1. Pick a domain forum that allows you to post domains for appraisal. Obviously we don't allow that. There are a handful of forums that have been around for awhile that do. They're not hard to find, so I'm not voting.
2. Don't just put up any or all domains. Pick your what you feel are your very best domainss or "your best domain". If you post too many domains in a thread no one will comment. IF you keep putting up domains for appraisal people will lose interest and the best people will simply ignore you. Remember, successful people value their time so you should too when you ask for some of it.
3. PUT YOUR DOMAIN NAME IN THE SUBJECT LINE of the appraisal thread. When I hang out at other domain forums I don't even open an appraisal thread unless the domain is in the subject line. Experienced, successful, busy folk simply don't have time to waste opening "mystery threads" only to discover that the domain is utter rubbish.
4. IF you post a domain for appraisal, with the domain in the subject line, and still no one comments THEN the lack of a response AS THE APPRAISAL. The domain is rubbish. It's not worth anyone's time to comment. Move on.
5. IF the domain has any type-in traffic stats then post them with a record of earnings.
6. Add "notes" about the number of "exact matches" in Google, etc. for the domain, but leave it at that.
7. Don't adopt a "promotional mentality" when posting domains for appraisal. Don't comment about how great or useful the domain can be to an enduser. It's just noise or chaff. It's further evidence that you don't know what you are doing, to think that your pumping and promoting will influence seasoned evaluators.
8. IF the domain is a good one it's likely more than 1 senior domainer will weigh in with an opinion. IF only relatively new members weigh in with an opinion that's a signal that it's probably a $$ or $$$ domain on a good day. If the noobs tell you it's worth a lot more than $$$ don't get excited, but enjoy the moment - for what it's worth.
Free informal domain appraisals by experienced domainers - augmented by studying sales price information from DNJournal, Sedo and BuyDomains - is still the best way to get a feel for a domain's aftermarket value. Keep in mind that a good opinion will give you an idea of the domains "wholesale value", i.e., domainer-to-domainer sale and also an enduser value range.
[edited by: Webwork at 2:27 pm (utc) on May 3, 2008]
6. Add "notes" about the number of "exact matches" in Google, etc. for the domain, but leave it at that.
It would be more useful to know how often the word/phrase is searched for. I don't particularly care how often a word/phrase shows up in Google, I'd want to know how often people go looking for it.
Buckworks, what is the best way to learn the number of searches? Are you referring to Overture results with the extension or searches for the exact keywords?
I'd check out searches for the exact phrase, and also other searches that contained the words.
In my opinion, a domain which relates well to something people are actually searching for will have more value than one which merely happens to match some random phrase that turns up lots of Google results.
The main provider I occasionally use (and will not be renewing my subscription) tracks words from Overture, MetaCrawler and DogPile, which are not popular and not commonly used by the public, or massages the data, i.e. Overture.
6.5. Don your Kevlar suit.
(I'm not going to recommend asbestos for legal reasons.)
How is this subject related to asbestos? I don't even know what a Kevlar suit is, maybe it's a Mesothelioma domain keyword?
Maybe I am not thinking good today by not understanding it so please elaborate on it?
They won't tell you it's worth $500 but might say it is in the mid $nnn range.
