The difference a hyphen (-) makes!

[Bill Roy]

I have just been watching an auction on NameJet for the domain 'TuscaloosaCounty.com'. The name sold above my ceiling at $2,601.

Now let us look at this sale a little, yes Tuscaloosa is a nice county, situated in Alabama with a poulation estimate in 2009 of 164,875.

Now let us compare that with larger counties which contain a hyphen (-). Recently I advertised 37 such US counties on another forum as an auction and then 'for offers' both there and here. Each county had a population ranging from 100,000 - over 1,000,000. I did not even get a sniff of interest even when the individual asking price was less than $45 each when bought as a single lot!

So let us assume that the counties I offered were of equal quality (apart from the hyphen) to TuscaloosaCounty.com (indeed they were better), that means that a hyphen knocks off more than 98% of the value of a non-hyphenated domain! What is more remember mine did not even get any interest so indeed they must have been regarded as over priced.

Now according to generally perceived wisdom the general order of valuing is:

.com > .net > .info > .org > .biz

(yes I know .org and .info can be exchanged).

Well it would now seem that hyphenated .com has a value on par with a .biz. The world has definately gone crazy.

 

[Theo]

It's all subjective and from a domainer's point of view. Plenty of developed sites with a dash, especially geodomains.

 

[ukbackorder]

...or it could just mean that domainers pay too much at namejet auctions....

 

[Bill Roy]

RobM ... or it could mean they picked up a bargain at the NameJet auction!

 

[A D]

.com > .net > .info > .org > .biz

It's all relative, for me it's ====== .com > .ca > The rest of the pipe dreams.

Personally I would not buy any names with dashes, but that doesn't make it right.

-=DCG=-

 

[BostonDomainer]

.info before .org??? Anyways...

I'm not a hyphen guy unless development is planned. I wouldn't buy a hyphened domain on a buy and holed mindset. To me that's not top grade with the exception of .de German hyphenated sell extremely well. Must be a cultural thing.

 

[Bill Roy]

Adam, I will forgive you about buying .ca's, after all you are Canadian! :lol:

I started this thread to show the inconsistancy in pricing. I would 'generally' say that hyphenated .com's should be worth circa 10%-20% of the unhyphenated as 'a very simple rule of thumb'. Such a base valuation would put the hyphenated .com in the same ball-park as a .net IMO.

The fact that many domainers are like Adam (I suspect) in that they will not touch hyphenated domains is a puzzle to me, but that is how the world is and I have to live with it. :disappointed:

 

[katherine]

I have very few domains with hyphens, for which I don't own the non-hyphenated counterpart
Yet I find them acceptable for domains where the combo is very strong, or when you have double letters like fast-track.com vs fasttrack.com
I also think hyphens are not popular in America but the Europeans don't shun them.

 

[Bill Roy]

I agree that at the moment they are not commonly in use in the States, but I have a feeling that hyphens (dashes) are going to become a little bit more acceptable in the States very soon!

 

[DomainMagnate]

Some end users like them, but not most domainers. I don't buy them because they are not as good for seo.

 

[exxe]

nvm

 

[Gerry]

Some end users like them, but not most domainers. I don't buy them because they are not as good for seo.

I can disclose this because the company is out of business (failed to keep up with technology and insisted on doing things the old way - kind of like people claiming newspapers are not on the decline).

Anyways, can you imagine what the domain EC dot com would cost (if it was for sale)?

Eisner Communications dot com...imagine how many people would mistype this name.

I sold them E-C dot com.

To make a long story short, this was a 70 year old advertising agency that went bankrupt in 2008. No, the purchase of e-c did not push them over the edge. It was a business model that was perhaps as old as the company itself. Family owned husband/wife companies (he was the CEO, she was the COO) can be one toxic environment.*

I do recall seeing e-c had dropped and was purchased for $3600. Bargain for the buyer and a fraction of what I had sold it for.

*I once worked for such a firm, in advertising, that had not paid payroll taxes (even though they were being deducted from our paychecks), had not paid insurance premiums (even though they were being deducted from our paychecks), and had not filed personal state and federal income taxes for several years. He was the CEO, she was the COO. I'm not saying that is the same situation as Eisner, but that was the absolute last straw for me in my advertising career. One day, in walked the IRS, local sheriff, and a locksmith and we were given 10 minutes to vacate the premises. We were not allowed to take anything out of the building. Items we claimed were personal property had to be inspected as we departed. Doors were sealed with big IRS stickers and that was that.

 

[hugegrowth]

I wouldn't extrapolate all hyphen domain values from one experience with 'county' type names. I see hyphen domain in advertising and used by companies on a pretty regular basis. The better combo of words the better the price. If you can't get the .com you want, then getting it with a hyphen might be better to some people than getting the full .net or .org. Anyway, they sell every week in the dnjournal report for xxxx amounts.