Help - How to Pick a Winner???

[Linda Buquet]

Hi All,

Need your help and thought this would be a helpful thread for others too.

I just bought a bunch of domains that I think are really good. All .doms, no hyphens, all highly searched keywords, all great branding, all good markets like travel, real estate, insurance, loans, cars.

I have been trying to get them all listed on Sedo and then will list on Afternic too.

So here is my delima. I want to pay for 2 featured listings on Sedo, which costs 39.95 a month for each name. Obviously I want to pick the 2 best names that I think will be most attractive to potential buyers for these paid listings.

I think they are all good (just like the bias I have about my own kids being the greatest, I guess.)

So how do I pick the top 2 to buy a featured listing for? How would you guess which ones would be most likely to sell? Would you base your decision on: the industry, # of searches on the KW, branding, number of words in the name, other???

I even thought about doing a contest. Help Catalyst pick the winning name and if it sells you win _ _ _ ??? (HeHe)

I'm sure some of you have been in this spot. What was your thought process and how did you make a decision? I know there is no clear cut answer on this, but thought it would spark a good discussion.

[edwinj]

Linda, why not list them here? I'm sure folks will be more than happy to give their opinions. :)

[Linda Buquet]

Hi edwin,

They are all listed in the 5 Star domain site in my sig. But we have not decided yet on the rules for this forum and what we will allow, so I don't want to set a precidence of listing a bunch of domains.

We plan to discover what people want from this forum and how popular it will become. Based on the outstanding response so far, I think this was a much needed forum. Anyway, we may eventually split it into section such as: domains for sale, domains wanted and appraisals.

So anyway for now, this was more a general question to stimulate discussion and maybe help some of us who are trying to decide which of the names we own could be worth the most.

[Gary Golden]

When I pick a domain name, always go for the shortest possible name that has meaning. No slashes, dashes or numbers. Easy to remember with a broad market that it entails.

That pretty much says it all! If you are spending money on a domain name tell your friend the name then in a couple of days ask him or her what was the domain name that you told them? If they answer you have a good name! Of course this is just a suggestion.

Personally I own about 20 plus domains and plan on waiting for the demand to go up before I sell them.

Domain names are like cable companies of the past, I remember in the 80's when all of the small ma and pa cable companies sold out and made millions. .Com, .Net then .biz will be the names to have with strong emphasis on .com and .net though if you have numbers and hyphens in your name it will take quite awhile to attain value.

[kikkertm]

Hi Catalyst,

I SOOO know how you feel on this. I have a fairly limited budget to spend on featuring domains and it's always a hard choice ! I currently have 3 names featured on Sedo and it took me a day or so contemplating..

I would definitely have no doubt about featuring at least 1 of your names (hint: it starts with 'Disc').. without a doubt the best name in your collection (my opinion of course)..

Good luck.. I'll keep an eye on the Sedo homepage to see what you decided !

[Linda Buquet]

kikkertm,

Thanks so much for the feedback. It always helps to know someone can relate. Thanks for looking at my names and giving me a hint too. I think that's a good one too, although it's a typo and missing a "T".
Someone on another forum said it was only worth $10. But if you look at the top selling names in DNjournal last week, they were almost all typos and not even as good.

[kikkertm]

Oops.. I didn't actually notice it was a misspelling (but then.. English is not my native language).. Can't be that bad then !

I found the story about Chena buying all the download.com misspellings (?) quite intruiging.. That guy must be loaded !

[xmx]

Hello Catalyst,

my 2 picks in the list reachable from the link in your signature are Discountraveling.com even if it misses a t and SingleWorkingMoms.com.

Will I win the contest?

I would like to have your feedback on how the featured listings on sedo work.
Are they worth the expense? Do they really drive to sales?

[tiger1]

Hi everyone,

Interesting discussion - what about the .COMs listed at:
http://www.exclusivelylocated.com

Comments anyone?

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Tiger1,

I think reduceyourmortgage.com could be a good one.

[xmx]

Hi tiger1,

I think that expertize.co.uk is a good domain name too.

It surely has a niche that can make some money.

If I am not wrong that is a word that is often used by auctioneers before they accept an object on auction to set the starting price.

If it can be used for other purposes you have even more chances to sell it.

