Solar-Energy.com

[staffjam]

I've had a few offers on my domain Solar-Energy.com

I realise it's hyphendated - but was wondering just how much that affects the value.

I'm interested in hearing your appraisals and also open to good offers.

[rocket]

Very nice domain , estibot valuation is $4,000 .

Good Luck .

[eeedc]

Estibot is usually high. I have an estibot valuation of $4,500 for a domain name which I am trying to sell here for mid $XXX.
http://www.dnforum.com/f5/seemly-com...ad-467383.html

The hyphen is not a problem for people who just want it as a keyword PPC site, but it's a huge problem for a real company. I doubt a real company would buy it at any price. One of the PPC people here should be able to tell you what it's worth as a keyword.

[sbtx]

Its decent for keywords Ill send pm

[staffjam]

Sigh.

[victornumber]

I bought a similar name before without hyphen for low 5 figures for marketing purposes. I would assume this would go for minimum low 4 figures reseller. It can't be built To a real business though or market offline. It's more of an info site type of domain versus commercial.

[eeedc]

Without looking, is this thread on "Solar-Power.com" or "Solar-Energy.com?"

I think solar power is more common, according to Google results, but any marketing pro will figure out that customers can't tell them apart, in addition to forgetting the hyphen. I was not sure one hour after reading this post. It's still good as a keyword, but not much of a brand name.

[victornumber]

I might be Interested probably for a solar forum.pm me the current highest offer after offers come in.

[bmugford]

This is a category defining term. Domainers have more of a problem with hyphens than end users.

High $X,XXX to Low $XX,XXX. It has more potential upside to the right buyer.

Brad

[WhoDatDog]

Nothing but downside for the buyer. Why pay 10,000 for Solar-Energy.com when you can probably just register or buy cheap something like SolarEnergy123.com, or SolarEnergy1.com.

You guys are living in absolute fantasyland with 99 percent of these names. You can always find out the TRUE value right now. List it in a thread here and see what you get. You won't be happy with the results, and those appraising are NOT willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Gee, let's see. I am walking down the street and I see $10,000 in cash on the ground. Right next to it I see the rights to the name Solar-Energy.com. Which should I pick up? Play that little mind exercise on every name you see and you will find out the value real quick. For me, that is the true value of all names. They are both sitting there in front of you. The moment you would take the name instead of the cash tells you the value.

You can keep having these dreamland discussions about value if you want, but unless your appraisal is backed up by real money then I'm afraid it is worth zero. Anybody who ever mentions Estibot or any other nonsense like that is immediately disqualified from any serious discussion. If those places and their appraisals were worth anything at all, they would at least have a policy that they would buy your name for a percentage of the appraisal. I will tell you that none of those players will guarantee you even 5 percent of their appraisal, so in the world I live in, that means the appraisal is worth ZERO.

The best thing for most people to do is do get something that starts with a J and ends with a B. It is a three-letter word.

Why not make it a double hyphen. Let invest a bunch of money on a site called Solar--Energy.com. What's the difference if it is just keywords? I know there is market for certain names with hyphens, but a name like this misses the mark. When this name was registered there was no genius involved in it. Nothing happened in the world to make a name that nobody can type in worth anything. The insight it took to add a hyphen is not the type of insight that wins the prize in life.

But this name is actually a lot better than most here, so you always have that to fall back on. Most names I see are incomprehensible, and that is much worse than a low value name.

[bmugford]

Nothing but downside for the buyer. Why pay 10,000 for Solar-Energy.com when you can probably just register or buy cheap something like SolarEnergy123.com, or SolarEnergy1.com.
You guys are living in absolute fantasyland with 99 percent of these names. You can always find out the TRUE value right now. List it in a thread here and see what you get. You won't be happy with the results, and those appraising are NOT willing to put their money where their mouth is.

I have sold many similar hyphenated .COM for High $X,XXX+ or more.

Gee, let's see. I am walking down the street and I see $10,000 in cash on the ground. Right next to it I see the rights to the name Solar-Energy.com. Which should I pick up? Play that little mind exercise on every name you see and you will find out the value real quick. For me, that is the true value of all names. They are both sitting there in front of you. The moment you would take the name instead of the cash tells you the value.

