A quick bit on covering your bases upon new domain registrations June 19, 2008
Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains, valuation.Tags: Domains, name drops, registration, resale, tld, valuation
3 comments
This is by no means an exhaustive list of issues to be aware of, but I wanted to bring a few points to your attention that many may not be aware of with regard to registering new domain names, especially keyword-based dot coms. Whether you are registering a domain for development or just parking and looking to sell it in the future, it helps to be aware of a few guidelines I like to use…
First, to protect the potential brand associated with your name and website, you may want to register a .net , .org , and perhaps even the .info version of your .com (assuming you are getting a .com to begin with). This is especially important for names that you KNOW will be developed. You can have them point to the same site or perhaps an associated blog, a tool, or some other feature. This is especially helpful during resale whether you have a developed website or not. Not only are you offering several domain names for the price of one (if you wish to sell them together), but you are also helping the end-user maintain a strong brand identity.
Another point you should be aware of is switching the order of words when registering domains that contain multiple keywords. If the meaning of the phrase does not change much from altering the word order with two or three-word names, I will usually register multiple word combination, at least for the .com TLD/extension. A great example of this is used by the company Evolanding. Their main website is located at Evolanding.com while LandingEvo.com goes to their blog. This, in my opinion, is good foresight with respect to domain branding, and good use of brand capital. Again, brand-protection, and securing more value for the end-user if the names and websites are ever to go on sale.
One more habit that I like to practice is adding the word “the” to two and three-word domain combinations that are meaningful. For example, I recently registered the name TheDomainColumnist.com along with DomainColumnist.com for a blog that I will soon be launching. I wouldn’t practice adding the word “the” to other people’s domains with developed websites. Sure, they missed their brand-protection train, but it just doesn’t seem fair to me to profit from someone else’s effort in this way.
Last thing I watch out for is making sure a new registration is not a domain that has been dropped before. Sure, I register such names every now and again, but only if I am pretty sure that these are names I would not be looking to sell without substantial development (what some would call investment-grade or “development worthy” properties…, at least investment-grade in MY opinion, hence my paying the reg. fee). Having a name that was dropped, or even dropped multiple times (happens often!) is like having a bad title on a piece of property, and may severely impair potential resale value, IMO. DomainTools.com is great for checking the title history on a domain in this manner.
That’s it for today’s domaining ”best practices” ramble. Feel free to leave comments if you have more thoughts on the topic.
The problem with “call to action” domains May 27, 2008
Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains, marketing, trends, valuation.Tags: call to action, Domains, meaning, value
1 comment so far
I think call to action names can be great. I’ve acquired quite a number of them for my future development to be honest. However, in my opinion, these names have very minimal intrinsic value, if any, because the same “call to action” can be issued with a potentially unlimited number of word combinations. Also, different people can have different associative concept schemas linked to different “calls to action.” Unless your domain is linked to a content-rich website, that stimulates the associations you do in fact want to evoke, your “call to action” dot com is probably worthless, unless it’s already in common usage (and few of those are left for registration…)
Just a thought.
Sumo.com for $150k, yay or nay? May 25, 2008
Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains, internet, sports, trends, valuation.Tags: appraisals, Domains, sales, sumo, valuation
2 comments
Domain name valuation will remain one of most controversial topics in the internet business for years to come. Today’s question is whether Sumo.com is worth 150 thousand USD. The most obvious answer is YES, because that’s what someone just paid for it on Sedo. However, it is interesting to me to try to figure out WHY someone would pay such a price for this one. At first site (haha funny! I bet I’m the first person to say that!), it would seem that the buyer overpaid, but let’s look further.
Let’s start with the basics. “Sumo” is a CVCV that’s fairly easy to type in on my keyboard. It could work as an abbreviation for a four-word company name, or it could be a category website related to the sumo style of wrestling.
Let’s further assume that the proposed site will be one that’s related to the sport. Where could commercial value come from? A purely informational site with ads would not make enough money to cover such a large up-front expense. Hence, some sort of product or service must be offered on the website. Sumo equipment? Possibly. Sumo lessons? Perhaps. Could it be a wealthy sumo gym/club owner trying to cement a solid brand identity for his establishment, possibly franchise his business nationwide? I really have no idea… We start running into problems when we consider the potential audience. The sport is most popular in Asia, and is only practiced professionally in Japan (according to Wikipedia), a country of some 130 million people (not very much on the GLOBAL scale). Sumo is not an Olympic sport either. Will the acquisition be worth it in the long run? If I knew who the end-user is, perhaps I could have a better idea about this one…
Lastly, we must remember that sports domains ARE indeed some of the most sought-after on the internet. Live Current / Communicate.com, for example, turned down a $6M offer for domain Cricket.com, which is yet to be developed. Of course, the prospective audience for this one is much greater than for sumo.com, but so it seem is the difference in perceived value.
So, is sumo.com really worth $150k? If I had an extra 150k laying around, I probably would not take it. But I am clearly not the guy that’s about to start a nationwide franchise of sumo gyms and stores in Japan. If such a guy does exist, he would be at the top of my list of “Likely to gain the most value from owning sumo.com”
There are always multiple ways of looking at things, and usually good arguments can be made to support several side of every story… The market will prove you right or wrong. The market is the ultimate authority.
