The following is the kind of common-sense criteria most domain
name appraisal services use to advise their customers of the value of
a domain name.
Anybody can do this kind of appraisal, simply research what other domain
names have recently sold for, measure them against these criteria and
compare them to your domain name.
CRITERIA OF THE AVERAGE DOMAIN NAME APPRAISAL:
Character-Based Value
1. Number of Characters
The shorter the better! Why waste 12 letters when you can get the meaning
across just fine with 5 or 6. It's much easier remembering a domain name
such as Drugs.com than it is Drugstores.com. That's why a single word
is more valuable. It's easier to spell and communicate and thus carries
more impact.
2. Number of Words
The less words the better. And there's no better than just one. How many
words does it take to get your message and name across? As in Number of
Characters, the number of words used increases and decreases the value
of your domain name. This is because as one brainstorms about an object,
product, etc., one remembers singulars as opposed to plurals. Ask.com
comes before AskUs.com and YouAskUs.com. Names fall in any of many ranks
in a long list of variations.
3. Easily Spelled
You don't want to lose customers because they misspelled your domain name.
The ideal name is easily spelled and can be passed on by word of mouth.
A good way of testing the value of as name is saying it out loud. For
example, if "Gifts-for-you-dot-com" was heard over a radio,
the consumer would be faced with the challenge of translating the name
into the correct URL. "Gifts-for-you-dot-com" can be:
GiftsForYou.com
Gifts4You.com
GiftsForU.com
Gifts4U.com
Words with double spellings don't help either. For example, Theater.com
can be spelled as Theatre.com and Their.com can be spelled as There.com.
Words that are just plain hard to spell lose value as well. Colonel is
the correct spelling for a word which refers to an Army officer, commonly
misspelled as Kernel which refers to the tasty seeds we eat from a corn
stalk.
4. Easily Remembered
Ask yourself this simple question. Does my name sound good? And there's
your answer. If it sounds good, people will remember it. Another way of
measuring it is if the name refers to the product or service being offered.
Who can argue the directness of Loans.com?
5. Easily Spoken
Are people going to like saying your name? Is it fun? Is it catchy? Yahoo
must have sounded ridiculous to most people before it became the Yahoo
that it is today. Someone early on recognized the value of the word and
today we have commercials spouting that world known jingle. Y-a-h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o.
6. Language
The largest percentage of Internet users browse the web in English. Thus,
English domain names hold a higher value than other languages. But the
Internet landscape is rapidly changing, and domain names in languages
such as Spanish and French are rapidly gaining market value.
7. Variations
You increase the value of your name if you own it's variations. For example,
owning Toys4You.com becomes more valuable if you also own ToysForYou.com
and Toys4U.com. Because if Toys4You.com spent advertising money, they
would also be advertising the other sites at no cost. This leads, of course,
to the loss of customers to these other sites. The sites with the variations
of the original site own anywhere from 5%-25% of the original site's value.
Meaning-Based Value
1. Profitability
The first factor in the value of your name is simply the industry in which
you do business. Drugs.com is more valuable than Flowers.com because it's
respective industry is much larger and produces a greater revenue stream.
2. Name Type
Generic names are the way to go. These names represent the obvious choice
a consumer would type to reach a certain product or service. If a consumer
was looking for a loan, chances are he'll first come across Loans.com.
Value can also be determined by the likelihood that a consumer will type
in your site without initially knowing what your site offers. Sites such
as Cars.com and Music.com will be reached by many who are searching blindly
for these products and services.
3. Obvious Names for Industry
This is the most subjective of all categories because it refers to the
most obvious name that refers to an industry and that is chosen on a person
to person basis. Loans.com refers to loans but the next question becomes,
what type of loans. The same goes for Cars.com and Flowers.com but doesn't
apply to ConvertibleCars.com.
Increasing The Value
1. Build a Web site, remembering content is king.
2. Submit it to ALL the search engines and directories.
3. Generate traffic, the more visitors the better.
4. Sell products from the site or add profit making content such as affiliate
links.
5. Turn the Web site into a profitable business.
6a. Sell the business, Web site and domain name as a package.
6b. Lease the domain names to a similar site/competitor as traffic generators.
Finally, be realistic, expect most domain appraisal services
to over value your domain name, basing it on the boom prices of 1999/2000
and or an outdated formula. The actual salable value, for the majority
of domain names generating little or no traffic, will probably be closer
to a mere 2% of the valuation.
M. Jepson
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