mortgage-calculator-uk.net

[EnhancedMartin]

Hi guys

I just wanted a little advice as I am new to the domaining arena.
Now don't take this the wrong way I am not complaining whatsoever.

I offered these domains for sale yesterday;
mortgage-calculator-uk - net
mortgage-calculator-uk - org-uk
12.500 exacts
£1.99 cpc

There doesn't seem to be any interest whatsoever for these domains so I wanted to know why this may be!

What should I be looking out for in a good domain name?
Do the hyphens spoil the domain?
Is it the domain extension?

I want to be really good at this and be a positive member in the forum.

I started to develop the .net yesterday as I think there could be some nice money made from this but what are your experiences of working in the mortgage industry?

Thanks in advance

Martin

 

[WealdDomains]

Hi guys
What should I be looking out for in a good domain name?
Do the hyphens spoil the domain?
Is it the domain extension?

Hi. Martin. I don't have a proven track record, so don't treat my comments as gospel. However ...

To me, your names simply don't feel natural, they have hyphens and they don't have the primary extension for a UK service.

To me, something should have a straightforward, memorable and relevant domain name rather than an artificial construct to lure search engines. It should gel with humans, not just rely on exact type-in traffic. It should have one of the expected core extensions (in this case, co.uk).

And that's without getting into a debate about relevant content !

I just had a dig around and understandably found most obvious domain names are already registered. However, within five minutes I came up with this pair. As of 2155 GMT they are not registered and I am not going to register them. I have not done trademark/IPR research, I just mention them as an observation.

monthlymortgage.co.uk
mortgagemonthly.co.uk

To me, either of those (especially the former) sounds a lot better and memorable to humans than yours, with the benefit of co.uk and no hyphen.

Others - relatively worse, but still arguably subjectively better than yours - include :

howmucheachmonth.co.uk
howmuchmonthly.co.uk
howmuchpermonth.co.uk

You have to decide your own branding and usability strategy. Your domain names have keyword merits that my suggestions do not. I'm just voicing a personal opinion. And yes, I have consciously chosen not to explore or comment upon my preferred niche.

Best wishes,
David

 

[suzi]

I offered these domains for sale yesterday;
mortgage-calculator-uk - net
mortgage-calculator-uk - org-uk

There doesn't seem to be any interest whatsoever for these domains so I wanted to know why this may be!

For a domain to have value as a domain (as opposed to as a developed website), it needs to be something that is not readily available.

Within about 45 seconds of starting to look, I found:

my-mortgage-calculator.co.uk

It's free to register.

It's FTR because I suspect I could probably find 10 or more similar multi-word domains within as many minutes. So, if someone wanted to develop a mortgage calculator site, why would they buy your domain, when they can find one just as good (bad?) without much trouble?

I'd suggest that before you buy any more domains, spend a few hours trawling some of the posts here. See what domains sell and what don't. You should soon start to see what's good and what isn't.

But even then, some people will see value in a domain name that others don't see!

Good luck.

 

[grantw]

If you're looking to sell domains rather than develop then don't register stuff based solely on the exact search figures or you'll end up wasting a lot of money. Avoid hyphens too wherever possible.

Grant

 

[Frog]

Hi guys

I just wanted a little advice as I am new to the domaining arena.
Now don't take this the wrong way I am not complaining whatsoever.

I offered these domains for sale yesterday;
mortgage-calculator-uk - net
mortgage-calculator-uk - org-uk
12.500 exacts
£1.99 cpc

There doesn't seem to be any interest whatsoever for these domains so I wanted to know why this may be!

What should I be looking out for in a good domain name?
Do the hyphens spoil the domain?
Is it the domain extension?

I want to be really good at this and be a positive member in the forum.

I started to develop the .net yesterday as I think there could be some nice money made from this but what are your experiences of working in the mortgage industry?

Thanks in advance

Martin

Those domains are worthless for resale - you wasted the reg fee on them.

Double hyphens are ruining the domains yeah, and the poor mans extensions are making a horrible domain 10 times worse.

