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 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 even more 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 am 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.