There are a lot of intangibles that go into a domain sale

By: RH

When everyone wants to talk about pricing domains and appraisals it seems that many
leave out some other intangibles. It just doesn't matter about the extension and if you can find out who the buyer is. They are both important but not the end all be all. Domainer metrics are important but there is still more than that.

1) Some companies that have a good chunk of money despise domainers. They will not pay $100,000 even if they have $100,000. Its a principle thing, maybe its foolish but many people in this world are stubborn and let their personal feelings affect business decisions.

2) Companies getting advised by consultants who tell them domains are not relevant. The article we posted a couple days back got a lot of traffic and I am sure it gave Jay Baer more traffic. Jay has been around since 1994 and claims to have consulted 29 of the Fortune 500. Jay has credentials and is no joke, he may have a different philosophy and that's not the point. The point is here is a guy who has the ear of companies that most domainers don't. Here is the article if you have not read it.

3) Who owns a domain affects your domain a lot of the time. Sure you can ask whatever you want. I broker names for people and some have outrageous pricing. I had a customer tell me he wanted $100,000 for his .tv domain. It was a good domain, would meet all the metrics domainers love. The one intangible he did not count on was the fact that the .com sold two weeks previously for $19,000. That matters to most, he was stubborn but that does not get a domain sold. Where other extensions perceived better sell affects your ability to sell.

The second part to that is you may own the .net or .org and the .com is owned by a big time domainer or domain company. If you know they get top dollar and sometimes ask for outlier pricing because they can, you will get some who will take the .org if the .com is just too expensive and its intuitive. In my opinion this works with VisitGeo and News related names. .Org is authoratative and makes sense. Most of the time its a tourism board or some other organization running the Visit site, if the .com does not get a lot of type in traffic and the tourism board is going to "spend money branding" then its ok. Of course the .com is the best and if its $10,000 to $20,000 great, but if its $250,000 then the .org for $3000 works, especially in a bad economy.

There is also the perceived intelligence of certain domainers that gets them better prices. Other domainers don't send Rick Schwartz or Igal Lichtman $50 offers. Would any domainer have gotten $151,000 for CamRoulette.com ? No, Adam Strong is a top professional.

4) The ability to not care about selling your names affects everything. If you need to sell that puts you in a different mindset, you do worry about asking too high and the buyer getting another name. Rick Schwartz could care less. When sales reports come out the one thing not contained is the emotional and financial state of the seller. So you do not have the complete data set you need to come to a full evaluation of the domain value.

5) Appraisals are just for fun and self validation. No one cares about them but domainers who like what the appraisal says. 

Domainer 1: Estibot says my domain is worth $10,000

Domainer 2 : Is that valid #1 ?

Domainer 1: Oh yeah they know what they are doing

Domainer 2: #1 you read that wrong it said $100.00 not $10,000

Domainer 1: Estibot sucks

You can always ask the expert after the appraise your domain for $2000 if they will buy it for $200. When they say no thank you, just laugh and know that expert has a different meaning. I will say again no other asset class in the world has people stating a value and then not willing to buy at 10 % of the price. The price they set, not a market, not a machine, they set.

All these things I have written can be debated, I am certainly not the greatest domainer in the world, but I learn everyday and so can everyone which is the most important point. No one knows it all, show of hands on who thought DuDu.com would sell for $1million. Do the sellers of DuDu.com care what anyone thinks ? No, at the end of the day are you happy with your sale and are you happy with your portfolio ? Its a big world and you may have an understanding of a niche that no one else does. You just have to stick to a budget and be honest with yourself when you are wrong. No offers, no sales for years ? You most likely were wrong and its time to get some good advice from those with a proven track record.

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