Domain names have been in greater demand today, as other investment options have dwindled.  Having a premium domain name as an investment can easily yield a big payout, depending on both market factors and the quality of your domain name.

Buying a domain name

Buying the name is one of the most critical and first step entailed in this process. This is mainly because selecting a good domain name will is crucial to marketability.

If you’ve chosen an unavailable domain you can buy a registered/existing domain. If you’re lucky enough, you can acquire one at a reasonable price. If a domain was purchased as part of a large portfolio, oftentimes the seller will want to price the domains to move. Those are going to be your good deals. The other option for finding a great deal is to pay attention to expiring domain names. Domains expire every day, many times just because the owner neglected to renew the registration.

As soon as you have purchased your name, the next thing to do is to determine how long you would want to utilize and own it. You could sell it immediately once you find the right buyer (and if the price is right) or you could wait until your domain name has increased its value. Watching the current sales trends should give you an idea of the price to expect someone to pay for your domain. Rather than take guesses, you can get a professional appraisal done on your domain to substantiate your selling price.

Investing in various domains

The main purpose here is to sell the name, so you either need good negotiation skills, if you’re doing it on your own, or you can list your domain in an authorative domain marketplace.  Your potential buyers must see your domain name’s worth and marketability. This is when pricing domainsactually becomes difficult. However, domains that are priced are 10 times more likely to sell than those that are not, so the homework involved in pricing is well worth the effort.

The challenge comes in when a seller and buyer have opposing viewpoints on a domain name. It could be that the seller thinks that his or her domain name has a greater value than what the market has estimated. The buyer, on the other hand, could either agree or disagree with your price.

Deciding factors when Pricing Domains

The best thing to do when pricing domains is to cover the necessary factors that will determine how much its worth really is. Here are some of the things you need to check when selling and/or buying a domain name.

• Industry

Domain names that target popular industries (i.e. hotels) are usually worth higher than domains which target less popular mainstream (i.e. opera).

• Traffic

This often concerns the buyers.  The greater traffic driven to the domain, the more benefits it would give.

• Domain Length

Short, familiar, and easy to remember domains get higher value due. They are easy to type and harness greater impact and marketability.

• Simplicity

People hate complexities. In terms of domain names, those that only contain letters will usually worth more than those with dashes, numbers or underscores.

• Descriptive

Domain names that contain popular keywords are usually more valuable. Just think of cars.com or hotels.com

As with anything else that is new, there is a learning curve, especially in a niche that is driven by impulse. You have your stubborn domain sellers who won’t settle for less than a set price tag, be it reasonable or not. At times, you’ll think these people are nuts. But, when their overpriced domains sell irregardless, you have to chalk it up to impulse buying. If you want your domain to move, pricing within a reasonable range will get your domain sold faster.

For help in pricing your domain correctly, get a professional appraisal from www.Afternic.com’s appraisal service for a small fee. Afternic is a premier domain auction website offering domain buying and selling services.