Photo by vaXzineHaving A Domain Business Plan & Formula Makes all the Difference
Having a domain business plan or formula for what you buy (and why you buy it) can really make the process of domaining a lot easier and more profitable, it also reduces the financial risk. When I started adding the “domaining or domainer” mentality to my internet marketing strategies, I was after very specific types of domain names. Most of the names I own I plan on developing until I reach a certain level of income (steady monthly income from programs like adsense, affiliate programs, ebook sales, software sales, ect).
After many people asked how I generate a domain appraisal, I figured I would share the formula I use for valuing domain names, not pretty but works pretty well. This is just one piece of the puzzle, I use an amalgam of metrics.
($GoogleLP / 2) + ($MSNLP / 10) + ($YahooLP / 10) + $AlexaLP + (3000001 / $AlexaTR) + ( $AvgSearchVolume / 10) + ( $RecentSearchVolume / 10) + ($CPC * 10000) + (($AdCompetition / 2) * 1000) + ($CompeteRank / 1))*5
Variables I use to calculate domain name values
- Alexa Traffic Rank / Link Popularity
- Google Link Popularity / Link Saturation
- MSN Link Popularity / Link Saturation
- Google Link Popularity / Link Saturation
- Yahoo Link Popularity / Link Saturation
- Overture Term / TLD
- Estimated Value based on revenue stream
- Name Servers, Creation Date, Expiration Date
Sites I use for domain name research
Quarkbase.com provides an easier way to find website information. You can find out how good a site is, get comprehensive website details, discover competitors.
Quantcast.com measurement service helping buyers and sellers quantify the characteristics of digital audiences against which they can activate media plans and website comparative analysis.
Compete.com is able to measure and report on the actual internet behavior of their panelists including the websites they visit and search terms they use. Based on this, compete are able to report web metrics for any sites that panelists visit.
Estibot.com Instant, free domain appraisal, domain name appraisal plus keyword research tool.
Domainxanalyzer.com Analysis for SEO, Link Popularity, Backlinks, Fake Page Rank and Expired Domains
Your Formula Should Cover:
- How you purchase and value domain name?
- How you go about listing and selling the names?
- What types of domain names do you seek?
Having a plan in place prior to purchasing 1000 domain names can really make a big difference, once you have a portfolio established you will know your next step of action. I purchase 95% of my domain names on traffic keyword phrases (example: AudiKit.com) and or expired domains in which I feel I can capitalize on traffic quicker than if I were to register a new domain today. I focus on .com’s and only .com’s.
- Using common prefixes or suffixes (i-, e-, my-) can greatly decrease the value of your name.
- Unusual spelling means that visitors will have a hard time remembering your name.
- Difficult pronunciation can prevent people from talking about your website. This can hurt the value of your name.
- PageRank this number shows how important Google thinks your website is. You will need to install the Google Toolbar to get this number.
- The Alexa traffic rank gives a good estimate of the popularity of your website versus the rest of the internet.
- The more people that link to you, the better. Each incoming link (or backlink) to your website is a valuable asset.
- The number of pages that you show in a month. This is used with the above number to determine the number of pages viewed per user. This is also used to calculate the amount of advertising revenue possible.
- Websites that have been around for a while are more valuable. You should only use the number of years that the website has been in use. So, if the name was parked for 2 years before you developed it, don’t count that.
- Being listed in the Yahoo Directory can drive a lot of traffic to your website and is a big stamp of approval. This is different from being listed in the Yahoo search engine.
- Current income is a large factor in evaluating the value of a website because it shows that your website is already successful.