Don’t Follow the Herd .. Part I
By A on Aug 21, 2008 in Domain Auctions, Domain Values, NameJet, SnapNames
Although many of us here are taking a hiatus for the month of August and enjoying life the way its supposed to be (or how Europeans do it) today I feel like sharing some information as the values of some NameJet sales continually surprise me.
The fact is most people buying on NameJet are domainers and a lot of the new people in this industry “follow the herd” when it comes to buying names. I can tell you from years of experience this is not always a good decision. Many of you will disagree with me (at least on the outside) but those of you who are investing for the future and tomorrow’s end user DO NOT care about what other domainers will pay. Take for example, the recent auction of FixedLoans.com. In our opinion, this is not a good domain. Yes, it has history and was referred to as a famous domain from a not so famous book (no disrespect – but unless you sell tens thousands of copies then using the word famous is a little overrated). Plus the amount of space this name got in the book would almost make any word famous … argh … anyway, it was just a silly comparison and a typical example of why we need to remove the “car salesman” pitches in this industry to bring more credibility. (Another post will come on this soon) We made our money in the mortgage industry online and I can tell you the term Fixed Loans is almost never used. A “Fixed Rate Loan” or “Fixed Rate Mortgage” yes – but the shortened version is simply a made up expression that even with the best branding (which again, most domainers will never develop properly) the domain is too generic or confusing that people still will question – did they mean FixedRateLoans.com or FixedRateMortgage.com or FixedLoan.com – hmmm. Bid as you will when the name goes to auction but I can’t see the ceiling on this name going any higher than it sold for back in 2006 – wait and see.
Back to NameJet. Over the last 30 days we have seen such names which probably have no traffic and certainly have no generic value sell for prices that are driven by the number of buyers. Remember - you are an INVESTOR, not just a domainer. The $2,000 spent on a dropped name that has no keyword value but a “possibility” of traffic might as well be a gamble. Secure your investments on domains that have keyword value - leave the gambling for vegas. Just because a name has 50 bidders on it does not mean its worth more if your goal is to develop or sell to an end user because guess what – almost all 50 of those people are NOT your target market and will almost never buy back what you paid for in an auction.
Just some thoughts….
Newbies …. buy names which you can develop or picture end users with. Again, leave the gambling for Vegas.
Seeya … back to hiatus….
dcmike77 | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
FINALLY! I felt like I was the only one that thought FixedLoans.com didn’t make any sense. It’s like FreeReport.com where it’s only value is a brandable website. Am I also crazy to believe Bido’s system DIDN’T actually crash from too much traffic, but simply from integration of their new chat feature. I smell BS on all their communication. Have fun wasting your money on anyone overpaying for this name.
**NF** You are not alone on the value of this domain! As for Bido, there are some really good people behind that so whatever happened I certainly hope they get back up and running.
Dan | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
the whole “too much traffic” thing seemed fishy to me too. If the snapnames live auction only had 30 people bidding online, how many could fixedloans.com have possibly had?
I’d be hugely surprised if the number was beyond 200, so I don’t get how the server could have crashed from such minimal traffic.
**NF** Who knows. I respect Sahar and the people behind BIDO very much. Whether the surfer crashed or not these guys are trying to do thier best and I think its sort of irrelevant what happened. Building a better system is now thier priority and thats cool - if it wasnt during FixedLoans.com it would have happened for another name. My point was focused on how the name itself (regardless of the venue) was very poor and the hype (by many people NOT associated with BIDO) so wondering what happened is really not an issue for domainers rather an issue for the guys at BIDO. We know they have a great idea and a great venue so its up to them to come back better next time. People will still buy names - whether BIDO is there or not - hopefully for Sahar and the team they get everything up and running soon.
seo blog | Oct 18, 2008 | Reply
This is an interesting article, your a very good writer,keep it up.