Quoting cpc and search volume on a double hyphen .net is pointless, its going to have no bearing on the value of the domain at all, since the domain gets no exact match benefit, and there are hundreds of similar domains that are free to register that could just as easily rank for those phrases.

If you want to sell domains based on search numbers, you need to find ones without hyphens. Or (at a push) 1 hyphen, 2 words and a .co.uk.

Nobody wants to build a site on a garbage domain like that - when was the last time you seen a 3 word, 2 hyphen .org.uk that wasn't a spam site?

I think you would be doing yourself a favour by putting the credit card away and spend the next month reading domain, seo, affiliate and webmaster forums/blogs and more importantly, following domain sale prices. Your first attempt here was was painfully bad, and obviously contained no research into what you were doing. Any similar attempts will only result in in wasting time and money...

 

[EnhancedMartin]

Hi Guys

Thank you all for your valuable comments.

Just to give you a little background about myself. I understand Internet Marketing very well. I am a manager in a Manchester SEO agency and work with some fantastic well known household brands. Before this I was a web developer for 10 years.

I understand what you are saying about the domains I offered. There are a lot of spam websites out there with hyphenated domain names. Some are used purely as affiliate sites. However, would you say these types of sffiliate sites are actually spam sites? People make a good living from affiliate sites and if the core TLDs are already registerded there isn't much option but to use hyphens and .org domains.

It would seem that opinions on what makes a domain name valuable can vary massively between one person and the next.

Some would say that because so many people trade in domain names that is doesn't give actual businesses a chance on the internet because their domains are being snapped up.

My reasons behind choosing the domains
Again this is only my theory and i'm not saying your comments are wrong.

If I wanted to sell affiliate products on a website related to the financial industry (loans, insurance, credit cards, mortgage related etc), I would want to choose a domain name that helped with SEO. Therefore I would choose a domain name that was a good keyphrase.

my-mortgage-calculator.co.uk - < 10 exacts - 17,700,000 competition
monthlymortgage.co.uk - 46 exacts - 33,700,000 competition
mortgagemonthly.co.uk - 46 exacts - 94,000,000 competition

mortgage-calculator-uk.net - 12,500 exacts - 7,880,000 competiton

My domains are less competative and have higher monthly search volumes.

If I now build these domains out with good quality, usefull information (not spam) and add affiliate products to the site then I have a better chance of converting visitors to sales.

Once the site is ranking well and turning revenue it would be more valuable.

Simples:

So there's the theory behind it.

I wouldn't agree that they are "crap" "Garbage" or that I have "wasted the reg fee" because of what I said above. Unless I am completely on the wrong track.

I suppose it's what you do with a domain thats counts.
Rather than looking for a short term quick profit on these domains I should look at the long term benefits of developing them out, because the chances of buying a one word .co.uk or .com domain that would make a huge profit is pretty unlikely unless you had big bucks to play with in the first place.

I suppose time will tell and it would be a good experiment to test the theory.

 

[retired_member32]

firstly why hasn't the moderators moved this away from the general board ? there is more suitable places for this thread...

secondly...as you are aware the extension .net is a poor mans .com for a reason ? it is a hard slog to rank .net ,especially in a ultra competitive market place like mortgages ??

and finally adding a double hyphen into the mix is a step too far,i personally think having the org.uk is even a step even further....so you have two "uk's" within one domain...sorry it is waste of money

keep to com and co.uk....

 

[grantw]

my-mortgage-calculator.co.uk - < 10 exacts - 17,700,000 competition
monthlymortgage.co.uk - 46 exacts - 33,700,000 competition
mortgagemonthly.co.uk - 46 exacts - 94,000,000 competition

mortgage-calculator-uk.net - 12,500 exacts - 7,880,000 competiton

The only people that really give a toss about these figures are some domainers and affiliate marketers - the two groups of people that are going to pay the very least for domains on the secondary market.

