Helpful tips on how to buy and sell domain names.
Anyone who has started an online business or researched to start one has had to ask themselves this question: “Where have all the good domain names gone?” And it is a very important question. After all, you don’t want to have to settle for “MyWidgetsarebetterthananyoneselses dot com” just because everything shorter has already been logged.
Unfortunately, all the very good domain names have been taken for a long time. The short and memorable ones became very valuable right away. Names like Loans.com and Business.com sold for about a million dollars in 1999. Now those names are worth much more than that. The dot-com crash lowered domain name values for a brief period, but they started to rise again around 2003 and are now well above dot-com bubble levels.
It wasn’t long after all the single word dictionary words were recorded. In the beginning, the dot-com extension was mainly being bought. Dot com is still king and considered the most valuable, but other extensions are gaining ground. Of course now, all good domain names are registered in ALL extensions.
So how are these names used? Is everyone pointing to a business on the website? Why would someone register a name and not use it?
Most of the very good domain names are used for online business models. Domain names can be used to drive traffic to a parked site such as DomainSpa.com DomainSpa allows advertisers to place advertisements, relevant to the domain name, on the pages they create for the name. When someone goes to your parked page and clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays DomainSpa for that lead, and then DomainSpa splits that money with the domain owner. Many good domains are being used to monetize direct browsing traffic from parked pages.
The best ones are the ones that you would naturally type in your browser’s navigation bar, instead of doing a search. If you were interested in finding information about “Widgets”, would you just type it in your browser or do a search? What makes domain names really valuable are those that are so easy to remember that you should use the direct navigation method instead of a search.
The main reason for the direct method is that you are pretty sure that if you type “Widgets.com” you will end up on a site that has good information on widgets. If you do a search, who knows what you might find. We’ve all been there, you come across a list of sites on Google or Yahoo and you say to yourself, what is all this crap? Did you notice that I wrote the dot com for widgets? Why not dot net or something else? That’s why dot-coms are still considered more valuable, that’s what you automatically think. Dot com was the first widely used extension and was originally intended for “commercial” use. The dot network was for Internet-type services, if I remember correctly, and the dot org was to be used for “Organizations” primarily for charities. Since then, ICANN, the organization that oversees the domain name process, has added dozens of extensions. To name just a few, .info, .biz, .name, .us, etc. The .us is considered a “country code top-level domain” cctld as .de for Germany .fr for France.
So as you can see, even with all those extra extensions, good domain names are hard to come by. Unless you know where to look. By now, you must realize that a good domain name is a very valuable asset to your business. In some cases, it can make or break a business. If you have a domain name that is difficult to spell or to remember, many of your customers will end up on a competing website when they try to access yours. You could also end up spending a lot of money on Google AdWords or Yahoo search ads to attract people to your website. It is a great benefit to have a RELEVANT domain name that is easy to remember.
How do I get a good domain name? Now that you have a good idea of what constitutes a good domain name, let’s try to find one. Keep in mind that the cost of your domain names will likely be much higher than you originally thought. You can still find reasonably good market names (the ones some already own, but are willing to sell) for as low as $ 500, on average good domain names are in the $ 1000 to $ 10,000 range.
The best names sell for tens to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Vodka.com recently sold for $ 5,000.00, I think. Also keep in mind that what you pay for a name is likely to become one of your most valuable assets. The more you pay, the better the name (usually) and the more natural traffic you can get for free. Some very good names may not have a very natural type of traffic, but they are still perfectly suited to your business. If you primarily sell mystery books, GoodMysteryBooks.com would be a perfect name. This name may not get a lot of traffic, but it’s so easy to remember that it could easily be promoted.
Now, choose the name that most closely relates to your business. If it is a short one word name, it has already been taken. Try adding My, i, e, go, or whatever short phrase that makes sense to the beginning of the name. When you have a selection of possible names, go to a registrar like GoDaddy.com, there are hundreds of these, where you can register names for as little as $ 8.99. Try the ones you have selected. If none are available, continue working on other combinations.
Remember, you want one that is easy to spell and remember. Once you’ve gotten to the point where you realize that you are not going to find an acceptable one to register for, then you are faced with the reality that you will pay more for an aftermarket domain name (one that is already registered but the owner is willing to sell). While still at the registrar, you can check the “WhoIs” information on the names you most wanted.
All registrars have a Whois link or you can go to Whois.net. Once you find the current registrants information, there should be an email link. Email them and ask if the name is for sale. If the registrant information is not available in Whois, that name is likely not for sale. Once you’ve been through this process and still haven’t found a good name, give auction sites a try. Afternic.com has a large inventory of high-quality domain names after the market. Most auction sites have an easy-to-use interface with escrow services that protect the buyer and seller throughout the buying process. You can usually bid low in any name and start a negotiation process, or just pay the price the sellers are asking (if you think it’s reasonable) and voila. There are also drop catcher sites like SnapNames.com that take over expiring domains and auction them off to the highest bidder. Even eBay has gotten into the domain auction business, although I don’t see many quality names there.
Most of the very good domain names are still available for purchase. You just have to contact the current owner. It may take a little time and some negotiation, but acquiring the perfect name for your business can be invaluable. Usually it will pay for itself many times over.
Some good resources for information on the value of domain names can be found at DNJournal.com. This is the best NewsZine in the domain name industry and it keeps up with all domains sold week by week. You can get a good idea of the value of the different names and extensions on this site.
