Morning Folks!!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a domain name somebody sent to me. Now that the DomainSherpa.com interview is out I can reveal that domain name and you will see me talking about this domain several times throughout the interview.
What is interesting is I did my research on the domain AFTER the actual interview. Here is what I said then about this domain name:
'A domain was sent to me for consideration. The party wanted to know if their domain had a leasing potential. Problem he thought was that it only had 20 visitors a day. First of all, 20 visitors a day has value. Whether it has GREAT value depends on the research I do. I found out that this exact match domain name had multiple people advertising and one guy was upfront and was asking for $2000 for the service.
So let's say this guy charges $2000 for his service and let's say since it is a service he puts in $500 worth of time. Leaving him $1500 profit. Now ask yourself a question. From those 20 daily type ins how many would he have to close and make customers for the domain to pay for itself? Let's say that domain leases for $2500/month. Then back to the question and why many don't see the forest thru the trees. So the answer of course is 2. Let's say he gets one new customer each week from the leased domain. He just put $8k in his pocket with a gross profit of $5500.
What if he grows the traffic to 200 a day? What if he closes twice as many? And don't forget to add the money he just saved sending to Google. That was a chunk of change. Plus these are now clients that can come back for repeat business. What's to reject here? It's math! All the while the lessee is making more money and eventually may be able to afford to buy the domain name. Plus as you do business together over time you come to know each other and a dea becomes easier not harder. It's math!
This is just one example and if the owner gives me permission, I will list the domain. I will transform that domain from making pennies on PPC to thousands with my method. Because I see domains differently than most. I see it with the lens of 'Sales' and nothing more. Since few see sales like I do, I can only attract those that understand what I see and say and have demonstrated over the years.'
The domain name is SEOConsultant.com, owned by Michael Cyger and I would like to list this domain for $2000/month with his permission. In the interview I started at $250/month. Later on I went to $500/month and as I stated thinking about it stated that I would have to do some research on it to see the true value. Which I did in my comments above after the interview.
Value of the lease is in direct proportion to the product or service you are selling and the profitability. Do you see what I see?
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
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Max
uahhooo! cognitive dissonance! Like selling refrigerators to an Eskimo! :)
if you do the deal is the proof that the battle is not yet lost: type-in is still alive!
This would be a real coup, something eligible for the award”best vendor ever”! :)
Bud
The person leasing that domain would really have to be on top of their game to make it worth $2k/month, but I do see it and think it’s possible.
There are a few issues I personally see with that specific domain though…
Half of the type-ins are probably from actual SEO consultants just seeing if it’s a site or not, and what’s on it, or who owns it.
Other small issue I see is that if you’re an SEO consultant but you don’t have SEOconsultant.com ranking on page one you kind of lose some credibility, and that hits on the issue of developing, optimizing and marketing a domain that you don’t actually own.
Just thinking out loud… someone would probably still lease it at that price
Uzoma
I like Mike of DomainSherpa.com, I like Rick of JointVentures.com, and I like the original idea promulgated by the latter. I especially, liked the description of”Category Killer” domains, to wit: domains that headline yellow pages sections. I even suggested that it should be entered into the Oxford and American dictionaries.
However, like what always happens when you mix business and friendship, I believe there has been”mission creep” in this definition since domain king proposed it it. It appears that the acceptance of SEOConsultant.com, though a great domain name valued at over $100,000 by valuate.com, is a sharp deviation from the original idea. You will not find this domain headlining a yellow page section; and I doubt that it will garner many type-ins on its own. I know the king made room for exceptions to this rule, but this deviation looks like a classic nepotism. Domains such as Carnations.com (I own eCarnations.com) are category killers that should be used to launch this idea first before the exceptions are considered. I recommend that the domain king go back to the strictly outlined plan, no matter whose domains are submitted for consideration, the qualification should be on the domains, and NOT the owner. I did not submit any names yet because I am still trying to sort out my category killers. I din’t see eCarnations.com in the yellow pages, so I didn’t submit it.
Kobe Green
I believe the fat lady is singing a bad tune with this one. Good luck leasing out the name for $250/month let alone $2000. Heck, I would venture a STRONG prediction that it would even fetch $100/month.
I just don’t see it here, not matter what lens I put in front of me.
Sorry, back to the drawing board.
Kobe Green
Let’s put it this way…I do SEO’s, and if someone approached me offering up seoconsultant.com for rent for $20/month, I would laugh them out of the office.
It’s one of those”don’t call me I’ll call you” situations.
Most SEO techs, if they’re worth any lick are too smart to fall for this.
Kobe Green
Respectfully, Rick, your”math” reminds of the early days of personal computing.
The young ones may not remember or care to, but during the heady days before the ascendance of the dotcoms and internet, there was this company called Lotus headed by Mitch Kapor.