GKT is handy as a guide but if you're just looking to buy and sell domains you really need to use your common sense - is it memorable, on a good extension, does it roll off the tongue, pass the radio test, does it look good etc etc

On the other hand if you're looking to develop these and they start making money then there will be value but you'd then be selling a website with revenue, not just a domain - the value would be based on the websites revenue and the domains you've registered would add little or no value to the sale.

My advice is to hang around the sales forum and domainlore.co.uk, there are some real bargains to be had at the moment!

Grant

 

[Blossom]

There are a lot of spam websites out there with hyphenated domain names. Some are used purely as affiliate sites. However, would you say these types of sffiliate sites are actually spam sites?

Yes, because if search engines didn't exist they wouldn't even have any written content. Those sites would just be lots of links to affiliate products. And the content that most of those sites do put up is very poor.

People make a good living from affiliate sites and if the core TLDs are already registerded there isn't much option but to use hyphens and .org domains.

You're implying there that affiliate sites are a good thing. You should know that Google really doesn't like affiliate sites. And as an SEO you should be questioning how much value exact matches will have long term due to the recent discussions/developments. Also as an SEO, you should probably be aware that .orgs and hyphened domain names don't get as many benefits and are harder to work with. In some cases hyphened names don't get benefits at all.

Finally, the number of affiliates who make 'good money' are few and far between. Most of them have made lots of money because they're an authority figure for other affiliates, they have a strong rep, sell ebooks, have a lot of good contacts that do them favours and give them tips, and because they worked for a good few years without making much and didn't give up. I've interviewed some big affiliates, and they always had/have other stuff on the side - forums, advertising, ebooks, freelance work, online content etc.

It would seem that opinions on what makes a domain name valuable can vary massively between one person and the next.

I completely agree with that statement generally, but what you mean in this context is that all the people who have replied don't agree with you. Such an imbalance of opinion backed up with arguments is a pretty good indication.

Some would say that because so many people trade in domain names that is doesn't give actual businesses a chance on the internet because their domains are being snapped up.

Not really, because exact match domains aren't the be all and end all of the internet. In fact, people like me (not domainers, not affiliate marketers) tend to avoid keyword-rich/exact match domains in searches because of the high chance they will return a useless affiliate site.

My domains are less competative and have higher monthly search volumes.

Apart from the fact they won't get as much benefit as you think, will be competing against better names without hyphens, and will often see people avoiding them because they sound like affiliate names you mean?

If I now build these domains out with good quality, usefull information (not spam) and add affiliate products to the site then I have a better chance of converting visitors to sales.

Or you could just put a bit more time in, structure your site well, and create a sellable business site that doesn't scream 'I have an affiliate name that you can't remember easily'.

Rather than looking for a short term quick profit on these domains I should look at the long term benefits of developing them out, because the chances of buying a one word .co.uk or .com domain that would make a huge profit is pretty unlikely unless you had big bucks to play with in the first place.

That depends on how lucky you are, and what domains are up for sale. You don't need a massive budget to buy a good domain name of one or two words.

If you're starting out with the focus for doing it for money, you'll give up within the first year because you don't think you've made enough from one site for the amount of work you've put in. From your posts I gather you're very money-orientated and you're going to end up disappointed if you're expecting to make more than about £100 a month..you'll be lucky if you get anything for the first 6.

 

[Rah123]

My domains are less competative and have higher monthly search volumes.

They may have less competition and higher monthly search volume, and they may well make someone a quick buck; but the others are far more memorable and more profitable in the long run. With good SEO (you really deal with this for a living?) and careful (and free!) advertising you could turn something like mortgagemonthly into a popular, interesting and well respected website (complete with affiliate sales if you wanted).

All of the above > a cheap, low visited affiliate sales site.

I can honestly say I have never visited a double hyphenated dot org uk website. Would never reg one and will never buy one..

chances of buying a one word .co.uk or .com domain that would make a huge profit is pretty unlikely unless you had big bucks to play with in the first place.

One word, probably. But two-word domains without a hyphen, that could quite easily get you 3000% profit are abundantly available to hand reg. Just need to put your imagination cap on.

