kwasher - 5:41 pm on May 10, 2004 (gmt 0)

Im with webworks on this one.

There was time when buying and selling domains, especially one-worders, was lucrative. Since then, there has been great dilution.

I still have some 'great' domains that I bought before the domain name goldrush. No one is clamoring and hammering at my door for these.

I put some on ebay. I should have kept them... for they brought low prices. It would have been better to build sites on them.

Unless you have mucho cash, are up on the latest 'techniqes' and buying advantages (club drop, etc), or really managed to grab a HOT one or two, I don't think domain name speculation is a good field to be entereing. There are certainly exceptions. You'd be better off building sites on them and monetizing the sites or selling them after the site is built.

I even have some ONE WORD domains that generated little interest. It all in the buyers eyes. And a little luck.

--

How to pick them? If they make sense, are not confusing, and are, basically, brandable, then you might have something.

How to evaluate them? There are tons of evaluation systems out there, free and paid, and I've yet to see one that reflects an actual selling price.

The simple way? The Pros and Cons method.

Fairly short? Pro.
Long? Con

Desireable?
Size of market?
Easy to say?
Easy to remember?
Do you have to 'spell it out' to your mom so she understands it?
How would it sound on the radio? (a negative for hypen domains.. though I still love them)
Can it be easily misspelled?
Who has the other spellings?
Who has the com? net? org?

Add any other questions you can think of. Look at your pros and cons. More Pros, more value. More cons, less value.

As for actual numbers, you can compare similar names that have been sold (you used to be able to do that on afternic, its been a long time since I hung out there).