Wanted: Domain Appraisal Cheapflights .co .uk domain value?

[crazihos]

Just as a point of interest, what do you think a domain name like cheapflights .co .uk be would be worth today as a domain alone (if it had never had a website behind it).

I have seen generic domains like fly .co.uk go for £80k+ but what about a great generic 2 word name like the example above. Would it hold as much value in todays market?

 

[retired_member16]

If f l y was £80k then cheapflights (even with Easyjet and Ryanair firmly lodged in customers memories) has to be £400k

 

[crazihos]

Do you think cheapflights holds more value as that is what a user will search for or because its so eaily brandable?

For example if I had the choice of flights .co.uk or cheapflights .co.uk i'm not sure which i'd rather have from a branding/marketing point of view?

I guess my question is are there cases where a 2 word domain will hold massive values and be as good as the singular domains.

When i've looked at .co.uk domain sale prices over the last 12 months the real big sales have all been singular words (fly, recycle,mobiles etc..) but having said that no real corker 2 word domains (such as my cheapflights example) have come up to compare it to?

 

[SF]

cheapflights is amazing name 400k is about right maybe more...

 

[woopwoop]

Whether the 2 word is more valuable than the 1 word depends on branding possibility and also your candidates for the sale (if you were just wanting to sell the domain on)

I think that more people would type "cheap flights" into their address bar directly (and then their browsers do that weird thing where it directs you to a site) and maybe more would type in cheapflights.com / .co.uk instead of either "cheap" or "flights"

Maybe that's the best example. "Cheap". Cheap.co.uk would be a great domain to own, endless possibilities, but you'd have to get the word out. Cheap flights is a well used term and very specific.

Might be easier to sell cheapflights.co.uk for 400k than cheap.co.uk

I have StudentBooks.com and if anyone would like to buy it for 300k, make your offer. On sale next 24 hours only from the time of posting

 

[IanTurner]

If fly.co.uk went for £87,500

Then cheapflights.co.uk has to be worth about 10% of that value as a raw domain.

I think previous posters have been confusing the fact that 'cheapflights.co.uk' already has a fairly big brandname with the raw domain value.

If you were looking to to develop a domain and had a choice between fly.co.uk and cheapflights.co.uk where would your money go. Short term cheapflights.co.uk may do better but long term I'd take fly.co.uk anytime.

 

[scooter]

Me too. You would visit once, book and never forget where to return to.



.

 

[mat]

I think in an ideal world I would have the main site as fly to have a smart short catchy brand with cheap flights linking in for the type in traffic and collecting the people searching for "cheap flights"

 

[crazihos]

I think previous posters have been confusing the fact that 'cheapflights.co.uk' already has a fairly big brandname with the raw domain value.

I think you may be right to a degree on the above but i'm wondering if very the best 2 word domains may not be catching up (in the prime areas anyway).

After flights and fly the next best domain in that market is probably cheap flights so would only 10% of their value be realistic in markets where such prime domains may never come up for sale again?

Heres another example of the above -

loans .co .uk, loan .co .uk, cheap loans.co .uk, bestonlineloans .co .uk

How would you price these as percentages - 100%, 60%, 40%, 1% ?

 

[Edwin]

loans .co .uk, loan .co .uk, cheap loans.co .uk, bestonlineloans .co .uk

How would you price these as percentages - 100%, 60%, 40%, 1% ?

loans.co.uk 100%
loan.co.uk 50%
cheaploans.co.uk 10%
bestonlineloans.co.uk - regfee to 50 pounds max.

 

[woopwoop]

loans.co.uk 100%
loan.co.uk 50%
cheaploans.co.uk 10%
bestonlineloans.co.uk - regfee to 50 pounds max.

I completely agree with this.

But what about:

flights.co.uk - 100%
flight.co.uk - 30%
cheapflights.co.uk - 60-100% ??

I think that with the example of cheapflights, 'cheap' goes much better with 'flights' than 'loans'. cheap flights has to make the value higher than 10% imo and possibly up to full value because it naturally sounding catchier and friendlier than 'flights' maybe? whaddya think

 

[landlord]

Depnds on the pot

I would say that it depends on your pot and how remarkable your product is.

facebook and youtube are contextually crap but remarkable products.....they were 'virused out' very well indeed.....maybe you need to start at harvard to take this route.

