kemshell

Hi Guys

I have owned Wakefield.co.uk - Local information, business listing and ISP for about 6 years. The site is now under developed, current traffic is about 350 unique visits per day. I am in discussions with another local business who plan to launch a community portal/business directory in wakefield using a far less "brandable" domain. What do you think would be a fair rental price for Wakefield.co.uk - Local information, business listing and ISP on a lease lasting a few years?

Paul

DomainAngel

With those uniques you could easily earn £30 from ppc, so that makes a yearly rental of £360 straight off.

You hear of a lot of people saying, ooh I rent my domains out, err no they dont, trust me, the percentage is very very low.

If you have someone truly prepared to rent your domain, you should take whatever they offer, explain to them that you can earn more, but you will accept £250 a year, increasing in years 2 and 3 then stable for the rest of the 5 year contract.

They will of course need an out, and that should be 6 months worth of payments.

In year 5, if they are still trading from your domain, you can charge whatever you wish.

People only rent names for short term projects, long term like this would be, is quite simply not economical to any business. They have no control over the domain, so why on earth would they build it up, with the potential of it being pulled away.

The maximum I personally think you would get is £500-£750 a year, and even then I'm being rather generous for a change. You see the potential, and I see the potential, but you will find the rental figures scare people off.

You should meet with the proposed tenants and look at their business plan, sign a non disclosure if they are worried you will pinch their ideas for the domain. After you have done this, choose one of thier revenue streams that you like the look of, and ask for a percentage share with a small monthly rental.

This way, you get some rental, a percentage of the revenue stream you choose, and it also gives your tenants peace of mind, knowing that you have a vested interest in the success of the site, the more they earn, the more you earn, less likely to pull the domain in 5 years.

Some unscrupulous people, may think it would be a great idea to rent out a domain for a couple of years and then cash in on the traffic etc, be careful if that is the case with anyone reading this, as you will find that the tenants will probably be able to claim similar protection to those of sitting tenants in regular life.

This could come into play when you decide to sell also, they could simply refuse, unless you sell the domain with them as sitting tenants.

Best of luck, its a great name, I like Wakefield

retired_member6

There seems to be an influx of embedded keyword links lately, let's hope you do want an apprisal, mind you, it's still good for acorn I suppose. Once upon a time nobody would have wanted their domains seen in an engine from here, repleat with cheap need money asking price and valuation compared to full end user cost at a later date.

rob

£5kish pa initally but would spend a few quid to get a contract drawn up legally and checked over by a domainer who knows his stuff.

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Eat more chips! Dont let salad win! I am rob who runs hey. Twitter:@robcouk.

DomainAngel

I like reading your posts Rob and usually agree, but can you explain how this domain could command £5k a year?

Maybe you have a different list of comparables than I do?

You have looked at Wakefield, and its population and demographics I take it?

The post also states that it gets 350 unique visitors a day, yet it has an Alexa Traffic Rank of 877,000 odd and a page view average of just 1 page, whereas one of the modest sites I have has an Alexa Rank of 615,000 and only gets an 55 unique visitors a day with an average of 4 page views.

If I am missing something, please let me know.

For a domain name you have no ownership rights on, for a town of this size and with the size of the business community, I just can't see how it could get that. I would love to be wrong of course.

I am that convinced, and feel over valuation stagnates domain sales, I will put £5k up for grabs.

If the domain Wakefield.co.uk gets a yearly rental of £5k, I will pay the owner the sum of £5,000 pounds sterling. The domain must be rented for this amount in a one off or monthly arrangement, and must not be paid in conjunction with any commission agreement to make the sum of £5,000 up. This of course is on the undertaking that the owner does not conspire with the rentee' or any third parties with the sole aim of claiming the £5,000 from myself. The Rent must clearly stated on any contract for the full sum of £5,000, with at least a minimum term of 1 year, and the full amount to be paid in the event of any contractual split. An industry standard six week limit from this date, 19th September, 2006 will apply to my offer. More than enough time you will agree to complete the transaction.

Apologies for above, but I have to cover myself incase of any willingness to part me with my money without a proper deal.

Should you get anyone who is prepared to pay this amount, it will be a pleasure to pay you, plus I have some magic beans they may be interested in also.

Have any of you Rented a domain name out, or from someone else? Please send me the details so I can add it to my research.

Happy Domaining

rob

£5k is based on other similar domains and earnings, it is quite possible to get it earning 10-15k pa and generally domains of this nature are dev'ed with a profit share agreement - thus me taking the 'low' and going 50 : 50 on it

I agree over valuation does kill domain sales and also deludes people into thinking they are sitting on a gold mine, however if this is a 'proper' rental the figures would add up, but if its Dave from the local school trying it on then its not going to happen

Incidently I have almost rented a couple of names but opted for final sales (for lesser cash) as I was not 100% happy with the whole setup ie. bloke renting uses X.co.uk and 2-3 years time can DRS / get legal to claim name etc. Lots of hassle.

I havent had coffee yet so wont attempt the rest of the reply but if I read it right there is £5k on offer that is very doable

BFTUK

Lee,

The keyword links is a new mod that the admin has installed, it pulls the meta title from the site that is linked to.

So no intentional keyword dropping when linking to sites.

Ash

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Web Directory | SEO Blog | Dorset | Discount Codes

DomainAngel

Rob, if you have any rental figures I would love to have them, I will get them published to be shared with the world

I still think my money is safe though.

The seller will almost certainly keep the domain name.

They just need to place a £30 advert in the local paper for an advertsing sales person/publishing

Pay them comm only and get them to call every business in the area, charging them only £99 a year for a listing.

I've calculated that if you got a 10% take up, the site using this revenue stream alone could generate 150k, 50% to the sales rep and £75k for the site owner.

Costs would obviously be around 5k, maybe give the sales person £100 a week and 35% comm, would get you a more stable salespeson, not always better, and would make you even more money with the percentage being lower.

If the poster needs any help with recruiting a sales person, feel free to ask.

Back to another appraisal thread where I am under fire for my direct approach to advice.

rob

If they were able to go public domainprices.co.uk would have them

however...

Yes - all very doable, perhaps I priced it a little low

Ideas are one thing and actually doing things is another so in a case like this it could be worth linking it as a rev-share , but again thats where the fun starts with renting domain names and would warn anyone doing it to get a decent (not just some bandit who doesnt know what a domain is) solicitor and a domainer to form up a contract.

Edit: above you did mention rental figures scare people off, but so does any price. I agree a 'let' or a sale is worth something, however I would hold out for something decent rather than let things go for the first offers in.