I have been compiling an 'ideal' check list for myself, though can't say I've ever used it. It's more like a 'choose what's relevant' sort of list. But with domains now going for a million and upward this sort of extensive list will start to make much more sense.
A) Choice
Keep it focused on my target areas - so if it's a dud then all is not lost, and I may be able to make something out of it.
B) Buying practice
Keep a maximum price in mind - it's all too easy to get carried away and pay way over the odds.
C) Valuation
Determine why you are buying it - traffic versus brand vs generic
If its for traffic then you are looking at what people might type in, so for instance plurals are more likely than singulars.
If its for brand then singular statements "interior designer . xxx" sounds better than "interior designers . xxx" (depending on your sexual preference!)
Also for brand vs generic, you have more rights to it as a brand if you own or can purchase company name and if you trade with it for a while and that it is not generic. It would be harder to defend a brand like cheapflights than say argotravels.
Research brand separately to the domain name. e.g. its easy to determine that xxxooks is a great brand name just because its available. Brand choice is a whole separate field (memorability, uniqueness, identifiable to marketplaceness etc)
All of this of course is dependent on the actual domain in question.
Check list of valuation points:
links inward - e.g. google links
Alexa rank
Age of domain - longer is better
Length of domain in characters
Length of domain in words
Are the words definitive for the niche [thanks Edwin]
Hyphens - can be good but only at the right price - probably 10% or less of value - it's all to easy to overpay with hyphens
Numbers - same as Hyphens
History
both us and uk OVs
OV with .co.uk
OV without .co.uk but words joined together
ov whenwords are split
Legal entitlement
a) are you stepping on anyones brand or infringeing any trademarks (Europe wide)
b) can you make a brand out of it
c) is company name registered
d) are patents and trademarks already taken out on it
Note even simply.co.uk ran into potential conflicts albeit successfully resolved and there are worse examples than that of generic names being "owned" e.g "easy".
D) Total ownership
Can you buy up other similar domains to consolidate your brand e.g. .com as well. e.g. get hyphens too, (does someone else already have close domain)
Conversely, if many other domain extensions are all taken with that term (e.g try to get mortgage.anything) then that is a good indicator of an 'in demand' term and can justify a higher price from its rarity and popularity.
What is being done with the other .extensions of the domains - are they parked or used by major or minor outfits.
E) Retention of value
Is there possibility in the future that someone else may want this name off you, so even if you don't build it up it will still retain its value.
Is there a possibility of "big picture" changes like Nominet taking away .co prefix etc.
i.e. SWOT analysis (Strengths weaknesses opportunities threats)
Longevity
i.e. will it increase, decrease in useage over time
version names and numbers eg NT, 2000 etc are time sensitive
Is concept now or future
will concept be outdated soon eg wifi and G4 and perhaps blueray coming up but only perhaps for a shortish period of value
f) Commercialness
Nearness to a purchase - i.e. if you are selling fitness equipment then there is a vast difference between getfit.co.uk or even fitnessequipment.co.uk to specificproductrange.co.uk
Value of likely purchase - if you are not yet certain of the field of endeavour but are purchasing for future ppc then e.g. look at e.g. hotels rather than flights (thanks atlanta1)
But make sure there is enough demand for the product in question.
Something like total demand divided by total competitors x profit margin = is it big enough?
Popularity of market - e.g. loans is a very, very competitive market, so you may get good ppc rates but if you are trying to sell loans then you will equally have to pay high ppc rates, so determine which side of the fence you're on.
If you are selling then find your niche.
If you are getting revenue then find the high paying keywords
G) High paying keywords
Look at google, wordtracker, ov and all the others to determine top paying keywords in your field.
H) Alternatives available - is the one domain *really* that good - given with your time you could make others work well. Why pay $60k when you could pay reg fee on another one and spend $60k doing it up. General public probably couldn't do that, you probably could.
I) Check values
Check ov results are genuine eg with wordtracker
e.g. my last purchase was 5letter.co.uk with an s at the end.
OV showed over 3000 with extension
So far in 5 days absolutely no traffic
If I had checked with WordTracker I would have found that the results were different from Overture and would have given me the clue that it was a false reading. Perhaps from some big site publishing a false link last month, or something like that.
J) Compare with .com value
Compare what people have done with the .coms and what price that was sold for, or what price they would sell for.
K) Affiliate valuation
If you are buying for ppc, check there are decent merchants already in existence unless you fancy the direct approach.
We can all wait for merchants to start affiliating but it may take years for the particular product you are interested in to make it onto the networks books.
L) Market sector
Touched on previously, e.g. for sake of example debt consolidation pays more than music generally, unless you find the appropriate niche in music - i.e. know your market sector and the niches within it.
M) Competition
Difficulty of getting serps
N) Locality and specificness
Bigger trends are towards local search results and very specific searches
Make sure you haven't gone too general when you actually would do better with specific and local descriptions.
O) Repeat visitness and memorability
(lots of made up terms here!)
How easy will it be to create your site to get repeat visits.
E.g. domain forum is more likely to attract visitors who like to visit forums.
domain purchase is more likely to attract one off domain purchasers
You may find the former actually sells more domains
You know your market for the actual product and domain.
How easy is it for people to remember the name to come back to, i.e. how similar or confusing is it to other similar terms.
P) Differentiation and consumer benefits
Does the term have enough consumer benefit built in.
i.e. you want loans to quick, you want hairdressers to be qualified, you want eggs to be fresh.
So things like cheapeggs or cheaphairdressing work less well than cheapflights.
Other opportunities
Sometimes you might get a one off. e.g. if your name happens to be the same as a major brand then you can leverage that. (thanks Goose)
Sometimes a country name or capital city name changes
e.g. Bombay to Mumbai
Miscellaneous
Plurals
compare in google number of instances of plural -plurals and vice versa
to get indication of the difference in usage of the term for your term
look in google to see ad prices for each version
[plural] vs [plurals]
Number of near neighbour ways of describing the term
ez, eze, easy, eeze,
ez-, simple,
number of advertisers advertising for the term
check searches for purchase related phrases on the term
eg buy guillotines rather than french guillotine
wordtracker (dogpile metacrawler) can help with plurals
academic terms rate higher than colloquial perhaps
perhaps number of links in froogle vs google will give you some idea of its commercialness.
and various other buying/sales variants e.g. is the seller pricing for end user or broker quick sale.
etc etc
Feel free to add or dispute anything here, it is just a work in progress.
I have some other ideas too if you want them.
Enjoy!
-aqls-
copyright -aqls- 2006