They popularized the a micro computing spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3. How popular? For a few years in the 1980’s, the annual profit from that one piece of software alone was more than ALL of Microsoft’s offerings combined.
Microsoft stuck a dagger into the Lotus heart with Excel and never looked back.
Anyways, the spread of the spreadsheet (haha!) did more to make and ruin the fortunes of ambitious men during the 1980’s an early 1990’s than any other software. I’m talking about the days of junk bonds and”greed is good” and Michael Milken and Friends(tm).
What the spreadsheet did was allowed men (often of immoral intentions) to”play around” with numbers and”what ifs” and cast improbable predictions. They would nudge a number here, a percentage there, etc. and VOILA! Instant wealth!
Armed with charts and figures and MS Powerpoints, they would convince board members, stock holders and grandmas to invest in doomed ventures that never panned out. Back in the day, people thought”hey, it’s MATH” how can it be wrong?
But wrong they were. Spectacularly wrong. To the tune of bankruptcy and shattered fortunes.
I am now more convinced than not that the leasing model for domains will fail. Not because it’s not a good idea. It has a lot of good merits. But it will fail because of MATH and IMPROBABLE projections.
Sorry for the semi rant here. I’m old and cranky sometimes.
Josh
@Kobe: Long story short, you’re right. It’s the *assumption* or logic behind numbers that lie. Numbers aren’t capable of lying.
NobodyCares.com
eCarnations.com has little value. It is sad that you had to mention that you owned it in your post. I see people do this all of the time, and it really makes the person doing it look like a loser and an idiot.
Uzoma
It depends on how you look at domains, son. If you believe domains are like beauty, then it’s value defaults to the”eye of the beholder”. However, if you believe that domains are extension of dynamic trends, business activity, genius, and intrinsic and business dynamism, then you cannot condemn eCarnations.com without condemning every single”e” prefixed domain name. Such names as ebid.com, ebids.com, ebay.com, and so on and so forth. You are not allowed to pick on my”e” name without picking on all of them.
(The rest of your comment was not coherent, so I wont respond to those).
KD
I regged WeLeaseDomainNames.Com I think its a good call.
buy targeted website traffic
It is sad that you had to mention that you owned it in your post. I see people do this all of the time, and it really makes the person doing it look like a loser and an idiot.
Rick Schwartz
Arguing against the model is folly and silly.
The model has been around for 1000 years.
The model has been around in domaining since 1996.
I have participated on BOTH sides of leasing. Lessee and lessor. Since 1997. DOZENS!
Candy.com will earn me $250,000 this year alone.
Property.com $100k
Porno.com made me $7.5MM with ONE lease.
I will be announcing several other deals in the coming months.
This model not only works, but MOST of the first tier domainers have leased their domains over the years and have active leases. MOST!
But you need top tier domains to do this effectively.
Those are the facts.
Paul
i don’t think there’s any argument that the model works Rick it’s just the domain……….
It’s like the King with the suit of many colour’s !
so many people in this industry have fallen into the trap of buying a name because someone like yourself tells them its a game changer and i’m sure your hoping someone pops up after reading your post, in reality a lot of people couldn’t monetize news(dot)com if they owned it
Rick Schwartz
Paul,
Thanks.
Let me tell you what I see. I see the math as I explained in my post.
Its an equation for me. Whether it is possible. Whether there are parameters that can lead to a success.
It only has to work for one guy. When I did a search for that exact term a paid listing came out on top and he said up front, don’t even contact him unless you are willing to spend $2000 minimum. So what is the value of a client to this guy? Simple question I ask. And answered. It holds water. Not for everyone, just has to do it for 1.
There are sectors that pay out thousands per sale. Even if half the traffic has no value, the other 10 may have value and somebody out there is capable of unlocking that value.
Max
I believe that leasing model works for all good domains (probably not for ecarnations.com ;)
of course everyone should write for lease in his parking pages, specifing prices, incentives, exit strategy…
and you have to put low prices (of course you can also get $ 1000-2000 or more a month, but most will be between 100 and 1000
Meanwhile you catch the customer……….
Kobe Green
Well, let’s see if SEOCONSULTANT.COM gets even one taker on the lease. I doubt it. Come to think of it, I would not pay even $1000 to acquire it. It has value of not even at the $500 level.
Sorry to burst people’s bubbles here. I’m a pretty good judge of inherent value in domains and I don’t see it here. If I see it on a domain drop list, I would not even bother to place a bid.
Paul
I would take this domain and re-direct it to my services page, after properly addressing the concerns of the searcher. If I couldn’t convert at least ONE person per month, (which would cover the cost of the lease) then I don’t deserve to be”in the business”.
I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to test that theory for free. Am I right Rick?!
(It would make for a great testimonial…)