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Domain Names and Valuation
While the great domain name boom is
probably over and you're not likely to be selling a name like Business.com for 7.5
million or Autos.com for 2.2 million, it's easy to see
why Internet users were enthralled with domain names. Maybe
it's because you want to sell a domain name that you bought to start a
business that never materialized. Perhaps you want to be a domain
reseller or speculator. In any case, domain names - especially
".com" suffixes - are in rare supply. This sets up an interesting and, until a few years ago, unheard of commodity.
Let's say you have a domain name and you want to sell it.
The first step would be to have it appraised by someone, or spend many hours or days
yourself researching domain valuation. Most domain name valuation services
will charge you between $40 and $80. We paid $79 from
GreatDomains.com to appraise one of our domain names. While the
product was good, the cost was a little unreasonable.
Speaking of domain names, here are some things to
consider in the complexity of domain valuation:
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Consider the name's potential to make money.
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How marketable and brandable is the name?
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The more words or syllables, the lower
the name's value (forsalebyowner.com
is the classic exception to this rule - it sold for $835,000).
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Dot com (.com) names are the standard in the
U.S. All other names are much less valuable.
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Memorable phrases, acronyms and abbreviations can be
extremely valuable, especially in some industries.
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Prefixes and suffixes will generally lower the
value. A couple of good prefixes are "e" and
"my."
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Hyphenated names reduce the domain value, although
they are sometimes easier for humans and search engine robots to see and read.
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Unusual word order - "siteweb.com" instead
of "website.com" - will reduce the value.
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Offensive, vulgar or negative names may have a
niche, but usually will hurt resale value.
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Tricky names are less valuable. I8here.com is
not as valuable as Iatehere.com. Although neither one is
particularly valuable anyway.
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Trademarks should be checked. An existing
trademark on a name is not really something to fool with unless you
have a pocket full of litigators (attorneys, that is).
Finally, the most important thing to consider comes
straight from the real estate folks. They call it a CMA.
Competitive or Comparative Market Analysis. What have other
properties
or, in our case, domain names sold for? This is
tricky to determine for domain names because most sales are private.
The few domain
names that are available for comparison ultimately help put some
perspective on the name. With market conditions changing
so rapidly, however, that can only be factored in with other considerations.
Check out some domain names that we
have for sale and earn a finders fee, click here: http://www.mindlikewater.com/domains4sale.html
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