A .info sells for 1 million dollars.
Amazing story where the buyer wanted the name for 3 years from the seller and only now both finally agreed on a price. With a seller having the cohonas to hold out and the buyer having persistence to get what he wanted.
Is this a true story?
No. but it’s a lesson in valuation for many of you fools. Every time a name sells for something more than what you think its worth the bandwagon starts where many rant and rave why this name can’t be worth that much.
It is quite comical to be honest.
Sure, I will jump on the bandwagon for those names bought BY domainers for sale TO domainers. This never-ending cycle is like the dog wagging the tail where 95% of investors have no idea what makes a good domain let alone what markup is realistic by selling only to domain investors. If you buy a name for $10,000 in auction (where 100 of the same people you are actually hoping to sell it to are in) how much do you really think your profit is going to be when you try and flip the name to the same people a few months later? Find price points lower its gets better but there is a cap for this kind of liquidity and a lot of risk.
End user sales are different – an “end user” here includes corporate buyers and even domain investors who have a real vision for development down the road (not some dream where he has NO experience in development today nor gains any knowledge as every day passes but those who are developing and simply acquiring to add to the to-do list one day). These people are actually end-users but participate in name trading/ selling – domaining would not be their sole activity.
When a domain is sold to an end-user the value only does one thing for most domainers.
It brings interest to the assets we all hold and love dearly.
More interest = More players = More Money = More buyers = More Value
Sometimes the press is great with 7 figure sales like Candy.com and sometimes its just a heartwarming story about how a guy quit his ugly day job to enter this industry. Stories like this help overcome the bad press about cybersquatters and validate the industry and these assets as a respectable way to make a living.
However the actually dollar value of a sale to an end user can not be correlated in value to similar domains.
We have many clients as end users and we never send out emails highlighting the amount of Google results, what names Frank or Kevin own that are similar (who the hell is Frank and Kevin most would ask), why an asking price of $10,000 is ok since Johnny sold one last week close to this.
All of this shit that many of you recycle to sell to one another doesn’t matter.
An end user will pay only what they think its worth to thier business plan.
Nothing more. Anything less is a deal.
Your only job as a seller is to find a price which you are happy and start there.
That target price should be based on your cost, your loss of value, your need for cash, your alternative outlets for sale and many other variables which are all outside and have no bearing of what Johnny’s similar name sold for last week.
This industry has grown pretty fast over the last few years but we are in an environment where a calculation for logical liquidity is sought after by most domainers, dynamics of what makes a good name is entirely changing with keyword development names finally getting the respect they deserve and parking multiples fading out.
The entire point behind this article is do not look outward for your price points – look within.
Everybody could have made another dollar if they held out 5 minutes longer or picked a 35 instead of 36 in Saturday’s powerball but real business is not made of what ifs – its made of what you do.
Use the sales reported to maybe find ranges if you have no idea what a name is worth to you but if its an end-user buying throw it out the window since 90% of the people you hope to sell this domain to will be domainers and those valuations are less.
We get in deal mode every time but I can tell you the most irritating thing behind any seller is having them quote the number of searches in Google or who owns similar names.
We know how much the name is worth to us to buy or sell.
If Frank, Kevin, Rick, IREIT or any of the industry names own similar – whopdef*ingdo.
Back to the $1miilion info sale.
If it happens (and it will one day for A DEVELOPED site which all you .info lovers will claim credit for having foresight which is crap since the power was in development not the name) then you need to respect the PR received, congratulate the two parties – since (a) the buyer was happy to pay and (b) the seller was happy to sell.
The name was worth that much since both parties walked away happy.
Any sale is a good sale.
Trying to find logical value in this industry if your only client base is domainers is like a dog chasing its tail.
They are all moody as hell and would rather buy in auction then buy direct.
You know it.
You are one.
After speaking with a few people today it was clear that many people might have no idea Rick Latona has an extended auction going on SEPERATE of Moniker’s extended auction outside of clicking on the banner of domaining.com
The first step to success is to quit reading domain blogs – even this one – and focus on SEO, online marketing and viral marketing blogs.
For newbies and math geeks alike here is an oldie but goodie link to some very interesting stats about the number of domains registered years after year. Quite amazing to see where we are today, what opportunities were missed just a few years ago and more.
At first read you may think this is a joke of a question but its actually quite serious since from what I can see we have such an incredible amount of dumb people in this industry.