Best wishes.

xmx

[EJRS.COM]

SingleWorkingMoms.com
Discountraveling.com

I'd say these are your best bet with

TravelingSpirit.com next in line.

I don't know how far the others would go tho... but you never know.

if I were you I would go for the first and buy the other variations too: .net, .info, etc

I honestly don't know where the others would lead you but give it a shot.

Your money should go on the top 3.

[tiger1]

Thanks to catalyst and xmx.

With reduceyourmortgage - maybe I could create a directory for US mortgage advisors, listings state by state. With a nominal charge to be listed ... say $ 50 per year. Does anyone think that there might bre a demand?

With expertize.co.uk - any ideas?

[EJRS.COM]

expertize.co.uk....

the sky's the limit! You got yourself a winner man. Why do you wanna sell it? You can make you a site and make lots of money with it!

[tiger1]

Hi ejrs,

You seem to have more ideas for the domain.
I did do a little bit of research some time ago - these are similar domains:

experts.com
Since 1994, Experts.com has been providing millions of users worldwide with access to the information and expertise that they need. As one of the nation's most established and premier Internet registries, Experts.com serves as a "who's who" of experts at the top of their respective fields.

expert.com
Expert Information Services will merge with Infosys in Australia to form Infosys Technologies Australia (Infosys Australia). The company will operate as an Australian subsidiary of Infosys Technologies Ltd

experts.co.uk
Expert Information for molecular diagnostics and applied genomics

expertise.co.uk
Expertise ISE Ltd is a leading provider of voice and data solutions

I was thinking of a "register of experts" for the UK.
A little too obvious?
Ideas anyone?

[EJRS.COM]

Tiger1 you have potential winners in the ones u got but I don't get these 4.

tvguideuk.co.uk
infouk.co.uk
because you have uk twice... before and after the .co

accident24.co.uk
privatesales24.com
Why the 24?

If I had the others which you got at http://www.exclusivelylocated.com I'd plan sites for them. Good choices.

[Andilinks]

Thanks to catalyst and xmx.

With reduceyourmortgage - ... Does anyone think that there might bre a demand?

With expertize.co.uk - any ideas?

As interest rates are now rising you'd better get in quick before they level off. That might be a long time, but anyone with a real crystal ball on that market is way beyond domain spec.

Reducing your mortgage will always be a good hook, but the rush to refinance levels off with interest rates. Is there another way to reduce your mortgage? Really, I don't know...

Andi

[TrafficProducer]

pick the 2 best names, try this for making URL names:-

http://www.availabledomains.com/

A great name for Compare Bargains below:-

[DrTandem1]

You could always sample by putting them up for sale on eBay. Make the reserve or the start price high enough, in case you get any serious buyers. It's inexpensive and you will test the waters. I would forward all of them to your site, if you haven't already.

Good luck.

[Linda Buquet]

TrafficProducer,

That's one domain name generator I have not tried yet. Thanks for the tip.

DrTandem1,
I have been checking into Ebay. Setting a high reserve to just test and see what the market will bear is a great idea.

[sovidiu]

'lo Catalyst. To speed things up, I would like to point your attention towards Afternic Domain Auction (http://www.afternic.com/), where you might want to try and sell your TLDs.
As for the domains listed on your Web site, allow me to tell you that using the adverb "all" is a bit too much, since the trend in TLD marketing is to go regional (e.g., Yahoo has a regional search service, and so does Google). In addition, shouldn't there be a "5stars" name instead of "5star"?

[steveteva]

I like :
TravelingSpirit.com
reason :
Easy to remember, brandable, radio advertising enable.
Travel is popular and spirit inspires the past history.

If I was a buyer I will buy it and use as a brand to sell pilot flight leather jacket or anything related to aviation in the past.

Then will choose :
5starResortHotels.com

[sovidiu]

Usually a letter included in a TLD name (aka 4Example.com) greatly diminishes its value. Using domain names such as: 4u.ext, 2sexy4him.ext, soldier4fun.ext (.ext = extension) is not a very attractive Web place.

You should refrain from using letters in your domain names. The Republic of the Web is human.

[tiger1]

<<<<<
Why the 24?
<<<<<
Because I missed out on the generic.

<<<<<
why infouk.co.uk
<<<<<
ditto.