaining any different than my mutual funds, which are invested with a 30 year time horizon?

I dabble, the money I lose, I can afford to lose and I don't want to lose money. I only need to make a few dollars a day parking to break even...

 

[Krossat]

.ca, .de, .co.uk are cctld for large countries with huge amounts of e-commerce. There's a big difference between .ca and .cc.. .cc really means nothing to 99.99999% of people out there. In Canada, .ca awareness is probably above 50% - among non-domainers. In contrast, .cc really has zero awareness outside domaining circles.

.in might be worth looking into -- it represents a big country afterall. But .sc, .cc, .vg, ... are not worth the time or effort.

If I've learned anything in my 8 years in the biz, it's that it takes 2 things nowadays to be successful with domains... 1. money 2. taking risks -- preferably calculated ones.

A well-thought out investment in .in is a calculated risk, putting all your money in .cc isn't. There's a difference between being a speculative investor and a lottery ticket buyer, and lots of newbies seem to liken doamining to buying lottery tickets when they should be likening them to hedge funds or the stock market. It's possible to make alot of money with very little risk, it's also possible to lose alot of money.. And if you buy a bunch of .cc's with the hope that 15 years down the road they might be a goldmine, I'm afraid you'll be very disappointed.

My 2 Canadian cents

Those two canadian cents were worth a million !

Quite rightly, buying domains which you have actually speculated that they would grow in value, BASED ON SOME calculable evidence is what constitues "good domaining" imo, as what i have been getting from more experienced domainers.

Speculate based on evidence. If you see a trend going on, you can outrun others and perhaps invest a few months prior to selling and reaping profits.
Or you could invest a good amount in some premiums and wait on them. Premiums would only increase in value, you have to sit them out depending on how much tiem you can afford to do so.

Personally, i buy to see the value appreciating only as much as to better the quality of my domains. then i flip them fot the next best thing. Its more hard work but faster returns (even fi they are much smaller than long term); this way i get constant reassurance of my business by earning regular profits and i actually gain in experience.

Thats why i said IF you wish to buy ccTLDs get good keywords and cheaper renewals. That way you can renew easily and can probably wait on a few domains.

Kross

Would you have traded your McDonalds stock the first year back in 1967? Then chastised others for holding onto a dead investment in something called ' fast food'.

Why would I treat domaining any different than my mutual funds, which are invested with a 30 year time horizon?

I dabble, the money I lose, I can afford to lose and I don't want to lose money. I only need to make a few dollars a day parking to break even...

The McDonalds stock is one of the other few thousand, these few thousand also constitue most that "didnt make it". The ones that went into oblivion.

Dont talk about the successes only. I would rather not sit 15 years to find out all this money i wasted went down the drain for nothing, than the other way round.

I would rather sit on a premuim $3xxx .com domain which renews at 7.17 and sit on it a 15 years. That way i know that it is already 420 times what i pay for early; and i would damn well know it would be multiples of what i paid for now. I'd get a premium com. I wouldnt gamble that way, i would actually "invest" safely.

 

[tpruby]

I would rather sit on a premuim $3xxx .com domain which renews at 7.17 and sit on it a 15 years. That way i know that it is already 420 times what i pay for early; and i would damn well know it would be multiples of what i paid for now. I'd get a premium com. I wouldnt gamble that way, i would actually "invest" safely.

Then quite simply, I am to understand that you are appear to be a conservative investor with a low tolerance for risk.

 

[Kate]

If you are looking for domains as an investment then you will definitely want to avoid exotic TLDs.
As said above, liquidity of your portfolio is important. Exotic TLDs are hard to sell and the reg fees are typically higher than .com for example. Most of the time you will be lucky if you get the reg fee back.

If I set up a store downtown with a domain like furniture.vg or furniture.io I would get the second degree every time. No self-respecting business wants to trade under a name that arouses confusion or suspicion. A strong keyword with a weak extensions is still a weak name.

 

[Krossat]

Then quite simply, I am to understand that you are appear to be a conservative investor with a low tolerance for risk.

Well if i remember i right, i said IF i have to invest long time i would rather take a better .com as the potential to bear fruit would be more. Yes i prefer lesser risks where possible, in long term investments.

For higher risk business, i choose too have a smaller turnaround time; that way i can balance risk and potential profit gains on two fronts

 

[sashas]

Here's my thing:

There's room for conservativeness, and there's room for risk.

As a domainer, what I would like to do is first create a portfolio of names that have a guaranteed value - LLL.com, LN.com, NL.com, LL.net, strong keyword .com, etc.
Why?
Because this way I know that if there's a hurricane next Tuesday and my house blows off in the storm, I will have something to back me up. This also means that SINCE I have a strong portfolio backing me up, I can afford to take risks; 10k spent in taking risks would equal selling one LLL.com

Risks are important, but I don't think thats the way to go right from the start. Unless you have a strong financial base, even taking risks becomes too risky. You don't want to spend every penny you have invested in .cc which takes an audacious amount of time to sell.

One thing that most people forget is liquidity. There are times when you need liquid cash to simply buy more names. For example, I'm selling one of my generic .net names right now for far below what it can fetch at an auction like Traffic. Why? Because I need the liquid cash to purchase some other names that are even better than the generic .net. You will find yourself in such situations at times, when a superb name is available for cheap, and at that time, you'll need the cash flow.

Btw, if you're talking about liquidity, nothing beats .com in that department.