What do you consider when deciding if a domain name is worthwhile?

[martin-s]

Local exact matches? How many?
Competition?
All in title competition for ranking the site?
Ave CPC? How much?

For instance: holidaycottagesisleofwight.co.uk

1,000 local exacts
High competition
972 allintitle competition
£0.90 CPC

Trying to get a feel for how many of you would bother with that sort of name? (Still available)

And how you would then value it?

 

[scottmccloud]

'Why is it still available?' is always a good start when looking at FTRs.

 

[martin-s]

Indeed Scott - so what's wrong with this one? The Google Local results?

 

[scottmccloud]

The Goolgle Local results would put me off to be honest.

 

[Blossom]

Length of domain name is also something to consider.

 

[kate-brownhill]

Yep, length is definitely a negative on this one but if the exact searches was 4k+ I would start considering it for development but not for resale.

 

[Marcoose]

Indeed Scott - so what's wrong with this one? The Google Local results?

Not saying it is the case with this one but another thing to consider is how easy will a site be to develop? Will the site require a long, expensive code? Also, is it easy to monetise?

 

[julian]

I never understand when people post these questions as if its some sort of huge financial commitment - why are you even hesitating.

At £6.50 a domain you could buy a few different combos anyway..

Also try reading some of the forum posts 'What do you consider when deciding if a domain name is worthwhile' is not an exact science - there no one line anwser.

 

[martin-s]

Julian,

I'm not hesitating on whether or not to buy this name - I'm using it as an example to see what more experienced domainers find valuable.

Thanks to everyone else for the feedback so far.

Martin

 

[Obosh]

i think trend is also important....but julian said...."there no one line anwser".....i am also learning everyday.....still a newbie like you @ martin

 

[Marcoose]

I never understand when people post these questions as if its some sort of huge financial commitment - why are you even hesitating.

At £6.50 a domain you could buy a few different combos anyway..

£6.50 x X no of domains is probably a fair investment for some people. I can understand why they want to ask people with more experience for their opinions.

 

[cc976a]

Ok for me, using this example:

Pros:
- Exact match domain;
- There will be multiple 'businesses' offering the service;
- It's a .co.uk domain
- Opportunity to resell for higher than purchase price to a provider of the service (even resale for £75 would see a huge ROI in % terms)
- Opportunity to sell advertising space if you can develop and take number 1-3 spot (you will have to judge competition)

Cons:
- Bit long a domain (the longer the domain the less benefits of exact match domains in Google - IMHO)
- The development cost of building this for so little exacts when taking a 1% conversion (10 x £5 per booking = £50 per month) just seems lot of expense and time for little probable returns;


So based on this if I could see there are at least 2 or 3 using this exact term on their Adword ad, and this was an exact match to their home page title tag, it might be worth £7 and then attempt an end user sale......although your time to market, convince, time to sell the name (and I've always taken Nominet charges - or added then in to price of domain for simplicity) may absorb the returns (although do this just 7 times a month and it'll bring you an extra £500 a month!). Although I've gone out and targeted end users, with success, but it can be very tough and many doors to bang on.

.....if it was to develop, I wouldn't due to the above.

 

[eddieb]

It depends what you plan to do with it.
If its one of a clutch of similar domains then its worth taking.
If its to be a standalone website IMHO I would stay away. The Google stats don't look great, its a long domain name, and its easy to misspell if anyone wants to go back to it they could easily end up at a competitor

 

[sdsinc]

For instance: holidaycottagesisleofwight.co.uk

A domain like that is obviously a bit long, so it's tedious to type in and more prone to typos. It's still memorable but not that much. It's more a domain for SEO. Radio ads forget it imo. Print advertisements: doable.

Personally I don't look at CPC or search volume, unless you are going to develop it (be the end user). Otherwise, it's not a measure of resale potential.
I go with gut feeling. Is the domain memorable, brandable, easy to spell ? Would it command respect on a business card ? Is the domain good enough for a company to brand itself around it or is it just good enough for a minisite ? Does the domain convey emotions ?

And of course THE $64,000 question:

'Why is it still available?' is always a good start when looking at FTRs.

I have sold many domains that had some brandability so I consider this to be important for the purpose of reselling to corporate end users, but there are many ways to skin a cat. It would be a good idea to focus first on industries you are familiar with, on domains you would develop.
If your purpose is to resell you need to be much more selective than if you are going to develop the domain.

I know nothing about the Isle of Wight and how popular cottage rental is over there, so I would analyze the local market in order to decide if there is a place for that domain.

 

[martin-s]

Thanks for all of the replies. I suppose I tend to seek out domains that I can develop rather than re-sell and so the most important factors to me are traffic and rankability.

 

[martin-s]

I've posted up a few free to register domains here over the past week or so.

Does anyone have any feedback on those?

 

[Edwin]

As well as the other comments (length, relatively low exacts, etc.) grammar also puts me off in this case. A more natural sentence construction is "Isle of Wight holiday cottages"...

"holiday cottages Isle of Wight" looks like a made-for-the-search-engines phrase i.e. somebody typing "holiday cottages in the isle of wight" but not bothering with "in the" because they know the search engines ignore it anyway.

 

[websaway]

Always look at resale value, it's a good fall back guarantee.
And if your selling a website the name should be strong, earnings and page rank fluctuate, a quality name will retain it's attraction.