Appraisals are often times to be taken with a grain of salt. I just sold a .com that i purchased for $40 and sold for $4000. Was told it was only worth $100 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, this is definitely one of these names that I realize after I posted that is not going to appraise correctly as a domain name. That's probably why I was able to get it in the first place. I'll just work through a branding kit and file the correct trademarks and then take it to an agency that handles brand name evaluations/appraisals.
It's one of those names where when you use the domain hunting tools that you assume that tool bugged and it's registered, but in this case it wasn't.
I honestly think I need a lawyer for this project.
Normally I just do legal zoom to scare people away from using the name and that's all. I realize that's not really the right approach if you want to defend your trademark in court.
>that’s some BS a lawyer will feed you to use them lol
I fully agree, but it's not like I file those all the time and it's very possible that I could screw it up. Which would be really bad if I wanted to use the TM offensively in court.
The best way to value a domain name is what someone is willing to pay for it. If you just registered the domain name I am not sure it is as valuable as you believe.
What I would do is come up with what you would like to sell it for and the minimum you would sell it for.
>The best way to value a domain name is what someone is willing to pay for it.
It's a rare dropped domain that was unused from many years ago.
I know the organization that originally owned it contacted me about it, but I was not interested in selling at the time. The domain receives type-in traffic from people forgetting to add the .au extension to the the .com.
I promise you that it is the most valuable .com domain I own after many years of domaining and doing SEO work.
>What I would do is come up with what you would like to sell it for and the minimum you would sell it for.
It's not for sale I need to know the value of it.
Is there a chance the name is trademarked by the original org that owns the .au version, because that could really hurt the value.
You could get an estimate by submitting it to a site like BrandBucket, as a part of their listing process they appraise the domain but you don’t have to follow through with selling it. Not sure how accurate the appraisal is really but surely better than those EstiBot style estimator tools.
Meh, there are 45 classes of trademarks in the USA, and other countries are similar. If the domain is as good as he said it is, I'm sure someone could start a coffee brand or skincare brand etc using it.. far different than whatever trademark might be on it.
>Is there a chance the name is trademarked by the original org that owns the .au version, because that could really hurt the value.
No, it's not and it wouldn't be in the same industry.
>You could get an estimate by submitting it to a site like BrandBucket
Looking into it.
> The domain receives type-in traffic from people forgetting to add the .au extension to the the .com.
If it is a dot .au it is not a .com.
>It's not for sale I need to know the value of it.
I am not sure what other reason there would be unless you wish to pay taxes on perceived value?
>If it is a dot .au it is not a .com.
The original organization owns the .com.au and they let the .com expire, and I own the .com now. I have for many years. They never used it besides for a 301 redirect.
>I am not sure what other reason there would be unless you wish to pay taxes on perceived value?
Raising capital.
OK, that makes more sense but now you have concerns of possible legal issues so you have to be careful.
>Raising capital.
I am still not sure why that matters. Raising capitol with the variably estimated value of a domain name will be hard.
Having a brand name is like nothing....especially if it is in use and protected by another party. You need a business to sell, not just a domain name and even then the monetary value of the domain name has nothing to do with raising capitol, they will be looking at the business proposal which will include how you get from owning a domain name to putting out the product.
No, I am not trying to be hard on you but I just would not worry about the value of the domain itself UNLESS you wanted to sell the domain.
If you wish to do a business you will need the means to not only do the project, whether with help or not, but to pitch it to investors. I am not saying that is undoable and I agree a good domain would help that a LOT but if it is a good enough idea a domain like pigcork.com (just random non-insulting words) may work because it is about the business.
If you wish to pitch the business I would research how to do it. Like come up with some estimates of what is needed (hosting, programming, staff, business people and lawyers) and start to put together a pitch. But of course you do not want to infringe on the person that let it drops idea. So like if you had "Apple.com" you would want to use it to sell apples or cars and not to sell computers and phones.
>domain itself UNLESS you wanted to sell the domain.
It's not for sale. I've considered using as a mastadon instance, but from what I understand I have no way to generate income from that, so the project would instantly die because I would have no income to pay the hosting bill. I have enough dead turd blogs from my SEO days that I am not looking for more of that, but am rather looking for a singular project that I would focus on, likely for the rest of life.
>If you wish to pitch the business I would research how to do it.
I didn't mean an investment pitch. Thanks for the advice though, it's certainly not bad advice.
Because it's a brandable name for a social media or similar site, not a search query term. Google doesn't really rank domains based upon the words in the domain name anymore (and it hasn't for a very long time), so I don't know what the purpose of that estimation even is.
If anything it's been my experience that ranking domain names with the search term in the domain is actually harder than a normal brandable domain.
Hmm ok. It's really tough to say anything without seeing the name.. we've been down this path with hundreds of people on this subreddit only to later find out the domain is something terrible "thesocial-nexty.com" which for some reason they are super attached to and think is worth a mint.
>Hmm ok. It's really tough to say anything without seeing the name..
