World of Domains

Reading up on the nature of buying and selling domains, you are rarely going to find evidence and examples of how certain methods are tried and true in getting a sale. A lot of tutorials, forum groups, blog pages, and domain name swappers all seem to be spurting their own ideology on how they are able to sell their site but a lot of this information is lacking the solid example or real-life situation where their skills have been put to the test.

I have gone through a decent amount of content and here are some links, sites, & insights that give more fodder in the technique of buying and selling domain names. I placed it in order of what I looked over, so there is no importance based on position of article:

* This forum had a couple of people buying and selling domains and talking about ways of getting it sold. Essentially the initial forum posts basically iterated the need to have a great name, which is easier said than done and is already understood by even the novice seller such as myself. But the rest of the forum bring up a couple of methods to get your domain name some attention, including the utilization of Google Adwords. There is an argument on whether there are limitations on Adwords or whether they can terminate your agreement, but check it out, tell me what you think.

*At Buydomains.com, they have a great resource section which is good to read for newbies and people not use to the market just yet. If you are selling or buying, this is a good page to start from.

* CNN wrote an article a year ago on Kevin Hamm about how his domain swapping has gained him $300 million. I just made $10 bucks on my last sale, which recouped 50% of my registration costs. So, yes, I gotta look up to somebody… Also, there are interesting side-articles that pretty good within it ( it is a year-old, but most of the content still passed the test of time.).

* I always read about in these tutorials and know-hows in the domain world of how to appraise a domain. Usually they ask that you seek a professional appraiser such as Sedo or Afternic, but if you do enough reading, you find a lot of negative opinions on how “professional” these places are and how well they give a value on your domain.

Let me just say that there is no such thing as a professional appraiser of domain names. There could be some appraisers that are great on placing a particular standard on some sites, but there is no pure ability to set prices because.

1. Our market economies have problem keeping stable prices with oil & dollar currencies. New situations will always create new paradigms, and anything appraised now ( and I am including domains along with everything else ) would in no way, shape, or form hold its value for the next day.

2. Domain swapping for most of the market is pretty new, and the rules of the game are constantly changing. Two years ago, there was a huge amount of resentment for monetizing blogs, giving them domain names, and advertising them. Now, every Captain Typewriter on the internet with an itchy A-S-D-F hand is going to make a blog. And a lot of the new & old school bloggers are now holding hands as they seek out sponsors to take advantage of their newfound traffic. Buying a domain is part of this monetizing system, and blogs are only a small portion of the market that is currently affecting the domain buying/selling dynamic.

There is also the exponential increase in parking & ad-placement sites where people are just creating sites with some pseudo-related links and make money of the clicks. These sites are blowing up to a huge number ( not to mention how Google will help them with their new service ). They actually reach high in search results, and the information about there success is creating a herd-feeling as many domain names, misspelledd domains, domains with keywords etc. are just being eaten up and pushed into link farm mode. ( Here is someone’s view on the future of Google’s Page park option. Simultaneously cool & scary.

Anyway, all of these things affect values of different domains on a daily basis. To be able to sift through all this news, forecast the influence on the market, and forecast that market’s behavior on your domain Ilikesoup.com sounds a little looney. Especially since there is no history of the market to prove a future scenario, since this all just started about 20 years ago.

BACK TO APPRAISALS

* Someone actually gets upset that they were appraised LOWER than the actual value. I am sorry to hear that, but that is a first.

* Hey this guy called the Sedo appraisal module a huge ripoff. He gets his money back, and has good reason to. Must read if you plan on paying for their service.

* Here is another guy who was confused at his GoDaddy appraisal. With so many people talking and willing to speak their mind, you would think people’s opinions wouldn’t be worth so much.

* I think I talked about the appraisal scam in the earlier post, but you can read another one here.

* I will leave you with this little tidbit; DON’T BUY DOMAIN NAMES FROM EBAY! I use to sell my domains on ebay ( I got one away) but I do understand the article’s concern. If you do want to take a peek and get a laugh at Ebay’s domain section, go check it out.