Two Word Generics - How Easy to Evaluate and Sell?

[Krossat]

I started off my domaining with Two Word Generics i thought were great.
Registered and Bought some like TotalGain, ConceptNotes, UrbanBanks etc with a surety in mind that these would sell high when developed.

With time though, I've seen that the valuation of Generics from a Resellers perspective is not so easy. I havent seen a lot of sales in two word generics in between Resellers. This leads to a conclusion that if you dont have a perfect generic (which i feel should only be a handful per niche), it isnt easy selling them off (unless you do extensive marketing to end users). Sort of shakes my confidence to go ahead and register / buy more.

anyone else been in such a situation?
how do you valuate and sell your two word generics?

Thanks
Kross.

 

[sashas]

Here's my take on them:

Two word generics with good OVT that define a product or an industry, that can cover a market are really solid investments and sell for a good amount both in the reseller market and in with end users.
While Two worders WITHOUT OVT don't have much in the reseller market, they may sell to an end user, but the chances of that happening are quite low.

On the other hand, two worders WITH an OVT of above 2-3k and industry defining keywords, for example: BusinessGifts.com, USBDrives.com, etc. can sell for easy xxxx in the reseller market. I've seen such names regularly go for 10k+ at Traffic and other auctions. I place OVT as the key indicator of value here...for me, the OVT score must be over 4k, and more importantly, it must define the industry/product.

Research past sales...look up DNJ. There are always such names selling for xxxx.

 

[Krossat]

Thanks for the reply Sasha!!
Thats the exact thing.
USBDrives is top of the line generic for that particular niche. In fact i can see it going for low-mid xx,xxx easy.

But what about something like USBStore or USBData or USBDeals ? How about names that are second in line to the top generics? How does one Evaluate the price for them?

Looking at DNJ is a good idea but then again Every niche must hav ea different price structure imo. Any second in line (im not saying crappy, the ones next to the best ones) domain for Sex or Flowers would be far greater in value than lets say monitors.

For Sex / Flowers / CountryBusiness its easier to evaluate as you can get sales comparables. How about other niches then? I recently saw a dropped domain called "TopSpend", which i didnt take, but if i wanted to evaluate, how would i go? Its a generalized Generic, and there can be other variations to it.... totally confused here :\

 

[sashas]

I know..this is the really hard part. USBStore.com might have no OVT, but its still a great name for an end user.

Its here that thinking like an end user becomes important. If I owned USBStore.com, can I sell it to an end user? Quite possibly. Why? I can sell it to an end user by making him brand his website as 'The USB Store'.

Can I do the same with USBDepot.com? Perhaps. But Depot as a word is much weaker than Store. Selling it to an end user might require more work, but its still doable.

Then what about USBHub.com? It conveys the same meaning as the other two, but is even less generic. I'd give this name a pass. Selling it to an end user will require quite a lot more work than the other two.

For such names, I would say sticking to super generics is the best way to go. Prefix keywords like Best, Top, Buy etc. do well with product names, such as BestPhones.com, TopPhones.com, etc.
Suffix keywords like Store, Shop, etc. do well with generics too. PhoneShop.com (Shop can work equally well as a prefix too). Keep in mind here the 'size' of the product and the suffix...TruckShop.com just doesn't sound okay. TruckDepot.com sounds much better.

Then the Google results are important. Are there many advertisers, with many sitting on crappy names? Can they be sold a good name like BestXYZ.com? How many search results do you get?

Someone got the name HotProducts (dot) com appraised at DNF the other day. It doesn't have any spectacular OVT - just 916 - but has some amazing Google (2.4 million with quotes) and is extremely generic. I would pay $2000 for such a name in a heartbeat, because I know it can later be sold for 20k to an end user.

 

[Krossat]

hmm u have some very good points there Sasha!

What this also tells me is that 2-W Generics are basically made to be sold to End Users. Resellers for Level-II (Second in line) Generics are few and far apart or value these domains far lesser than they would be worth (for the risk factor in fidning the end user).

Also the Prefix matrice has to be specific to the type of product you have it with. A good example is someone pm'ing me a few days back asking for CheckTM which i regged after a "available domains competetion". They liked it and i quoted a similar sales value i had some time ago. They said the price was fine for the domain but a little over budget. Now this name imo calls for development much more than trying to find an end user.

So to sum it up lets reevaluate the points for Level-II generics:

1. Both words should complement each other, i..e. generic.
2. Think as a consumer whether you would think of this domain when talking about the niche?
3. Prefixes are subject to the niche and size of the business.
4. Google results play more of a part than OVT as OVT is generally more specific and high OVT = Top of the line Generics. Level-II might not have a good OVT, but should definitely have good google results.
5. Some out-of-the-box generics have to be Developed for the value to go up. Development might not include great content, but just the idea to be marketed.

Did i understand correctly?

Thanks!!

 

[dag]

So to sum it up lets reevaluate the points for Level-II generics:

1. Both words should complement each other, i..e. generic.
2. Think as a consumer whether you would think of this domain when talking about the niche?
3. Prefixes are subject to the niche and size of the business.
4. Google results play more of a part than OVT as OVT is generally more specific and high OVT = Top of the line Generics. Level-II might not have a good OVT, but should definitely have good google results.
5. Some out-of-the-box generics have to be Developed for the value to go up. Development might not include great content, but just the idea to be marketed.

I think point #2 is essential here to the value of the domain -- the words have to be the words that would come to mind for the majority of people. Close, but just a little off, can make a huge difference. A good example might be:

High value: PawnShop
Not-so-high: PawnStore

Because everyone refers to it as a "pawn shop" not a "pawn store." And that's why "USBDrives" is worth so much more than "USBStore" -- a "USB store" isn't something that people would commonly refer to.

 

[Malaysia]

I think point #2 is essential here to the value of the domain -- the words have to be the words that would come to mind for the majority of people. Close, but just a little off, can make a huge difference. A good example might be:

High value: PawnShop
Not-so-high: PawnStore

Because everyone refers to it as a "pawn shop" not a "pawn store." And that's why "USBDrives" is worth so much more than "USBStore" -- a "USB store" isn't something that people would commonly refer to.

although USB store is not a common term but there might be a small number of ppl who might think of this n type it

like last time i sold DNSArena . com Arena is also less common term but i did sell it n its now a developed site ..so i guess its really bout luck that a end user would come to you.

 

[sashas]

this is turning out to be an excellent thread. Great pointers from everyone!

The two words complementing each other is so important. GameArena.com can very easily find an end user, the term 'Arena' used so frequently in games. FlowerArena.com (lol), not so quite.

Some of the name that Krossat mentioned, like UrbanBanks.com, TotalGain.com are very good end user names, and I'm sure they'll find somebody within an year. The trouble with such brandable generics is that the end user has to find you; you cannot sell it to the end user yourself easily. On the other hand, what Krossat called 'Level I' two worders - the names with OVT - can be easily sold to end users as an extension of their niche.