Please wisen up a Newbie , not sure how to value a domain name etc.

[justwondering]

Okay , i'm kind of newbie with around 130 names , a few seem to have value , there listed on sedo , no takers yet , ive got 4 on bido auctions starting in a weeks time

But i want to be able to hand reg reg names and buy potential value ! my method for searching for names is i assume at best basic , can you guys help me onto the right path please.

whats the basic tools / sites i should be using...

I know of estibot.com , but i read that most domain buyers tend to think estibot.com is a bit of a joke and often wide of the mark , that opinion may of changed recently as i know estibot updated there site and equations a while ago.

My current method for seeking out new names to hand reg is (i'm sure this is a tad useless) :-

find a name in 123reg.co.uk that is not taken e.g "bigsackofspuds"

google , type "big sack of spuds" (i presume this gives me exacts , although i'm a tad confused about that meaning etc ) see how many exacts it has , i presume higher is better , see if theres anyone paying for a google ad ( does this mean anything if they are ? does it add any value ?)

then goto estibot type in the name and see what price it picks out of thin air.

i presume my method is flawed , but what is the best method and in newbie layman terms what is the best way to check if something has any real value to either sell on or setup as a min type site with some updates and paid for directory submissions / social website subs etc.

Also why does esitbot in general seem to value a .co.uk more than some .coms of the exact same name ?

 

[doodlebug]

Hold your horses :!:

FORGET Estibot ( notice it's in capitals )

Putting something into Google doesn't give you exacts, that's just how many ranked sites have articles relating to the search term.

You need to enter your search term here Keyword tool

Look at the options and make sure your settings are set to the UK, also there's a drop down which says broad, change it to exact so you know how many people have searched for exactly what you have entered.

Bigsackofspuds I really hope your not regging things like that.

Good luck

 

[justwondering]

Hi , thanks for your reply , Nope i've not regged "bigsackofspuds" , thanfully its just a e.g okay great , thats a step in the right direction thank you for the link

so i guess for e.g , i should type in "big sack of spuds" and not "bigsackofspuds" , what type of global and local figures are considered as worth a reg?

the domains names i choose are mostly B2C type for proudcts , hoilday location , services etc.

so when i type the name in to google keyword search , i shows me a list of additional keywords to consider etc , i assume i just look at the one before this for the exact for any kind of relevence the additioinal to consider words are worth looking at for ideas but not really that important to consider when i type in my domain name?

if i looked down at the additional keywords sugguestions and spotted say "big sack of spuds cleaned" with say 10,000 uniques each month global ,for me to use with say a downloadable product / affliate etc ,

would it be worth buying the name bigsackofspudscleaned.com ? i know the amount of characters is over the top and shorter is better , but just as a example.

i'm noticing a lot of stuff does not seem to have sufficiant data for local ?

 

[doodlebug]

If you enter into keyword tool eg, fancy dress >

You can either just do a search and it will give you results for your term in this case fancy dress but it will also give you similar searches such as clown costume etc.

If you only want the results for fancy dress then click filter my results and tick the box which says '' Don't show ideas for new keywords. I only want to see data about the keywords I entered ''

However if a generic word is already regged as .com and .co.uk etc then if you look at the other keywords suggested then you put them into a domain registrar and see if they are available ?

If a term as 1k exacts per month but is a product that only sells for say £1.50 then it's not worth bothering with but if you get 50k exacts on something worth £1.50 then yes it's worth it.

Also if you only get 1k exacts but the product sells for £200 then it's worth regging

 

[justwondering]

thank you for your advice , i'm starting to get it but it leads me to ask for a bit more detail.

Okay so based on your example just to be clear about this , if "clown costume" was available regging clowncostume.com would be a good idea and worth money.

but just to be even clearer if

"clown costume" 1k exact
and
"red clown costume" 1k exact , was also available , would that equally be worth regging ? redclowncostume.com ? i know its kinda worth less based soley on the lenght of the domain name.

is it worth getting the .co.uk also ? if its not showing any local data or low data for the same keywords ?

How could i put a price on its value in the market place ? other than asking for apprasils?

 

[doodlebug]

If clown costume was avaiable with 1k exacts then yes get it.

As for valuations, practically all the quality names such as flowers;co;uk or tools;co;uk have been gone for years and any generic you can get now will only be worth money if you get it ranked and earning

 

[justwondering]

cool , what do you think about

redclowncostumes.com with 1k exact

 

[justwondering]

Is it worth making a mini site for a name , i know how to make a website , i'm reading up about seo , i understand about having to pay out a few quid for some paid for directories listings etc , ad words , some affiliate stuff on the page, what difference could a mini site make to a name .

what would clowncostumes.com be worth with a site that is ranked on say page 3 , or on page 1 ? after a few months of attention , fresh content etc

what would clowncostumes.com be worth with no site , hand regged two days before?

 

[justwondering]

is it worth , putting the name "clown custome" with the quotes into regular google search , just to see if bids are there for that exact keyword , or is that what the google adwords sugguestion tool is doing ?

 

[Edwin]

I wouldn't generally register a domain name with a qualifier in it (e.g. "small" or "red") unless that qualifier turned the whole name into a specific, well-defined niche of its own.

For example, "smallshoes/co/uk" is a bit too vague for my taste, but "smallcars/co/uk" (even if one could argue as to exactly what constitutes "small" in the context of motor vehicles, and where the dividing line lies) is probably a legitimate niche as some people are only interested in small/compact cars (small garage, nervous about driving a large vehicle through narrow streets, want better fuel economy etc.) so you could quite easily envisage a site focused exclusively on small cars without much problem...

"redscarves/co/uk" would again likely be a bridge too far, whereas "redroses/co/uk" is a very tightly defined but important sub-niche of roses, especially around Valentines' Day, where the focus is almost exclusively on red roses!

 

[justwondering]

Okay with smallcar.co.uk , ive seen this question posted a lots of different places , with a few different answers.....but if you set up a mini site , submitted the site via hand to all the main directorys , then perhaps did some paid for stuff as well, back links, correct keyword density.

would someone typing in "small car" , put you close to the top with less effort with doing all of the above , instead of a domain name with say "small red car" (not sure thats a good example)


would the name be higher up than say a company like smartcar.co.uk , even though they specialize in small cars ?

 

[justwondering]

For example Game.co.uk , is a high ranking name , if i had 123game.co.uk , both selling video games and game consoles , would this as a mini site rank up there along with game.co.uk , if someone just typed in say game console , would google pickup on the 123"GAME".co.uk part of the title and rank me higher than say another video game seller like hmv.co.uk ?

Or would game123.co.uk rank higher than 123game.co.uk , just because the first part of the name is Game...

Or do these situations offer no bearing on the ranking....

Sorry for all the questions , i'm keen to learn more