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These days you read about high dollar domain name sales every week. The number of 5- and 6-figure domain name sales continues to grow. Although most of this is due to the growing recognition of the value of domain names, another factor is the fall of the U.S. dollar while the Euro and Pound Sterling gain purchasing power.
Take some recent sales for example. Mind you, I don’t know which country the purchasers lived in. But consider that someone living in a Euro region purchased these domains from someone in the U.S.
GED.com: This domain sold on Sedo for US $150,000 in January 2005. This represented a €114,000 investment at January’s exchange rates. If the same purchase was made five years prior, it would have cost €146,000! That means the domain cost was 28% “cheaper” to someone in a Euro territory this January versus five years ago.
Arab.com: Arab.com exchanged hands for US $225,000 in August 2004. This was €185,000 at the time. But in August 1999 it would have cost €213,000, or 15% more.
The opposite is true for U.S. domain buyers. If they buy domains in Euros, they are now roughly 40% more expensive than five years ago, assuming no changes in underlying domain value.
How much does this affect domain name sales? It’s the same idea as United States citizens taking a vacation. Fewer people are willing to travel from the U.S. to Europe right now because of the low dollar. When the dollar is high people flock to Europe to take advantage of the cheap Euro. I don’t know of any exact studies about exchange rates and domain name prices. But I would personally buy a lot more domains from Europeans right now if the “real” price to me in U.S. dollars was lower.
5-figure domain name sales continued in droves last week. Designs.com sold in a private sale for $50,000, according to DNJournal.
One of the biggest surprise sales was a .TV domain, SMS.tv, going for $18,000 on Sedo. .TV sales rarely break the $10,000 threshold. Last week also saw a 2 character .org sale - PL.org for $8,800 at Sedo.
Two 3-character new TLD’s sold as well:
-BES.biz €5,500 at Sedo
-AMA.us $5,000 at Afternic
Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) has acquired domain names and other assets from Pike Street for $16.5M. You may know of Marchex for their huge domain portfolio purchases in the past. Here’s the press release:
As the editor of DomainNameWire.com, I’m frequently e-mailed by people asking for domain name advice. Specifically, what should they look for when registering a domain name for their company? This may be basic for some of you, but I hope some of my readers gain value from this.
Let me start with the things to avoid when registering a domain name that will be used for your main company web site.
1. Never use a hyphen. If your domain is some-name.com, many people will forget the hyphen when typing your name into the browser or sending e-mail to you. This can result in lost business.
2. Avoid digits if possible. Using digits requires you to spell the domain name out to people. For example2.com, you need to tell people it’s the digit “2” rather than the word “two” or even “to”.
Here are the positive things to look for in a domain name.
1. .Com extension. It’s imperative that your domain name be available with a .com extension. I’ve seen businesses and major web sites try to get away with .net or .org, and perhaps half of their intended visitors land on someone else’s web site. Or worse, confidential e-mails are sent to the wrong domain.
2. Easy to spell. Keep in mind that your spelling might be better than most people!
3. Short. Try to keep it to 2 words, 3 maximum and 20 characters or fewer.
These are general guidelines applicable to your main company domain name. There are instances where hyphens, numbers, and non-.com domain extensions are fine for secondary sites and search engine-optimized sites. But your company’s main domain should follow these general guidelines. Good luck!
