If you really want a good domain name, and it’s available for sale, then don’t be afraid to pay a realistic amount for it.
Because if you don’t, chances are excellent that someone else will! And for the sake of a few hundred bucks – or maybe even a few thousand dollars – you’ll never have to live with the feeling of a missed opportunity.
This applies equally to a domainer like me – or to an end user.
Compare domains to property
Domain names are “cyber property”, and the same rules of supply and demand apply.
As an example, if you want to buy a house in Toorak, Melbourne; or Vaucluse, Sydney; then currently you will be paying top dollar to secure such a property. Why? Because the number of properties for sale is so limited, and the demand is huge (even in this multi-million dollar bracket).
Same with premium domain names. Except the supply situation is even tighter.
There will only ever be one carinsurance.com.au; one carloans.com.au; one weddingdresses.com.au; one spa.com.au; one holiday.com.au; one resume.com.au; one coaching.com.au – you get my drift!
The same principle applies no matter what industry you are in. Let’s say you’re in real estate in Noosa – the best domain to have is undoubtedly NoosaRealEstate.com.au. And the agent that now has that domain had the foresight to acquire it even though it seemed a big purchase at the time. He has never looked back.
Don’t dilly dally!
I was lucky enough to acquire a very good 3 letter domain last week. It was on all three drop-catching platforms – bids were made on all for mid to high 4 figures.
One of the platforms has a tiered bidding system – every level doubles up i.e $400, $800, $1600, $3200, $6400, $12,800 etc. I tried to get a bid on at the $3200 level, but it was already taken by someone else. “Bugger” I said! I really wanted it, so the fear of loss drove me to bite the bullet and hit the $6400 bid. And it was available – yippee! I only had to think about it for 2 minutes – I just did not want anyone else to have it!
The bids on the other two platforms ranged from high $6000’s (me) to $8888 (not me). Fortunately the platform where I had locked in the $6400 bid managed to “catch it”. 🙂
Cutting a long story short, the following day I was made an offer that I couldn’t refuse for the domain – effectively I more than doubled my money. And the new purchaser is ecstatic.
Where the “dilly dally” comes into it is that had I hesitated even 10 minutes longer someone else would have grabbed that “$6400 slot”. I know this because a friend and fellow domain investor told me that he was deliberating whether to spend that much – and when he decided to do it, the bid was no longer available (because yours truly had it!).
One final thought
When tossing up whether to buy a domain name, ask yourself this question. “Would I want my competitor to have that domain instead of me?”
I reckon the answer to that should be simple!
Good luck. 🙂
nice article and i did the same this week for a client, i said “you have to own this” , she said ” i have no money” i said ” what is it worth in losses if your competitor has it ”
at the end of the day the pain of the extra spend passes.
tim
Agreed Tim. Some people get it; some people don’t. And the ones that don’t “eventually do”! But by then it’s too late – or too costly!
Hi Ned, Nice post, yes I agree it makes sense to pay a bit more sometimes of you are keen on the deal. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and discussing here and also over at https://www.dntrade.com.au lots of good content here already.
Cheers,
Peter Mead
Thanks Peter.
DNTrade is a great resource for the domain industry in Australia. As some people know, it was my baby for a while (before handing the reins over to you guys), so I’m very happy that we share the love and links! 🙂 DNT is mentioned quite a few times on this site in the articles and the tools.
Love the DNT team’s positivity.
Cheers, Ned