Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Unlike gold, oil and precious metals, domain names don’t have a unit price associated with them. And yet, domain names are commodities that can be traded freely, can be sold and bought.

When it comes down to tagging a price to a domain name, my evaluation method as a buyer and as the seller follows similar principles.

The idea, is to evaluate domains with the intention to either develop them or to sell them to end-users. Flipping domains to other domain investors is like trading stamps, coins or sports cards; domain investment is not a hobby, it’s a profession.

In the same manner, when evaluating a domain for others, keep in mind that only the end-user potential matters.

Evaluating a domain for a purpose and function other than that of a “final destination” does not make sense to savvy domain investors that usually position themselves long term.

Humans are somehow obsessed with dates and numbers.

Since the early days of cave-dwelling, counting the goods we owned has apparently instilled a certain level of instinctive focus on numbers: how many, how often, when.

When it comes down to domains and domain portfolios, renewal dates are effective timestamps that tell us it’s time to fork out more money to extend their lifespan, or drop them and take a loss.

But how can you effectively leverage your domain portfolio’s worth?

Every domainer is more or less biased when it comes down to determining the worth, the value, the moolah related to their domain portfolio. Often times, we are partial to a domain because of a sudden plan we had – often under the influence of alcohol, chocolate, coffee or other stimulants. We are not as objective as we should be regarding our domains’ worth, simply because like during those early days in the caves, we are counting the beans as ours and we’re refusing to give them up.

The solution: give your portfolio list to someone else to evaluate.

Although it sounds very simplistic and bears a certain degree of embarrassment – perhaps due to adult names or completely crap names – getting a second opinion on your group of domains will take away the heavy load of commitment to bad names. By having a second – or third – opinion over your domains’ worth, you’re letting go of the weight of obsession over certain names you’ve held onto for years, for no apparent reason other than to tag as *yours*.

So find a respectable domainer associate and share your “family jewels” with them; it will save you a lot of money at renewal time.

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