What is the logic? Who buys?

[Catfan1963]

For someone to pay big money for a domain name when they can get their own cheaply like all of us do.

Who buys them? Are they multi million dollar companies with piles of money to throw around.

Does the government buy them?

Just wondering.

 

[theo]

Hey Catfan1963,

Welcome to NP!

Explain me how you can get cars.com cheaply?

 

[Catfan1963]

I assume you can't but there are other choices to choose from.

 

[Keith]

I assume you can't but there are other choices to choose from.

Can you give an example of "other choices"?

 

[Rich]

Who buys them?

Anyone - start up companies, small businesses, real estate agents, even electoral candidates. There are plenty of advantages to owning a great domain, factors ranging from memorability to existing web traffic. :tu:

 

[Erdy]

Here is a video where a domain broker explains why his clients wanted to buy newyorkapartments.com:
http://www.domainnamenews.com/domain-auction/domainfest-nyc-auction-video-cnn/7936

 

[kotan]

As of how I understand it (corrections are welcome! ),

More and more people go online thus businesses need an online presence.
People need something they could easily remember and type in (generics terms and words that go together which make lots of sense) and there are no two domains are alike (only one domain.com)

With the hundreds of millions of domains in the world, businesses need to be easily remembered and stand out, thus those who are aware of this fact are willing to pay. It's an investment.

That's basically how it is in a nutshell. I believe a lot of other factors are there that would make even better sense as to why owning the right domain is important in this fast-becoming mobile world of ours

Hope that contributes a bit!

 

[Sparhawke]

CarRental.com is always going to be preferable to El-CheapoCarRentalinAlabamaDownby-theCrockRiver.biz

If you cannot see that there really is no hope for you :p

Of course any company in the world is entitled to go looking for their own domain name and good luck to them if they find one either by auction or dropping, but do they really have hours or weeks to spend searching like full timers do?

It is a case of spending $10 on a domain, $50 on a years hosting and lots of manhours building out your website and having it all come to naught if no one can find you, or paying $1000 for a good quality domain that will give you a great chance and retain its value if you ever want to sell.

When I pass a town on my way to work of a morning I come by a printing shop with the domain, printing.co.uk that actually invested well because it has 400+ buses full of passengers pass by it a day as well as over 30,000 cars and 40,000 walkers, that tells me everything I want to know and I remember it, and so does everyone else passing by on the bus on in cars and on foot.

$1000 for so much free advertisement??! The guy who owns the shop is a genius.

 

[SpareDomains]

For someone to pay big money for a domain name when they can get their own cheaply like all of us do.

Who buys them? Are they multi million dollar companies with piles of money to throw around.

Does the government buy them?

Just wondering.

generic descriptive .com domains have type in traffic, type in traffic converts into sales.

If you ran a business on thebestdealsoncarsontheplanet.com all of your traffic would come from paying google or killing yourself with seo. If you ran it on cars.com you would gain free type in traffic so with your expense of the domain name you could now cut back your advertising budget as the domain itself would bring regular visitors that convert. Also if advertising a short descriptive domain would be easier to remember for anyone that saw/heard it as it might be a few hours for some users to be in front of a computer so being able to remember the domain helps.

A great domain is not the only ingredient to success but it's definitely a nice boost if it describes the exact product you sell and people are searching for it.

As far as who buys them anyone that wishes to upgrade their domain. Most of my sales are from small businesses in the 1-10k range that I picked up expired and a few even hand registered for $7. Not hard to turn a profit when starting from a $7 investment just gotta buy domains that a business would want which only a small percentage of domainers are successful at on a consistent basis.

You can put your business on a side street that only sees 10 cars pass an hour or you can upgrade to a prime intersection where hundreds of cars pass per hour. You can be successful with both but the better domain will lead to quicker growth. Whether it's radio, tv, billboard or domain advertising expect to pay a premium for more eyeballs.