1. Occasionally I receive emails asking if I'm willing to sell my domain/website but nothing serious. Does this typically mean that the domain name is not valued very highly?
2. Are there people who act as a domain brokers to look for interested buyers?
Thank you.
[edited by: Webwork at 6:06 pm (utc) on April 25, 2008]
[edit reason] Per Domain Forum Charter (link at top) please avoid specifics [/edit]
The "core value" of a domain name is generally tied to the type-in traffic the domain name receives due to its generic descriptive nature: City+Hotels.tld likely will receive a bit more type-in traffic than HotelsInCity.tld.
Bona fide and effective by reputation domain brokers are a scarce commodity. I think the most obvious reason for their scarcity is the lack of demand or need for their services. Most folks, looking for a domain or a website, have a good idea of how to find what they're looking for. Ergo, "who really needs a broker"?
There are many forums, but not this one, that allow you to post websites and domains for sale. They're not hard to find. Just search the relevant phrases, such as webmaster forum and the like. You might post the domain/website for sale and see where it leads.
I suspect you will mostly find bargain hunters. Everyone is looking for a bargain.
[edited by: Webwork at 6:19 pm (utc) on April 25, 2008]
DNJournal listed DataRecovery.com sold recently for $1.7M in a private sale. My domain is similar to this in that it is a generic domain name used to describe a specific area of IT so it would be (or should be) of interest to a number of IT companies, large and small.
I guess my question is why have these IT companies not shown any interest in buying my domain name? The obvious answer is that they do not see any the value in buying it but the thing is that they have not shown any interest at all. Or should I be taking the initiative and actually selling/marketing the domain name to them?
And in cases like DataRecovery.com would the original owner most likely have been approached by the buyer with an offer?
Thank you.
Data recovery is an issue for individuals and the many small businesses that aren't IT savvy. In other words, data recovey is more a "consumer facing" service than an "IT industry facing" service.
DR is also a very profitable business with corresponding high PPC costs. The purchasers of the DR domain likely reasoned that they could recover their investment and advance market their dominance in ways that other providers of IT services would never imagine nor likely achieve by such domain-marketing.
IT vendors continue to market based upon face time, past relationships, trade shows, and online demos. I've seen evidence that some have woken to the idea of the lead generation value and mindshare value of generic domains but the IT industry - for all its IT savvy - isn't always the most marketing savvy industry. Ergo, the lack of interest in what you feel is a compelling domain.
Patience is what I would counsel. I am the registrant of a number of interesting IT domains. I've slowly witnessed their traffic and PPC revenue growing. As the commerce of IT services continues to globalise I suspect the value of generic IT related domains will begin to rise significantly.
Hope springs eternal. ;)
I know that a large part of an IT vendors operating cost is taken up with sales & marketing activities. Any idea how I can work out how much an IT vendor may typically be spending on online advertising? I'd like to get an idea of how a purchaser may be "persuaded" that they'd be better off using a generic domain to promote their products and services versus the traditional methods as you mention above. How would you sell the idea?
Thank you.
