Hello - Advise Please

retired_member18 · Sep 5, 2011

Hi,

I'm Darren from the NE of England. I'm very new to this, having never sold a domain name before, but I bought some names a few years ago, and would like to know the potential of them, or maybe an estimated valuation.

The best of the bunch would be:

savingenergy.com
savingenergy.co.uk

I've registered on Sedo, and the free valuations for these are £3,500 (.com) and £750 (.co.uk). However, I have seen some websites which I wouldn't consider as 'good' being valued much higher on here.

Other websites include:

energyexplained.co.uk
energyforsale.co.uk
sellinghousesabroad.com
sellinghousesabroad.co.uk
sellinghousesonline.co.uk
forumforstudents.com
howtofish.co.uk
identifiable.co.uk

Any advise, suggestions, valuation, etc.. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Whibs · Sep 5, 2011

Welcome to the site tempestmedia.

I would not worry too much about Sedo or any other evaluation, in most cases there is a fine line between your expectations and the buyers expectations, should these two meet you get the sale and everyone is happy.

In most cases the seller feels his domains are worth more than the buyers budget or evaluation.

Your domains are all info sites and not a direct product or service related domain. None have great local exact search volume:

[energy for sale] - 0
[saving energy] 1300
[how to fish] 720
[identifiable] 320
[selling houses abroad] 22
[selling houses online] 16
[energy explained] 0
[forum for students] 0

I do not see the value in these domains in the same way, if they were earning money through affiliation or Adsense then a multiple of that time 24 months would give you a fair evaluation.
You must remember that IF you were sat at number one in google for a keyword then you could expect to get about 60% of the EXACT SEARCHERS. Less than 2% will convert.

So 1300 searchers on Saving energy, 780 clicks to your site sat at number one, 2% convert by clicking your ads. 156 people a month.

Now you have to get your page to number one to gain that value to reach your expectations.

There are no golden rules and my view will be different from another but i find being very conservative with pricing allows you to achieve some sales.

I would write to Sedo and ask them to broker it on a 30% commission should they reach the estimation - I'd be surprised if they took you up on the offer.

There are guys on here that can make all this happen and on many long tail keywords but they do not pay the money for a domain, after all it is what they do wit the domain that gives it is value

Best of luck though

peter_w · Sep 5, 2011

Hi Darren,

Whereabouts in the North East? I'm originally from Co. Durham, though now based in Leeds.

In terms of the names - I'm far from being an expert in the industry, but I'd assume "Save" would be the real value term in the sector rather than saving ("Saving Energy" has 1,300 local exacts per month, and if I was building a brand I'd be concerned about the potential leak to saveenergy.com/.co.uk).

If anything I'd probably say the values are at the top end rather than being low. That said, it's obviously a growing sector as more people look to cut costs.

retired_member18 · Sep 5, 2011

Thanks for your quick replies,

Saving Energy is currently ranked #2 for "Saving Energy" after 'The Energy Saving Trust' which I believe to be a government organisation.

It is also ranked on the 2nd page for "Save Energy" if that helps.

I was planning to develop it sometime in the near future, as it currently has very little content/SEO, and an AdSence income of around £2.00 per month.

And I'm from Stockton, near Middlesbrough Paul, good to see another northerner on here

retired_member18 · Sep 7, 2011

edited - found the answer to my question

dta · Sep 7, 2011

@whibs - just wanted to say great post, one of the most well thought out reponses I've read in a while.

retired_member18 · Sep 7, 2011

dta said:
@whibs - just wanted to say great post, one of the most well thought out reponses I've read in a while.

I agree, it was great advise. I even bought some new domains last night (some hotels, getting on average 1,000-2,000 local searches per month) because of it, and I've scrapped the idea of developing some of the websites listed.

Thanks again,