Something is only worth what anyone is willing to pay for it.

The same applies to a domain name. As much as a domain seller may wish to command six figures for his dot COM, he may soon realise that his expectation is just a fantasy.

As I have written before, if you are trying to price your domain names, simply ask yourself one question, how much would you be willing to pay for this domain name if you were the buyer?

There are indeed various factors that influence the value of a domain name. The domain extension plays a key role, where dot COM’s are worth the most, followed by dot NET. If the domain name consists of a single dictionary word, then it is also valuable.

The shorter the domain name, the more valuable it is likely to be. Other major factors that can positively influence the price of a domain name include:

- the popularity of keywords that the domain name consists of,
- the ease of spelling and memorising the domain name,
- the lack of trademark infringements
- the branding potential of the domain name
- recent sales data for similar domain names
- the industry/sector that the domain name relates to

There is no fixed or globally accepted standard of valuing domain names. If you ask ten different domain experts to value the same domain name, you will most likely get ten different valuations.

The key therefore to getting the highest price for your domain name is to take it to the right market: end-users. By end-users I do not mean the average web surfer who will be visiting the developed website.

I am rather referring to the person or business that will own the domain name and be responsible of developing the domain name into a brand and marketing the website to customers.

End-users are the people who will put the domain name to maximum use and will mostly likely be pumping a lot of resources into the development of the domain name. These are people who will be bold enough to take a domain name beyond a logo, and attempt to turn ideas into successful businesses.

A third-world student wishing to use a top quality premium name for a college assignment will value a domain name at $60, as that is the maximum he might be able to pay for it.

A well-capitalised businessman will on the other hand be willing to pay $60,000 for the said domain name, as he knows how much advantage the domain name could give to his business.

So, a domain name then, really, is only worth as much as the end-user is willing to pay for it. If you know your domain is worth $10,000 and some lunatic comes by offering $100, ignore the offer. He is not the end-user you are looking for.

The only problem is, you may have to do some serious work in finding the right end-user for you domain name.

It may help if you highlight the benefits and potential of your domain name when marketing it. Let a buyer instantly realise the true potential of a domain name, even if his intension was only to use the domain name to blog about his dead cat.

If you are really unsure of the value of a domain name, you may want to consider getting a domain name appraisal. Whereas domain appraisals cannot dictate or enforce the price at which a domain name is sold at, it can give you valuable insights into any potential the domain name may have.