DOMAIN NAME VALUATION

What is the value of a domain name?

How do people choose domain names?

What is the perfect domain name?

What are the criteria for the GoldNames valuation model?

Why are domain names worth so much money?

DOMAIN NAME VALUATION

What is the value of a domain name?

It is impossible to determine the exact value of a domain name. A great domain name is like a great work of art. Its beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and no two people will place the same value on a name because possible buyer foresees a unique use for the name. GoldNames is the premier industry appraiser committed to giving the most practical and accurate valuations in the business. Our valuation model is available for your perusal. This model, however, is limited by the uniqueness of each domain name. Our valuation incorporates the model's estimate of each name's individual merits and its relationship to our database of historical name transactions.

How do people choose domain names?

There are many things to take into consideration when choosing a domain name: length, sound, content, market, creativity, etc. Certain names are obviously excellent like cars.com. It is short and succinct, and it has the potential to express the content of the site perfectly. But through a combination of successful marketing and early entrance, amazon.com has built a retail empire far superior to a competitor, books.com owned by Barnes & Noble. This suggests that there are a variety of factors that contribute to the quality of a domain name. A good domain name should be memorable, aesthetically pleasing, and succinct.

What is the perfect domain name?

The perfect domain name is a highly memorable name that maximizes traffic to your site.

What are the criteria for the GoldNames valuation model?

GoldNames provides the industry's most accurate appraisals. There is no absolute science to valuing a domain name, but there are guidelines. We consider a name's ability to deliver traffic and revenue to a business as a central driver of its valuation. We also analyze the characteristics of a name beginning with the number of letters and the ease associated with remembering it, as well as the power of alliteration, meter, rhyme, etc. to add value. Just as the language of a domain name affects its potential marketplace, we believe that different TLDs have different values with .com being the best TLD to own. The ideal domain name can be communicated easily by word of mouth and print while being difficult to misspell or confuse. Finally, we believe that a domain name has greater value if all possible variations, permutations, and sub-categories are bundled with it, providing the name owner complete power over that particular community of names.

Why are domain names worth so much money?

Domain names are becoming ever-more valuable for several reasons:

• Short, simple, clear, intuitive, easy-to-spell domain names are easier to type, easier to remember, and therefore draw more traffic. When Computer Literacy changed its name to FatBrain.com, the stock jumped and added more than $100 million to the company's market cap.
• Many websites use multipoint marketing, i.e., they use a diversity of domain names related to their industry to draw traffic to their primary site. For example, Bank of America bought loans.com for $3 million in part to increase traffic to their site.
• A domain name is a brand, and therefore has all the potential value of any other brand. In the pre-internet world, 59% of Coca-Cola Co.'s market value--$111 billion--is driven by the value of the world's best-known brand, according to a study by Interbrand, a New York-based corporate identity firm.
• Lastly, on the web your name can be a category-killer. For example, a name like "cars.com" confers instant credibility that that site is a leader on the subject of cars. Sophisticated internet surfers are well aware that the leaders in a given industry are often those firms that have the simplest, clearest domain names. In 1999, Bingo.com contended that its URL alone accounted for half its market cap, then $36m.