LuxuryNames.com November Snapnames Auction
November 16th, 2009First of all, I want to thank Luxury Names for organizing their SnapNames auction, which runs from November 18-24, 2009. It benefits all domainers when individuals and groups take the initiative to open up new sales channels. I hope that Luxury Names will plan similar auctions with some regularity.
Disclosure: I do NOT have any domains in this auction.
Now, onto an objective look at the domains in the Luxury Names catalog.
Note: In general, my assessment of the below domains is with a domainer-to-domainer mindset. If you’re an end-user and you see your category killer domain in the Luxury Names catalog, this might be the time to snatch it up. As a domainer, in order to make a profit with domains, you’ve either got to get them at a low price and resell them or be able to make your money back through development (similar to an end-user, but an end-user generally secures a domain with a business in place, whereas domainers who develop generally begin with a domain and then develop a business).
My Picks:
AutoLoanCalculator.com – Priced at $50,000, but with 135,000 exact monthly searches and a very high cost per click (and cost per lead, I imagine), this could be a real money maker. I love calculator domains, as people bookmark them and come back often. In addition, loan calculator websites can remain pretty commercial and people will still like them (as compared to purely commercial sites), as loan calculators offer a helpful service.
CheapHouseInsurance.com – Good search volume for an insurance term and, at $2,500, you could quickly make your money back if you develop this domain properly. Sell a few insurance policies and you’re in the black.
FloorPlans.net ($2,500) – Yes, it’s a .net, but if you can find a database of floor plans you can install on this domain, you’re on your way to a money maker. Why? Search volume; the exact phrase “floor plans” is searched 74,000 times a month on Google.
LifeInsuranceTypes.com ($2,500) – A strange insurance domain, but here’s why I like it: I’ve had a lot of success with informational domains in high-paying niches. This domain will appeal to users who are very specific about what they want (which, in this case, is information to help them differentiate between different types of life insurance). You can present unbiased information and then have referral links to providers. If you win their trust with helpful information, they’ll probably trust you when you recommend a provider, as well. In addition, I’ve found that informational sites naturally accrue links far easier and have lower bounce rates than purely commercial sites.
CompanyLogos.net – This is a .net domain, but with huge search volume (40,500 exact searches a month). At just $2,000, if you sell four logo creation packages at $500 each, you’re in the black. If you can rank well for the phrase “company logos” (and this domain will help considerably), you’ll have a steady stream of customers knocking your virtual door.
FiveStarRestaurants.com ($1,500) – A great domain, as not only can you create an exclusive directory with high recurring listing fees for five star restaurants, but the selectiveness of the directory should appeal to restaurants that pride themselves on being exclusive. In addition, it wouldn’t be difficult to find a list of five star restaurants with contact information that you could start calling.
FlightStatus.org ($1,500) – It’s a .org domain, but one with HUGE search volume for the exact phrase (110,000 exact searches a month on Google). Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are already tons of flight status widgets that you could install in a matter of minutes.
HealthInsurancePlans.net ($1,500) – A .net domain, but one with a very high search volume (14,800 exact monthly searches) for its super-competitive niche. Everyone needs health insurance. If you sell a few policies, you’re in the black.
HomeLoanCalculator.org ($1,500) – By this point, it’s clear that I love calculator domains — if you install the calculator described by the domain, visitors just keep coming back. In addition, this domain is great because it is in a high-paying niche and has amazing search volume for a calculator domain (49,500 exact monthly searches).
PropertyValues.org ($1,500) – Great search volume, at 18,100 exact monthly searches, in a high-paying niche. Plenty of interesting widgets are available to make your site interactive with little custom programming work.
WeeklyPlanner.com – High search volume. I think this domain is cheap at $850. In the right hands, very helpful weekly planning software could be installed on this domain, which would keep people coming back again and again.
OfficeJokes.org ($300) – Cheap domain. Although comedy is consistently a low-paying niche (you have to have huge traffic to pull in real money), I imagine that there are tons and tons of office jokes floating around the web that could be used on this domain, meaning that you don’t have to constantly generate content. If you get OfficeJokes.org, I would pick up OfficeHumor.org (slightly better search volume and much cheaper at $99) in this Luxury Names auction as well.
DrumSets.org – Generally, I would only be interested in product domains in the .com TLD, but at just $250 and with 74,000 exact monthly searches for an expensive product (one that people likely often do a lot of research about before buying and thus would be fine ordering the product from anywhere — even online — as long as the price was right), I don’t think this is one to pass up if you have time for development.
NewYorkPropertyLawyer.com – Long domain, but I bet you could sell this to a New York property lawyer for more than $250 pretty easily. Essentially, I think it’s inefficiently priced.
Stay Away:
DslInternetServiceProvider.com – Not only would I never pay $12,000 for a four-word domain, but I’m suspicious of the exact search figures; the local exact search figure is 1,300 per month and the global exact search figure is 74,000 per month, which suggests that “DSL Internet Service Provider” is searched about 60 times more outside of the United States than within the United States – and that is difficult to believe. I’m not suggesting anyone is manipulating or misrepresenting search figures; I know that discrepancies between local and global exact search figures (with global figures appearing much, much higher for a commonly searched English phrase) happen every now and again in the Google AdWords tool. I just wish I could tell you why.
Kayaking.org – A good domain, but Moniker just sold Hockey.org for $22,500 last month, so I wouldn’t touch this one at the $8,000 price (too expensive, comparatively).
BiWeeklyMortgageCalculator.com – You can find financial calculator domains with the same exact match search volume on SnapNames every so often for about 1/200 of the price. This lengthy domain is priced at $6,000. I picked up StudentLoanPaymentCalculator.com for about $30 on SnapNames a couple of months ago.
