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What's a domain worth?

#62
Joe Nerve said:
Thanks to those who are doing the arguing for me :). The idea that I'm cybersquating, doing anything immoral, or illegal is preposterous to me. I have 0 doubt that I'm not, and well... Don't have it in me to argue.

I should add that I'm not dying to sell this because I sometimes toy with the idea of getting this band going again. And I love the name. And there's nobody on the east coast using it. It's mine, and I'm just considering letting it go.
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For the record, I don't think your a bad guy or doing anything illegal. I'm just letting you know there's another side to the get-as-much-as-you-can point of view.
 
#63
Joe Nerve said:
...I gotta be honest. I'm not going to sell it if I'm not going to make money. I'd rather hold onto it...
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No domain names, but a few rare old items that could never be replaced if I sold them. I think about them from time to time, about selling them, but I have them, I like them, and I don't need the money.
 
#64
It appears I am the first one to post who actually has direct personal experience in exactly this kind of thing. Just a few years ago I had a working side project we called The Siders since we all had full time gigs, and this was just an outlet for our writing that didn't fit the main band's repertoires. It kind of fell apart after a year and a half or so, but I had bought the domain name, and used it to put up show notices etc. About 6 months after it became inactive, I was contacted by an Australian entity, to this day I still have no idea who or why, that wanted to buy it. Since I had nothing to go on, not even a name other than the company e-mail, I went bold and asked them for $10k. After a few days of throwing numbers back and forth, we settled on $5500 and they did a purchase transaction through GoDaddy. The money was safe in my account in less than 2 weeks, GoDaddy handled all the transfer fuss for me for free, and I made 6 months mortgage. I'm not saying you should gouge anyone, just saying those on their moral high horses are a bit out of line. You are not doing anything wrong. You did not preemptively buy someone else's moniker. It is worth what it is worth to you, for whatever reason, but also worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. These two things have nothing to do with each other. Yeah, sometimes I wish I had kept it. It was a good name and those can be hard to come by, but in the end, it is just a couple words, and at that time to me the cash was way more useful. If I ever really want to get it rolling again, I'm sure there is another suffix, or adding "music" or whatever that will distinguish us and still be easy to pass around/remember. My main gig Los Blancos couldn't buy our name as a domain because it is owned by a cigar company. We went with casablancos (Shameless plug: LOS BLANCOS Casablancos.com Home of LOS BLANCOS) and have had no issues with people being able to find us. A good Meta Tag is key.


And PLEASE heed the advice mentioned above. Never under any circumstances enter a domain you are considering purchasing into ANY search engine, especially on a domain site like GoDaddy. I'm going to type it again: Never search for a domain you are thinking of buying until you are ready to buy it RIGHT NOW. There is big money made by crappy people who endlessly skimbot for domain search queries, and cybersquatting at that small a level is very hard to prove. They are going to nickel and dime you for your own domain idea. Expect any domain you search for on GoDaddy to be purchased from under your nose in a day or two, pretty much guaranteed.
 
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#65
bigfatbass said:
It appears I am the first one to post who actually has direct personal experience in exactly this kind of thing. Just a few years ago I had a working side project we called The Siders since we all had full time gigs, and this was just an outlet for our writing that didn't fit the main band's repertoires. It kind of fell apart after a year and a half or so, but I had bought the domain name, and used it to put up show notices etc. About 6 months after it became inactive, I was contacted by an Australian entity, to this day I still have no idea who or why, that wanted to buy it. Since I had nothing to go on, not even a name other than the company e-mail, I went bold and asked them for $10k. After a few days of throwing numbers back and forth, we settled on $5500 and they did a purchase transaction through GoDaddy. The money was safe in my account in less than 2 weeks, GoDaddy handled all the transfer fuss for me for free, and I made 6 months mortgage. I'm not saying you should gouge anyone, just saying those on their moral high horses are a bit out of line. You are not doing anything wrong. You did not preemptively buy someone else's moniker. It is worth what it is worth to you, for whatever reason, but also worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. These two things have nothing to do with each other. Yeah, sometimes I wish I had kept it. It was a good name and those can be hard to come by, but in the end, it is just a couple words, and at that time to me the cash was way more useful. If I ever really want to get it rolling again, I'm sure there is another suffix, or adding "music" or whatever that will distinguish us and still be easy to pass around/remember. My main gig Los Blancos couldn't buy our name as a domain because it is owned by a cigar company. We went with casablancos (Shameless plug: LOS BLANCOS Casablancos.com Home of LOS BLANCOS) and have had no issues with people being able to find us. A good Meta Tag is key.


And PLEASE heed the advice mentioned above. Never under any circumstances enter a domain you are considering purchasing into ANY search engine, especially on a domain site like GoDaddy. I'm going to type it again: Never search for a domain you are thinking of buying until you are ready to buy it RIGHT NOW. There is big money made by crappy people who endlessly skimbot for domain search queries, and cybersquatting at that small a level is very hard to prove. They are going to nickel and dime you for your own domain idea. Expect any domain you search for on GoDaddy to be purchased from under your nose in a day or two, pretty much guaranteed.
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Thanks very much.

