Search Engine Marketing Blog

If you are lucky enough to think up a domain name that isn’t already taken you can skip this post. If however you, like the vast majority of us, want to buy a domain that someone else has registered you need to decide how much you’re willing to pay before you begin negotiations.

Some domains were purchased with a genuine interest in the name and a plan to create a site for it. Most domains however have been purchased with a view to the resale market and those that purchased them “off the shelf” for US$10 or less in some cases are now asking upwards of US$30,000 - more if the domain is thought to be valuable.

Stories of outrageous sums for domain names appear every now and again such as the most recent, and very expensive, purchase of Business.com for US$350m. When we think of high priced domains we usually remember the .com’s and they do go for a lot, but other TLD’s have also sold for respectable, although less ridiculous, sums. Have a look at this site for disclosed .co.uk sale prices.

So how do you decide what it’s worth? Is there a market average or rule of thumb?

A domain name is worth both what the seller wants for it and what the buyer is willing to pay for it. That’s it. There is no market average as you can clearly see from the figures on the stories linked above.

So you have to decide on what the domain is worth to you in terms of branding, sales, referrals and so on. I have personally bought good domains for as little as US$300. Again, “good” is relative and completely dependent on what I am able to do with the domain after purchase.

Domain name resellers will tell you all sorts of things, the most commonly touted are:

“This domain is unique” - of course it is! That’s what a domain name is: a unique online identifier.
“This is a premium domain” - so what? Premium means nothing. If you can’t use that particular domain it isn’t “premium” to you.
“One word domain” - that’s great IF it’s the word you’re after but it’s not a deal clincher, two and three word domains work just as well online.
“Easy to remember” - again, that’s good IF it actually is - do NOT take their word for it.
“Domains like this usually go for” - that doesn’t matter. What someone else was willing to pay for a different domain (they’re all unique, remember) has no bearing on what you are willing to pay for this one.

To work out what a domain is worth to you think about what you are going to do with that domain and what you need it to help you accomplish. Does it need to be short, snappy, easy to remember or is it preferable for it to be clearly representative of your company name and/or brands regardless of the length/ease of typing? Are you planning to sell products or services on the site? Is it to be geared towards consumers or business or neither? Is this to be your main website?

Next, consider what the domain has to say. Does it have to contain a certain word or words or can it be something similar or completely different?

Unless you have a very specific requirement for a name you can usually shop around and eventually find one that is very good, if not perfect, and a whole lot cheaper than the “premium” domain.

And never be afraid to negotiate. I have never purchased a domain for the price the seller originally wanted. No matter what the seller says there aren’t millions of people trying to buy domains but there are millions of domains on the after sale market. So unless you have to have that particular domain it is actually a buyer’s market and you can get some good deals if you’re willing to be patient.

Link bait, in case you never heard of it, is a website/page built to grab your attention. Offering a cool free tool, flaming Matt Cutts, saying “Page Rank Doesn’t Matter”, publishing a Top 100 list are all examples of link bait. In business terms it might be a whitepaper, survey findings, industry reports or predictions and forecasts.

The focus is on targeting a link-happy audience and on marketing to them instead of on delivering to your primary target audience. It’s all about spreading your word through other people’s websites.

You should build link bait content that targets bloggers, social bookmarkers, university professors, Democratic senators, niche media, big media, anyone and everyone that posts online - from those that do it for a living to those that simply like to see their own words in print.

The bottom line is it’s only link bait if it’s something others will want to join in on. If there is no reason for them to comment, disagree, flame you, nit pick, congratulate you, quote you, or in some way engage in the conversation it’s not link bait.

So make it engaging, controversial, quoteable, thought provoking, hilarious, horrid, anything that will cause a written reaction.

Stories covering privacy concerns over Google’s purchase of Jaiku and how Google wants to take over the universe start sounding like good old fashioned conspiracy theories.

But is that all they are? I think that if the Biblical Anti Christ could exist as an entity rather than a single person Google pretty much fits the bill. At the very least we should all be seriously worried about the potential lack of any personal privacy. Do you really want some super computer to know what you like to wear, eat, where you like to shop, read, hang out - it doesn’t take much more than a sophisticated behavioural and psycho analytical algorithm to extrapolate what you are likely to wear, eat, read, and so on in the future. Telling Google about what I want and like to do now is fine - that’s my choice. But I do not want them turning around and telling me what I will want and like! That’s just not right.

For the person on the desert island that hasn’t yet heard about the most recent PR update and how it’s supposedly due to Google penalising link sellers and buyers here’s a few links to interesting posts:

Forbes article that’s a few days old but interesting “background” reading (hey, it’s a fast paced industry!)

Andy Beard’s detailed look at the directories affected - good cause he tracks the directories’ PR over time

ShoeMoney’s short but sweet post - please follow the links to find out what NOT to do

Some Musings from Search Engine Journal - I love the quote, “PageRank is not a Marketing Metric”. Perfect!