Domains that are worth it ?

[dee]

Hi all,

Been following a few threads here recently, and one thing thats come up in terms of making a regular income is the idea of having a few sites on the go. I just wondered in terms of catching domains to develop if there were any benchmarks to look for . I appreciate obviously you can get a site to work in any niche if you spend time on quality content , but wondering in terms of income potential theres a minimum spec you go for ? What's the minimum amount of monthly searches thats worth looking at and minimum CPC if you were to not worry about the niche. For instance, I just caught a pet animal name that allegedly gets 10k uk searches a month with a CPC of 0.18 . Worth having a go ?

Cheers as always.

 

[DomainManage]

There is no magic formula. Monthly searches mean nowt to me, your going to end up going down rabbit holes developing on that basis - why not start or look for something you know about in depth first.

 

[Skinner]

I go for an area I know, where I know the market or I know the products. This gives me a kind of insider knowledge. Once I know the niche I look for as close to a category killer domain as I can find.

 

[dee]

There is no magic formula. Monthly searches mean nowt to me, your going to end up going down rabbit holes developing on that basis - why not start or look for something you know about in depth first.

Yep. Makes sense. I was thinking of more fire and forget. So set up a site with say 10 relevant page s and see if it gets traffic.

 

[dee]

I go for an area I know, where I know the market or I know the products. This gives me a kind of insider knowledge. Once I know the niche I look for as close to a category killer domain as I can find.

Cheers skinner. I agree totally, and I have a couple I'm invested in long term. I just wondered if there was a workable threshold in terms of numbers of searches etc that means you'd get some traffic

 

[Skinner]

Nah, you just need the best name you can get for your chosen niche. Think Vehicles->Cars->CoupeCars->RedCoupeCars->RedCoupe3DoorCars->RedCoupe3DoorCarsWhiteWallTires. The more specific you get, the narrower you're field. The closer to cars you can get without going to vehicles, the better.

If you can see a market, it appears to sell well, and you can find a way to monetise it, then its good to go. Just make sure you have a monetisation option, I've made the mistake before of buying into something only to find no way at all to make a dollar on it.

Cheers skinner. I agree totally, and I have a couple I'm invested in long term. I just wondered if there was a workable threshold in terms of numbers of searches etc that means you'd get some traffic

 

[WalkinDude]

Regardless of what the domain is presume it will require huge amounts of time and effort and investment to make it a success and if your eyes the domain is not worth that effort then it's safe to presume most other people including your potential visitors to your site will reach the same conclusion. Also if you have no reputation as a domainer then registering or acquiring hundreds of domains is a complete waste of time and money. Domaining has entered the realm of normal business and the lottery aspect has disappeared. If there are 50 ways to say the same thing then that domain is a poorer prospect than one where there is only one way of saying it and you own that way.

 

[dee]

Domaining has entered the realm of normal business and the lottery aspect has disappeared. If there are 50 ways to say the same thing then that domain is a poorer prospect than one where there is only one way of saying it and you own that way.

Thanks WalkinDude. Totally makes sense...and I do understand the work involved to make something a success. This is a situation where this is a very specific domain, with exact searches and although not a category killer its a two word 'breed" +"animal" for example. Anyhoo. It seems there are any shortcuts judging by the answers. Cheers.

 

[WalkinDude]

Thanks WalkinDude. Totally makes sense...and I do understand the work involved to make something a success. This is a situation where this is a very specific domain, with exact searches and although not a category killer its a two word 'breed" +"animal" for example. Anyhoo. It seems there are any shortcuts judging by the answers. Cheers.

One of my favourite domaining stories was the saga around the domain name Sex.com. A dastardly fraudster apparently forged some documents and had the domain name transferred over to himself [the fraudster]. Over the next decade or so he turned the domain name such that it was earning something like tens of millions per year. The original owner was in court for years trying to it get back. When the time of the final judgement was nigh the fraudster actually ran away to Mexico. It was estimated he'd made over $100million. Can't remember the actual figures. In the final judgement the Judge basically explains to the original and genuine owner... we're handing you your domain back. The party that stole your domain has made you a rich man cos prior to him hijacking your domain you were doing sod all with it. So I'm only fining him $20 million dollars for stealing your domain. The fact you stand to earn so much from this point onwards is adequate compensation. [totally paraphrasing here].

To me the Judge was saying your a moron who had this domain and did next to nothing with it, so your getting it back and that in itself settles this matter.

So the nature of domaining increasingly in my view has very little to do with the domain and everything to do with the owner of the domain. Person A could own SmellyHotdogs.com and turn it into a billion dollar business in 5 years. Person B could own Business.com and do little more than put spammy ads on it to earn a few quid.

History will one day say like any other thing in life it's the person not the domain that matters. And that's been my experience in here. Certain people who are as rude as hell in here, but they are first class domainers. They just know what they are doing. They'd succeed with any batch of domains you chucked at them. As for the rest of us.... give us a decent domain and all we got on our minds is what we might sell it for to earn some easy cash. But real domainers build.... they invest for the long term and reap the rewards.

 

[dee]

One of my favourite domaining stories was the saga around the domain name Sex.com. A dastardly fraudster apparently forged some documents and had the domain name transferred over to himself [the fraudster]. Over the next decade or so he turned the domain name such that it was earning something like tens of millions per year. The original owner was in court for years trying to it get back. When the time of the final judgement was nigh the fraudster actually ran away to Mexico. It was estimated he'd made over $100million. Can't remember the actual figures. In the final judgement the Judge basically explains to the original and genuine owner... we're handing you your domain back. The party that stole your domain has made you a rich man cos prior to him hijacking your domain you were doing sod all with it. So I'm only fining him $20 million dollars for stealing your domain. The fact you stand to earn so much from this point onwards is adequate compensation. [totally paraphrasing here].

To me the Judge was saying your a moron who had this domain and did next to nothing with it, so your getting it back and that in itself settles this matter.

So the nature of domaining increasingly in my view has very little to do with the domain and everything to do with the owner of the domain. Person A could own SmellyHotdogs.com and turn it into a billion dollar business in 5 years. Person B could own Business.com and do little more than put spammy ads on it to earn a few quid.

History will one day say like any other thing in life it's the person not the domain that matters. And that's been my experience in here. Certain people who are as rude as hell in here, but they are first class domainers. They just know what they are doing. They'd succeed with any batch of domains you chucked at them. As for the rest of us.... give us a decent domain and all we got on our minds is what we might sell it for to earn some easy cash. But real domainers build.... they invest for the long term and reap the rewards.

Funny. Literally, tonight , just had an email conversation about domaining and said that 'the person that paid 20 bucks for sex.com or pizza.com 25 years ago is now rolling in it. '

Love it. Thank you. A perspective check.

Seriously. Thank you... thats a great post