Regarding the last note there, I've actually started shaking at times when I found something was available :). MY PASSWORD!!!!! WHERE IS IT!!!! GOTTA MOVE THIS SECOND!!! It really seems people are ready to snatch it up in a heartbeat, right from the second you search it. Had that a couple of months ago with my next original band name. I love the name. It's a name I'm astounded nobody else has ever thought of. And the domain was available in a .com. I wasn't even going to search it as i was certain someone would have already had it. It was a similar feeling to snagging a German Warwick Fortress One for $440 in the last seconds of an eBay bid :).

I woke up this morning deciding I'm going to move forward, though I still have some questions I'd like for you or others to answer. Will call godaddy later if I don't get any clear response.

In contacting these bands, is there any reason I might not want them to know my identity? I have 3 email addresses. Pop any one of them into google and you can pretty much find out what time I crap each day, and where. I also have the option of sending them a facebook message. One one hand, I think it's good because they'll know it's not anybody trying to scam them... on the other hand, well, I'm not the most trusting of people and I don't understand business all that well. I grew up in a Brooklyn Italian family also where I learned if someone wants something badly enough they can get it, no questions asked :). Then again, I don't think any of that stuff has gone on since 1978...

Thoughts?
 
#67
Joe Nerve said:
Thanks very much.

Regarding the last note there, I've actually started shaking at times when I found something was available :). MY PASSWORD!!!!! WHERE IS IT!!!! GOTTA MOVE THIS SECOND!!! It really seems people are ready to snatch it up in a heartbeat, right from the second you search it. Had that a couple of months ago with my next original band name. I love the name. It's a name I'm astounded nobody else has ever thought of. And the domain was available in a .com. I wasn't even going to search it as i was certain someone would have already had it. It was a similar feeling to snagging a German Warwick Fortress One for $440 in the last seconds of an eBay bid :).

I woke up this morning deciding I'm going to move forward, though I still have some questions I'd like for you or others to answer. Will call godaddy later if I don't get any clear response.

In contacting these bands, is there any reason I might not want them to know my identity? I have 3 email addresses. Pop any one of them into google and you can pretty much find out what time I crap each day, and where. I also have the option of sending them a facebook message. One one hand, I think it's good because they'll know it's not anybody trying to scam them... on the other hand, well, I'm not the most trusting of people and I don't understand business all that well. I grew up in a Brooklyn Italian family also where I learned if someone wants something badly enough they can get it, no questions asked :). Then again, I don't think any of that stuff has gone on since 1978...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Unless you also pay for anonymity, your contact info is likely published on any whois website.
 
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#68
You are entering into different ground than me if you are going to approach them unsolicited and see if they want to buy it. I was cold called. Just saying if you are worried about being considered a profiteer in this, you should try to tread carefully. There is a middle ground, so my best advice is just be reasonable, and maybe you'll make a couple bucks. The band that can really use it should feel they have made a good investment in their web presence, not feel like they are getting burned.

Like I says, it is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, and that price goes down if they think they are dealing with a dink. ;)

I'm sure you can figure a way to make everybody happy, in the least. Shouldn't be that hard considering worst case scenario is you keep it , and you all go about your lives just as happy as you were before the interaction.
 
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#69
i've sold some domains, usually based on traffic and quality of traffic (a bunch of baidu hits won't count). i've sold a couple where they wanted a look at how much money i had made with the domains over the past six months. but i've also sold a couple domains over the many years with virtually no traffic that sold well because they just happened to be really perfect for the buyers - and i mean REALLY perfect. to a degree, if it's a really great type-in, it's worth what a buyer is willing to pay. otherwise it's worth traffic (depending on what traffic) or earnings.

and if the band IS pink floyd, they can make you release the domain for free.
 
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#70
bigfatbass said:
It appears... is key.

And PLEASE heed the advice mentioned above. Never under any circumstances enter a domain you are considering purchasing into ANY search engine, especially on a domain site like GoDaddy. I'm going to type it again: Never search for a domain you are thinking of buying until you are ready to buy it RIGHT NOW. There is big money made by crappy people who endlessly skimbot for domain search queries, and cybersquatting at that small a level is very hard to prove. They are going to nickel and dime you for your own domain idea. Expect any domain you search for on GoDaddy to be purchased from under your nose in a day or two, pretty much guaranteed.
Click to expand...

From what you just said, it appears that we (anyone who cares about price gouging) can easily make traders/squatters like that lose their price gouging attitude by searching GoDaddy a few times a day with names we aren't interested in, to get these unethical people spending money they will never see a return on (I don't like the structure of that sentence, but there it is.)
 
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#71
I don't know about easily, but the point is more valid than you think. I like to do google searches for companies that sell email address lists for spamming, and then click on all the sponsored listings at the top. It may only cost them pennies, but it still makes me smile every now and then
 
#73
I don't believe anyone is picking up domain searches off of Go Daddy. Not long before I started reading this thread, I checked on a potential band name... which was available. Since reading this thread, I have checked on it twice again just to make sure I WAS RIGHT :D , including just now and it's still available and it's been a couple of weeks now.

I've also tested this in the past because I also used to be afraid of searching for domains too. I've tested it and never found that you lose a domain by searching for it on go Daddy. I searched a domain for my business years ago, several times over the years, and didn't secure it until about three years later. It was still available so I don't worry about it anymore.
 

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