Purchasing a domain

BSIM

Im thinking a starting a new website. The domain name I wanted to use is already taken but not in use. I email the guy who owns it (in America). It was for a project that got placed on hold and that he would consider selling it. He wants to know what is my offer?

My site really wont really generate much money and I cant afford to pay much for the domain. What amount of money do people usually sell un-used domains for and what sort of offer should I make?

Feathers

It really depends on how good the domain name is, how big is the potential audience.

As in, if you had food.com it's probably worth more than canned-chickpeas_1234.biz

Also, if it's a .com, he can sit on it for ~ £5/yr, so he's probably not too anxious to sell. If he thinks it's likely to make you money, he's probably looking for something decent for it.

If I were you, I'd only offer anything if I couldn't live with a different domain. You could go for a .org or .net if it's a community site (if it's not likely to make you money)

druidhill

Find another suitable name that is available - not worth it.

irishd

Make a small offer, say $50.

The main possibilities ...

A, the holder has no idea of what the domain is worth (if anything) and wants to find out what *you* think it is worth. A small offer will signal interest but dampen down unrealistic expectation.

B, the owner has some value in their head - maybe they bought it on the secondary market - and is looking to find out where you are at.

As a very general rule of thumb, sellers will usually settle for about half of their initial offer (depends very much on the individual of course).

Either way, their next response will tell you where they are at & if it is worth pursuing. If they don't reply, then they probably were hoping for silly money anyway.

But don't ever be swayed by what the holder claims it is worth, only its value to *you* is of any relevance.

Feathers

irishd wrote: »

But don't ever be swayed by what the holder claims it is worth, only its value to *you* is of any relevance.

Good points all, but especially this. Out of any successful website you can think of, how many of their domain names were even words before they became successful? Amazon is about the only one that comes to mind.

YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Google - doing well in spite of their domain, not because of it

mneylon

Domains can go from as low as $50 to over $1 million...
So it would depend A LOT on what the domain name is

If it's keyword.tld then it's going to be worth a lot more than $randomword.tld (as previously mentioned)

There's a couple of posts over on our blog that cover the topic:

General tips: http://blog.blacknight.com/getting-a-domain-name-thats-already-registered.html

DIY domain acquisition: http://blog.blacknight.com/acquiring-an-unavailable-domain-name-on-your-own.html