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Domain Name Appraisals and Valuations

Domain name valuations or appraisals, as they are often known, are in our view a complete waste of time and money and serve only to make easy money by the sites offering them.

A domain name valuation or appraisal can never be accurate, because any domain name (like many things in life), are only ever worth what somebody is prepared to pay for them.

Sometimes, you will see sites offering to value a domain name, or even an entire domain name portfolio automatically. Just enter your names into their system and hey presto, they'll come up with a magic figure that values your names!

If only life were that simple.

With our own domain name portfolio, we ignore valuations. Each name is worth exactly what we paid for it - that's £6 if it's a .co.uk name and $6 if it's a .com that we registered from new.

That doesn't mean that we would ever sell a domain name for those amounts - simply that we buy to hold forever, with a view to developing them later on.

We have one name that generated £200,000 worth of business in it's first year as a web site. What would that be worth if it could do that year after year, with no more work?

To us, it's worth at least £1million - and that's on the low side, assuming that its value is a mere 5 times what it generates for us each year.

Could we sell it for £1million? Unlikely. There isn't one single domain name valuation service that even considers what the name makes as a developed site - and by developed, we mean bare basic information!

To another company in the same niche, the SAME name could be worth FAR more in terms of the sales it can generate. It only takes a little application and some bigger thinking.

A domain name valuation or appraisal is nothing more than an opinion and opinions are the cheapest things on earth. Ask anyone their opinion on anything and they will give it you free of charge, all day long, so why pay for a domain name valuation?

Most people wanting a domain name appraisal or valuation do so in the hope that they can turn the $6 they "invested" in a domain name into a big pile of cash, by offering their name for sale at somewhere like eBay and offering the "valuation" as evidence of the domain's "real" worth.

Ask two domain name valuation services the value of any domain name and they will each come up with a different amount. It's completely made up. There is no science to valuing domain names, despite what the domain name valuation sites tell you.

If you pay for a domain name valuation, you are throwing money away needlessly.

Our advice is to steer clear of these services and use the money you save to buy more great domains.

You have been warned.

NOTE:

Hollywood Internet Ltd cannot and will not value your domain names.

The following companies claim to - we don't know if they are good, bad or indifferent. It doesn't matter really. If you want to try them, here they are:

About Domain Name Appraisals - A domain name appraiser, offering 2 types of services. Will also appraise international domains.

  • Accurate Domains - Services include standard and premier appraisals for a single domain name or group packages.
  • AppraisalBlast.com - Offers expert domain appraisals and website evaluations.
  • Appraisal-King.Com - Offers appraisals based on 10 primary factors and provides an example of an appraisal.
  • Back of the Envelope - Domain name appraisal services, as well as tips for buying and selling domains.
  • Domain Data - Online valuation of your domain. Values given in British pounds.
  • Domain Name Appraisal$ - Offers 3 levels of service.
  • Domain Name Classifieds - Domain resource site offering appraisal and sales services.
  • Domain33.com - Appraisal service with ratings based on six criteria.
  • Dotlog - Valuation model employs a six variable criteria method.
  • Echo Arts - Provides domain appraisals in under 24 hours. Also includes posted certificates.
  • nameappraisal.org - Provides an online appraisals viewable by client.
  • Sell-My.com - Provides domain evaluations for a fee.
  • Swift Appraisal - Offers free self-serve domain appraisals.
  • Tradingmarks - European domain evaluation and auction site.
  • Zetetic - Provides domain appraisals, market research and investment services to speculators in the secondary market.

There are another 319000 pages at Google if you really have nothing better to do. Here's the link: http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-09,GGLD:en&q=domain+name+valuations

©Hollywood Internet Ltd - Domain Name Valuations & Appraisals