The SafeSys-NameThink Domain Rating Challenge

Hi Fellow DNFers

Safesys (whose domain wisdom I greatly respect) and I have been having a little discussion in the Appraisals section regarding the greater publicizing of domain name sales. I believe prior sales can be a very helpful factor (the most helpful, in fact) in evaluating other domains' values. Safesys is somewhat skeptical about this, and seems to be even skeptical about the possibility of arriving at any really usefull pre-sale dollar value assessment.

Safe, if it's okay with you, I'd like to suggest a little experiment here, involving our fellow DNF members. Below are ten domain names. Based on only the domain name itself (and not any associated existing website), rank them in value, and give a brief note as to why you valued it "there." Don't assign a dollar value...just rank them relative to one another.

Here's the ten domain names, in alphabetical order:


Arthritis.com

Bank.com

Big.com

Corkscrews.com

Credit.com

DiscountComputers.com

Natural.com

NewYorkRealEstate.com

Snowboards.com

UsedCars.com


Give it a try...it will be interesting to see where we agree and disagree on relative value, and why.

Miles

P.S. Safesys...I added your name to this thread title because it was inspired by our discussion...I'll take it out, if you want.

 

[fizz]

Bank.com top generic/worldwide appeal
Credit.com as above
UsedCars.com as above
Big.com easy to brand/remember
Natural.com as above
Arthritis.com affects many/big market drug sales
DiscountComputers.com generic/worldwide appeal
NewYorkRealEstate.com Prestige name/big ticket sales
Snowboards.com limited sales
Corkscrews.com limited sales

 

Nice idea, here goes:

Natural.com
perfect brandname, the domain carries a positive feel - lots of suitors with very large budgets

Credit.com
very solid high value marketplace, nice name for a new company/brand and traffic conversion potential

UsedCars.com
great name for an auto classifieds site, again good conversion potential

Big.com
nice name, branding potential but doesn't carry the kind of inbuilt marketing as the above imo

Bank.com
recognisable, but i can't imagine banks wanting to be branded under this specifically and I'd question inherent traffic levels from
it - but if a thinktank decided they wanted their brand to be bank.com to signify web transactions then could be a winner.

Snowboards.com
Good vanity potential in this big money industry

Arthritis.com
good for an information site and/or remedy/relief products

DiscountComputers.com
nice descriptive name with vanity appeal and a clear market

NewYorkRealEstate.com
as above

Corkscrews.com
its a nice descriptive product name

 

[ShaunP]

Credit.com - covers a wide amount of services, very profitable

Big.com - Empty vessel - easy to remember - very brandable

UsedCars.com - big industry - not limited to geographics

Bank.com - good financial name ... more limitimg than credit.com

Snowboards.com - big industry ... on the uptrend .. name says it all

Arthritis.com - great as info and product site --- huge market

Natural.com - wide variety of possible uses ... not as memorable or good as Big.com

DiscountComputers.com - profit margins are tough these days ...

NewYorkRealEstate.com - okay name

Corkscrews.com - someone had to be last!

My 2 bits...

 

[DomeBase]

1. Credit.com -- very good -- perhaps the best

2. Big.com -- great, easy to remember

3. Natural.com -- good.

4. DiscountComputers.com -- good use of a generic -- fits nicely with .com

5. UsedCars.com -- good name... although there are risks of getting a used car online -- better for new

6. Bank.com -- how valuable are these big time generics in the .com TLD? Why develop a generic if you have your own bank TM name? Banking.com would be better generic

7. NewYorkRealEstate.com -- A bit long... is it the city or state? I think most real estate sites will be large datasets that can be searched by area, rather than area hardwired in name, but still good

8. Arthritis.com -- good, but other extensions may be better than .com for this name -- such as .org or .info. Also, is there a market for disease-specific portals?