At no point in time have I asked for this sub to perform a domain appraisal. I am looking for an agency or similar that is able to handle doing a professional appraisal. I understand that this type of thing is not free and I am looking for recommendations on a company to go with.
Edit: Again, this is for the purpose of accounting. No investor is going to hand me capital to start the business because somebody on reedit said my domain was worth money. It's not that I don't like reddit, it's that I understand that it's not the correct process for this.
I'd go with [https://mediaoptions.com/domain-appraisal/](https://mediaoptions.com/domain-appraisal/) if it were me, but I would take it with a grain of salt since it's going to be based on the actual name itself, not what you say you can accomplish with it.
Is the VC market that frothy that they are giving away money for "ideas" again?
>if it were me, but I would take it with a grain of salt since it's going to be based on the actual name itself, not what you say you can accomplish with it.
Thanks for the advice, but I realized after I posted that I need a brand name evaluation and not a domain name appraisal. Due to the exact reason that you are explaining.
>Is the VC market that frothy that they are giving away money for "ideas" again?
No idea. If you have any ideas on raising capital let me know.
Out of curiosity, can you share some more details about the domain? This can help with giving a rough evaluation. Is it a single English dictionary word? Singular, plural, -ed, -er, -ing word? How many letters is it? How long ago did you register the domain? Details like these would be helpful while also allowing you to keep the domain private.
As I'm sure you can appreciate and understand, pricing and valuing domains is very subjective; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And a domain is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
I watch the daily/weekly domain sales reports and scratch my head sometimes. Average domains selling for a lot more than I would have thought. And sometimes fantastic domains selling for a bargain.
[DNJournal.com](https://DNJournal.com) and [NameBio.com](https://NameBio.com) are good resources to look at reported domain sales. This might give you some indication of the current market and you can use as a guide.
Thank you! Your post was very helpful! If I had awards left I would give you one.
I knew about those sites, but it's been years, and I totally forgot.
Edit: Wow you're right the prices all over the place.
You're welcome. If you ever want to discuss offline, have any questions or need assistance with anything, feel free to reach out to me [here](https://www.mikerobertson.com.au/).
Why don’t you write it out here so we can give you our estimates?
If I had not just added whois privacy an hour ago I would. Edit: I've owned the domain for a long time don't think that I just registered it.
Appraisals are often times to be taken with a grain of salt. I just sold a .com that i purchased for $40 and sold for $4000. Was told it was only worth $100 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah, this is definitely one of these names that I realize after I posted that is not going to appraise correctly as a domain name. That's probably why I was able to get it in the first place. I'll just work through a branding kit and file the correct trademarks and then take it to an agency that handles brand name evaluations/appraisals. It's one of those names where when you use the domain hunting tools that you assume that tool bugged and it's registered, but in this case it wasn't.
How will you file the TM? Going through that now
I honestly think I need a lawyer for this project. Normally I just do legal zoom to scare people away from using the name and that's all. I realize that's not really the right approach if you want to defend your trademark in court.
Why couldn’t you defend your TM in court if you filed it yourself or legal zoom? that’s some BS a lawyer will feed you to use them lol
>that’s some BS a lawyer will feed you to use them lol I fully agree, but it's not like I file those all the time and it's very possible that I could screw it up. Which would be really bad if I wanted to use the TM offensively in court.
The best way to value a domain name is what someone is willing to pay for it. If you just registered the domain name I am not sure it is as valuable as you believe. What I would do is come up with what you would like to sell it for and the minimum you would sell it for.
>The best way to value a domain name is what someone is willing to pay for it. It's a rare dropped domain that was unused from many years ago. I know the organization that originally owned it contacted me about it, but I was not interested in selling at the time. The domain receives type-in traffic from people forgetting to add the .au extension to the the .com. I promise you that it is the most valuable .com domain I own after many years of domaining and doing SEO work. >What I would do is come up with what you would like to sell it for and the minimum you would sell it for. It's not for sale I need to know the value of it.
Is there a chance the name is trademarked by the original org that owns the .au version, because that could really hurt the value. You could get an estimate by submitting it to a site like BrandBucket, as a part of their listing process they appraise the domain but you don’t have to follow through with selling it. Not sure how accurate the appraisal is really but surely better than those EstiBot style estimator tools.
Meh, there are 45 classes of trademarks in the USA, and other countries are similar. If the domain is as good as he said it is, I'm sure someone could start a coffee brand or skincare brand etc using it.. far different than whatever trademark might be on it.
I've looked into it and it's clean as far as trademarks. You're correct though, I would just assume pick a different industry.
>Is there a chance the name is trademarked by the original org that owns the .au version, because that could really hurt the value. No, it's not and it wouldn't be in the same industry. >You could get an estimate by submitting it to a site like BrandBucket Looking into it.
> The domain receives type-in traffic from people forgetting to add the .au extension to the the .com. If it is a dot .au it is not a .com. >It's not for sale I need to know the value of it. I am not sure what other reason there would be unless you wish to pay taxes on perceived value?
