How much would or have you pay for a domain name?

[whitbycottages]

I  wasn't asking the question from a complete lack of experience but I put this question on the forum here last week…How much would you pay for a key rich domain name with the correct extension?

I'm setting up a new website to sell Whitby Jet and one of the members of this forum suggested I should buy the domain name www.whitbyjet.com it was for sale for $300 or £200 in UK money and they thought it was a bargain.  I thought it was worth the cost even though I've never paid anywhere near that amount for a domain name.
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There is a company offering www.whitby-jet.co.uk or £1500 ?!!!!

I have bought key rich domain names before, which were very descriptive also but only paid the registration fee with no additional costs
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I just wondered how much members of this forum have paid for domain names. And why they thought it was worth the cost... SEO Branding etc.?

By the way the company that was acting as the intermediate for my new doaminis is an absolute pain. They didn't perform the transfer process quickly until I bombarded them with emails

My new domain is still not working one week down the line. In the past I bought a domain cheap and it has been working within 24 hours directly.

[sunriseb]

Years ago I paid $1500 for keyword rich, two-word.com and it has worked out really well.

However, if I had it to do over again I wouldn't.  Now I think a unique, brandable domain name with one of the keywords in it for $10 is a better choice.

example:
2-word keyphrase:  abcde-efghij.com
unique/brandable: abcdeworld.com

Regards,
Sam

[GYMSN]

$550k and google is not treating it well at all...damn.

[RyanKent]

Good point! You caught me scanning the headlines.

[YourDegree]

You should probably point out-- facebook did NOT pay 100 million just for face.com--  facebook has been using face.com's facial recognition software for ages.  They purchased the entire company for 100mm.

[whitbycottages]

I didn't know about the pay per click relevance of having the exact domain name match to the product being sold but I can see how that could be very important if you are heavily into Google ad words, but for a smaller company it wont be of great benefit becouse I'm not intending of spending much in that direction, but thanks for the information.

[whitbycottages]

That's what I find slightly hard to understand, there are a reasonable number of
online retailers with good levels of stock, like this one which has a bricks
and mortar shop in a prime location in town where they pay around £1000 a month just for the rent, this is their website http://www.whitbyjetjewellery.net/ So why don't they jump at the chance of getting the exact match domain? Do you think it's purely down to lack of knowledge by their SEO person! I realise some of them won’t actually invested much in their online marketing but surely some of them have. Easier to understand if the domain retailer had beenasking  $5,000 for the domain, but like you pointed out at $300 it was peanuts.

[whitbycottages]

I have done, it's actually now functioning the domain is live and there will be a website there later this week thanks for the encouragement

[whitbycottages]

Marcus I don't want to be picky but if I decide to go with your suggestion could I have to domain name without the hyphens?www.Iwantedwhitbyjetbutthiswasallthatasleft.com might not be as readable but it would be better for my SEO wouldn't it?Anywhere nice little story and I'm glad you got the domain name you wanted eventually, I bet they thought it was going to  be a bowler hat retailer the eventually slapped the cash down

[Marcus_Miller]

Ha, for sure! Good domains are like gold dust in some instances and I would pay 5x what they are asking.

[Marcus_Miller]

Ha, well, I am back.

Been busy, busy, busy, but nothing works for letting off a bit of SEO steam like the Moz Q&A!

Oh, and I really want that Roger T-Shirt!

[EGOL]

That is really funny.

SEOMoz needs a 10x button for thumbs up.  I am going to spam Rands email until they give us one.   They should also have a 100x thumbs up that a member can only use once per year.  I would have used it today..

Thank you, Marcus.

======================

Seriously.... too many people see that a domain is registered and don't track down the owner to make an offer or ask what he wants for it.  Anybody who registers www.I-wanted-whitby-jet-but-this-was-all-that-was-left.com without getting in touch with the owner of whitbyjet.com needs a kick in the pants.

[RyanKent]

Oh Marcus! I have missed reading your responses in Q&A.

www.I-wanted-whitby-jet-but-this-was-all-that-was-left.com

Really made my morning! Thanks!

[EGOL]

Great to hear that you are going to be "The Man" for Whitby Jet.

Owning this domain will give you immediate credibility.  From my experience, this type of domain can have a much better conversion rate and fetch higher prices than selling the same product on a jewelry site.

If I was going into this business I would have paid $X000 - maybe more for this domain.

It is a one time cost.

[CliXelerate]

In addition to the value of the relevancy of the domain name to the business, which - I agree - is a value that the individual business owner must evaluate and decide, there are two other tremendous key points in having a domain name which either matches or is highly-relevant to the primary business function.

First is the SEO value. All other factors being even (domain age, quality of landing page content, backlinks, etc. etc.) - a highly relevant domain name will almost always achieve better organic ranking vs. a similar competitor site with a less or non-relevant domain name.

Second - and this can make a tremendous difference economically over time - is the SEM / PPC value of a relevant domain name including your top keyword / key phrase will, all other factors being even, cost you less to advertise on a PPC-basis than a non-relevant domain name.  So if you're in a market where your price per click is several dollars or higher - a non-relevant domain name can cost dollars (pounds) per click more than a relevant one.  This can make a difference of tens to hundreds of thousands of increased ad budget cost over time, depending upon overall ad spend.

So while several thousand dollars / pounds for a domain name seems expensive, it's a cost that can likely be quickly amortized if it's for a commerce-based website which has a decent annual revenue, especially when you factor in paid search as well as organic.

