5 Things I Check Before Making an Offer

Domain investing can be a high stakes business. I invest substantial amounts of money to buy individual domain names, with the hope that someone is willing to buy it from me for substantially more than I paid. When spending 5 figures on a domain name acquisition, I need to be right about my retail valuation.

Here are 5 things I usually check before making an offer to buy a domain name:

NameBio / GoValue – I look at comparable sales to see if this or similar keyword domain names sold for and when. If, for example, I am buying a one word .com domain name, it would be good to know what other domain names have sold for that contain that keyword. NameBio has a huge database of sales, and GoDaddy’s appraisal tool spits out a smaller list of comps that NameBio might not have.

LinkedIn / Crunchbase – I search LinkedIn and Crunchbase to see how many companies have the brand that matches the domain name I want to buy. This gives me an idea of how many prospective buyers there are for an upgrade. In addition, the more companies that use a brand name, there may be less trademark risk from one individual company claiming ownership of the brand (this is something to explore with an attorney, though).

DotDB – I like to use DotDB to see how many extensions in a particular keyword or phrase are registered. In addition, I can see how many domain names are registered that have this keyword in it. This can also help me see if companies are actually using the keyword or if it happens to be a part of a more popular keyword.

Archive.org – I want to see how the domain name was previously used. If it was used by a single company and/or did not resolve to an active website, there may be a better chance to sell it once it goes up for sale. On the other hand, a domain name that has had a “for sale” page for many years may be more challenging to sell.

Email – One of the benefits of Gmail is that I have almost every email I have ever received archived. If a domain name was offered in a broker’s newsletter, in an expiry auction, or offered to me by the registrant, I will have a history of it. I can see if I ever tried to buy a domain name before, and if so, what the response was.

Bonus:

Gut – After doing this for so long, I tend to rely quite a bit on my gut when valuing domain names. A gut check is essential for me before sending an offer.