sales Sneaky End Users

[DomainVP]

This is a good read on how a billionaire recently acquired his .COM last name.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...domain-name/MF3veqsySCvjORzl4RfrUM/story.html

"A day later, spokeswoman Justine Griffin confirmed that she bought the domain name on Arthur T.’s behalf. She declined to discuss the price, or whether an official website is finally in the works."

 

[baseballworld]

I can shed some light on this for everyone. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. That's just how any sales go. Ones mans trash is another mans treasure.

 

[alien51]

I own many firstname, lastname, and firstnamelastname domains in my portfolio. From my experience, humans are very fond of using their own names as their "branding name" for their business. Whether it's a barbershop, a restaurant, or a consulting firm, they love to use their names. I have built many customer websites using names of people. It's very brandable.

And speaking of "brandable", it goes without saying that it would be very costly to speculate whether any human with the same name, will actually launch a business bearing his own name.

From a UDRP standpoint, sitting on domains named after famous people (just like what the guy in this article above did), will perhaps limit your negotiation to below the cost of a UDRP filing fee. So perhaps you can target the names of the board members who are not that famous anyway. But then again, they may not have any use for domain names, especially from a Domainer who is asking for boatloads of money.

I don't think any rich and famous, would make himself known, and cause price tags to rise tenfold. So it's not really "sneaky". It's the right thing to do to remain incognito, until the transaction is complete.

 

[Chris Wright]

There will always be a fair share of bad players and shady games, but that doesn't have to define domaining.

Actually, a certain percentage of humans are shady. Therefore, shady practices are happening in every kind of business.

I've been able to meet a lot of high-level business people, and domainers are some of the best.

I'm not counting the clueless spaminator noobs. They need to be educated or ostracized.

 

[baseballworld]

I own a few domains of my own based on my name. I find using a first or last name with the term of what your business or hobby is about makes it feel not only more personal but has some pride and confidence to it as well.

 

[discobull]

because great business people know that a good business is one in which you offer a product or service that you yourself would buy at that price.

I'm a domain reseller. If I sold domains for the same amount that I was willing to pay, I'm not sure how I could make a profit.

 

[DomainVP]

Worth is just a perception.

How much was Google.com worth as a domain before Google came about... reg fee junk.

However let's say Google.com was taken and they operated on GoogleInc.com for many years.

How much is that domain worth now? A lot.

The same lends to be said about awesome generic products or brand names that people have 'ideas' for, but their matching .COM domain is taken. I bet the owner of HotWire.com was thinking 'car products', and not a massive vacation and travel business when they registered it.

I know the analogy is a bit tired, but domains are real estate; to build on something great, it might cost you some money to acquire it from the current registrant.

If someone wants to buy a domain from me, that takes away all potential earning power that the name could ever earn me as a developed property. That's why names are so expensive... it's not just about 'real estate' its about intellectual property and future potential earnings.

So next time you want to go into a diatribe about how domains are 'worthless' @domaincandy , think about how much you would sell a short brandable domain that you had business plans for, and what it would cost you to purchase a similar name that is likely registered.

 

[alien51]

If someone wants to buy a domain from me, that takes away all potential earning power that the name could ever earn me as a developed property. That's why names are so expensive...

Seriously, many domainers do not really have any "future plans" for development on the domains they own. They are just sitting on the domains, waiting for a buyer.

Maybe you have development plans for your own domains. So it is your own personal view. Others do not have any plans or whatsoever.

I use that alibi for myself. When someone asks me why my domain is expensive, i usually concoct this story that i have "future development plans" on the domain, and that if i sell the domain to him, i will be deprived of "potential" revenue. It's a good "believable" story that makes sense if you think about it. It gives the buyer a comforting feeling that i am not pulling a fast one on him.

But the truth is, i really do not have any development plans for the domain at the time. I was just keeping it in my backburner because "maybe i would need it someday" sort of thing.

 

[DomainVP]

Maybe you have development plans for your own domains. So it is your own personal view. Others do not have any plans or whatsoever.

