Explaining My Domain Wanted Requirements

Yesterday, I posted a “domain wanted” request where I was requesting that readers submit one word .com domain names for sale  that meet a list of somewhat specific requirements. The article was a bit self serving, and I wanted to offer a bit more insight about why I specified those requirements.

If you have something that meets all of the requirements, please let me know. Otherwise, you’re welcome to ask questions, but please don’t submit domain names in the comment section here.

  • American English word – English is my first and only fluent language, and if I don’t understand the word or its meaning, it will be more difficult for me to sell the domain name using outbound methods, and it will also be difficult to field inquiries from people who do speak the language. There are many variations and meanings for words in English, and a slight variation can make a big difference in value. I don’t want to make a silly translation error. I understand that there are different variations of the English language, hence my specific “American English” requirement.
  • .com only  – I am sure there are people who make money investing in other extensions, but my portfolio is nearly exclusively .com. That could change in the future, but for now, I am only going to buy aftermarket .com domain names.
  • At least 6 other TLDs are registered in that exact keyword  – This indicates that there are other companies and people interested in the keyword. If people are spending money on lesser quality extensions, it indicates that the .com domain name is worth more and may have someone interested in upgrading. It’s especially good if one of the other extensions is developed, although that can lead to trademark issues that need to be considered.
  • Price is $15,000 or less  – Have to set a budget. I have found that if I say my budget is $100,000, the prices are always higher. $15k is liquid value for good keyword names, and even though I’d pay more, I want people to know that there are limitations to what I will spend.
  • Has not been listed with a domain broker, domain auction, or on a domain forum in at least 18 months  – If a name has sold at auction, chances are good that the sale price is published somewhere. I don’t want to pay $10,000 for a name that was bought for $2,000 a year ago because it will make it more difficult to sell. Similarly, if a domain name was up for sale but not sold, it means it was probably passed over by other experts and most likely marketed.
  • Has a purchase price  – I don’t want to engage in a drawn out negotiation. You know what price you need to sell the domain name, and there’s no sense in wasting each other’s time trying to figure that out.

Unfortunately, I received submissions that didn’t meet all of my requirements. I don’t have the time (or patience) to reply to people who sent their submissions anyway. Although at least one of my requirements is somewhat arbitrary, I set them all for specific reasons. I appreciate that people submitted names, and I hope that others will submit other domain names for consideration as long as they keep all of these requirements in mind.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

26 COMMENTS

  1. I think based on what Elliot has shared with us over the years, I won’t be surprised if he gets a good domain meeting his requirements for significantly less than $15k. He has done pretty well acquiring/selling names so far.

  2. Dot COM is death.

    You guys stop buying an selling dot COM domain names (our granfather extension) because with the release of more tan 1000 new extensions the dot COM its almost death. In 4-5 years the dot COM will be shit. In the new internet ERA short and brandable is the value.

    So Sex.cam its better tan SexCam.com & Vacation.rentals much better tan VacationRentals.com If Sex.com was sold for $13 million tan Sex.sex will easy get a value of $50-$60 million. Think about that !!!

    • OK, first off, don’t let your imagination run wild. Who let all the crackpots out of the nuthouse for a sunday stroll today?

      It is funny how people change their opinions so quickly, when they have some skin in the game. I have put some money into the GTLD’s, paying premium, they get 0 traffic, and other than 1-2 domains, they get no offers. Their renewals are about 3-50 times higher than .com’s, it is no mans land right now. Most end users who I have talked to about them, think they are just a cash grab, and kick them aside with a slight chuckle. You have years of renewals, and marketing to get any acceptance into the marketplace yet. Yet, my .com’s are still commanding very generous sales, and are the bread, and butter. If you think .com’s are dead, watch this weeks end user sales reports for some very nice sales.

    • You are talking about today, but in 4-5 years will talk about !!!

      Dot COM will be shit. Yoll see!!!

      Youre a domainer with my grandfather mentality.

    • i think yor rite nico, dot com will be shit.. its only a mater uv time befur uzers tipe in gtlds and not dot com, for xample I wood rathur uze visa.creditcard than visa.com, or facebook.facebook, makes mor senze.

  3. “don’t want to pay $10,000 for a name that was bought for $2,000 a year ago because it will make it more difficult to sell” Your money your call but difficult to understand the rationale, you understand the value and found a gem in the coal mine and are marketing the goods within a reputable covenant. Reminds me of I’m not paying that it only cost you $10 to register.

  4. 15K or less for non-premium generic? sounds reasonable.

    When your looking for a premium generic in the 30K-50K range, do let us know.

    • Since you asked, looking at DNJ’s recent sales, I’d consider trace.com a 50K-75K domain, Crafting.com right at 50K or slightly less…

      As for your domain Drafting.com, 20K end user and 1/2 that reseller, I’d put more value if it weren’t for the fact that drafting/drawing moved to CAD a long time ago making manual drafting almost obsolete, and the fact your offering it for sale on DNF where over 97% of the domains are crappy, doesn’t help its value either.

      As for my domains, I only have a few single word generics where resellers make ridiculous low ball offers, all the rest are 2 word generic and brand domains.. I generally don’t sell to resellers but if your one who makes respectable offers, I’d be willing to submit my list.

    • Raider, I’m reading the blog now and your post really struck me because of one of the ones you mentioned, so I’m in the mood to add my two cents here now. Nothing personal and you’re still one of my favorite peeps here, 🙂 but here’s my friendly partial rebuttal: Trace.com is a very nice domain, definitely very valuable, but “crafting.com” is mostly junk imo, awkward, unnatural, more of a forced one-worder that you practically don’t even hear or read anywhere (this may even be the first time in my life I’ve come across any form of “craft” like that). You could possibly push “crafting” for low $1 – 3K range to a really really motivated buyer, otherwise even for $500 to $1K I would probably never even buy it if someone offered it to me for that.

    • I agree with you on Trace.com. It is one of those multi-use names that I would have been happy to buy for low 5 figures.

      Crafting.com was listed on DNF a few ears ago, and I think the $50k sale was great for the seller: http://www.dnforum.com/f283/crafting-com-thread-452416.html

      I sold Drafting.com and had another 5 figure sale on DNForum last week, so I am not going to complain about listing domain names for sale there. In fact, I am going to list another 3 letter .com domain name there today.

  5. Well Elliot,hope you find what you need,it will probably happen.
    NICO,listen son,learn to spell correctly,I know we all fu$kup on the keyboard,but your wording is full of mistakes.IF you want someone to take you seriously in your comments,this could help.Also .COM will never be dead,but there might be some shifting of value…maybe.Us “Granfathers” as you put it,have seen alot more then you know.

  6. last week i received mid XX,XXX US$ offer for new GTLD domain , i was surprised , the buyer was looks serious as he asked me to listed it in sedo directly and buy it there without any appraisal or fake things

    the domain is cam.camera

    i tried much to contact sedo to reactive my account as i lose it last years for unpaid sale

    i know that owner of cam.com and cam.net is the company that bought webcam.com for 1million dollar and then bought freesexcams.com for 250k

    but i dont know if they are the one who send me the offer

    anyway buyer didnt contact me again after i traveled 2 weeks and didnt listed it to sedo

    who knows but i still didnt saw real sales over 10k for any of the new gtlds

    for me 38k for cam.camera is very good fast investment , who knows

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