HomeInsuranceRates.net – You can find similar .net insurance domains on SnapNames for much, much less. I picked up HealthInsuranceCost.net for under $100 (similar search volume); this domain is priced at $5,500.
RestaurantOrlando.com – Way overpriced at $5,000. Low search volume and I don’t know how you could sell this to a restaurant in Orlando for a profit.
Newlyweds.net – Overpriced for a .net of this quality. I’m just not sure how you could make your money back after paying $3,000 for this domain.
WeddingAlbums.net ($4,000), HockeySticks.net ($3,000), ChessGame.net ($2,000), CoffeeGrinders.net ($2,000), DogBowls.net ($1,500), SchoolRings.net ($1,500) – .Net product domains of this quality are not selling for these types of prices right now. You can pick them up on SnapNames all the time for a fraction of these prices. I picked up WrestlingSinglets.net for something like $18 recently. Wrestling singlets is not as good as these domains search-volume-wise, but it’s not 222 times worse (the price of WeddingAlbums.net divided by the price of WrestlingSinglets.net). Note: SchoolRings.net ($1,500) deserves special mention as it is really overpriced. You can consistently find .com product domains with similar search volume (2,400 exact monthly searches) that are UNREGISTERED. Even more, this is a .net.
PaydayProgram.com and PaydayPrograms.com – I don’t know what a payday program is and apparently no one else does either, as these phrases have no search volume. At $2,500 each, they’re both overpriced.
ThankYouBaskets.com – I like this domain, but the fact of the matter is that if you use Google’s AdWords tool and copy and paste the lists it generates into a bulk availability checker, you can consistently find unregistered .com product domains that have the same search volume as ThankYouBaskets.com. You can pay $2,500 for ThankYouBaskets.com or $8 for a product domain that’s not registered and put the $2,492 you’d save into something more productive.
BostonRentalCar.com – Low search volume and overpriced. Who are you going to find to buy this at a profit? It’s being offered at $1,500.
AtlantaHotelRates.com – I’m suspicious of the exact search figures; the local exact search figure is 700 per month and the global exact search figure is 60,500 per month, which suggests that the phrase “Atlanta Hotel Rates” is searched over 85 times more outside of the United States than within the United States, which is very hard to believe. I’m not suggesting anyone is manipulating or misrepresenting search figures; I know that discrepancies between local and global exact search figures (with global figures appearing much, much higher for a commonly searched English phrase) happen every now and again in the Google AdWords tool, especially when the phrase “hotel rates” is involved for some reason. I consider the exact search data for this domain unreliable.
Egos.org – I’m just not sure what you would do with this domain. At $1,500, you better have a good plan.
Mba-Degrees.com – Overpriced at $1,500. MbaDegrees.com (without a hyphen) sold for $6,000 in 2007 (a much better domain in a better market) and I don’t think there is a person in the domain industry who would argue that a hyphen on a .com domain only decreases the price to 1/4 of it’s non-hyphenated counterpart’s value (ignoring the fact that MbaDegrees.com would likely sell today for under its 2007 price due to market conditions). Note: Yes, MbaDegrees.com sold for $20,000 in 2008, but it had a hefty site built on it at the time.
CarRentalQuotes.net – Next to no search volume and a three-word .net domain. Overpriced at $1,500. Overpriced at most prices.
CommercialPilotJobs.com – A good domain, but the fact of the matter is that [KEYWORD]Jobs.com domains with similar search volume (about 1,000) sell pretty often for $40 and under on SnapNames. This domain is offered at $1,500.
TermLifePolicies.net ($1,500) and TermLifePolicy.net ($1,500) – Overpriced (1) when compared to TermLifePolicies.com, which sold for $5,400 in 2007, (2) compared to LifeInsurancePolicies.net (being offered for $1,250 in this Luxury Names auction) and (3) when considering their search volumes (both are under 1000).
LosAngelesRentalCar.net ($1,250) and LosAngelesRentalCars.net ($1,250) – Overpriced. I’m not sure how you would sell either of these domains for a profit. Furthermore, there are tons of substitutes for these domains (you can look for comparable domains in the .org or .com TLDs, you can move “Los Angeles” to the end of the phrase, you can use “LA” instead of “Los Angeles,” etc.). I’m going to guess that out of all of the possible permutations, there are a few LA rental car domain owners willing to sell for a lot less than $1,250. In fact, I just checked and LosAngelesRentalCar.org and LosAngelesRentalCars.org are both unregistered, meaning you can pick them up for about $8 each.
OrlandoAutoInsurance.net – I’m suspicious of the exact search figures; the local exact search figure is 1,600 per month and the global exact search figure is 33,100 per month, which suggests that the phrase “Orlando Auto Insurance” is searched over 20 times more often outside of the United States than within the United States, which is very hard to believe. I’m not suggesting anyone is manipulating or misrepresenting search figures; I know that discrepancies between local and global exact search figures (with global figures appearing much, much higher for a commonly searched English phrase) happen every now and again in the Google AdWords tool. I consider the exact search data for this domain unreliable.
Interesting Domains:
CreditFraud.org – Possibly expensive at $5,000, but a great extension for this phrase. An industry group or consumer watchdog group could do very well with this domain.
InsuranceAgencies.org – I like the .org TLD for this group of companies; it conveys trust that this industry so desperately needs. An industry group (or someone in the cost-per-lead business) would be wise to pick this up.
BuyLifeInsurance.net ($1,500) – A .net domain, but in such a high-paying niche that if you sell a few life insurance policies, you’ll make back your investment. What could make that possible is that people are searching for these exact keywords to the tune of 2,900 exact searches a month on Google.
CurrencyValues.net ($1,500) – Put a currency calculator on this domain and people will hopefully bookmark it and keep coming back. A fair amount of exact monthly searches.
