I have to admit that I am a domain name junkie. I own a lot of them. Actually, "own" is probably not the right word, because it's more of a lease than true ownership.
After all, domain names require a maintenance fee to keep them active, and if you control hundreds of them that is a very expensive proposition. And once you get a "good one," it's hard to let it go even if you don't need it.
I believe that it all goes back to some very generic names selling for millions of dollars many years ago. At that time the rule of thumb was that a very generic name was easier to remember and thus would command more traffic. The reality is that the biggest sites like Google, Yahoo, FaceBook, and Twitter developed their own brands from scratch, preferring to invest the money in actual development rather than a generic domain name.
And while a long-tail domain name may have some initial SEO benefit, it doesn't necessarily increase it's value as a salable property. Branding is still the tried and true method of name recognition.
So I guess that I'll test the waters and put a lot of my domain names on the market and see if I can recover even a small portion of my investment. I don't see a mad rush to get them but who knows, I may be able to sell enough of them to at least pay the renewals for another year.
And who knows, I might even use the money to pick up a few more good names!
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I once grab several..ok more than several domain names. I have dropped it down to a few that all point to the same web site. I believe a couple of well managed blogs can do more than a bunch of domain names. I guess if you blog those domain names it would boost the juice.
I have several but not anything that anyone would be willing to pay for. Google has definitely proven that you don't need a generic name to make a ton of money. Good luck selling yours.
Richard, very interesting. Let us know what you get and what seems to work. I'll keep watching.
I have never gotten all caught up in buying leasing a lot of different domain names. I did try to get my own name but that was long gone and then I tried to get Mr. Rogers but you can imagine how that went.
Good luck sir in selling some of yours, who knows there may be gold in them thar hills.
Very good subject. I own around 50 domains, mostly for my appraisal business. However, pointing them at the same website will defeat their purpose, since search engines will quickly pick up on that, and drop the placement. You have to have a dedicated site for each one. Site unigueness isn't extremely important, but they need to be independent sites.
I think its more important to have specific domain names to your area, not short and generic. I just picked up nixamissourihomesforsale.com, ozarkmissourihomesforsale.com, and springfieldmissourihomesforsale.com which is our area. I also think names with dashes and underscores have much less value.
Richard, I have several domains and all I really care about is having the ability to say it once and not have to spell or explain it! I own several versions of my name because it can be misspelled SO many ways and also because I don't want my name to end up on some porn site! I sold one once, which I had stopped using, when a start up real estate company contacted me asking to buy it. The supposed valuation of the name was far greater than he would have paid although he was willing to make me whole on the name. I thought that was fair...
I think that simple domain names dont drive traffic, but help your current customers to remember your domain? Could just be my opinion.
Richard, you just reminded me to pay my lease on mine... yikes! I have my name, plus a few misspellings of my name. Otherwise, someone bought up the ones I wanted at the time. Off to pay my fees, LOL.. thanks. One more bill I need to pay!
I've collected hundreds over the years. I have more ideas than time to deal with them.
I see keyword stuffed url's coming up high in many searches. That's probably the best use of them. Be very specific with the url and then build a small site that funnels that traffic to your main site.
I've been thinning out my inventory and it hurts me every time I let one expire.
I think your question is more of a valuation question. The domains themselves only cost about $10 per year to keep active. My thought is if domain is actually what someone will type into the search engines without a - and is a .com it is worth keeping. Ether for you to develop later or just get your money back on it. Even if you keep it for ten years and do nothing with it you should be able to sell it for $100 if it is of quality.
Gary...
Exactly ... more time creating content and less time trying to game the search engine. Thanks my friend.
Julia...
I think I'll need it in these times. Thanks.
Gabe...
Thanks, and I will!
Don...
Maybe even enough to break even! lol and thanks.
Gregg...
You are correct, each site should be individually developed! Thanks for bringing that to our attention.
TK...
And always a dot-com and not dot-biz or other money trap domains! THX
I have several. Have not had time to develop them all.
In fact, won one at auction this past week that I've been wanting, got it by backordering.
It was cheap.
I think someone slipped.
I have several and have them pointed at various sub-pages on my main website. Do I promote them as I should? No I've become a slacker and spend more of my time working with my blog sites than my website. Recently when Go Daddy reminds me of some that are expiring I have let them go as I don't see the point for some of them anymore.
Hi Richard,
I too have several and don't use them all. I think customers are very familiar with the ones we use and have established a brand name recognition..hate to confuse the issue with throwing more in the mix but still hold on to the others..I'll be anxious to hear how it works for you..keep us updated.
I hope you get a lot for the names because dues have gone up!
"And while a long-tail domain name may have some initial SEO benefit" - I have more recently planned to create sub-pages on my personal website to line up with keyword specific terms that I am targeting. Like you eluded to above, I have googled my keywords and found useless websites that show up high in ranking simply because their domain is most alike to what I typed in. This includes lead generating sites, FaceBook fan pages, and more. It is aggravating, but at the same time something we can all implement if we have the time. We'll see if it works!
I just always thought it was wrong to hoard things, so I have two... one for my site, one for my blog and I've just never been interested in having any more.
Richard:
I wanted to read everyone's comments here to learn from as well as your words on the matter. I had not thought about getting some misspellings of my name as Andrea has suggested. That is probably a good idea.
I have seen some domain names for sale at some astronomical sums. It has made me question just how important they are. Perhaps, more than I thought.
Richard,
You're right, it is time to clean house. I've got several that I haven't developed and probably never will. Its sort of a slippery slope, a couple isn't that expensive but then you look up and there are 30 or more, each costing ten bucks a year.
The one I wanted, "Iarossi.com" is for sale. The owner thinks they're going to get $9,000 for it. Not likely.
Rich
I have all I can do to keep one and my birth name in check. Getting big money today for a name is like a needle in a hay stack!
Richard: I bought one domain name when I started real estate. I've been doing my best to brand the heck out of it since. One's enough for me to keep track of, but now you've got me wondering if I should buy another.
So now you're day trading domain names my friend? I just used my name when I set up my site and that seems to work for me.
Hi Richard,
I bought half a dozen or so....and find I only really use one....and that one is a long-tail-type domain. I'm letting the rest lapse.
Oh we have quite many. I see google place domain names with keywords higher than others so we have selectively picked up some important ones for us. ~Rita
Timely post Richard. I just canceled about 50 domain names. I figured if I haven't used them in a couple iof years I never will. Plus I don't think the name is that important anymore. Actually let me rephrase that. I think made up names are more important than descriptive names.
I agree the name needs to be memorable but the rush for the "name" is not a urgent today.
Thanks for you timely post as I was about to buy a few for my site. I wonder if buying subdivisions would be ok.