subject: Simple Tips on How to Appraise Your Own Domain Name [print this page] Simple Tips on How to Appraise Your Own Domain Name
A domain investor should be able to evaluate his domain portofolio to some degree. It can help determine the domain's price range, define its possible end-users and whether further development is required or not. Although not all domainers appraise their portofolio, it is considered to be a nice starting point before selling. The value can be determined by a series of factors as follows.
Length and Number of Words
Webmasters avoid lengthy names, since they are difficult to remember and most people may type them wrongly on their browser. This is a factor that may instantly reduce type-in traffic and that is why many domainers do not invest in lengthy names. Another factor is the number of words the domain contains. One-worded domains are extremely rare and valuable in these days, since all of them are already taken. Their reselling price is usually very high.
Good two-worded names are also taken, although there are still some opportunities left here. Many resellers invest in three-worded domains as well. This is considered to be the maximum number of words that it is worth investing, but there are always exceptions to this rule.
The Role of Extensions, Dashes and Numbers in a Domain
The most popular extension is .com. However, webmasters often use other extensions such as .net, .org, .us etc, with great success. One of the most common rules says that a domain name such as the mydomain.com is more valuable than mydomain.net. Beware of the exceptions though! These may actually bring you a lot of money.
Another rule says that dashes and numbers reduce the value of a domain. This is because people mix dashes and numbers with words: the domain go2domain.com is very likely to be typed as gotodomain.com. This mistake could redirect people to another url, possibly a competitor's one. So cover yourself and register the similar domain in case it is still available. One of the best registrant in the market, godaddy.com has a simple interface where you can check the available extensions of your domain name and their prices.
Brandable or Generic Domain
A simple and easy rule to remember is that a short brandable name can sometimes sound very intriguing and promising to an end-user or a company, however it doesn't always appeal to a domain reseller. Unless developed, these names are harder to sell. For example the fairlogo.com could be used as a brandable domain name for a web design company. But it is not a generic name since not many people would use the keywords "fair" and "logo" in their search engine to look for such a niche market.
On the other hand, a domain like greatluxurioushotels.com gives a clear idea of its content and is very likely that people will search for keywords such as "luxurious" and "hotels."
Domain Aging
The age affects a domain value, mainly due to the traffic that it may have attracted during its online existence. There's really nothing to be done here to make a domain age faster!
However, a good opportunity for domain resellers is to look for expired domains to buy. Domains usually expire because the previous owners of these domains have forgot to pay their annual renewal fee and they become available to be reclaimed. Since it is difficult to locate these opportunities manually use an expired domain detecting software like the Domain Grabber, that will help you grab any valuable expired domains before others do.
Domain Development and Site Traffic
Another way to increase the value of a domain is to develop it, build a website, insert backlinks and thus increase traffic. Building a website that attracts visitors, basically means that a small business is being developed. It consumes some time to run and maintain this business and it is up to owner to decide whether to develop it further or sell it to any of the available domain marketplaces.
There are online tools that make an automated evaluation of a domain name. However, appraising a domain name is a more refined process that requires human insight and experience and serious domainers will only trust manual appraisals provided freely in several related forums (dnforum, namepros etc).
Visit the Lazy Domainer Site to discover more about the most profitable secrets of the domain business.
