I mean a really good one worth $200K- $300K.
The odds are quite high that there is no place and no person who will "sell your domain". You would like to think there is a buyer "out there" AND IF ONLY you could connect with that entity THEN money would appear - money enough to prove you right - BUT, time and time again, what the market proves is that domains worth serious coin attract buyers to them. Such domains don't have to go looking for buyers.
Toys.com sold for $5+ million for very specific discernable reasons.
Successful domain brokers are successful by virtue of selling right priced domains, especially domains that have traffic that is undervalued when compared to the converted sales lead value of that traffic and undervalued when compared to the current traffic value of the domain. In other words, it's easy to sell true bargain domains: fire sale domains, domains sold to raise some short term cash at whatever price can be realized "Now!", etc.
I don't know of any domain broker claiming success repeatedly finding buyers for big ticket brandworthy domains lacking traffic that is valuable and likely to convert. Big ticket (6 figure) sales tend to be closely related to built-in traffic that will endure and is likely to convert to sales of some significant value.
Big ticket "brandable domain" sales tend to occur with the same frequency of lottery ticket winnings. Millions of speculative purchases. 1 winner amongst millions.
All reality aside, you might try performing your own market research, identify likely endusers "with money" (since you want big money) and contact them about "your offer". That little exercise in reality should quickly bring the domain's value into sharper focus. Maybe you win big or maybe you discover what so many others have over time about domain name values.
It's the market, fella, it's the market that sets value.
[edited by: Webwork at 4:59 pm (utc) on Mar. 16, 2009]
But what if the domain has a high branding potential for a product.
Potential? Says who? At what cost of "establishing the brand"?
I think people who hawk "brand" don't really understand the term, in its full meaning and glory.
One of the best concise definitions I have read about brands or branding analogizes brand to experience. So what does your domain bring to "the experience" that another domain wouldn't do equally well? It's "catchy"? So what? Most folks can think of 1000s of variations. It's descriptive? Most folks can think of dozens of variations. There's many ways to skin a critter.
"Brand", especially in the WWW age, is so much more than a domain name, so unless the domain is pre-loaded with what a brand strives for now - web traffic - why not save the big bucks for other traffic driving efforts - to bring people "to the brand experience" -- and think of another catchy website name?
The catchy domain is memorable? Memorable domains are a dime a dozen IF you have the money to make the association of domain+experience worthy of the neurons needed to store the memory/association.
I suspect most firms prefer to spend their money on their branding campaign - site dev/design, PR, contests, etc. - rather than blow their budget on group of letters that you say has "high branding potential". I have seen countless threads posted at domain forums touting the sale of a "brandable domain" wither and die, as no one has expressed interest.
So, I return to my advice and suggest that you attempt to market the domain directly to those whom you believe would believe in the merits of your domain. If you cannot think of anyone or any firm that might fall within the task I've assigned I suggest that confirms my initial proposition.
Brandable? Brandworthy? Says who? By what authority?
I'm being a bit blunt, here, Khensu, not meaning any offense to you. I know you're a good member, intelligent and helpful. This straightforward analysis is meant more for general consumption than for you. Frankly I've long been a bit saddened by the knowledge of how many millions of domains have been registered and allowed to lapse due to misguided analysis. Countless lapsed registrations were initially rationalized under the rubric of "highly brandable domain". Brandable domains are truly the lottery tickets of the domaining world.
And, yes, I'm not really riding high on the horse here as I, too, have allowed countless domains to lapse. Misjudgment is often the price one has to pay to learn "how to do it right". Trial and error, hopefully without running out of money or bankrupting one's self.
Now . . I invite everyone to add their own $.02 to the analysis. This, as always, is just one man's opinion. ;)
[edited by: Webwork at 5:56 pm (utc) on Mar. 17, 2009]
IF the domain is so darned brandworthy why not build a site yourself to help establish/build "the brand and its connections"?
Perhaps by taking the name and working with it you will begin to attract the type of attention and interest you are looking for? Perhaps a buyer will appear?
I think you have a serious uphill battle but it's a battle that is more likely to be won by having the right strategy. Just having a brandable domain is likely the worst strategy for finding buyers. Begin to fill the target market "with the brand" and I say you will increase your odds of finding a buyer.
Of course, that means work, which includes knowing a good bit about your likely target market . . which isn't all bad. ;P
[edited by: Webwork at 6:05 pm (utc) on Mar. 17, 2009]
Because of the recession it has been hit hard but it will recover over the next year, I just don't want to wait around for it to happen. I have a "B" domain that will do just fine in its place.
I am marketing it directly as you said to others in the niche but I don't think the dollars are there? The big fish, the big "M" as it were is so big that they are unapproachable. I have started to branch out to marketing to the other areas, we'll see what happens.
No, no you are right I am putting a perceived rather than a hard value on it and in that case beauty in the eye of the beholder. I just have to find them.
Thanks for your advice.
Hopefully others will step up if they have succeeded in what you are attempting to do.
Before I got into the habit of launching 10 sites a year, I thought the 5 letter clever sounding domain I regged one day was something special and had branding value, and it does. It's just not something I expect someone to pay out on.
To me it sounds like your domain is really more of a keyword domain with meaning within your market. A brand doesn't exist before someone makes it. You have to create a brand. While the name is an important start to that, there is so much more that goes into the game that you really don't want to blow your budget on it.
