How Much Would You Pay For A Domain Name?

Nathan

Domain names can make or break a company online, and it can effect your marketing offline. If you have a domain name that is long and has a lot of crazy dashes people wont be able to remember it. Even something like a .net or .info extention instead of a .com can really hurt you.

I've been pretty lucky so far and found most of my domain names open and unregistered. But if they weren't open I'm not sure I would be as far as I am now.

Anyways, recently I've been playing around with the idea of hiring some writers and starting an online trade magazine. This has caused me to look high and low for a domain name and I have to tell ya it's getting really hard to find a good domain. What I have found is a large number of domain names that are for sale. These domains can range from several hundred dollars to several thousand. Of course there are some that go into the hundreds of thousand and even millions but those are rare.

So , what would you pay for a great domain name for your business?
This could be either your company name or just a great domain that you could use to either brand your company or drive traffic to your company.

Example:
professionalremodeler.com $2488
HousePro.com $8000

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Nathan

BTW, interesting story that will probably make me look like a jerk but oh well....

About two years ago I had a domain name www.preferredpainters.com and I was thinking about naming my business Preferred Painters and using that as my web address.
Anyways, I had a guy call me who had been in business for a number of years and asked if he could have the domain name because his company was named Preferred Painters in a different state. I told him I was thinking of using the same name in my state so that I was going to hold onto it for a few more months until I had made a final decision. But what I did do is take down his email address and promised him that I would contact him if I wasnt' going to use it (Nice of me I thought). Then I spent about 30 mins on the phone with him telling the best way to find an alternate domain name and also how to get a site designed and online. (once again, nice of me I thought).

Anyways, about a month later I realized I wasn't going to use the domain name after all so I emailed him and told him that we could set up a transfer so he could use it for his business. I did ask for something in return though. I had had the domain name registered for two years and had spent about $20 in registration fees up until that point. So when I emailed him I asked for $20 for the domain so I would break even on the deal. I didn't even really think about it and thought it was more than fair.

Anyways, what I got back from the guy was basically a death threat. He warned me to never enter his state and used about every curse word in the book all because I had asked for $20 to recoop the costs of a domain name that I was going to hand over to him.

It's kind of an off topic story but it shows how people don't understand the issue of domain names and how important they are. He told me he had been in business for years (10 to 20 I think) and he wouldn't even think about paying $20 for a domain name.

Some people amaze me.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Mike Finley

Well, ovbiously that guy is an idiot. He's a painter anyways, you guys are an odd lot anyways.

I'd pay as much for a domain name as made sense to, it might be $100, $10,000 or $100,000 or more. Not a hard number answer for you, but there is no hard number, it depends on the situation and how important the domain name was to the business model. Obvoiusly the more the domain name was going to effect the success of the business the more important the right domain name is.

Cole

I agree.

__________________
Tulsa's Leader in Outdoor Living Construction | Facebook | Tulsa Pergola Builder | Tulsa Outdoor Kitchens

Nathan

I think we are in the middle of massive change though. Websites are going to become more and more important and in a couple of years most consumers will check contractors out online before calling them. It's part of the information driven consumer society we live in.

Yellow pages will be replaced by online yellow pages (directories) and perhaps even search engines that have more local searching options.

I just don't think a lot of people understand how important to the success of your business a domain name is actually going to be.
If you plan on being in business in 5 or 10 years I suggest everyone go hunting now for a domain name. Even if you don't build a site secure one now.
Even if you have to pay.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Cole

$2488 for professionalremodeler.com doesnt sound that bad to me.

Now $8000 for HousePro.com seems crazy.

__________________
Tulsa's Leader in Outdoor Living Construction | Facebook | Tulsa Pergola Builder | Tulsa Outdoor Kitchens

Nathan

I agree with both statements. What makes the housepro.com domain REALLY not worth it in my mind is the fact that your not getting HousePros.com which is something I would want if I was really going to use the name.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Cole

That was exactly my reasoning why I thought the price for Housepro.com was crazy.

__________________
Tulsa's Leader in Outdoor Living Construction | Facebook | Tulsa Pergola Builder | Tulsa Outdoor Kitchens

PressurePros

Nathan, do you think it is as important as it used to be? I had this dilemma when I was starting Restore-A-Deck. The domain name without dashes was taken and as the product has dashes in its name, i went forward. I have also purchased restoremydeck.com and mydeckcleaner.com.

The reason I ask about the relevance is this (and you are much better at this than I) Don't most people use a search engine for finding products? In Google and Yahoo "restore a deck" comes up number 1 in Google and Yahoo organic search and number 3 on MSN.

I'm waiting for a price on deckcleaner.com. I have a feeling its going to be very pricey.

