Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that it’s strange how certain end users aren’t even willing to pay a more than reasonable price for a great domain.
Snoopy didn’t agree and said the following:
“we moan about someone who will not pay our price yet we’d never pay a fraction of that price ourselves”
Is that true?
In other words, do domainers only believe in the benefits of a great domain when they’re negotiating with end users, yet forget everything when they’re launching projects themselves (so when they’re the end users)?
Are domainers dealing with a “cognitive dissonance” situation by not practicing what they preach?
If that were true then yes, domainers could even be accused of hypocrisy by telling end users how amazingly beneficial a great domain can be, yet not being willing to pay a premium themselves when it’s their turn to be the end user.
So, is it true?
In my opinion, it’s not.
I, for one, love using very good domains for my projects:
1) MegaSites.com (my recently launched development service) was not a hand registration, I liked the domain and bought it
2) VFH.com wasn’t a hand registration, it’s a LLL domain that I liked due to the fact that “Vitality – Fitness – Health” is a great brand for a website about healthy living, so I bought it and turned it into a megasite about just that
3) Articles.biz (my article writing service) was not a hand registration, I thought it represented a good fit and bought it
4) DomainingTips.com was not a hand registration either but maybe this isn’t the best example, since the blog was developed back when I bought it, so it wasn’t a “domain only” purchase
5) AffiliateMarketers.com was not a hand registration either, it’s a very good domain and once again, I bought it
Other domainers feel the same way.
Elliot for example paid a premium to upgrade his domain to DomainInvesting.com and used domains which weren’t hand registrations for some of the other projects he blogged about.
Adam bought DNF.com and pointed it DNForum.com. He also uses a nice domain (NicheWebsites.com) for his development service, just like I use MegaSites.com for mine.
Andrew bought DNW.com and forwards it to DomainNameWire.com, the list could go on and on.
These are just a few examples of domainers you know who gladly paid a premium for domains which represent a good fit for their project(s).
In my opinion, most domainers (the vast majority) practice what they preach and actually believe that great domains are more than worth it. Therefore, I think it’s reasonably safe to say we’re not in cognitive dissonance territory 🙂
July 9th, 2014 at 9:52 am
I don’t think anyone appreciates or understands a good domain more than a domainer…especially if they’re active in the domain community. In that sense, a domain doesn’t just coincide w/ the reputation of the site/business, but the domainer themselves.
July 9th, 2014 at 9:57 am
I have seen a number of domainers on the forums who wanted a domain to promote their portfolio or for some project and basically weren’t willing to pay more than $50 for such a domain (yes hypocritical if domains are supposed to be brands). I don’t run an operation with millions of dollars of revenue so I cannot pay fifty thousand dollars for a domain. However, I did win GenericDomains.net in a Namejet auction and also bought as an aftermarket purchase ComprarDominio.com. Both sites rank fairly well at Bing/Yahoo for those keywords. PremiumDomains.TV was a backorder while Dominericos.com is a short brandable. The median pricepoint of domains in my portfolio is under $1000. Yes, there are some priced much higher and some priced under $200. Yesterday I quoted someone $1500 for a ten-character .COM domain but quite often replies to those “How much?” inquiries don’t yield results.
July 9th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
I will add there is a considerable disparity in value perception between domain investors particularly those newer to the industry vs. domain users (website developers and businesses). Yes, it is interesting to read of Rick Schwartz selling some hand reg from fifteen years ago like iReport.com for $750k or eBet.com for $1.35 million. But such sales are outliers that don’t touch most domain investors. So to pay the bills sub-$1000 sales are the norm.
This is also why one should be very cautious about the new TLDs. Most sales are in .COM and the highest-dollar sales tend to be .COM so venturing into other TLDs limits not only the market (those willing to buy such a name) but also the potential sales price (they only buy because that keyword in an alt TLD because it is considerably cheaper than the equivalent .COM). When doing outbound marketing for .Net and .TV domains I have received responses saying they were only interested in .COM or offered under $100 because the name was not a .COM.
July 9th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
“I have seen a number of domainers on the forums who wanted a domain to promote their portfolio or for some project and basically weren’t willing to pay more than $50 for such a domain (yes hypocritical if domains are supposed to be brands)”
I think it’s all relative to the business and model. I’d suspect most of these ‘domainers’ aren’t selling 5 figure domains .
I practice what I preach but I also look for a deal since there’s always plenty of options. Searching for a domain name right now in fact . . .
July 9th, 2014 at 11:56 pm
This issues isn’t whether domainers like or will use premium domains, the answer to that is obvious.
The issue is domainers complaining about offers that are often better than what they’d ever make themselves.
e.g. the example in the original thread was a .tv domain bought for “the price of a backorder”. Yet the owner states that the buyer is lowballing because the offer is in low 3 figures.
Now has this domain suddenly shot up in value since the owner bought it a few years ago? or does the “lowballer” comment really just mean “someone who will not pay my asking price” in this situation.
What is the point in even complaining about your potential customers? What are people hoping to achieve?