[Marcus_Miller]

When I set up my initial site, maybe 10 years ago (shudder) I bought BowlerHatSolutions.co.uk - the solutions means absolutely nothing, nothing, it's just a tired, horrid cliché in the same vein as every design shop using SomethingCreative.com so when we got the chance to go after www.BowlerHat.co.uk we wanted it, we wanted it bad.

So, I set a price in my head, and haggled with the domain owner for nearly a year and eventually, he came around to my way of thinking. It was a good deal more than £200 but was very valuable to me and to my brand - for a UK based SEO and Web Design the Bowler Hat icon is a really strong identity so... Well, I wanted it and eventually got it.

What are your other options?

www.I-wanted-whitby-jet-but-this-was-all-that-was-left.com?

Marcus

[whitbycottages]

It certainly puts things in perspective, people take much more for their names in the small businesses, an exact match.com is so much better than having to extend the domain. Things are moving along with the purchase of the domain name, I did send out quite a few push e-mails worrying that there was some kind of con going on, with it being sold through intermediate company. Progress is happening now I will be a little bit more patient

[whitbycottages]

Thanks a lot Ryan I was not at all worried about the price of the domain I was just surprised it was available, and I know exactly what you mean long-term the benefits of an exact match.com domain name far outweigh the costs even for a small business. Somebody was trying to sell www.whitby-jet.co.uk /for $1600 so I'm very pleased with the price. In this particular business of WJ there are quite a few prominent sellers you'd think they'd wise up by the right domain name to do the job properly, can it really be that they are SEO ignorant? I can only think it is the case.

[whitbycottages]

Well I agree with everything that everybody said I have already purchased www.whitbyjet.com to be perfectly honest if it hadn't been for Ryan last week who took the time to check the domain name and pointed out it was the sale, I would never have looked to see if it was available, assuming it must be taken by a company. Whitby Jet isn't the biggest business in the world but there are many jewellers trading it on the Internet, and businesses in the town itself with some of the pieces selling in four figure numbers so it makes you wonder why these companies have invested that small amount of money from the advantages they would get? Whitby jet became extremely popular after Prince Albert died 1870 and Queen Victoria wore Whitby jet with it being black, for many years in mourning and increase the products profile. At one time this small fishing town had over 1000 workers, exporting over £100,000 worth of the products in 1872 which will be millions of pounds in today's money.

I thinking very similar to yours EGOL I am aiming to be "the Man" Whitby jet on the net, I was very excited at the prospect of building the website round that domain, it certainly given me a lot stronger incentives to make the product sales high quality, aiming to establish "the brand"

[ProjectLabs]

I haven't paid a lot for a domain name but I would definitely consider 5 figures if the domain was an exact match for a really important phrase. In my experience Google still gives a ton of bias to exact match domains and if that goes away you will still have a strong advantage over competitors because people are likely to link to you using an important keyword phrase in the anchor text. When considering a price, I would suggest looking at the potential extra traffic you would get if you had the exact match. If you assume that the exact match domain will help you rank #1 for an important kw phrase, the ROI could be very good.

[MoosaHemani]

I do agree with Ryan… It’s more about what you are asking to yourself while buying the domain. I mean if you are paying more than usual for a domain name (decent one) then you should know whether it is going to help my business grow? Not only from the SEO point of view but from branding point of view that will it leaves a positive impact to your targeted audience? And more related questions…

[DanielFreedman]

I helped a friend  sell a domain name for $5,000.

It was perfect for the buyer's business.

And the buyer made the mistake of describing his business as "a small little company in France." A little research revealed the company was small only in number of employees and had sales of neary 2 million Euros!

Even for a much smaller company, $300 is peanuts. Go for it.

[RyanKent]

Only the new domain owner can assess the value of a domain name. Facebook just bought face.com for a reported $100 million dollars. Sex.com sold for $12 million dollars. 

The question you need to ask yourself...what is the value of this exact domain name to my business? Here are a few things to consider:

• .com domains are clearly the most dominant and powerful domain names. Many consumers make false assumptions such as "real" companies use .com. You should notice that you can choose the name of most major companies, add a .com to it and wind up on their site. McDonalds, facebook, google, sears, apple, citibank, etc.

• If you do not use a .com name, you can likely expect a percentage of potential visitors to wind up on the .com site while trying to find your site. If the .com site offers a competing product for a good price, the visitor may never make it to your site

• Even if you had a very small web business which generated $10k in sales per month, that is $120k/year. That alone can easily justify spending 1% of your first year's sales for a domain name.

It is most site owner's dream to obtain a perfect match .com name for their company. If you are on SEOmoz you clearly care about your site's performance. I frankly can't understand the slightest hesitancy at purchasing a $300 domain. If it was $3000 for a perfect match .com name, no hyphens, my advice would still be the same.

I agree with EGOL. When you purchase an unregistered domain name, it should be working for you in a matter of hours. If you purchase a domain from an individual or company, it takes time for the transfer to go through.

[EGOL]

I don't know anything about the market for Whitby Jet but I would pay $300 without flinching one bit.

I've paid many times that amount for domains.

Having the proper domain gives me enormous mental energy.  It makes me want to work on the site and make it the best in its niche.  If I bought whitbyjet.com that would make me "The Man" for that product and everybody else in that niche would be in deep trouble.

Mental energy and enthusiasm are valuable weapons and when used properly will defeat powerful foes.

Are you going to be "The Man" in this niche or what?

(paying for domains in a private sale and transferring domains can take a while... I would not be panicking after one week)

[bradkrussell]

$300 for that domain does seem like a good deal.

I've had a client buy a domain in the past for $800, and it certainly wasn't as good as keyword.com for a mere $300!

Good luck getting the domain up and running. I'd try and call them directly if you can - don't give them a chance to not respond via email.