Stupidly High Domain Prices

[markb]

Hi All,

Just wondering how some people seem to come to the conclusion their domain is worth a small fortune. I own a pet related forum at petforums/.co/.uk which is quite a popular uk forum, and not long ago I thought I would enquire about buying the dot com version as it was parked and for sale. I offered a decent amount to say that my own website doesnt make much money even though its popular, but never got any reply, so I emailed domainbrokers who the domain was with and asked why I never heard anything back. They got back saying that the owner wouldnt even consider replying to my offer of around £500 (which I thought was very generous) and wouldnt consider less than £8000. Wonder where they came up with that price? It would be very hard to make a popular pet forum that could earn enough money to afford that domain name. Seems to me some people overestimate the value of their domains.

Mark

 

[retired_member12]

It's a shame really. There are 1000s' of registrants holding on to domains worth no more than say £100, because in their mind someone might come along any day soon and offer them £20K. They've held them for say 8-10 years or more, never had an offer in all that time, then they turn down the realistic offer and instead wait another 8-10 years for the next £100 realistic offer to come in.

Lottery mentality!

 

[GreyWing]

Yes but maybe they have plans for that name in the future and whilst not having time to develop at the moment, they may still plan to do so.

So if they are going to sell, then you aren't just buying the names. You are buying the plans that they had for that name, because they ain't ever going to be able to own that name again.

So whilst you might not value or use their plans for the name, you certainly will have to pay for them. Well you will if you come to me anyway

 

[retired_member6]

Is your domain worth £500 or £8000?

There's your answer.

 

[EdwinEdwin is verified member.]

In this case the .com is worth much more. It's not a product/service domain, it's something that works entirely online (location independent) and across all major English speaking countries. At that point, the US looms as massively larger and more important than the UK, and that can only mean... .com!

Put another way, if you wanted to start a forum about pets aimed at everyone everywhere (a community distinguished not by location, but by their interest in pets) then just try and come up with a name that's better than PetForums.com!

 

[markb]

My domain and website is probably worth around that much as its the UKs most popular pet community, but thats because its had a lot of money and hard work gone in to it and it ranks number 1 in google for many excellent keywords including "pet forum", "pet community", "pet forums" etc...

My domain value before I put in all this hard work was £2.99 with 1and1.

So the other domain in my opinon wouldnt be as valuable as mine, as it has no website or no hard work put in to it. Maybe its as valuable as someone is willing to pay, so I would value it at £500 currently, to me, but probably not worth as much to someone else.

Do you think this is correct or not?

Mark

 

[retired_member12]

Yes but maybe they have plans for that name in the future and whilst not having time to develop at the moment, they may still plan to do so.

So if they are going to sell, then you aren't just buying the names. You are buying the plans that they had for that name, because they ain't ever going to be able to own that name again.

So whilst you might not value or use their plans for the name, you certainly will have to pay for them. Well you will if you come to me anyway

I can see your point GW, but as the .com version was actually for sale, I'd tend to think that the seller is/was never really going to develop it. In any case, a seller can convince themself that it has extra value because they were going to develop it, but that doesn't mean it does actually have that extra. In some cases yes, but in most cases they're probably deluding themselves and missing out on a sale.
Resellers dont tend to think that way, and so can flip for a reasonable profit quite quickly.

 

[retired_member6]

My domain and website is probably worth around that much as its the UKs most popular pet community, but thats because its had a lot of money and hard work gone in to it and it ranks number 1 in google for many excellent keywords including "pet forum", "pet community", "pet forums" etc...

My domain value before I put in all this hard work was £2.99 with 1and1.

So the other domain in my opinon wouldnt be as valuable as mine, as it has no website or no hard work put in to it. Maybe its as valuable as someone is willing to pay, so I would value it at £500 currently, to me, but probably not worth as much to someone else.

Do you think this is correct or not?

Mark

No the worth of your domain before you put the effort in was not £2.99 it was probbaly around £500 to £1000 and it was just sitting there to be found, loads of us find names unregged then sell them for £500 the next day, you're misunderstanding quite a bit.

And as you stated the worth of your little lot, time it by five and ten and forty and there's the .com value, .co.uk typically 10% less, if someone came along to do a petforum site, they could buy the .com and be very happy with the subject matter and related keyword name, although I'd much prefer the singular.