I agree, I know a lot of domain investors don't intend to develop anything on their names; but maybe this year consider doing so.

I am working on a project right now with a 10 year old aged domain that has 50k+ exact match searches for the keyword.

Ranking on Google is not cheap, nor is it as easy as it used to be. After the first month of pre-launch and development, all of the search engines have indexed my site in the top 3 results for the keyword... but not our good friend Google, google has the main page indexed on page three of SERP.

But back onto the topic at hand...

One name I own is a product that has 200k+ monthly searches, and absolutely no TM. If someone approached me with an offer for the name, I would expect no less than six figures; because I know I could build a business on that name that would generate a huge amount of money.

That's the next project; one brick in the wall at a time.

Every name I own truly has a project intended. I know it's a line that owners tell interested parties in order to raise offers; but consider next time you sell an exact match domain name that your own development of that name could be worth more than just selling it.

Unless it's a brandable, then it's just someone who really wants their shortest vanity domain.

Good luck with your sales this year; I think it's going to be a good one for us all.

 

[alien51]

One name I own is a product that has 200k+ monthly searches, and absolutely no TM. If someone approached me with an offer for the name, I would expect no less than six figures

This "monthly search" parameter in relation to domain value, is actually a highly disputed issue even from seasoned domainers, based on threads i've read here at NP in the past. Monthly search value, does not necessarily translate to traffic. We all know that we make money from traffic. So unless the search value translates to traffic, a website owner can instead spend far less to get traffic somewhere else than spend 6-figures buying the domain.

And take note that a website needs to generate 6-figures profit to breakeven on its expense of buying such an expensive domain.

If i were to spend 6-figures on a domain, i would probably do so more on the basis of the "branding" quality of the name. Its uniqueness in terms of building an "identity" that customers can associate my business with.

And also, if i am a business that is generating a 6-figure profit, i would definitely be shooting for a domain that i can TRADEMARK. If the domain cannot be trademarked, then such a domain is just an expensive redirector or doorway.

A domain cannot redirect a monthly search value. It can only redirect real traffic. And based from my user experience, people are not too receptive about doorway domains. They get suspicious when they get redirected somewhere else. And when they are suspicious, they are less likely to type-in their credit card number.

 

[DomainVP]

As an SEO professional and developer, SV metrics aren't really that cloudy/debatable.

You take the SV metric and expect 30% of that value to translate itnto actual traffic if you are at the top 3 rankings of SERP. That applies to high comp keywords; the less the competition the greater the CTR. Running an ad along side your organic position will also increase your CTR, but will of course increase your overhead.

I usually apply that to every project, and anything above 30% CTR is a gift. Expect the worst, plan for the best as they say.

So even with a 200k sv, 30% CTR, and a 5% sales conversion of that traffic at $19.95 each; you are talking about net of $60k USD monthly.

Which is why I am going to rank and develop it, instead of selling it.

 

[alien51]

But you are talking about "content"-based metrics. This is just a "bare" domain name.

If i pay 5-figures to a SEO specialist to rank my "brandable" domain with solid content and product, would i get beaten by just a bare domain name that is worth 6-figures by itself with lousy content ?

That means, if i buy a domain worth 6-figures, i would still need to pay 5-figures to a SEO specialist to get it to rank on top.

From my experience, i get beaten by domains like Lulu or Hauzz evenif my domains are generic with high monthly searches.

So in my opinion, the "value" of the "keyword" domain matching the "search term" is quite overblown and overrated. I could have spent a much, much smaller amount of money on SEO by itself and just pick-up a 4-figure domain name in the aftermarket.

 

[domainhacks-931385]

Why was my post deleted? I just got the alert. Nice Censorship. Let's recap the post:

pumpkinpiesavorthemoments.com
poinsettiasettingambience.com
panettonefruityfluffy.com
turronflavorsavoryingrock.com

These all have 50K buy now prices. This is what @domaincandy was trying to say. This person is hoping a "sucker" will click the buy now button. None of these domains are worth 0.01 and were registered for the 1st time last month!

So the point is that the majority of sellers are not like this, but there are some of them.