Hi,
This is a very interesting question. Thanks for asking it. It’s
actually a two part question: what would the domain name likely sell
for and how would that figure be arrived at.
Generally speaking, the actual value of this domain name (or anything
else) is based on what someone would be willing to pay for it, NOT
what someone wants to sell it for. (And we both know that this value
is probably dramatically different now than during the dot.com craze.)
Domain name valuation is “big business” on the Internet. There are
numerous companies who will sell you their services. For example, if
you run a Google search using the search term “pricing a domain name”
you’ll come up with over 86,000 results.
< ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=domain+name++appraisal&btnG=Google+Search
Other searches on terms such as “domain name appraisal” will come up
with almost as many results.
These services generally offer to appraise the value of a domain name
on the basis of variations on the following points: name recognition,
extensions (.com, .net, etc.), name length, branding potential,
linguistic value, search engine value, brand recognition, traffic
statistics, comparison with other domains, industry category, and
marketability.
FYI: If you’d like to get a free estimate yourself, there’s an online
valuation form at
< http://www.urlbuyers.com/valuation.cfm >
You can also post your domain on a bulletin board at The Domain
Exchange for a free appraisal –
< http://thedomainexchange.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&a=frm&s=764094803&f=
164091853 >
In the case of sellit.com, these points offer both pluses and minuses
in terms of determining value. (Please note: while I use the term
‘you” I am actually referring to the owner of the domain name.)
NAME RECOGNITION – at this point there is none of any significance.
The domain name currently is used by an Internet Service Provider
called ISN in Prince Edward Island, Canada and is not found by running
searches on Google. Well, if you search sellit.com, the result is
“Untitled sellit.com” which is a pretty poor result. The main domain
for the service provide is actually http://isn.net and even a search
on ISN +Prince Edward Island does not bring up sellit.com (-)
< ://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=ISN+Prince+Edward+Island&btnG=Google+Search
>
EXTENSIONS (.COM, .NET, ETC.) – while a recent study
< http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2002/june/10.html > has shown
that .com no longer has the benefit of significantly higher search
engine results, it still has the cachet of being more desirable by
buyers and is more easily thought of by people doing searches due to
the prevalance of ‘dot com’ advertising on TV, etc. (+)
NAME LENGTH – at only 6 characters (with only letters) it’s a great
length. Short enough for print advertising, remembering, typing, etc.
(+)
BRANDING POTENTIAL – it has significant branding potential as it is
easy to remember and lends itself to crisp advertising (“Want to sell
your home? Your car? Your Final Four tickets? Think ‘Sell It Dot
Com’ and Save”)
As I mentioned before, the domain name is used by an Internet Service
Provider called ISN in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Interestingly,
it took me over an hour working on this question before I suddenly
realized that the name as now used is probably Sell I.T. (as in Sell
Information Technology) rather than Sell It (as in selling stuff).
Whoops!
I have not done a trademark search so don’t wish to remark on the ease
of trademarking the name. If you would wish to post another question
to Googles Answers, I’m sure someone (perhaps even me) would research
it for you . (+)
LINGUISTIC VALUE – verbally excellent. Regardless of whether it is
pronounced “sell it” or “sell I.T.” it can’t be misspelled.
Visually it can be misleading if written in all lower case.
Fortunately web browsers no longer care about case. It does have some
visual problems in that L’s and I’s can be ‘mooshed’ together and L’s
can look like Ones so it not be seen clearly by everyone. As a
result, ‘sellit’ may be clearer visually, but not if you’re to get
people to ‘think’ the term they’re seeing (+-)
SEARCH ENGINE VALUE – poor. Google searches on variations of Internet
service providers on Prince Edward Island don’t bring up this domain
name. Nor do Google searches on “sell it” as a search term, nor do
Alexa or Google Toolbar results appear.
As a result, the buyer would not be gaining any existing search engine
value, which can increase the value of a domain name significantly.
On the other hand there are no search engine results to overcome (e.g.
the name was used to sell Barbie dolls and you want to sell motorcycle
parts J)
While it can be seen as valuable that the name does *not* have search
engine value that would conflict with what you want to accomplish with
the name, there is currently no search engine value attached to this
name. (-)
BRAND RECOGNITION – none. This is a generic term and not currently
associated with a brand. (-)
TRAFFIC STATISTICS – not available. I would venture that these stats
would not be a significant factor in setting a price due to the
current domain name use. (Note: one common yard stick is your domain
name is valued at $10 to $30 per hit per day. If 1,000 people land on
your front page each day, your domain could be worth $10,000 to
$30,000.)