 

[namealot]

Are you basing it around volume or word or combination?

Adding letters, words etc to a generic and basing the potential around it you could say why not buy the generic..? If it’s beyond budget or not available then go lower tld or cctlds…? But then even simply saying generics not a guarantee as to archiving a sale…

You could also go words that are Brandable eg apple, orange, red etc ..... but thats very tricky one

Just look at “Compare the meerkat etc” or plenty of others based on a names that mean nothing… and prior had probably no search volume….

Then do you go long tail in higher tld cctld (there are so many combinations that can be added to get the same results) So why go long tale in less desirable cctld etc it makes them much less desirable and harder to sell…

Saying it has high search volume doesn’t mean it will list high…? Even if it did it’s not always the case of a site appearing high in the search engines reflecting increasing product orders and revenue etc?

There are so many variables etc to take into account that there is no simple real formula that you can say works 100% when you’re talking about domains that have no revenue..? If anyone had it they make a fortune…

Research the field, know the market and clients and have the right connections etc these will help you sell a name… through in a great deal of luck….

Would you actually recommend to you’re seo clients that they purchase the domains as you have them…? or tell them to look for something better ...? and seo wise advertise your own sites on your sites not wordpress l

 

[EnhancedMartin]

Ah right. OK. So taking in to account the information provided above...

Take this one
http://www.personalinjuryclaims - net/
5400 exacts
CPC £53.40 eek OMG

It's a wordpress website with a domain that has been selected purely because it has high search volumes, however it isn't hyphenated. It currently ranks page 1 no 6 and is probably a lead generation site.

As an SEO guy, would I recomend to a client to purchase a domain name like this? Yes I would. If it was personal-injury-claims.net would I recomend it? Yes I would. Even though Google may not place as much emphasis on keyword heavy domain names I personally think that it is still a factor and another point in the ranking of a website. If the information provided by a website is of good value to the user then I think the domain that is keyword heavy could be useful.

I didn't imply that because a keyphrase has high search volume that the domain equivalent would rank high. It takes a lot of work to rank a site as we all know.

Originally Posted by EnhancedMartin View Post
It would seem that opinions on what makes a domain name valuable can vary massively between one person and the next.
I completely agree with that statement generally, but what you mean in this context is that all the people who have replied don't agree with you. Such an imbalance of opinion backed up with arguments is a pretty good indication.

This was a reference to different topics on this website not at only this post.

We live in a capitalist society and we all try to make money in deferent ways. This is just another wayto do so.

 

[grantw]

personalinjuryclaims - net

This is a totally generic domain which would have a high value on it's own without a site, start sticking hyphens and 'uk' into it and it no longer is!

This is a domain forum and most of the views you get will be from a domain value point of view, not how much it would be worth IF it ranked well and was a money making site.

Grant

 

[WealdDomains]

We live in a capitalist society and we all try to make money in deferent ways. This is just another wayto do so.

Martin, you are choosing to expose your own approach in this forum and you are choosing to request feedback. We are giving it. I am a newcomer without a track record, as I highlighted in my response.

Your SEO manipulation may mean you're a millionaire by this time next year. I - honestly - wish you well, and will be a trifle jealous if you achieve it. I hope my domains will be long-lived (rented) assets generating, individually, fractions of a comfortable portfolio income. I may be prove to be misguided and out of pocket. If so, I may manage to flog a few names to our more gullible peers in this forum to mitigate my mistakes.

Within the last few months I have hand-registered the following domains in broadly the space you have referred to. And no, this isn't a sales pitch. And yes, it does betray my modus operandi.

FixedRateMortgageGuide.co.uk
FlexibleMortgageGuide.co.uk
OffsetMortgageGuide.co.uk
RemortgagingGuide.co.uk
RepaymentMortgageGuide.co.uk
TrackerMortgageGuide.co.uk
VariableRateMortgageGuide.co.uk

I'm not a genius. I haven't got round to building - or, to use a horrid, mercenary Americanism, "monetizing" - them yet. I personally prefer to hold these than names with a load of hyphens and a less popular suffix. I may miss out on short-term search engine traffic. I may miss the boat. That's my choice and I wish you well with your different approach. That doesn't stop me having a preference for my approach, despite the (current, transient) statistics you quote.

