What's Your Domain Name Worth?

http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/

I hadn't seen this before..  it's amazing that I created a purported thing of value by applying myself for just a few short months. 

Somebody should cook one of these up for domain names using Overture apart/together/with ext, Linkpop, Google pages in quotes, Alexa rank/reach and popular search-term list rank, in order to create a value for each name.  I predict the first person to run with this idea makes him or herself some money.. through lots of traffic of their own.

Good captcha codes and "you must view a ten second ad" with each name lookup ..  Savvy? ;)

If you built a good enough one that you kept updated for changes you could license it to registrars, auction marketplaces, investment banks, even escrow.com.  So many opportunities in this biz.

Comments

[Edwin Sherman]

Here are a few appraisal sites (I can't vouch for accuracy though):

http://www.estibot.com/
http://www.leapfish.com/
http://www.swiftappraisal.com/

[Edwin Sherman]

Side note: It seems Overture hasn't been updated since January '07

http://inventory.overture.com/

[Robert]

Overture apart
Overture together/with ext
Linkpop
Google pages in quotes
Alexa rank
Alexa reach
Popular search-term list rank

And how would you assign "relative weight" of each component? Your best guess, please.
Thank you.

[Alex]

Robert,

I'm assuming its the secret sauce in your algorithm that brings value. A weight percentage for each variable should be based on a sliding scale for true accuracy. It sounds a lot easier than it really is. Thats why none of these sites below are used by professionals. They have the right idea, but their algorithm is too basic.
e.g. Its like they're taking the 7 values that frank listed, and only coming up with one combination. They should take those 7 results and try turning them into 70 combinations with a single result at the end.

I bet someone will eventually get it right though. Too bad google isn't in the domain appraisal business...yet. lol

http://www.estibot.com/
http://www.leapfish.com/
http://www.swiftappraisal.com/

(disclaimer: i suck at math)

alex

[Robert]

Thank you, Alex.

[Jay Westerdal]

$162,587.52 for Blog.domaintools.com.... Wow, Where do I withdraw this money from?

[VS]

thats a great idea about domain value tool and it can be done IMO.

[Josh]

Hi, as creator of EstiBot I wanted to participate in the discussion-- My algo takes into account all the variables mentioned by Frank and then yet many others not mentioned in the list. With the exception of Alexa rank, but I'm planning to implement that once I test its predictive value.

But I think that list is actually missing the most important factor: recent domain sales in similar category. This is actually the heart of my system.

Alex, it's not quite true that professionals don't use these services. I know many professional domainers who use my service, and have been happy with it. Even when inevitably some valuations are not right, they can utilize it as a pure keyword research tool. It's still in BETA so improvements are being made as we speak

I might disagree with Frank on the 10-second ad-- I would be hesitant to impose such horrors on my users :)

[Jeff]

josh,

your estibot is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy off and is giving outrageous pricing for subdomains.
When can we cash our checks?

[Josh]

Jeff- it's not meant to valuate subdomains at all, I did not imagine someone would even try to do that. Subdomains generally don't have real value anyway, unless they have significant existing traffic. So, moot point.

It's also not "wayyyy" off as you say - it has been statistically tested with random sampling from previous sales databases, and it has good predictive value, statistically better than any other auto appraiser and is better than most humans that I've tested it with - real domain experts can of course beat it. Go on, take 500 names from a sales database and see if you can beat it in overall accuracy.

You can always fool it and get it to make "outrageous" mistakes if that is your specific goal. Also it can be put down by publishing just a small sample of the ones that it did not get right. Many people do that, intentionally omitting the ones it got right. But it's not meant to be such a game - it's meant to be a useful keyword tool and a ballbark valuator of such domain names in which you have a bona fide, real interest. Use it for those, and you will find it more useful.

Cheers!
Josh

[ets]

sdaf

[Don]

It will be impossible to have a system that can do it all and be accurate. Afternic valued my name freephones com at 4k over 3 years ago,leapfish values it at 37k today. I sold it over 3 years ago for around 100k. You just cannot count on these appraisal services but I think leapfish could be headed in the correct direction to get it close. Basically the value of a domain name is what someone will pay for it. How do you value a demographic name such as californialoan.com or texasloan.com, 5 sold customors a year could return the mortgage officer 25k, though to me those names are eaisly worth 100 to 200k. On top of that you know that they are getting great natural type in traffic.

[William Brister]

I received a professional appraisal from Afternic on www.oaklandmaids.com for $800. Estibot appraised it for the reg fee. Obviously, Afternic knows what they are doing. These free appraisal sites don't even come close to getting a real world appraised value. I would suggest to anyone selling a domain to get a professional appraisal from Afternic or Moniker.