Are domain auctions for real?

innovalist

innovalist

Supreme Member
Aug 19, 2010
1,327
195
I was looking for short, non-hyphenated .coms to start new sites and was shocked by the asking prices nowadays.

One trader wanted $20K for a domain and when I didn't want to pay he asked for $2K per year for "leasing". Amazing... what's this world coming to?

Imagine investing a whole load of time getting great PRs and then you got to return the domain to its owners.

Can anyone tell me if this is indeed the future, and maybe we should all be buying great domains and hoarding for our retirement plans instead of buying stocks and bonds?

Because if is - I'm going that route!
 
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Domains are like Property... Good ones will only go up in Price....

Leasing domains is very dangerous business... as you mention it is too easy for it to be taken away from you.

I have a small set of domains that I am not using, but just holding as they are great keywords and will be worth more and more each year....

I sold a 3 letter .tv domain for $7,000 last year :) my best sale yet, and I am sure I would have got more for it by waiting a few years, but @$500 a year registration (premium .tv domain price), I was not going to hold it...

it is worth keeping your eye on expiring domains and auctions and think about long term value.
 
You can pick up some neat domains at godaddy auctions. People want exhorbitant amounts of dot coms. Perhaps think outside the box and find some catchy memorable names that no one has taken. A lot cheaper than $20k.
 
Try looking at DNforum.com

lots of ful time domainers buy and sell there
 
You can make good money as well if you can build the PR quickly. Higher PR, good traffic, niche specific... cash money... if you do it quick enough
 
The vast majority of domains for sale by domain speculators are way overpriced. You can find good deals out there in auctions on domain drops or email domain owners to see if they would sell. But the guys who are in business to flip domains like the one you were dealing with always exaggerate the value. 90% of the time you can simply tweak the domain a bit and find one that's not taken. At the end of the day, your link building or brand advertising efforts will win out over a "perfect" domain every time. People go to Google.com, Yahoo.com and Bing.com; who goes to SearchEngine.com?

If you're just looking for exact match keyword domains, throw a hyphen in there or add a trailing short word and you won't miss out on anything. Sure, DogTraining.com might be better than Dog-Training.com or DogTrainingInfo.com but I bet you that if all things were equal, I could get the latter two to outrank the first one with a good extra back link or three. But screw the guys asking 20k and more for a domain unless it's generating a ton of type in traffic or it's an exact match for a super lucrative, super competitive term like Sex.com, Loans.com or something along those lines.

Oh and domain leasing is pretty stupid. You spend all that effort getting the domain to rank and the guy walks away with it. That $2k a year would be much better spent promoting a different domain that's freely available.
 
BlackHatSoda said:
The vast majority of domains for sale by domain speculators are way overpriced. You can find good deals out there in auctions on domain drops or email domain owners to see if they would sell. But the guys who are in business to flip domains like the one you were dealing with always exaggerate the value. 90% of the time you can simply tweak the domain a bit and find one that's not taken. At the end of the day, your link building or brand advertising efforts will win out over a "perfect" domain every time. People go to Google.com, Yahoo.com and Bing.com; who goes to SearchEngine.com?

If you're just looking for exact match keyword domains, throw a hyphen in there or add a trailing short word and you won't miss out on anything. Sure, DogTraining.com might be better than Dog-Training.com or DogTrainingInfo.com but I bet you that if all things were equal, I could get the latter two to outrank the first one with a good extra back link or three. But screw the guys asking 20k and more for a domain unless it's generating a ton of type in traffic or it's an exact match for a super lucrative, super competitive term like Sex.com, Loans.com or something along those lines.

Oh and domain leasing is pretty stupid. You spend all that effort getting the domain to rank and the guy walks away with it. That $2k a year would be much better spent promoting a different domain that's freely available.
Click to expand...

YEAH SPOT ON! As a buyer, I would spend that $20K getting the best damn SEO to get me on top spots in the major search engines rather than paying those wankers. BUT - as I potential seller - I am actually strongly considering this. If you were to buy Sex.com today I am pretty sure the sales price is 7 figure$.
 
melfiz said:
You can make good money as well if you can build the PR quickly. Higher PR, good traffic, niche specific... cash money... if you do it quick enough
Click to expand...

Hey melfiz - good point. I've been frequenting Flippa and there are ppl out there who buy a half-baked domain name, SEO it up there, drag traffic from god knows where, then sell it for 10 x adsense revenue (mthly).
 
Goodness. $500 a year. Hey but y'know, the way real estate has performed over the last 3 years, domains looks like the real deal!
 
As a domain guy myself, I see things from the other perspective, We domainers have a different viewpoint than your average guy.

First, we will always ask at least 2x to 10x what we really want. It puts us in a position to haggle. How big a multiple probably depends on how good the name is. An interested person will argue, people looking for a deal will turn away.

Second is that regardless of what search engines do good domains will always get traffic. People sit and type the name into the browser. The value domains market for is usually based on a combination of natural traffic combined with the keyword value.

Thirdly, for a true "quality" domain, conversion is outrageous. A good domain formed from two keywords like say diegrinders can easily convert 30% of the type-in visitors. A spun article on diegrinderinfo would probably only see 5% click through and then maybe 30% of the click through visitors convert.
 
My personal belief is that there is a ton of good (money making) not-yet-registered domains available out there, so there is no need to pay high prices unless you know what you are doing in regard to monetizing the domain.

When registering new domains, do your keyword research and keep your domain name keyword rich. If you are looking for organic traffic, most domain extensions are fine, but if you are looking for repeat visitors from
memorizing your domain name, try to stick with the .coms.

I would never (personally) lease a domain as the lessee... I think you are asking for trouble.

If you do choose to buy an already registered domain, check if it is blacklisted before you make your purchase. If search engines have banned that domain, you will have a very hard time getting rankings or having it removed from its blacklist status.
 
innovalist said:
YEAH SPOT ON! As a buyer, I would spend that $20K getting the best damn SEO to get me on top spots in the major search engines rather than paying those wankers. BUT - as I potential seller - I am actually strongly considering this. If you were to buy Sex.com today I am pretty sure the sales price is 7 figure$.
Click to expand...

Yes, domains like Sex.com, Loans.com and Drugs.com are at the peak end of domain value and go for 7 figure prices and they are worth it as long term investments. I was just using those as an example although they are extreme examples.

I'm not saying it's not worth it to buy a domain which is already owned, I'm just saying that in many cases you can find one that will work just as well in the long term which is freely available. This is an over simplification though, it always depends on what you're looking for in a domain. If you must have a very short one, single word or popular phrase then you're going to have to shell out.
 
You can pick up some neat domains at good auctions. you can try vworker trusted site,hope it helps you...
 
I always figured that a website that had good seo, backlinks, and properly researched keyword usage would outweigh an expensive domain name.
 
Methinks good short domains: .com not all the other stuff, might be worth a fortune in the future. Just you TRY to buy a one word (at least the 20,000 common English words in their proper spelling) dotcom. They are ALL GONE!
Its like property on Manhattan. They ain't making more of 'em!
 
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