Like me, everyone thinks their names are gold and looks at most other names as shit. I don't know what names are worth, I only know that the names I buy are based on insight to a particular market, prospect or problem that only I would be aware of, so that I don't expect the domain community to understand them. If they did, I'd never be able to afford to buy the assets I need to succeed. Kind of like all those who admire Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham, but because of Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham can never compete for the same product.
So what's a domain worth and what's a worthless domain?
And what appeals to end users that makes a domain's appraisal criteria in 2008/09 different then the domain game as we've known it?
The perfect example would be Microsoft. I've blogged alot lately (and for over a year privately) about Microsoft's push into domains. It's something I have tremendous inside insight into from my day job working for their largest partner and having named one of their top producing revenue products.
Right now Microsoft is in heavy domain buying mode- they've waited years for this depressed market to swoop down and buy on the cheap-- they've made about 30K acquisitions in recent months and are using some as landing pages for their own "house" version of live ppc as their monetization for tokyo.org demonstrates.
Others they are leasing to small businesses as landing pages for live search campaigns (all bundled) or to small businesses as a "free domain" with website software and development as a monthly service
So I wonder how domainers would value these recent acquisitions by Microsoft or whether the would even consider Microsoft as a prospect?
PLAZA.COM
ULTIMATECOMEDY.COM
COMFYCAKES.COM
CHEESEGALAXY.COm
MOMLIVE.NET
TV.NET
TUBEMD.COM
OATMAIL.COM
DIAGRAM.INFO
WELLAROUNDTHEWORLD.COM
PCCHIEF.COM
PLEASETALKTOTHEHAND.NET
LOOKUPANDSMILE.COM
WEWANTTHEBEST.NET
LATEBREAKINGSTORY.COM
ILOVEMYWEBSITECHALLENGE.NET
NOTJUSTLIBERALNEWS.NET
NOTJUSTCONSERVATIVENEWS.ORG
MOTOCROSSMADNESS.COM
MONSTERTRUCKMADNESS.BIZ
MONEYINSIGHT.COM
NO-LATE-NIGHTS.COM
USERGROUPS.COM
RETAILNUMBERSTHATMATTER.NET
QUERYSANTA.ORG
PROTECTCLIMATE.COM
TRADEMARKCHAMPIONS.COM
TOTALFIND.COM
TOKYO.ORG
THEULTIMATESTEAL.NET
THEUNSEEN.NET
THERIGHTADVISER.COM
THEFULLERSPECTRUMOFNEWS.COM
SUCCESSFISH.COM
SUBJECTPOWER.COM
STARTWATCHING.COM
STARTSOMETHING.US
SEIZEOURFUTURE.COM
ROBOPHARM.COM
RETHINKYELLOW.COM
2 comments:
Bravo! You know what Owen...I think that the old time domainers are shaking in their boots that all they have are "keyword" domains. Sure that was the way to go early on before search engines and semantics. I'm new to domaining and have only hand reg'd the over 400 domains that I own. Most are "call to action" domains that I felt was the way to go even before I knew you existed. It just makes sense that people are going to talk to their computers like we talk to each other. So, it looks like those of us who think that "catchy" domains are worth something more than reg. fee just might find an end-user like MS who thinks we're on to something.
"I think that the old time domainers are shaking in their boots that all they have are "keyword" domains."
If you are serious, I think you are completely mistaken and probably in the wrong business. Most brandable domain names are much more difficult to sell - especially at a high multiple. There is value in a call to action domain if a buyer really wants it. However, if they can't get it for an affordable price, they can easily change/alter the call to action to get the corresponding domain name for much less. IMO, Owen isn't just selling call to action domains. Owen is selling ideas based on his tremendous marketing experience.
Category defining keyword domain names are generally irreplaceable.
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