appraisal Methods

[domainmagnet]

Hello
I am sort of new to the whole game of domains and i have joined the forum to learn and get educated.
My problem is that when I use the free appraisal by Estibot.com, Swiftappraisal.com, and nameboy.com each will give me different value for the same domain. Are they reliable? is one of them better than the others?
Are there other sites? are they free?

Your input is higly appreciated.

Rick

[Gerry]

None are reliable.

Even the ones here.

But at least the ones you will get from members here are free. Many members will add some valid points for you to consider and take in.

The best appraisal is one that he end user is willing to pay. That is the value.

You will see many here talk about a reseller price as if that is supposed to magically guide you what another domainer will pay for it.

These are typically low ball offers and they would never ever consider taking what they are offering you.

Its all a game.

Forget about any guide or premium bunk. These owners can sit on those domains all they want for the prices they want. Waste of time to be honest.

By the way, I am being honest.

[mclovin]

Yes he is. There's no reliable way to value unique assets like domains. There are just guidelines that you pick up along the way. No easy answers on this one...

[draggar]

Probably the place you'll get the most accurate and honest appraisal (and it's free) is right here:

http://www.dnforum.com/f4/

The reason being is that people who are appraising it are basing it on recent sales, keywords, TLD, how they would value it etc.

If you get no responses, assume reg fee. :(

[mclovin]

If you get no responses, assume reg fee. :(

Sometimes they'll just tell you reg fee outright.

[POLiSH]

I've found a useful method of giving the people that are doing the appraisal a standard to go by. Posting the following information will give the most information about the domain/website you are posting. I have found this is used over at another forum. Of course, I have never had any luck with others appraising my domains. ; )

Appraisal for just a domain:

* Name of the Domain
* Registration Date
* What do you want to use the domain for
* If you are planning to sell the domain, then specify what can the niche be used for.

For a domain w/ website:

* Subject of the Website
* Business Details (if business exists)
* Traffic Details (How many Hits, How many Unique Hits)
* Income From the website
* Pages Indexed in Search Engines (Yahoo, Google, MSN etc.)
* Backlinks in Total
* Site Rankings for Keywords (If Relevant)
* Google Pagerank
* Alexa Rank
* Member Details (If forums etc.)
* Content Details (How many Articles etc.)

Hopefully this helps.

[biggedon]

Hello
I am sort of new to the whole game of domains and i have joined the forum to learn and get educated.
My problem is that when I use the free appraisal by Estibot.com, Swiftappraisal.com, and nameboy.com each will give me different value for the same domain. Are they reliable? is one of them better than the others?
Are there other sites? are they free?

Your input is higly appreciated.

Rick

Hi Rick

i'm not a regular user of any of those websites, so can't say which is better.

but the fact that you and many other newcomers have been influenced and confused by these sites, makes it that much harder to "debrief" you.

the real question is, how do you apply a dollar amount to a domain?

i doubt any automated query could accurately calculate, contemplate, or elaborately state....the "as is" value of the domain based on it's own merit and/or it's development/brandability potential.

your understanding of domain trading has to grow before one can get a "feel" for what is marketable.


i do agree that, the more you explain the purpose for use of the domain, when it's not so obvious, then member responses may be in greater detail when seeking appraisals.

though one should "stay away from domains where the meaning isn't so obvious".
if you have to explain what the domain means to others, then it loses appeal and limits advertiser potential.


imo...

[$ideline]

I like to look at dnsaleprice.com for a quick idea of what similar names sold for recently. But again, this is no guarantee your name will fetch the same price, everything you find is just a guide - a domain is worth what someone will pay for it.

[james2002]

Of those three. I like estibot best. But it is still very crude estimate.

[domainmagnet]

Thank you all for your input...

[Arrogance]

Agree with polish and biggedon; more information and stats put into the thread will warrant more feedback imo...

[crisscross]

I'm a noob and had similar questions. Specifically for domains with type-in traffic, how many months revenue is used to calculate domain value. Also how many months revenue do you consider to get a the average revenue per month?

Thanks,

[biggedon]

I'm a noob and had similar questions. Specifically for domains with type-in traffic, how many months revenue is used to calculate domain value. Also how many months revenue do you consider to get a the average revenue per month?

Thanks,

for generic type-in traffic, value can be calculated at your discretion at 5 yrs,10yrs or 100 years or more.

all depends on what you're holding, how much traffic the domain has, the revenue it produces and the commercial viability of the domain.

though if you take all that away from a generic domain with no traffic, it may still have value based on it's on merit and potential.

that value should be added to any rev/traffic statistics to complete the price range.

for generic type-in typo domains, multiples can range up to 10 years or more, though many settle for 2 years or less.

for "type-in typo tm domains", multiples range 24 months or less for most sellers and buyers alike.

nothing is carved in stone, as you can still ask whatever price you want.

but i do know that, the longer you have owned a domain, the more you can command for it when you can show consistency in traffic/rev history.

that also is how you would average monthly revenue.



imo...

[draggar]

i do agree that, the more you explain the purpose for use of the domain, when it's not so obvious, then member responses may be in greater detail when seeking appraisals.

though one should "stay away from domains where the meaning isn't so obvious".
if you have to explain what the domain means to others, then it loses appeal and limits advertiser potential.

