meganerd said:
I'm writing an article "Domain Investing - Is Less Actually More?".
I have the following question for domain investors:
Should investors save their money and purchase more expensive domains? Or is it worth purchasing smaller websites and customizing each for revenue?
Please post your opinions. Also post your full name and website so if I quote you, I can give you credit. Thanks!
I would like to take some time to leave my opinion on the matter.
If you like the business model of harvesting a crop of domains to cultivate traffic and milking advertisers through the use of search engines, then buying cheap names is the way to go. If your only ambition is to get spur of the moment search engine traffic, then pricey names would be a waste. If you have bigger dreams, then you need a bigger name.
Sure, you can build a palace anywhere, but why would you want to build it in a Ghetto. When building a website, there are many factors which contribute to making it a success. The brand, a great marketing ploy, a fabulous product or service, how you treat your customers, as well as several other variables all play a role in making your business a success. The online realestate on which you build your palace should match your ambitions. It often takes money to make money. Remember to align your ambitions with your current cash flow and working capital. The concept of a good name is relative to your financial position. As far as an individual should be concerned, your best that you are capable of obtaining, is as good as you should demand. It isn't comely to spend time and money developing a site which has a cheap name to begin with. Proverbs 22:1 mentions that, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches..." I think that the merits of this verse can somewhat apply to the decision making process of domain name selection. You want a name that is considered "good". You can work through marketing and customer service to achieve that perception, but you can also start from the beginning with a name that is inherently perceived as "good". Some names require hard work, others don't. Some people are born good looking and things are handed to them on a silver platter; others have to work harder. Some names are inherently attractive and receive a constant flow of typein traffic and domain offers with little or no maintenance, some require a battle against fierce competition to achieve that.
If you have a great project in mind and have great ambitions for it to be "the next big thing", by all means, don't skimp in any area. Get the best possible name and work from there on out. If you have a small project in mind, go for a cheap name. Match your name with your ambitions. If you want to sell names for large sums of money, you need names that others want to match with their own ambitions bad enough to be willing to pay you the big bucks for the opportunity to do so.
Some will say that 20 years on down the rode, the playing field will be different. Before betting on that, ask yourself in what time frame do you want to see your ambitions come to fruition.
Bill Kerr
IT Specialist
Afternic, Inc.
