What is my domain name worth?

What a domain name is worth boils down to one simple fact, it's worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. It's that simple. A domain name's worth is only determined at the time of a sale, that is how much cash someone actually paid for it. It is only at that point can we say it was worth X amount.

Of course, there are countless resources online (both free and commercial) that will try and help evaluate your domain name, provide you with an appraisal, and oftentimes, provide a lot of meaningless statistics, but in the end, it really boils down to how bad someone wants the domain name and or how badly you want to keep it. In the end, the domain's worth will be a subjective valuation made at the time someone is willing to negotiate for it by both you and the potential buyer.

Now with that said, there are some basic guidelines, and rules that apply to trying to pin a value on a domain name. That is, there are different factors that do effect how desirable a domain name is, and therefore what someone might be willing to pay for it, and in turn, what it is ultimately worth in a negotiation.

The basics

• Dot com ".com" domain names are always the most desirable.
• The shorter the domain name, the more desirable it is.
• A domain name without dashes separating words will always be more desirable.
• Domain names with numbers are problematic, is it a 2 or two in the name?
• Domain names with trademarks and copyrights are going to be worthless.

How easy is it easy to remember?

This is a key component to keep in my mind when it comes to determining a domain name's value. The whole point of having a domain name in the first place is to provide an easy to remember URL in lieu of an IP address or some long strung out path name. A good domain name that is memorable will ultimately be more desirable than one that is not. What is memorable is of course subjective. You just have to think about it, experiment with friends, ask around etc.

Is its spelling ambiguous?

There is no shortage of words that trip people up in the the English language when it comes to spelling, just think about the differences between there, their, and they're. If the domain name reflects a word that is commonly misspelled, this makes using the domain name problematic and can effect its ultimate value. A domain name that draws upon words that are universally are spelled in a consistent manner will ultimately be more desirable than a domain name that contains ambiguous terms.

How original is the domain name

Craigslist is a very popular website, it is popular because unlike so many other sites that came and went over the years, they took a no BS approach to creating a site that was useful. This meant that they kept the interface simple, they implemented a self policing mechanism to try and fend off spam, they have kept the site from getting over run by advertisements, and as a result, through word of mouth, they have grown to enjoy tremendous success.

They did not get where they are because they used the domain name "craigslist.com." If you registered "jimslist.com" and or something like "mikeslist.com" thinking that you now have a premium domain name that can fetch top dollar, think again unless you have a budget backed by venture capitalists to promote the hell out of the brand online like angieslist.com for example, you don't have anything of much value (probably not even the $10 or so you paid to register it).

To put it another way, if your domain is a domain that exists to piggyback off the success of another well established online venture, you're domain is most likely worthless, if not one that can get you into trouble in a trademark and patent court somewhere in Texas famous for bringing about these kind of cases. Examples of these would be anything with the words "space" as in myspace.com or "bay" to signify an auction site. Your best bet with these domain names is to save your registration fees and let them expire.

How broad is its appeal

I the early days of the domain rush, the idea it seemed was to register every domain name that described something real specific. And for those things that have a broad market appeal, these domains would be highly desirable. Out of this we wound up with sites like "cars.com", "insurance.com" etc. We quickly ran out of those domains. Of course those are great domain names, and when you can get them, they are worth pursuing and they can command top dollar as they have an inherent advantage when it comes to search engine performance as long as they fit with the site's content. With that said though, if your domain is a descriptive one and if it is too descriptive, it's not going to provide much value to anyone. Take for example a domain name like "plasticforks.com", how many people are really going to be interested in a site like that? Too specific to hold much inherent value, not very desirable. Domain names that have a broad appeal tend to be more desirable these days.

Online brands has brokered a number of domain name sales over the years, and from our experience what we can say is that most of the time domain name holders have a very unrealistic idea of what they feel their domain names are worth.