No need for PM. This is free advice, take it as you wish.
Steve
Thanks Steve for the terrific advice. I will definitely consider it as I move along.
Rich
Absolutely, Bionic, a great example of what Rich could do with some elbow grease and a bit of $$. And, I'd imagine your bud Albert had to spend some time and at least some $$ putting this together.
Steve
Hi Bionic and Steve,
Thanks for sharing with me your views. Building a directory was one of the first ideas I looked at because it is such a natural. The problem is that I really couldn't find any good examples of directories that were really building a steady stream of return traffic. If I am going to invest in any site, I would like to see that traffic steadily building, so it has to have some value and some stickiness. While it is very difficult to come up with this idea, I keep on trying out different ideas building up some experience on what is required.
And I agree with you Steve. I think you are on point when you focus in on the back office administration efforts that a high volume site requires. This is one of the reasons I stay away from social networking which does require a lot of administration support.
Thanks again. I am absorbing everything and appreciate all the advice. I hoping that it will lead to something.
Rich
a natural keyword
a little SEO and content
you're top of page one for 'links'
then you can move it to a major net company
or partner with a major seo firm
do some content for sub domains
lawyer.links.com
doctor.links.com
finance.links.com
google.links.com
seo.links.com
Hi adonivideo,
Yes, I have found that I can get excellent SERP with any
links in the domain name. I was doing very well with TV links and still doing well with game links, video links etc. But good SERP does not give me growing traffic. For that I need some content. So far, everything goes no where.
Also, I have tried partnering up, but partners want to extract to much for what they are offering. Anyway, my experiences with partnering has not been good. Every partner believes that they deserve everything. It is the nature of partnering.
Appreciate the advice.
Rich
You think links.com is a better name than Villas.com? IMO, Villas.com is VASTLY superior.
Personally, I'd be happy with $120-$160k for links.com, in today's climate. I might even be tempted by an offer lower than this.
- Rob
Thanks Rob. Appreciate your appraisal.
Rich
anyway, links.com is a 'nice' keyword, but I doubt it will ever sell for more than 100K
Hi there,
Very much appreciate your analysis. I thought, for your own knowledgebase, you might want to be aware that I have been offered much more than 100k for the name. This was before the latest downturn, and as you are probably aware from my prior posts, I am not actively selling nor seeking a buyer. However, I am a business person myself, and I can assure you that I can get quite a bit more than 100K, even in this market. Not sure why, other than people may feel that marketing a name like links is much easier than other names, in terms of impression, name retention, etc. Just call it marketing dollars saved. But this is just a guess.
Thanks again for your analysis.
Rich
Lastly, to deem "Links.com" as a domain that's not worth seven figures shows some serious lack of domain valuation expertise. Instead, you seem to be preoccupied with what you'd pay for it, not the majority of end users.
Hi Acro,
Appreciate your taking the time to appraise Links.com.
Since I have had some contacts with buyers, I would say that my experiences more or less support your views. I am by no means myself comfortable in suggesting that links.com is worth xxx,xxx or x,xxx,xxxx or anything else. But it does seem like, based upon offers that I have received, that it is a name that could solicit a good price, if and when I ever decide to sell the site.
But first things first, I need to develop it in some way. So, I definitely appreciate all of the advice and appraisals that you and others have offered.
Thanks again!
Rich
All it takes is creative thinking and execution.
Examples:
Stumble Upon
Delicious
Dmoz
Bored.com
CoolHomepages.com
All sites with nothing but a bunch of links.
Hi meganerd,
Yes, this is more or less along the lines that I am currently working. I had some major development going, only to find out that another organization had delivered the idea in a way that was much better than I could ever hope. They are not in Alexa 10,000 but they have lots of development support. Nothing that I can match.
I was as high as 60,000 on Alexa for TV links, but it stopped dead there, so I decided to go for another idea. But, I am now working on something similar to what you propose. We'll see how it goes.
Thanks much for your insights.
Rich
Plus Fly is a short cute word, and the buyer decided that $1.8 million was a good deal relative to alternatives.
Links is a very good proxy for search or internet. Sure search.com or internet.com may be better, good luck buying those two names.
Hi there ok10,
This is pretty much along the lines that I was thinking. I know that Microsoft is spending over $100 million marketing Bing.com (which I think is a very nice name for MS - it is catchy and cute). So, if someone feels that links.com can save them several hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing/advertising costs (and this would be a gut feel by the end-user), then I think the value of the domain name would go up. As you suggest, it would be best placed if the domain name was married to the subject matter domain.
Thanks for the assistance. Appreciate it.
Rich
I wonder what the high offer on it was? It probably happened pre 2000
Hi there adonivideo,
I have had much higher offers that were pretty recent. I have never negotiated since I am not interested in selling. However, partnership opportunities do arise now and then, and it is valuable information to know approximate what the domain might we valued at.
Thanks for taking the time to evaluate the domain.
Rich
so that means no one is coming with a fat check (over 1M+) to buy it
Hi adonivideo,
I very much appreciate the time and effort that you are putting into the evaluation. You obviously have lots of experience in the industry and I am sure you have done great work for your clients.
I realize that appraising domains is much more of an art than a science. In this regard, I can assure you that your comments are not aligned with my recent experiences and that links.com is worth substantially more than your own model is suggesting at this time. While I understand your model, I think it may require some additional dimensions to it, for domain names such as links.com.
I hope this helps you. Appreciate you assistance.
Rich