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surferboy · Sep 26, 2005, 03:46 PM

I am developing a few website- one of which has commercial potential. Unfortunately, the exact domain name I wanted was taken, but I was able to get the .net version of the same name. I contacted the .com version and the guy who has the name registered to him is not planning on using it- he said he'd let me give an offer for it.

I know this is a very open ended question (probably to be answered by: what's it worth to you), but I thought I'd throw it out there: what would you pay for a domain name if you thought it may increase your visibility for your business? Right now, there is no revenue stream from this venture- so it's out of my pocket. I just have no idea what is reasonable and what is not.

Thoughts?

mondayisgreat · Sep 27, 2005, 10:48 AM

If the domain is one word, and PERFECTLY describes your business focus, then you might want to make a small offer.

If the domain is not absolutely perfect, then I'd suggest picking a different, memorable name. Search engines don't care about your domain name. Humans will be happy once you've branded the domain with your company.

If you do decide to pay for it, you shouldn't need to pay much. If he asks for more than $250, then I'd classify him as a dreamer and you shouldn't do business with him. I know this may sound harsh, but there are too many cybersquatters(sp?) who try to take advantage of others.

Good luck.

surferboy · Sep 27, 2005, 11:56 AM

Is that we these dudes are: cybersquaters? buying names to sell 'em? interesting business....

Thanks for the insight.

DeathMan · Oct 2, 2005, 11:42 AM

I considered trying to buy "proofs.com" but finally settled on instaproofs.com, because it just didn't look good for trying to buy it.

surferboy · Oct 2, 2005, 11:58 AM

This is an interesting phenomanon. I'd love to hear more about others' experiences.

SirCastor · Oct 2, 2005, 12:32 PM

Geeze, $250? That's crazy. I wouldn't go over somewhere around double the purchase cost. Should be around $20-40. No more. Unless you're gonna make some serious money off of it, I would offer something much lower. Give him a little for his trouble. If he's not willing, then skip him. Who cares...

l008com · Oct 2, 2005, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by mondayisgreat

Search engines don't care about your domain name.

I wouldn't say that. If your domain name contains a search term, most likely you will get extra credit for that.

mondayisgreat · Oct 3, 2005, 10:53 AM

Yes, the current search engines (SE) do consider a domain name during their evaluation of a site. However, consider that SE's are always changing and updating their algorithms, so what works today may not work tomorrow. If you can grab a 1-word domain, then that would be great for your search engine results page (SERPs), but joining multiple words will confuse SEs. So, you could hyphenate the words, but then it becomes not too memorable for humans (there are exceptions of course). The question arises: how will people find your site? Will they type it into their browser, or will they SERPs? Again, the hyphenated approached may give you a little benefit, but we shouldn't focus our web sites to appeal only to SEs.

In my own opinion, we should build web sites that will appeal to humans, and as a result the SE's will pay attention....if not today, then tomorrow.

Ok. That's my 2-cents. This is a highly debated topic, so there are lots of opinions out there. Each one has its own merit. It's always good to consider all of the options when making a decision.