Of course they are. They are the internet real estate of the web. Anyone that says otherwise does not own any domain names, or they are old school. So what is the true value of a domain name. What makes a domain name valuable?

You have 3 ways to look at this in our opinion. First, If your lucky enough to have a one or two worded generic domain name that gets natural type in traffic you have made a wise investment. The value can be determined by how many clicks per month and what category of domain name it is in, combined with how much the value each click is.

For example, If you have an insurance domain name that gets natural traffic the value can be in the millions. Let me explain. Certain insurance traffic terms lie “car insurance” can cost you around $20.00 per click to get to the top position on google, yahoo or bing. If you own this type of name in this category your sitting well. Now if your name deals with paper clips, the cost per click on any of the search engines will be probably be around $1.00, so not everyone needs paper clips but everyone needs insurance. The true value can be determined by the cost per click, the category and how many times or volume that term is searched.

We also believe that since type in traffic is more targeted it converts much better, making generic domain names very valuable.

The second way to look at the value of a domain name is to understand or see how easy the domain name is to remember and or spell. If your putting your domain name on a billboard you are running, you will want to buy the shortest domain name possible, because viewers on the freeway only have a few seconds to look up at the billboard and see what your offering. If it is long and drawn out, your wasting your money. This is what many advertisers do today. They buy a cheap domain name for 10 bucks and spend 5k a month for a year on a billboard that has a horrible name. The end result is no sales and a big waste of money and pointing of the fingers.

Why do they do this? Because they like wasting money and have horrible people running there advertising. So these type of domain names that are easy to remember and spell do not need type in traffic. The value is based on how well you can remember the name. Although If I had the choice I would take type in natural type in traffic any day but the cost to obtain these type of names are in the in the 6 to 7 figures.

Now the last way to determine the value of a domain name is by far the most easy way. It is what someone will pay for it. It’s that simple. Just like a real piece of property or buying a stock it is what that person is willing to give you for the domain name. Is this the true value? Maybe not but that is not important…

Don Murray
idomainmedia.com