Domainers must put facts and numbers behind blanket statements.
In the domain name industry, many people lambaste companies that don’t buy generic, category-killer domain names and say “they just don’t get it”. Some companies, such as Advertise.com and Real Estate Disposition Corporation clearly analyzed the business case and decided it was worth spending significant money to get a great domain name.
But it’s naive to say that companies that don’t have a great domain name like this don’t get it.
I frequently hear people, who try to sell a domain name to end users without success, say “they just don’t get it.”
Ahem. Maybe you don’t get it.
You can’t go around saying domain name xyz is worth millions to a particular company. You need to back it up with facts.
It reminds me of the fable The Emperor’s New Clothes. The emperor is told that only people who “get it” will see his great new clothes, when really he is not wearing any. The same thing happened at Enron, when people who didn’t “get it” were laughed out of the room.
“You’re questioning the business model?” they’d say. “Then you just don’t get it.”
The same thing goes for domain names. If a company isn’t buying your domain name, then you haven’t made a good enough case for it. Have you created a detailed, numbers-driven analysis of how this will help them? Have you provided case studies from other companies that have purchased big dollar domains?
Next time you’re frustrated that a company doesn’t seem to get it, ask yourself if perhaps you are the one who doesn’t get it.
Leonard Britt says
While newbie domainers tend to overprice domains I don’t believe most of the complaints are from the newer domainers who normally haven’t even approached end users. It is not difficult to find companies with poor quality domains and yet they will often see no reason to spend even XXX on a domain which describes well what the company sells. There was a study a couple of months ago which indicated higher click-through rates on PPC campaigns for generic domains. How much is that worth to a company selling millions of dollars of ___ annually?
jp says
Agreed. Just becasue a domain name is great doesn’t mean it is great for your business.
For example, you could argue that ComputerRepair.com would be an awesome domain name for me since I also own a computer repair business. Only I doubt I could get it for less than 6 figures and since my company only services San Diego, the majority of the traffic from the domain would be wasted on me. Of course the reason this domain is so expensive is because of the traffic it comes with. If I cannot benefit from all that traffic I should not buy it. I would buy ComputerRepair.com for this business (domaining aside), but not for more than $10k max. (as a domainer of course I’d pay alot more).
I do own SanDiegoComputerRepair.com, which I bought at Sedo for around $400. I have made my money back many times over for that purchase.
Gordon says
Amen, amen amen.
I’m the first one to preach the domain gospel, but I also understand that every name isn’t a fit for every big company. And a big company can do just great without owning the category killing name.
Dean Davis says
Thanx – How can you show the possible return? I am selling 862 domains on a netwok of job boards. One example is AnimalJobs.com gets tons of traffic how do I show real potential to buyers?
gpmgroup says
@Dean
Why not display some adverts on the domain(s) and track the referrals?
gpmgroup says
@Dean
Why not invite companies to display some adverts on the domain(s) and track the referrals?
jp says
Wow Dean, you’ve got alot of those …Jobs.com domains. So do you think owning the .jobs tld would help your cause, curious.
David J Castello says
Believe me, Andrew, most of the time they don’t get it.
Dean Davis says
JP – I think the .jobs tld should remain under the rules it is under now. Yes I do run ads on the JobHill.com Network. I have the whole lot for sale for 1.4M. A smart domainer could win with this but we will break it up if no buyers soon. Thank you.
jblack says
Right on, you got it right again. One has to display the defendable facts and numbers in front of the other party. xyz.com has no value if it cannot be explained properly to the prospective buyer on how does now or could later return the initial investment. As Rick would likely agree, the sale has to be clearly visible more from the buyer’s eyes rather than the seller’s. Otherwise, its like Frank said, trying to sell someone “a bag of smoke”. Then again, advertisers and our own government are selling us all smoke so maybe we are lost in the clouds and can no longer distinguish rational thought any longer and just think buying smoke is sane.
Robbie says
I really agree with David J Castello.
I recently launched a thread on NP about this how they dont get it.
I admit that some domainers dont get it but when we are talking about pure generics that can bring traffic with pre-qualified leads but they would rather still spend millions on ppc and other traditional advertising proves most companies around the world “Dont Get It”
One Day, Im sure One Day they will get it but only with our help.
We all still need to preach the word of domains and there power to whoever we meet!
eq78 says
Domainers don’t get it, in the NP thread the names mentioned were Brazil.com and Great Britain.com. Who is the end user for Brazil.com ? The tourism board ? I think domainers need to watch trying to sell the Country.com to the actual country some could use that as bad faith and find some local law to go after the domain. By the way there is the largerst Global slowdown in the last 100 years, I realize many domainers have no understanding of economics or world markets, but most companies have much more to think about then if they have the perfect name.
Excellent article Andrew
Andrew Allemann says
@ eq78 – I hadn’t seen that NP thread before this, but it reaffirms my point.
So people aren’t buying the domains someone is trying to sell. Why is that? Maybe they just aren’t selling them well, and they blame the buyer instead of themselves.
UFO.ORG says
Sounds like my post to Rick on the 28th of april.
http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2009/04/my-greatest-failure-continues.html?cid=6a00d83451f3f569e20115705f3287970b#comment-6a00d83451f3f569e20115705f3287970b
jp says
@my own stupid comment eariler about a .jobs tld. Goes to show that .com is king. I had completely forgotten about the existance of the .jobs tld.