Re your last paragraph, unfortunately for you, the better sites and activity on same keyword domain, means the worth of theirs goes up, not down, you helped increase the price of the .com through your work, although the .com in itself was wirth a few thousand before it was even regged for a fiver.

The .com is worth what you're willing to pay and what the seller is willing to sell for, you don't want it, so move on or try to get it when the 'chancer' who has it, runs out of lolly.

 

[markb]

I think my mindset as a web developer is totally different to that of a domain buyer and seller. I only see worth in a domain name which is earning money and not really in a domain name that could potentially earn money. Maybe I should start buying and selling domains for profit instead of developing websites on them.

Out of interest as im not sure how much domain names are worth, how much do you think my other domain is worth petscommunity/.co/.uk

Cheers

No the worth of your domain before you put the effort in was not £2.99 it was probbaly around £500 to £1000 and it was just sitting there to be found, loads of us find names unregged then sell them for £500 the next day, you're misunderstanding quite a bit.

And as you stated the worth of your little lot, time it by five and ten and forty and there's the .com value, .co.uk typically 10% less, if someone came along to do a petforum site, they could buy the .com and be very happy with the subject matter and related keyword name, although I'd much prefer the singular.

Re your last paragraph, unfortunately for you, the better sites and activity on same keyword domain, means the worth of theirs goes up, not down, you helped increase the price of the .com through your work, although the .com in itself was wirth a few thousand before it was even regged for a fiver.

The .com is worth what you're willing to pay and what the seller is willing to sell for, you don't want it, so move on or try to get it when the 'chancer' who has it, runs out of lolly.

 

[retired_member6]

I think my mindset as a web developer is totally different to that of a domain buyer and seller. I only see worth in a domain name which is earning money and not really in a domain name that could potentially earn money. Maybe I should start buying and selling domains for profit instead of developing websites on them.

Out of interest as im not sure how much domain names are worth, how much do you think my other domain is worth petscommunity/.co/.uk

Cheers

Domains have different purposes and a variety of people have different uses and reasons to use them, it's no wonder people don't see eye to eye, I don't think the .com is worth that much, I don't like the plural of pet, singular much better. So hard to say, I wouldnt reg the community one, but the one you're currently using is a good one, again singular better but does the job.

 

[GreyWing]

Out of interest as im not sure how much domain names are worth, how much do you think my other domain is worth petscommunity/.co/.uk
Cheers

Just for the name, I would say zero mate. Domain valuing isn't something you can really learn, it's more something you pick up by buying and selling and biggest of all "making mistakes".

But what you said about the way you value domains i.e "what they have earn't", is near the truth. However some can command value without earning anything, you have just to figure out which is which and unfortunately petforums.com is one that could command value without earnings.

 

[retired_member12]

Anyway Mark, I just searched "pet forums" & "pet forum" in Google.com, and you were top in both cases. Keep your dosh in your pocket for now and only think about paying for this chancers' holiday next year when you start fallng down the rankings!

 

[markb]

Anyway Mark, I just searched "pet forums" & "pet forum" in Google.com, and you were top in both cases. Keep your dosh in your pocket for now and only think about paying for this chancers' holiday next year when you start fallng down the rankings!

Yeah, I know the purchase wouldnt be worth my money at all, thats why im not interested in buying it now i know how much they want, i just couldnt beleive how some people seem to exaggerate the value of their domains.

 

[markb]

Just for the name, I would say zero mate. Domain valuing isn't something you can really learn, it's more something you pick up by buying and selling and biggest of all "making mistakes".

But what you said about the way you value domains i.e "what they have earn't", is near the truth. However some can command value without earning anything, you have just to figure out which is which and unfortunately petforums.com is one that could command value without earnings.

So im not sure I understand what your saying, your saying that petforums(/.com) can command a high value of £8000, even though the keyword doesnt get many searches at all and theres no website. On the other hand my domain petscommunity (/.co.uk) which is a great keyword that gets a ton of searches in google every month is worth nothing.

I would be interested to understand how you come to this conclusion, or maybe it cant be explained or learnt.

