Why do People buy domain names?
Everyone in the business industry is aware of the value of the right domain name. It is the company’s brand name and it is critical to driving traffic to the home website. The right domain name is worth hundreds, even thousands of dollars to a business. The right name is so generic that a user might type in a random phrase and add .com or .net and land on that respective businesses site. Check out what some very recent domain names went at public auction.
Lips.com sold for $135,000 on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Note.com went for $115,000 on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Forest.com for $110,721 on SEDO.
And Coed.com for $88,240 on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
How to really make money on selling Domains?
That’s some serious money. Imagine where you would be right now if you had purchased any one of these a few years ago when domain names were so cheap people could buy these basic names at less than $10.00 per name. Better yet imagine where you would be if you had the foresight to have purchased any two of these basic domain names.
Here is how lucrative domain reselling can be – these six entities each sold for $10,000.00 at the recent
TechnologyFund.com on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
PinkRoses.com on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Pensions.net on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
FreeSoft.com on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
EatFree.com on Afternic/BuyDomains
212.net on Moniker T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Four of these break the rules of a single word domain name yet they met the needs of a specific company and were worth the thousands that the right company put forth to secure the name
A wealth of web sites exist devoted to the marketing and sales of domain names
Moniker.com
Moniker is the only provider of the trademark Domain Asset Management services. The company provides a single-point-of-access to manage domains and maximize the selling of those names. Moniker is the company that recently handled the sale of the domain name Porn.com for $9.5 million. The company also handled Sex.com which sold for $12 million in cash and stock. How about Autos.com for $2 million, Cameras.com at $1.5 million and Scores.com for $1.2 million? Moniker also handled the sales of student.com, ethanol.com, cardiology.com, and more.
SEDO.com
SEDO has more than 500,000 members trading domains around the world. SEDO currently has more than 8 million premium domain names available and is working globally in more than 21 languages. SEDO offers it users all of the tools necessary to buy and sell domains including domain name appraisals, brokerage services, promotion, and a domain parking program.
Check out these numbers – 1,500 domain sales a month yielding $3 million in sales – 8,000,000 domains available, 3,000,000 of them parked.
Afternic.com
Afternic.com is another leading domain name company that is recognized for its work in the secondary-domain-name business. Offering an extensive exchange network, the company works with partner domain name registrars and then refers buyers for aftermarket domain purchases. Afternic is another one stop shop that provides anonymous sale environment for potential bidders.
Afternic managed the $1 million sale of Fish.com. Since 2002, the company has experienced triple-digit annual growth rates.
1DollarDomainPage.com
1DollarDomainPage.com is a one stop portal that features the latest in the domain marketing field. The site advertises domains for sale by category and offer free classified advertising space, options such as hosting services, leasing, job opportunities and other items wanted or for sale. It also offers a series of live chat rooms that are available to every pixel owner including rooms that offer discussion options devoted to beginners and newbies to the domain business. The site also offers chat rooms broken out for those people who selling or buying and even offers one chat area focused solely on those who are seeking one specific domain or website.
MillionSnapNames.com, TdNam.com, GreatDomains.com, and more.
How much will people pay for the right domain name? A Lot!!
We have already talked about Porn.com and Sex.com but how about diamond.com, business.com, and beer.com? Each sold for 7.5 million dollars apiece in 1999. After the dot com bubble burst in 2001 the general consensus was that no other domain name would reach the lofty heights that business.com was able to attain. Man, were folks wrong! Casino.com sold for 5.5 million in May of this year, Korea.com sold for $5 million in January and Shop.com sold for 3.5 million in 2005.
Domain Names Have Their Own Image
Let’s face it, image is exceptionally critical to ever business and domain names foster their own image. Short, one word names with the dot com after them are in extreme demand. A domain name must be memorable because a domain name must be able to stand alone. Customer’s today type in the most used domain names simply from memory. A great domain name means search engines simply aren’t necessary.
Though everyone wants that one word name, it is possible to create some really useful domain options using simple prefixes. A simple example is the use of the word auto and the long ago sold out auto.com domain name. Other options can work for that same term, automart.com. autodepot.com, autoland.com, usedauto.com, etc. The trick is to be creative but to get something simple that sells the business at hand.
Do you have skills predicting future trends? What names might be big in the next few years if a woman or a black man were elected president, if an issue other than terrorism begins to creep into the world psyche? If green becomes in or America revamps its health care system what will be the key domain names that will represent the future? What names today represent a great business opportunities for you tomorrow?