- Impact
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Greetings. I am not a domainer but own around a dozen names for varying reasons. Among them are stripedbass .com, codfish .com and monkfish .com - I am the original owner of all three since 1996 - and I'd appreciate thoughts on their potential value in the event I were to try to sell them.
To help provide context I'll answer the applicable questions in the stickied guidelines for this forum.
Why did you buy the names?
Because I love fishing for striped bass and codfish and because the monkfish may be THE ugliest fish there is
... and in 1996, the names were available. Kind of on a whim, in other words. I have had varying ideas for developing web-based businesses around these names but never got around to doing any of that.
What market did you feel the name would be ideal for?
Today I'm thinking mainly fishing- or seafood-related businesses (online or brick/mortar), restaurants or other businesses with these names in them, or in the case of monkfish.com perhaps something more random - I mean, kayak.com is something of a stretch for a travel site ...
What research did you conduct prior to purchasing the domain?
None whatsoever.
Did you already have a value in mind you thought the domain might sell for?
I have checked free online appraisal tools at several points in the past few years and these tend to say mid five figures for stripedbass, low five figures for codfish and maybe a little more than a grand for monkfish (all USD). No idea how realistic any of that might be but these results have been pretty consistent across multiple tools over time.
Does the domain get any traffic? (Please provide screenshot proof)
As I'm new here I can't post links but:
- stripedbass: Currently a blank landing page; in the past I had a lightly maintained blog and some other content there, all low-traffic. In the past year this has averaged 1,500 unique visits/month.
- codfish: Over the years I've (again, lightly) maintained links to other resources having to do with codfish. This averages more than 3,000 uniques/month.
- monkfish: no content here for years other than a baseball photo. About 1,000 uniques/month.
Does the domain generate any revenue? (Please provide screenshot proof)
None presently for stripedbass or monkfish. I have a GoogleAds bar at codfish.com and the past few years Google has sent me a check for a little more than $100 about once a year. :kickass:
Is there anything else you can provide that might help an appraiser not familiar with your domains target market?
Striped bass are an extremely popular game fish in both salt and fresh water across large parts of the United States (particularly the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coast). See the "Striped bass" entry in Wikipedia to get a sense of their range and popularity.
Cod are an important food fish and historically significant, as their abundance helped lure early settlers to the American colonies. See the Cod entry in Wikipedia and Mark Kurlansky's book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. (1997, New York: Walker).
Not sure what else I can say about monkfish aside from them being ugly, ugly, ugly.
Is the domain Pronounceable?
All three are, yes. This may be particularly relevant for monkfish if it were to be used as a catchy brand name unrelated to fishing.
How many characters are in the domain?
stripedbass = 11, codfish = 7, monkfish = 8
Is the domain a dictionary word?
"stripedbass" is a combination of two dictionary words. "codfish" and "monkfish" are dictionary words. All English language.
(Development questions)
As noted, these domains have had limited development, never anything very serious (though it's all original content). One question I have is whether I might increase the value by doing some basic development, at least to improve traffic counts.
What are the top competing sites for this domain?
"Striped-bass .com" is an apparently active forum for people who fish for stripers. "Stripersonline .com" is another, and there are numerous other variations. I'm not sure there's much potential in developing my domain into yet another discussion forum. Not sure there is "competition" to speak of for codfish and monkfish.
What is the Alexa score?
stripedbass - no rank currently
codfish - 13,916,757 (As an aside, my domain comes up as the second hit for "codfish" and "cod fish" in Google, behind only the Wiki page. It's lower in searches for "cod" because that is an acronym for many things including Call of Duty.)
monkfish - 22,032,672
Is this domain a Trademark (TM)?
None of them are.
Is this domain a trend that has a limited window of opportunity?
No
Is the domain taken in other top extensions?
All three are taken in .net and .org
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice!
To help provide context I'll answer the applicable questions in the stickied guidelines for this forum.
Why did you buy the names?
Because I love fishing for striped bass and codfish and because the monkfish may be THE ugliest fish there is
... and in 1996, the names were available. Kind of on a whim, in other words. I have had varying ideas for developing web-based businesses around these names but never got around to doing any of that.What market did you feel the name would be ideal for?
Today I'm thinking mainly fishing- or seafood-related businesses (online or brick/mortar), restaurants or other businesses with these names in them, or in the case of monkfish.com perhaps something more random - I mean, kayak.com is something of a stretch for a travel site ...
What research did you conduct prior to purchasing the domain?
None whatsoever.
Did you already have a value in mind you thought the domain might sell for?
I have checked free online appraisal tools at several points in the past few years and these tend to say mid five figures for stripedbass, low five figures for codfish and maybe a little more than a grand for monkfish (all USD). No idea how realistic any of that might be but these results have been pretty consistent across multiple tools over time.
Does the domain get any traffic? (Please provide screenshot proof)
As I'm new here I can't post links but:
- stripedbass: Currently a blank landing page; in the past I had a lightly maintained blog and some other content there, all low-traffic. In the past year this has averaged 1,500 unique visits/month.
- codfish: Over the years I've (again, lightly) maintained links to other resources having to do with codfish. This averages more than 3,000 uniques/month.
- monkfish: no content here for years other than a baseball photo. About 1,000 uniques/month.
Does the domain generate any revenue? (Please provide screenshot proof)
None presently for stripedbass or monkfish. I have a GoogleAds bar at codfish.com and the past few years Google has sent me a check for a little more than $100 about once a year. :kickass:
Is there anything else you can provide that might help an appraiser not familiar with your domains target market?
Striped bass are an extremely popular game fish in both salt and fresh water across large parts of the United States (particularly the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic coast). See the "Striped bass" entry in Wikipedia to get a sense of their range and popularity.
Cod are an important food fish and historically significant, as their abundance helped lure early settlers to the American colonies. See the Cod entry in Wikipedia and Mark Kurlansky's book Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. (1997, New York: Walker).
Not sure what else I can say about monkfish aside from them being ugly, ugly, ugly.
Is the domain Pronounceable?
All three are, yes. This may be particularly relevant for monkfish if it were to be used as a catchy brand name unrelated to fishing.
How many characters are in the domain?
stripedbass = 11, codfish = 7, monkfish = 8
Is the domain a dictionary word?
"stripedbass" is a combination of two dictionary words. "codfish" and "monkfish" are dictionary words. All English language.
(Development questions)
As noted, these domains have had limited development, never anything very serious (though it's all original content). One question I have is whether I might increase the value by doing some basic development, at least to improve traffic counts.
What are the top competing sites for this domain?
"Striped-bass .com" is an apparently active forum for people who fish for stripers. "Stripersonline .com" is another, and there are numerous other variations. I'm not sure there's much potential in developing my domain into yet another discussion forum. Not sure there is "competition" to speak of for codfish and monkfish.
What is the Alexa score?
stripedbass - no rank currently
codfish - 13,916,757 (As an aside, my domain comes up as the second hit for "codfish" and "cod fish" in Google, behind only the Wiki page. It's lower in searches for "cod" because that is an acronym for many things including Call of Duty.)
monkfish - 22,032,672
Is this domain a Trademark (TM)?
None of them are.
Is this domain a trend that has a limited window of opportunity?
No
Is the domain taken in other top extensions?
All three are taken in .net and .org
Thanks in advance for any thoughts and advice!