For a small business who is trying to 'virus' his/her product/service should rely on contextually good names....as a small business I would not build a business any other way. It is far easier to get exposure from a contextually good name and therefore it suits a small business

I think the challenge for fly.co.uk is to get it to the top of google for the term flights and cheap flights or as you say have another site that feeds fly.co.uk for the terms flights and cheap flights....you need a big pot to do this and so it wont suit the small business on a tight budget.

Lee

 

[Edwin]

Whatever stats you look at for "cheap flights" (overture, Wordtracker etc.) they're all skewed by the popular site at cheapflights.co.uk.

It's almost impossible to tell, but I'd bet the "naked" stats for cheapflights.co.uk (mythical undeveloped domain) would be much much lower than those currently reported by the keyword stats tools, for exactly that reason.

cheapflights.co.uk is perhaps worth 10% of flights.co.uk at best (once you've mentally taken the above into account).

 

[landlord]

cheap flights built on cheap flights

In actual fact cheap flights was built on the search term cheap flights....it outperforms travelsupermarket for the term cheap flights and has built substantial good will through the search term cheap flights and not national advertising

In fact moneysupermarket as an earlier adopter of the web has built its reputation from search engine results.....they are lucky cause they got in early....you can only compete like cheap flights with a contextually better name...

trying to get fly above travelsupermarket and cheapflights for the term cheapflights is a battle i would not contemplate with my small business cash

 

[accelerator]

Personally I think there is a lot of value in domain names that tell you what the website is going to do for the visitor. As a Ronseal advert might say "Does exactly what it says on the tin".

That's why I regged:

cheapflighttickets.co.uk

When you're looking for something in the search engines, you'll give more appropriate urls a click.

Rgds

Accelerator

 

[Deleted member 5246]

Personally I think there is a lot of value in domain names that tell you what the website is going to do for the visitor. As a Ronseal advert might say "Does exactly what it says on the tin".

That's why I regged:

cheapflighttickets.co.uk

When you're looking for something in the search engines, you'll give more appropriate urls a click.

Rgds

Accelerator

Nice name checkout affiliatefuture new Travel Search Technologies.

They have Holiday, Flight, Accommodation Search Boxes etc

http://affiliates.affiliatefuture.co.uk/ResourceCentre/Travel/default.aspx

You need to be a affiliatefuture member to view the page

 

[dougs]

fly and cheapflights

The search terms are "flights to" and "cheap flights to".

agree out ranking cheapflights and travelsupermarket with their link love for thos terms is a mountain, but check out the traffic on skyscanner...it is huge and gets it traffic from the long tail. They have a much better product that both cheapflights and tsm and so are acquiring quality links and repeat customers who trust it.

Its not too hard to build a better product that tsm, who now are so huge they are slow moving. Cheapflights as product is awul and will take them ages to change their business model

So the plan with fly.co.uk is simple, build the best product we can, build the long tail traffic and do all the things you would do, but keep concentrating on the product, the repeat traffic is what will do it.

The sell it to someone to stick on TV or maybe we will

Carrentals.co.uk is argueably the best product now out their in car hire and we are still adding stuff....and I see no reason not to do the same in flights

Doug


Doug

 

[domainseller200]

What about cheapplaneflights . co .uk ?

This is one I may be selling or developing just haven't decided whaich yet due to workload

 

[landlord]

carrentals

Doug, carrentals is very good name and I presume this is how you made your money....a certain amount of that google page 1 rank for the term car rentals helps give you income..... to buy fly is very bold indeed and if you do manage to crack page 1 rank for major terms like flights and cheap flights then your fly is superior to most BUT b8.co.uk would be cool too Then b8.com would be even better. two digits .com seem to go with airlines....aa.com ba.com xl.com...... maybe 1n.com ..... would be very good indeed

Lee

 

[accelerator]

What about cheapplaneflights . co .uk ?

This is one I may be selling or developing just haven't decided whaich yet due to workload

You'll do better developing it ... it's quite a reasonable name ...

Rgds

Accelerator