__________________
Ken Fenner
Pressure Washing PA
Roof Cleaning Services PA

Nathan

It sounds like your doing great in the search engines... nice

What I'm talking about is offline marketing, branding, and things like that. I do think a simple domain name can make people trust a site online more than an off the wall one but it dosen't nessesarily hurt you in the search engines. There are some tricks like old domains are more "trusted" by search engines than new domains but for the most part any domain is good as long as you do proper SEO work.

The problem is that it's really hard to rank in the search engines and often it turns into a money game. If you want to buy placement through a CPC engine you get into a bidding war with companies like servicemagic or the largest contractor in town. And if your going for natural results it can cost a ton of money and take a lot of time. And in some areas/markets it can be almost impossible.

The idea of having a domain name that is easy to remember, may be typed in by someone looking for that service, or is the name of your company is a huge advantage over people just relying on SEO work to bring them to the top of the search engines. Having all three is even better.

That is a great example of what I'm talking about. If I were in that business, planned on staying in that business for a number of years, and made a good profit in that industry I'd pay a good price for that domain. It's easy to remember and would probably get type in traffic.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Nathan

I guess this is one of the ideas I'm trying to drill in. Having more than one domain name that fits different needs is a very good idea.

You may already own the domain for the name of your company (and if you don't work on it)... but do you own some names that may be typed in by people looking for work in your area? I'm shocked by how many of these are still open. Check for your town and towns around you. names like mytownpainters.com or mytownpainting.com. City names are probably taken (and if not buy them) but a lot of town names are not.

A simple $8/year domain name and a rediret to your company homepage might bring a great ROI.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Mike Finley

Type in domain name issues are what concern me the most and probably always will. At some point I will always ask anyone who contacts us if they have visited our website. More often than not they have not, so being able to give them the website address verbally and having a strong chance of somebody being able to make it there is the most important thing to me.

When we were Rocky Mountain Custom Home Improvements our web site was RMCHI.com, it was easy to tell people "rmchi dot com, the initials of the company" now that we are Rocky Mountain Bathrooms, it's easy to tell people "Rocky Mounatain Bathrooms dot com, the company name, all one word, no spaces".

ABLE1

Very interesting reading. When I decided to get my domain name registered I locked in on the unusual rather than what some might think the traditional.

Company Name is ABLE Security, Inc. I could have had then ABLESECURITY.com and a lot of variations, which is no longer available.

But, I chose abletodoit.com as my domain. It is my thought that when I decide to pack it in (or just give up) I will be sending a lot of emails to any companies with ABLE in the name. Inform them that the domain name is up for bid and it will go to the highest bidder.

Has anyone here ever bid on a domain name or is that just not done and it is better to just put a price on it and sell it?? Or not.

TIA

__________________
ABLE1

Nathan

I would have purchased every variation that I could hae thought of but I'm a bit of a domain nut. I would have purchased my company name for sure. It's not that expensive.

Unless the domain is REALLY in desire like car.com or some obvious domain name like that it's usually not an auction because there is never enough interest at one time.
Usually there is either a set price or you can make an offer.

I've only purchased a few domain names and all at pretty low prices. No 4 or 5 digit buys for me.... yet.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

ABLE1

You are correct that "It's not that expensive" but at the time there was little in the till to play with.

My Dad always says that he should have never sold the 1929 Ford with the Rumble Seat. We "all" make decisions that we regret.


It was just earlier this year I made my 1,375,826th bad business decision. And it won't be my last.

__________________
ABLE1

Nathan

Hind sight is 20/20 I know. I wasn't trying to point a finger just just talk about the idea of buying up domains.

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

needthingsdone?

Nathan your post got me thinking about the domain name for my business. the last I checked it was not available. But I checked again tonite and it was available....got it through Yahoo for 11.94 for 2 years. I can add it to the one I bought in anticipation of a new business, also through yahoo for 11.94 for 2 years.

The one I got tonight is www.needthingsdone.com

__________________
"It's not the first freakin' time I've done this you know!"

ABLE1

No offense taken. I agree exactly.

__________________
ABLE1

dougchips

Just went and found 9 more.....then found out they do not take amex! Will have to borrow a mastercard to pay for them.

AirPro

I would have loved to have AirPro.com, but it was not to be unless I offered the guy 10 grand, so I found a suitable alternative with www.AirProFlorida.com for $8.95 a year which covers my ENTIRE state and gets me on page 2 on google on bad days with no adword payments! I gotta say I'm pretty happy with that investment.

edit: I doubt this is accurate but if it is, I'm calling this guy ASAP!

http://leapfish.com/domain_name_appr...url=airpro.com