I could quite easily just keep my domain and put a value of £5000 on it, like what a lot of other domain owners seem to do, then keep it for eternity and reject any reasonable offer and prevent any developer from creating a website on it. Sounds like a good plan.

Mark

 

[retired_member6]

I could quite easily just keep my domain and put a value of £5000 on it, like what a lot of other domain owners seem to do, then keep it for eternity and reject any reasonable offer and prevent any developer from creating a website on it. Sounds like a good plan.

Mark

Or present a viable business plan and partnership as to why the holder of the domain should allow you to develop the domain and state what his revenue would be. Some domainers are open to lease agreements or partnerships in development or both, not always a sale required, then in the agreement you can add a purchase value so as to terminate any agreement by either side, a buy out. Some still won't entertain the idea due to using the domain on another project, preventing a possible future sale with someone else.

 

[tifosi]

So im not sure I understand what your saying, your saying that petforums(/.com) can command a high value of £8000, even though the keyword doesnt get many searches at all and theres no website. On the other hand my domain petscommunity (/.co.uk) which is a great keyword that gets a ton of searches in google every month is worth nothing.

I would be interested to understand how you come to this conclusion, or maybe it cant be explained or learnt.

I could quite easily just keep my domain and put a value of £5000 on it, like what a lot of other domain owners seem to do, then keep it for eternity and reject any reasonable offer and prevent any developer from creating a website on it. Sounds like a good plan.

Mark

In a lot of respects its about 'semantic meaning'. petforums splits into 'pet' 'forums'. Semantically its easy to interpret this as 'a forum about pets'. Search engines would show this.

Petscommunity however splits to 'pets' 'community' with a semantic meaning of 'a community that pets get involved in'. Now, a reasonably intelligent person with a grasp of english would read into that and dismiss it as non-sensical unless they have a pretty clued up cat that could browse the net. They would infer it as a weak way of saying 'a site about pets'. Current search engines however would have more difficulty. The next generation of google etc would be better at this... it's what they're working on.

So petforums is more 'powerful' - read more potential so worth more - than petscommunity.

S

 

[websaway]

Mark[/QUOTE]
I could quite easily just keep my domain and put a value of £5000 on it, like what a lot of other domain owners seem to do, then keep it for eternity and reject any reasonable offer and prevent any developer from creating a website on it. Sounds like a good plan.

Mark

Your assuming £500 is a reasonable offer, how pretentious, it's somebody elses domain and they clearly want it more than you do.

 

[GreyWing]

So im not sure I understand what your saying, your saying that petforums(/.com) can command a high value of £8000, even though the keyword doesnt get many searches at all and theres no website. On the other hand my domain petscommunity (/.co.uk) which is a great keyword that gets a ton of searches in google every month is worth nothing.

I would be interested to understand how you come to this conclusion, or maybe it cant be explained or learnt.

I could quite easily just keep my domain and put a value of £5000 on it, like what a lot of other domain owners seem to do, then keep it for eternity and reject any reasonable offer and prevent any developer from creating a website on it. Sounds like a good plan.

Mark

Mate "pets community" gets no searches at all according to google, you need to click on "exact" in google for search terms not broad.

It doesn't sound a common term, it doesn't sound like anything I have heard of before.

That's why I would value it at reg fee

 

[foz]

I do think £8K for the .com is steep. I don't think it would get much traffic either.

The owner is probably well positioned financially and can afford to turn down or ignore your £500 offer.

Did you attempt to counter negotiate or was £500 your maximum?

 

[markb]

Hi

Thanks for your comments, I wasnt aware of the "Exact" match on google keywords. I always had it set to broad which was default.

So as ive found out petscommunity (.co.uk) is pretty worthless although it does sound like a good name to build a community about "Pets" with, so im presuming it still may be valuable to someone.

Im still very new to the whole domain name world, so I would value your opinion on something else. A few days ago I created a thread on here asking if anyone had a any good uk pet domain names I may be interested in buying them.

I got tons of responses via pm's with many pet domains which werent very good and most didnt make sense or have any searches when checking on google keyword tool. Yet the prices they where asking for most of them where ranging from mid hundreds to low thousands. Are people trying to rip me off then as I am a new member, if my domain is worth nothing? Or are they just overvaluing their domains?

Many Thanks for your advice.