COMPARISON WITH OTHER DOMAINS – Here are some recent sales prices.
Comparison is pretty subjective, though, and domain appraisers worth
their salt will be up front about letting you know that they make
decisions based in part on their personal experience.
< http://www.name5.net/domain-name-sales.html>
< http://www.insdomains.com/nameprice/namesales.htm >
(Google search strategy: domain name recent sales price)
INDUSTRY CATEGORY - Could be an IT domain or related to many types of
sales opportunities. Personally I would concentrate on the latter if
I were selling this name. Not only is the market much larger, but
“selling I.T.” isn’t a natural sounding phrase. Regardless, the name
is suited for building into a commercial site.
MARKETABILITY – This refers to how interesting the domain name would
be to potential buyers, e.g. is the market your domain addresses
currently dominated by larger well-funded sites that would make it
difficult for your potential domain buyer to break into?
By focusing on the name as ‘Sell It’, it has tremendous potential
because of its flexibility. The problem is getting in in front of the
right buyers. To quote ‘How Much is my Domain Name Worth’, “the
saleability of a given domain name will depend less upon the intrinsic
value of the name than on the ability for the seller to track down
willing buyers for the name.”
< http://thedomainexchange.infopop.net/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=764094803&f=151093853&m=8230924841
>
There are a number of techniques for attempting to find buyers.
One is to use one of the online domain name auctions services. They
will often give you a little better feel of what other domains are
being offered at as well. Do note that these are ‘for sale’ prices,
not ‘sold’ prices. You will probably note, as I did, that people
offer a lot of domain name for sale and many incur no interest on the
part of buyers. These goes back to “the value is what someone is
willing to pay for it”. Unfortunately, reliable statistics for sales
of domain names are very hard to come by and most databases are very
small, and this makes them statistically error-prone.
Afternic < http://www.afternic.com/ > and URL Merchant
< http://www.urlmerchant.com/showcase.html > are two of the currently
more successful sites.
This is the eBay site for domain name auctions:
< http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=domain+name
>
You can also opt to do a WHOIS search
http://www.internic.net/whois.html for similar domain names to see if
their owners might like to buy your domain. I recently helped a
client who was approached by someone using this method. She purchased
a wonderfully appropriate domain name for $150 that was initially
offered to her at $1,000. In that case it was a real ‘niche’ name.
In your case that might not be as simple to do.
Or you could identify potential buyers by what they already do and
contact them directly. In my personal opinion, I think this would be
an excellent domain name for a real estate/FSBO site of some sort. I
would seriously consider marketing it as such by identifying and
contacting the top sites/sellers. A number of them own multiple
domain names that point to their main site and regularly purchase new
domains.
You may also opt to develop the domain name for yourself, thereby
increasing the value of the name, and sell it later. As noted
previously,. one common yard stick is your domain name is valued at
$10 to $30 per hit per day. If 1,000 people land on your front page
each day, your domain could be worth $10,000 to $30,000. In that case
you may very well find yourself being approached by others wishing to
purchase the domain/domain name from you.
Well, that’s a lot of info and I hope it answers the second part of
your question. If you’d like clarification, please do not hesitate to
ask.
To answer the first part comes back to “it’s only worth what someone
would pay for it’.
But I’m sure you want a dollar amount. On the basis of the answers to
the questions I listed above, you have a saleable domain name with
significant potential to the right purchaser. In that case, I would
advise getting a professional appraisal, particularly as having a
professional appraisal is a definite selling point just as it is when
selling a home. I would also recommend using an appraiser that is not
affiliated with a reseller site as you will likely obtain more neutral
results that way.
In the meantime, here’s my non-professional appraisal. If not
marketed properly, you could get as little as $100, and it would be a
steal if you sold it at that price. I certainly wouldn’t.
Doing a current sales comparison using the above sources, the absolute
minimum I would sell this domain name for would be $2,500.
Recent sales of this domain name type include ez-homeloans.com at
$4,725 and Venture-Capital.net at $4,500 <
http://www.24-7-domainreg.com/longinvest.htm >
I mentioned real estate domain names as a possible focus.
VirginiaProperties.com just sold at $1,900 <
http://www.domainalley.com/ >
I would also recommend developing the domain name. Done correctly,
the sale price would be significantly higher.
Again, I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask for any
clarifications. And thank you for using Google Answers.
Acorn-ga |