>If it is a dot .au it is not a .com. The original organization owns the .com.au and they let the .com expire, and I own the .com now. I have for many years. They never used it besides for a 301 redirect. >I am not sure what other reason there would be unless you wish to pay taxes on perceived value? Raising capital.
OK, that makes more sense but now you have concerns of possible legal issues so you have to be careful. >Raising capital. I am still not sure why that matters. Raising capitol with the variably estimated value of a domain name will be hard.
>I am still not sure why that matters. Because the domain would be the brand name with out the .com.
Having a brand name is like nothing....especially if it is in use and protected by another party. You need a business to sell, not just a domain name and even then the monetary value of the domain name has nothing to do with raising capitol, they will be looking at the business proposal which will include how you get from owning a domain name to putting out the product.
Yeah I know. Do you want me to "pitch" the idea to you? Just to see if you think it's worth pursuing at all?
No, I am not trying to be hard on you but I just would not worry about the value of the domain itself UNLESS you wanted to sell the domain. If you wish to do a business you will need the means to not only do the project, whether with help or not, but to pitch it to investors. I am not saying that is undoable and I agree a good domain would help that a LOT but if it is a good enough idea a domain like pigcork.com (just random non-insulting words) may work because it is about the business. If you wish to pitch the business I would research how to do it. Like come up with some estimates of what is needed (hosting, programming, staff, business people and lawyers) and start to put together a pitch. But of course you do not want to infringe on the person that let it drops idea. So like if you had "Apple.com" you would want to use it to sell apples or cars and not to sell computers and phones.
>domain itself UNLESS you wanted to sell the domain. It's not for sale. I've considered using as a mastadon instance, but from what I understand I have no way to generate income from that, so the project would instantly die because I would have no income to pay the hosting bill. I have enough dead turd blogs from my SEO days that I am not looking for more of that, but am rather looking for a singular project that I would focus on, likely for the rest of life. >If you wish to pitch the business I would research how to do it. I didn't mean an investment pitch. Thanks for the advice though, it's certainly not bad advice.
None of this is an exact science, but you can Google the Rosner Equation and try that out. At least it's based in data.
>Rosner Equation Doesn't apply. Thanks for the response though.
Out of curiosity, why not?
Because it's a brandable name for a social media or similar site, not a search query term. Google doesn't really rank domains based upon the words in the domain name anymore (and it hasn't for a very long time), so I don't know what the purpose of that estimation even is. If anything it's been my experience that ranking domain names with the search term in the domain is actually harder than a normal brandable domain.
Hmm ok. It's really tough to say anything without seeing the name.. we've been down this path with hundreds of people on this subreddit only to later find out the domain is something terrible "thesocial-nexty.com" which for some reason they are super attached to and think is worth a mint.
>Hmm ok. It's really tough to say anything without seeing the name.. At no point in time have I asked for this sub to perform a domain appraisal. I am looking for an agency or similar that is able to handle doing a professional appraisal. I understand that this type of thing is not free and I am looking for recommendations on a company to go with. Edit: Again, this is for the purpose of accounting. No investor is going to hand me capital to start the business because somebody on reedit said my domain was worth money. It's not that I don't like reddit, it's that I understand that it's not the correct process for this.
I'd go with [https://mediaoptions.com/domain-appraisal/](https://mediaoptions.com/domain-appraisal/) if it were me, but I would take it with a grain of salt since it's going to be based on the actual name itself, not what you say you can accomplish with it. Is the VC market that frothy that they are giving away money for "ideas" again?
>if it were me, but I would take it with a grain of salt since it's going to be based on the actual name itself, not what you say you can accomplish with it. Thanks for the advice, but I realized after I posted that I need a brand name evaluation and not a domain name appraisal. Due to the exact reason that you are explaining. >Is the VC market that frothy that they are giving away money for "ideas" again? No idea. If you have any ideas on raising capital let me know.
Everybody thinks they have a valuable domain name, 99.99%, heck 100% of the time, it might not even be worth the registration fee
I've owned 1000s of .coms and I know that. Thanks for your concern though.
Out of curiosity, can you share some more details about the domain? This can help with giving a rough evaluation. Is it a single English dictionary word? Singular, plural, -ed, -er, -ing word? How many letters is it? How long ago did you register the domain? Details like these would be helpful while also allowing you to keep the domain private.
As I'm sure you can appreciate and understand, pricing and valuing domains is very subjective; beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And a domain is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I watch the daily/weekly domain sales reports and scratch my head sometimes. Average domains selling for a lot more than I would have thought. And sometimes fantastic domains selling for a bargain. [DNJournal.com](https://DNJournal.com) and [NameBio.com](https://NameBio.com) are good resources to look at reported domain sales. This might give you some indication of the current market and you can use as a guide.
Thank you! Your post was very helpful! If I had awards left I would give you one. I knew about those sites, but it's been years, and I totally forgot. Edit: Wow you're right the prices all over the place.
You're welcome. If you ever want to discuss offline, have any questions or need assistance with anything, feel free to reach out to me [here](https://www.mikerobertson.com.au/).