Every domain is one of a kind, and therefore only needs one buyer.
It doesn't matter if 10,000 people take the $10,000 in cash. All it takes is (1) who deals in that industry and recognizes the value of the domain.

You can keep having these dreamland discussions about value if you want, but unless your appraisal is backed up by real money then I'm afraid it is worth zero. Anybody who ever mentions Estibot or any other nonsense like that is immediately disqualified from any serious discussion. If those places and their appraisals were worth anything at all, they would at least have a policy that they would buy your name for a percentage of the appraisal. I will tell you that none of those players will guarantee you even 5 percent of their appraisal, so in the world I live in, that means the appraisal is worth ZERO.

You don't think anyone will offer 5% of their appraisal? I will offer $2,000 right now.

PS - Why are you always in such a bad mood?

Brad

[victornumber]

solar-energy.com is a good domain and it seems more trustworthy if someone finds it in the search engine. The problem is that the hyphen eliminates any possibility of typein traffic, and it comes off more educational/discussion-like about solar energy versus a commercial site. The problem is like .net where it loses traffic to .com. The hyphenated domain loses traffic to the non-hyphenated version and money spent in offline advertising would most likely not be a great success. When someone asks about your site, you can't just say Solar Energy. For commercial purposes/to start a company, it would be much better for an enduser to get a .com niche domain in the solar industry. It's definitely a good domain but the barrer is the intense keyword organic/paid competition going on where pr of the first page domains are pr 6. It's even harder for generic words like "solar power" "solar energy". It's definitely worth it if a way is found to drive traffic to solar-energy.com otherwise it doesn't help too much.

I definitely agree that it could be worth low xxxxx if you could get two or more people interested in the domain and a bidding war starts (eg black-jack.com). For me, I would rather spend the low xxxxx getting a great niche domain with typein traffic, commercial value, offline advertising potential and future growth and build from that.

[eeedc]

Domainers have more of a problem with hyphens than end users.


Brad

Out of the hundreds or thousands of sites I know by name, many are dot-coms, some are dot orgs (Craigslist.org) and fewer are dot-net, but I can't think of a single hyphenated name at all - although I am sure that one could google and find one. The point is not one "brand" out of a thousand is going to use a hyphen.

Of course for a keyword site where you are only trying to make a quick one-time sale or PPC and don't care about return customers, it's not bad.

---------- Post added at 11:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:41 AM ----------

I definitely agree that it could be worth low xxxxx if you could get two or more people interested in the domain and a bidding war starts (eg black-jack.com). For me, I would rather spend the low xxxxx getting a great niche domain with typein traffic, commercial value, offline advertising potential and future growth and build from that.

Or you could get low xxxxx if only ONE person is interested and you hold out - it may take a long time for the right ONE motivated buyer to come along.

[katherine]

Nothing but downside for the buyer. Why pay 10,000 for Solar-Energy.com when you can probably just register or buy cheap something like SolarEnergy123.com, or SolarEnergy1.com.

Because the hyphenated name is still more credible than Solar + Energy + [random padding here].
Don't you think ? I think it's the second best after SolarEnergy.com. I understand you have a bias against hyphens, I'm not found of them either.

You guys are living in absolute fantasyland with 99 percent of these names. You can always find out the TRUE value right now. List it in a thread here and see what you get. You won't be happy with the results, and those appraising are NOT willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Brad is willing to offer 2K. It's a start.
The OP has had a few offers. It's not like there has been zero interest in the domain so far.

I know there is market for certain names with hyphens, but a name like this misses the mark.

Indeed there is a market for names with hyphens when the combo is very strong. Some end users don't mind the hyphen.
This domain has the potential to sell for mid-$$$$+ imo.

[staffjam]

Thanks for the appraisals guys and for the offer Brad. The actual reason i put it up here is because i do have 2 companies interested in the name and the offers are good - quite a bit higher than is being discussed. As Brad said - each domain is one of a kind and i'm sure i'm not the only one who looks at some of the domain sales that take place and wonder who or why they would pay the sort of money they do for a name. I've sold quite a few hyphenated names and as has been mentioned above the end users really aren't put off by this - only domainers it seems.

