question How useful is Estibot?

[greatescape]

I am thinking to get a $49 /month subscription to Estibot. But I wonder how useful Estibot is.
My questions;

- Are the appraisals reliable?
- Is the appraised domain drop list any good, do you use it a lot?

And, the most important question:

- How good is Estibot's ''end buyer leads'' feature, where it automatically searches for possible buyers for your domains? Have you had any success with this feature?

Thank you in advance

 

[greatescape]

Anyone?

 

[Asfas1000]

I was a subscriber to Estibot for around 18 months.

Compared to other automated appraisal tools, Estibot is by far the most complete and comprehensive software that exists right now. As a developer with speciality in AI, I believe it would be very difficult to build a tool to outperform Estibot.

That said, it is by no means a good appraiser, if you compare it with a veteran domainer. A computer software is by its very nature quite limited. Its valuations are based on past sales, search volumes, CPC and other metrics, and *anyone* based solely on those factors is unlikely to make accurate appraisals. Whereas an experienced domain investor will take into account a hundred more factors, and his life experience - which can not be quantified and used by a software.

Estibot fails miserably on most brandable domains (since the typical metrics like search voulme are irrelevant for brandables) and it used to mis-evaluate .ORG's (not sure what happens now, the last year .ORG and .NET took a hit). It has other shortcomings too, but I won't go too deep.

The appraised drop list is as good as the appraisals. Since it is not practical for a domainer to do a one-by-one appraisal on thousands of dropping domains, Estibot offers a shortcut. Then it's up to you to decide which domains you're going after.

Now about the end-user feature, I have used it a few times, sadly it wasn't of too much help. Several advertisers were out of business (so I guess the data must have been old) and I believe a simple Google search is better (1-2 first pages).

If you are just starting out, Estibot will likely help you. When you feel more confident, you can ditch it :D

 

[Templr]

I ditched it, you can find free tools online or hacks that estibot provides at subscription.


I never used estibot for pricing, the system is not evidence based. Just look at the category the domain is categorised in for a start.

 

[33S]

A noob question: if estibot shows valuation of a few hundred bucks for a phrase in .com, does this mean the phrase is searched by people?

 

[Asfas1000]

A noob question: if estibot shows valuation of a few hundred bucks for a phrase in .com, does this mean the phrase is searched by people?

Not necessarily..you can determine if the phrase is searched by checking the search volume. Also type it in Google and see how many results come up.

 

[33S]

Not necessarily..you can determine if the phrase is searched by checking the search volume. Also type it in Google and see how many results come up.

what are the best tools to determine search volume?

 

[NameClerk]

I wouldn't suggest putting a lot of weight into Estibot's appraisals but it's fantastic for a variety of other reasons. It's great for reducing a list of 2,500 domains down to a list of the 200-300 that are worth looking at. Time is money.

 

[Asfas1000]

I wouldn't suggest putting a lot of weight into Estibot's appraisals but it's fantastic for a variety of other reasons. It's great for reducing a list of 2,500 domains down to a list of the 200-300 that are worth looking at. Time is money

Exactly my thoughts.

what are the best tools to determine search volume?

Google keyword planner. Estibot also provides this information.

 

[TopShelf Domains]

Found this the other day

appraise.epik.com/index

Read that it uses estibot's algorithm.

Really it comes down to how much a person is willing to spend on your domain. How many potential business related customers, monthly keyword searches, competition, suggested bid in google keyword planner, visual appeal, trends, and many more.

 

[DomainVP]

Automated appraisals don't mean a single thing in domaining - don't use them and don't pay for them,.

 

[JB Lions]

I just noticed today, they're being used in Namejet auctions. For example - http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=SaveVids.com

Estibot Valuation: < $100 USD Click for more information

 

[cocaseco]

The entire set of tools at Estibot are very useful. Estibot is way more than just the estimator.

 

[DomainVP]

I just noticed today, they're being used in Namejet auctions. For example - http://www.namejet.com/Pages/Auctions/BackorderDetails.aspx?domainname=SaveVids.com

Estibot Valuation: < $100 USD Click for more information

Lol, thats perfect! 15 bidders at the table, a minimum of $69 USD to start, and Estibot is telling people it's a domain less than $100 USD.

What a mess.

 

[Kate]

I saw that too. Ridiculous. Do they really think people will increase their bids thanks to crazy valuations ?

 

[sin]

worthless really, I just don't see the point, since it has such little chance of being close to accurate.
imo

 

[RU]

http://www.domaininvesting.com/like-valuate-com-estibot/

 

[Paul123]

I have used valuate.com in the past. The valuations are the same as Esibot. For a hobby domainer like me it is perfect because of the cost. I paid a one off fee of $20 and can use it to value 20 domains per day.

You will though get a more realistic valuation by using gut instinct and tools such as keywords and namebio.

Best,
Paul

 

[james haw]

I wonder how useful Estibot is

It's not consistently accurate, and the inconsistency makes it next to useless as you can't even use it as a basic "rough" guide as you have no idea if the evaluation is close or entirely unrealistic.

It's arguably "impossible" for a machine (scripts & algorithms) to determine what a domain name is worth, as often the relevant parameters are unique to an individual domain, and often (nearly always for anything over $xxx) it's required to evaluate with manual intervention with human experience and knowledge.
In fact, often it's specific market trends which can alter a domain's value, which can fluctuate from one week/month to the next, so cannot be pre-programmed.

Which is why companies charge good money for appraisals as there are manual investigations performed based on each domain specifics.
Is a 3 word domain better than a single word domain? If all other things considered are equal (backlinks, PR, age, etc) then "in general" yes, but in practice this is not the case. It depends on the 4 words, what similar sold recently, etc etc.


Here's an interesting thing to consider, when you put "estibot.com" into Estibot, it returns
$0 USD

(It's probably hard coded to do that)

 

[SupNames]

Im an Estibot user, and have been for over a year. Estibot 's valuations are not something you should take seriously. That having been said, the other tools they have are great, and save me a ton of time and effort. Support is very good too.