David

 

[julian]

Hi Guys

Just to give you a little background about myself. I understand Internet Marketing very well. I am a manager in a Manchester SEO agency and work with some fantastic well known household brands. Before this I was a web developer for 10 years.

I don't want to sound rude but if the above is true and you think: mortgage-calculator-uk.net is a good buy then you need to go back to McDonalds and carry on working to get your two star for using the milkshake machine.

Seriously.. this must be a wind up - your managing an SEO agency?!

Good luck with the domains - I hope you prove me wrong..

 

[Frog]

I don't want to sound rude but if the above is true and you think: mortgage-calculator-uk.net is a good buy then you need to go back to McDonalds and carry on working to get your two star for using the milkshake machine.

Seriously.. this must be a wind up - your managing an SEO agency?!

Good luck with the domains - I hope you prove me wrong..

I was going to post something similar yesterday and held off...

I was shocked when he replied back and said he was an seo agency manager - I'd assumed he learned to switch a computer on last week and had heard he could get rich on the internet

It just doesn't add up... there is zero chance that someone who is a manager at an seo firm could fail to understand something so basic about domains. Either the posts here are full of bullshit, its someone trolling, or if these posts are all legit then I feel sorry for your customers...

 

[EnhancedMartin]

Guys.

I started this post to ask for some genuine advice from some experienced domainers.

I have to say I am VERY dissapointed to see this post to turn in to personal and rude attack on my ability as an SEO manager.

I was under the impression that acorn domains was a reputable and professional domiaining forum but if this is how you treat its members then shame on you.

I am always open to constructive critisism but this is just rude.

Perhaps the site owner or moderators should think about this.

 

[Frog]

Its a public forum - if you didn't want feedback (or only positive feedback) maybe you shouldn't have posted it...

Still not convinced this thread isn't a wind up.

 

[retired_member32]

Yes but doesn't first4lawyers advertise on television ,and they have other sites on the SERPS..to bolster it's presence ?

Ah right. OK. So taking in to account the information provided above...

Take this one
http://www.personalinjuryclaims - net/
5400 exacts
CPC £53.40 eek OMG

It's a wordpress website with a domain that has been selected purely because it has high search volumes, however it isn't hyphenated. It currently ranks page 1 no 6 and is probably a lead generation site.

As an SEO guy, would I recomend to a client to purchase a domain name like this? Yes I would. If it was personal-injury-claims.net would I recomend it? Yes I would. Even though Google may not place as much emphasis on keyword heavy domain names I personally think that it is still a factor and another point in the ranking of a website. If the information provided by a website is of good value to the user then I think the domain that is keyword heavy could be useful.

I didn't imply that because a keyphrase has high search volume that the domain equivalent would rank high. It takes a lot of work to rank a site as we all know.


This was a reference to different topics on this website not at only this post.

We live in a capitalist society and we all try to make money in deferent ways. This is just another wayto do so.

 

[Bailey]

Reading this thread from purely a domainers point of view (I don't site build) my pennies worth.

Martin I do think your taking the criticism too personally - And I accept it has been worded in a personal way. However, the replies are expressing a counter opnion, and I believe a correct one in the strongest terms that can possibly be used, without upsetting the Mods . Most members contribute here with the belief that they help the original poster walk away with perhaps a different perspective, Even if worded quite strongly And lets face it none are going to relate a forum user name to your business life

Just from my own experience. I consider myself a pretty good old-hand at the Gtld market. Not many here that are going to teach me about selling .coms but, I have learnt a wealth of knowledge regarding the CCtld market that I didn't even start to understand at the begining.

Take the criticism in the slightly tongue-in-cheek way it is intended and you may find (If you hang around) yourself gaining some very helpful knowledge from those that do know what they're talking about - And No I wouldn't touch a double hyphen in a .net either