I kinds have to disagree with this. While it is true for many domains (computers.com, autoinsurance.com etc..) sometimes they do need some explaining.

For example - PBXMan.com - many people who aren't in the phone industry may not like it thinking it is a typo of PBSMan (Public Broadcasting Service) or just some other generic LLLMan.com domain while in reality a PBX is the backbone of many office phone systems. This domain would be great for a phone systems repairman / contractor.

WYSIWYG.com would be a horrible domain - seven letter pronounceable domain yet most of us know this as a very popular kind of editor (What You See Is Why You Get). I'm sure most people here would agree that if it wasn't for the popular acronym that domain would be worth in the very low $xx range to an end user.

We had the same discussion a while ago about PVC.com - some people though it sold too high but they didn't realize that PVC is one of the main ingredients in many plastics. Other people thought it was a great bargain.

While domainers may need some explaination on a domain (which is probabaly 99.999% of the traffic here) - it should be clear to the ultimate investor- the end user.

[biggedon]

I kinds have to disagree with this. While it is true for many domains (computers.com, autoinsurance.com etc..) sometimes they do need some explaining.

For example - PBXMan.com - many people who aren't in the phone industry may not like it thinking it is a typo of PBSMan (Public Broadcasting Service) or just some other generic LLLMan.com domain while in reality a PBX is the backbone of many office phone systems. This domain would be great for a phone systems repairman / contractor.

WYSIWYG.com would be a horrible domain - seven letter pronounceable domain yet most of us know this as a very popular kind of editor (What You See Is Why You Get). I'm sure most people here would agree that if it wasn't for the popular acronym that domain would be worth in the very low $xx range to an end user.

We had the same discussion a while ago about PVC.com - some people though it sold too high but they didn't realize that PVC is one of the main ingredients in many plastics. Other people thought it was a great bargain.

While domainers may need some explaination on a domain (which is probabaly 99.999% of the traffic here) - it should be clear to the ultimate investor- the end user.

Huh?



private phone systems repairmen/contractor biz is basically obsolete.

the same people or company who install these systems are the same one's who often maintain them.
therefore the potental range of end-users would be very limited.

also, curious to know... why use example of "wysiwyg" when we all know what it means?

with the "PVC" discussion, it was a result of some domainers seeing it only as a LLL.com with a "V" in it, thus devalueing the domain based on some premium letter criteria and not on the product that the domain represents.

it's why many domainers undervalue their own domains because they are caught up in the premium letter myth.

[Domainx09]

"If you get no responses, assume reg fee. :("

I disagree with that, a lot of valuable names get no response at all.

I like estibot, namebio & dnjournal.

[David G]

Specifically for domains with type-in traffic, how many months revenue is used to calculate domain value. Also how many months revenue do you consider to get a the average revenue per month? Thanks,

Since ppc revenue is constantly on the decline (I believe down roughly 65% for many domainers since its peak a few years ago) it's not a good idea for sellers to sell based only on ppc revenue, especially the often used old 5 to 10 year formula.

Typein traffic is valuable and relatively hard to get so using ppc revenue is a poor pricing model if you are the seller of good typein names. A better valuation model would be basing a sale on product/service sales or potential.

Asking for as much as 100 years current ppc revenue for good typein names is reasonable.

[draggar]

also, curious to know... why use example of "wysiwyg" when we all know what it means?

with the "PVC" discussion, it was a result of some domainers seeing it only as a LLL.com with a "V" in it, thus devalueing the domain based on some premium letter criteria and not on the product that the domain represents.

it's why many domainers undervalue their own domains because they are caught up in the premium letter myth.

Yes, we all know what WYSIWYG means but what if the acronym didn't exist - what if someone coined it something different? Say AIVPE (As-Is-Visual-Program-Editing)? Then WISYWIG would be worth a fraction it is today.

What if someone here didn't know what it meant? I'm sure they would say reg fee until they get shown the acronym.

The same with PVC - many people don't know about it so they would undervalue it until someone explains it to them.

As for PBX - that was just on my mind since I have several VoIP conversions to do over the next few weeks.

[crisscross]

Since ppc revenue is constantly on the decline (I believe down roughly 65% for many domainers since its peak a few years ago) it's not a good idea for sellers to sell based only on ppc revenue, especially the often used old 5 to 10 year formula.

Typein traffic is valuable and relatively hard to get so using ppc revenue is a poor pricing model if you are the seller of good typein names. A better valuation model would be basing a sale on product/service sales or potential.

Asking for as much as 100 years current ppc revenue for good typein names is reasonable.

Is a typo? I cant think of any industry where someone would pay 100 years revenue for any asset, especially for an asset with declining revenues. Unless one is in a market bubble, & we all know how it ends . Type-in traffic doesn't necessarily convert well for product / service. So it is kind of difficult to justify a product/service based valuation, till you actually test it for that domain / niche.

While I'm experienced in financial valuation, am quite new to Domains, so maybe I'm missing something here. Anyone else care to comment?

Thanks

[David G]

Type-in traffic doesn't necessarily convert well for product / service.

Really? So what is better at converting than typein traffic? Don't you think since someone typed-in the product or service keywords they may have interest in buying it?