9. Snowboards.com -- OK, narrow market, but growing

10. Corkscrews.com -- pretty narrow -- perhaps for a wine company?

 

Thanks for the responses so far. Here's my take:


1) Bank.com

Banking is a multi-trillion dollar global industry, from retail to institutional. This is the prime domain for this industry. Type-ins would likely be good (at least once a month I have to resist the urge to change my bank). The vanity factor (as safe likes to put it), is huge. Branding is a question, but that didn't stop Bank of America from paying a top-ten record amount for "loans.com," and hasn't stopped Chase Manhattan from using and branding under "bankruptcy.com." "Bank.com" is one of the heavy-weight champs of the domain world...I'd put it in the top one hundred of all domain names.

2) Credit.com

As with above, credit is a massive international financial industry, covering credit cards, loans, mortgages and credit counselling. Solid type-ins for all these services, and the prime domain for this industry. I put it under "bank.com" because "bank" covers some of "credit's" territory, and is ultimately the dominant financial industry (which was as true 500 years ago as it is today).

3) NewYorkRealEstate.com

Real estate in America is a $3 Trillion dollar a year industry ( you read that right: Trillion; see http://www.businessweek.com/1996/53/b350872.htm ). New York City probably gets in excess of 1% of that amount (think Manhattan alone), which would put the New York City Real Estate Market value at over $30 Billion a year. "NewYorkRealEstate.com" is the prime domain for this market, and it even covers the whole state. Type-ins, vanity, authority, memorability. Lenghty, but it is the domain for this huge market...and people definitely use the internet as a big part of the real estate shopping strategy. A "niche" market, which is why I rank it lower than the top two "global industry" domains, but what a niche!

4) Arthritis.com

A very widespread ailment. In the pharmaceutical industry, a massive amount of money is spent on advertising. Furthermore, one of the top research topics for consumer use of the internet is health. One arthritis drug alone, Enbrel, had sales of $650 Million in 2000 ( http://www.businessweek.com/bw50/content/mar2002/a3776083.htm ). "Arthritis.com" is the prime domain for this very large industry. Great type-ins and vanity...a great investment for any drug company involved in this field.

5) UsedCars.com

A very big industry, but it tends to be localized. However, with the recent trend in the big manufacturers getting in on the "pre-owned" market, this domain gains value. Type-ins a big strength with this domain.

6) Snowboards.com

You may be surprised that I put this here, but snowboards are a big industry...over $200 million in annual sales in the U.S. alone, and that's just for the equipment. The highly targetted snowboarding apparel market, closely linked to this prime industry domain, is also very big. Great type-ins and vanity, and snowboarding is usually done by people with access to good disposable income (either theirs or their parents') who are internet-savvy, so this domain gets high marks for being a great marketing investment for the snowboarding industry.

7) Natural.com

A non-specific generic domain, but very closely associated with big industries: natural foods, natural healing, etc. Type-ins might not be great, but clearly a very, very strong branding asset (yes, "branding" is a value factor, but is has to very strong).

8) Big.com

A remarkable three letter word. Lots of positive branding connotations. No clear association for an industry or industry type limits its value, but it's still a valuable domain.

9) DiscountComputers.com

Sure, computers are big business, and "discount" is one of the most marketable of modifiers, but it's still a modified two-word phrase which doesn't target a specific niche of its greater market. A good, memorable, appealing name for a business selling computers, but type-ins may not be that high, and you can't really compare it to its big brother, "computers.com."

10) Corkscrews.com

The prime domain for a small-ticket item. Without further researching the size of this industry and the volume of total sales done online for this type of product, I'd have to put this little keeper at the bottom of this particular list of domains. Still, a very nice little domain.

Miles

[edit for typo]

 

[bidawinner]

#1. BANK.COM *** evreything in our society starts with the banking industry..even credit..

#2. CREDIT.COM *** after the Bank oks comes the credit

#3. BIG.com **** after the Credit is approved comes the BIG check

#4. NewYorkRealEstate.com **** the Big check always goes towards the new home first

#5. Natural.com **** represents the womens market for ..paret of which promotes the joy the motherhood (also the joy of spending the big check for the marketers clients )


#6. UsedCars.com ***** after the wife anounces she's pregnant...maybe we will skip the new car


#7. DiscountComputers.com *** see #6 ..with child on way.. maybe we can find a less expensive computer

#8. snowboards.com **** litttle Johnny is now 15 ..


