Price/Appraisal Standards and Guidlines

[myblueshoes]

I believe it may be time for standards (for buying/selling) DN's
and time for a body to govern thoses standards - it could be helpful to all of us and the industry.


>The goals are:
To set/raise the standards of the (dn buy/sell/brokering) industry.
To increase the ligitimacy of the industry.
To maintain/increase resale value of DN's.
To raise the perceived value of individual DN's regardless of traffic, SErank, etc.
To lessen the dependance on oveture, search engines and site building to produce value for a DN.

Here's my crazy Idea:

>my idea is for everyone in the dncommunity to appraise and price their domains relatively fairly and equally so as not to underprice themselves (or anyone else), overprice themselves or anyone else. A buyer will buy a domain based on price which is directly related to the DN's current value. It can even be certifiable... Kind of like a bluebook on DN's

Is that possible?

I like the fact that internet and DN's are kind of like a wild west frontier as much as the next guy but maybe to tame it a little bit wouldn't be a bad thing moving forward, especially since our industry is heavily patronized by our brick and morter head buddies.

They love standards, certifications and credentials. Maybe even certificates of authenticity, like on a stamp, coin or anything with percieved value - who cares? to you and me they don't mean squat- but to them it's something tangible in a mostly intangible virtual world.

"dnforum" can develop standard pricing/value criteria (book values). Both those values and the criteria on which they are based (unlike search engine rank criteria) is shared public information.

Here is some sample criteria:

1. no of letters in name
2. relevance to niche
3. how it sounds in native language
4. popular appeal at time of sale
5. oveture
6. whatever

Say that each criteria can be scored a point from 1 to 10.
Say that each point had a dollar value associated with it.
(the dollar value for each catagory may be different, an may vary over time.)

Now, like in he Olympics,

Say that the "dnforum" judge panel (100 experienced DN "experts" (some niche-specialized; some language/culture-specialized) later to be known as the "dn standards association" or whatever) will vote a dn on each category.

The 100 scores from each category can be averaged out.
The scores form all categories are added up.
Then we grind out total $ amount.
Then it becomes certified for one year.

----------------------------------------------------------
Discussion: I think what this will do is lessen dependance on only looking at search engines, overture and creating bogus websites and gradually change the public perception to consider certified appraisals as a better (or at least alternative) means of evaluating the intillectual property called domain names. It's something solid.

But also it would have other effects- not all of them good for everyone, I'm sure. Guite frankly, it would give dnsellers -who sell garbage a clue...
What do you think?


Ready for more?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Clearly, there's a program and associated website that can eventually be developed to implement the above.

That website can generate revenues- or be opensource- for appraising DN's, and allowing the print out of DN certificates from the dn standards association. Maybe webdesigners can be affiliates of that site with a search bar on their dn sites to add ligitimacy to their sales.
(Maybe google will buy it one day too! )
------------------------------------------------------------
This is just an idea. But one where we've changed the rules of the game a bit to work in our favor.

Are we ready for this?



Your comments welcome.
LT