Thanks again for your appraisals.

[Gerry]

The hyphenation only matters to domainers, it seems. I have sold many hyphenated names for multiple thousands.

In terms of what the name is...it is THE category killer with a hyphen.

Someone would want this for that very reason....as a category killer, the name encompasses the entire industry, defines it perfectly, has broad reach and massive reach, has meaning to all interested in solar power, solar energy, alternative energy, and is a global product.

The hyphen would read as a space when placed in the google search bar. Yes, doubtful it would have much direct traffic...initially. With all the capabilities of bookmarking or historical searches, caches, etc., the hyphen is immaterial.

Yup, I bet a bunch of you have said it would lose traffic to the non-hyphenated. Well, guess what. There is not a non-hyphenated site. It says its coming soon but who knows how long that has been up. My belief is any traffic, ANY TRAFFIC, that the hypenated version gets is traffic the non-hyphenated is not getting, therefore the non-hyphenated is losing traffic to the hyphenated site.

In terms of site building, the hyphenated version would have to have dynamic SEO done to rank above the non-hyphenated version. The key will not only be SEO by very relevant and timely information. If I owned it, I would consider developing in a magazine like format and look to invite industry leaders or people in the know to be contributing writers.

It is a great name, hyphen or not.

[staffjam]

Thanks for the appraisal Doc Com - I had actually thought about doing this - but i also run another energy related site - that publishes news and articles. Sadly i just haven't the time to put into this one as i'm also starting another site which will take up the rest of the time.
The sad thing is i had a logo made and also a plan to build it out - but time just won't allow.

[Gerry]

Thanks for the appraisal Doc Com - I had actually thought about doing this - but i also run another energy related site - that publishes news and articles. Sadly i just haven't the time to put into this one as i'm also starting another site which will take up the rest of the time.
The sad thing is i had a logo made and also a plan to build it out - but time just won't allow.

That's all very understandable.

Obviously, I like the heck out of it.

Rather than offer a dollar value, I would rather highlight the strong points (or weak points) of names. This name has many strong points going for it and would be one hell of a blog.

[David G]

My belief is any traffic, ANY TRAFFIC, that the hypenated version gets is traffic the non-hyphenated is not getting, therefore the non-hyphenated is losing traffic to the hyphenated site.

Maybe but the problem is will the hyphentated version get any traffic?

I think Brad's 2k offer is generous and would have accepted it.

P.S. Isn't 2k a lot more than the 5% being discussed at the time?

[eeedc]

Yup, I bet a bunch of you have said it would lose traffic to the non-hyphenated. Well, guess what. There is not a non-hyphenated site. It says its coming soon but who knows how long that has been up. My belief is any traffic, ANY TRAFFIC, that the hypenated version gets is traffic the non-hyphenated is not getting, therefore the non-hyphenated is losing traffic to the hyphenated site.

Even if that "Coming Soon" site stays up on the non-hyphenated SolarEnergy.com, a good fraction of the people looking for "Solar-Energy.com" are NOT going to realize their mistake (not typing the "-") and they are lost customers/dollars.

If someone like DocCom owns the non-hyphenated SolarEnergy.com, it will be one week before a PPC site goes up confusing people even more, and since "Solar Energy" is generic, it's 100% legal.

Maybe I missed the hyphen, since it's easy to miss, but has there ever been a hypenated site in Alexa top 500 sites or in any of the top 100 domain name sales?

---------- Post added at 05:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------

. I've sold quite a few hyphenated names and as has been mentioned above the end users really aren't put off by this - only domainers it seems.

.

It might just be vague wording, but from your link and that you are only asking upper $$,$$$ - I would gather that you realize enought users "are put off" its only worth a fraction of SolarEnergy.com.

---------- Post added at 05:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 PM ----------

I think Brad's 2k offer is generous and would have accepted it.

You would have to ask Brad, but I think he just threw that out as a fast and low offer that at a minimum would call for a counteroffer.