#9. Arthritist.com ***** Hey, Hon do your fingers feel stiff?




Cute..Ok..but it does fairly represent the POWER structer of the domains...

Banking industry first..serves up the credit industry...which in turns serves up the retail industry..

BID

 

[Zoobar]

1. Arthritis.com - Global market. Growing marketplace
2. Used Cars.com - Global market. Sustained marketplace
3. BIG.com - Easy to remember/type, "Big" marketplace
4. Bank.com - Easy to remember/type. Banking=money.
5. Credit.com - Easy to remember, specific, high demand
6. Natural.com - Specific, niche, growing marketplace
7. NewYorkRealEstate.com - Specific, Advantageous marketing tool. A few sales and its paid for itself
8. DiscountComputers.com - Specific, good demand. Low margins on computer sales caps this names value.
9. Snowboards.com - Specific. Growing marketplace
10. Corkscrews.com - General, not a popular search term.

 

[Stouch]

1) Credit.com
2) Usedcars.com
3) Big.com
4) Bank.com
5) Natural.com
6) Arthritis.com
7) Newyorkrealestate.com
8) Discountcomputers.com
9) Snowboards.com
10) Corkscrews.com

Cuz it is so.....

 

Some numbers to play with:

Stats presented (monthly): exact ov searches / term ov searches / top ov bid/ term * bid

Arthritis.com - 1217 / 70,250 / $1.30 / $91,325.00

Bank.com - 1089 / 150,129 / $1.51 / $226,694.79

Big.com - 554 / 40,287 / $0.15 / $6,043.05

Corkscrews.com - 0 / 1,244 / $1 / $1,244.00

Credit.com - 2195 / 69,168 / $3 / $207,504.00

DiscountComputers.com - 0 / 9,635 / $0.34 / $3,275.90

Natural.com - 357 / 17,661 / $0.30 / $5,298.30

NewYorkRealEstate.com - 31 / 10,575 / $1.17 / $12,372.75

Snowboards.com - 187 / 21,029 / $0.17 / $3,574.93

UsedCars.com - 8674 / 559,385 / $0.40 / $223,754.00

 

[Bob]

I am not rating these by just the name. I have done about 100 domain name sales and I **think** I have a feel for relative values. Exact numbers - who knows.

1) Credit.com - Massive audience, very common word.

2) Bank.com - Massive audience, a little more limited than credit. You hear the word "credit" more often than "bank"

3) Big.com - cool one word 3 letter .com. Would fetch big bucks.

4) Used Cars.com - most people have a car. WOuld be a prime place to buy one.

5) Arthritis.com - very common word and ailment. This site would be huge if developed.

6) Snowboards.com - lots of people snowboard (not me though).

7) Natural.com - good strong word, but more of a limited
potential.

8) DiscountComputers.com - good concept. a little long.

9) NewYorkRealEstate.com - long name, limited potential.

10) Corkscrews.com - pretty specific name, limited industry.

BTW - I would buy any of these names at the right price. Namethink - are you selling them???

-Bob

 

Originally posted by Bob

BTW - I would buy any of these names at the right price. Namethink - are you selling them???

-Bob

I think any of us here would buy these at the right price.

No, I don't have any of these names. I deliberately chose a group of domains which are all valuable, but, I think, well-dispersed along the scale of domain value.

As for those who feel NewYorkRealEstate.com is limited in value, have a look at this article on Rob Grant, who created a highly successful online realestate empire with intuitive real estate domains:

http://domainnotes.com/news/article/0,,5281_409981_1,00.html

Length is but one factor in domain value.

Miles

P.S. Nice added info, safesys...very interesting!

 

[domainscot]

ok lets say i go to the
BANK.COM to get CREDIT.COM to pay for a USEDCARS.COM i then go to the BIG.COM Apple to buy a house a low down house since i have Arthritis.com so its only Natural.com that i use NewYorkRealEstate.com to buy the house i then get the Corkscrews.com to open a bottle of wine i then sit down in my new house with my new DiscountComputers.com and book a skiing holiday to try out my new ) Snowboards.com

 

[krisblade]

Same as Namethink

And thanks for such interesting post!