Increase Your Domain Value

When you’ve got a gem of a domain name, you have to get it on the market as soon as possible in order to find potential buyers. The problem is this: if price your domain name too highly, you won’t get any bites, but if you don’t price it high enough, buyers will break down your door and you’ll miss out on the larger profit. Finding the correct price at which to list your domain name might be the trickiest part of the entire process.

Luckily, there are thousands of others in the same boat as you. The domain name market is kind of like one big flea market. People know that prices are negotiable based on many different things. That said, you should still try to price your domain name perfectly in order to make the most money possible.

Remember, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Simply put, you may have no use for a name like www.pttandys.com, but Peter’s Tree Trimming and Yard Service might really want that name. That’s why you’ll see some domain name sellers offering what seem to be foolish thousand-dollar prices to senseless names. Occasionally, you’ll snag a buyer willing to pay for them.

In reality, however, this doesn’t happen often. Price your domain names fairly and you’ll find a much more steady flow of business. Learning how to price your domain names is a crucial skill in the domain name entrepreneur world. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on sales or give away great names for less then they are worth. Don’t fall into this trap with your domain name business!

Domain Name Appraisal

You’ll meet many people in the domain name world who live and sell by appraisals. Like when you want to sell jewelry or antiques, domain name appraisals will look at the many aspects of your domain name and pin a value onto it. You will pay as little as a few dollars to much more for this kind of service.

The problem with domain name appraisal is that there are no industry standards and the market changes too quickly to relate it to other domain names being sold at the same time. When you get your grandfather’s watch appraised, the appraiser will use set standards like the make, the year, the material, and so on to give you a final value. However, domain name appraisals all belong to different schools of thought when it comes to how much a domain name is worth. For instance, say you have the name www.CheekyChicks4Chat.com. One appraiser may say it is worth a certain value because it is a good subject (girls and chatting) and that it has the optimal TDL. Another appraiser will look at the same name and give it a value at half of that price, saying that the name is too long, has too many words, and includes a number.

You also have to be careful when someone—especially a buyer—recommends an appraiser. Scams are abundant on the Internet! Say you took your cheeky chicks domain name and developed it either by building a website or by starting an affiliate program. A buyer approaches you, interested in the name, but won’t buy unless you have the name appraised to prove market value. The buyer recommends a particular company for the job. Think about it—do you think the “buyer” will stick around once you shell out the cash for the appraisal? In actuality, by the time you get the appraisal (which probably isn’t even very thorough), the buyer will be long gone and scamming another domain name owner. In short, be careful.

Appraisal does have some value in the domain name world—I don’t want to scare you away completely! If you’re very new to the buying and selling world, you can look into getting free appraisals to get a grip on the market and learn what kind of potential your names have. Try www.NamePros.com, www.NetworkSolutions.com, or www.URLBuyers.com.

You can also seek appraisal from non-professionals or other sellers. To do this, sign up for some domain name entrepreneurship forums. Some of these sites have an annual registration fee, but you can chat with others in the industry and get instant feedback on your names. You might even be able to make a quick sell if someone interested in your domain name see your posting on the forums or chat rooms. Check out some of the more popular domain name websites like www.DNForums.com or www.DiscussNames.com. Remember to continue to be a pert of these communities as your business grows and you learn more about how to pin a value on your own domain name. People are more willing to help you if you’re willing to help them as well. You can help the “newbies” to the business as your own business prospers as well as seek advice from even older members. Communities like forums only work if every pitches in to help out at some point or another!

Tags: domain appraisal,domain name appraisal