Potential Domain Neighbors’ Impact On The Value Of Your Domains
It’s good to keep an eye on those domains which are closely related to yours, to get some idea as to whether or not the development of them will affect the value of your own domains.
If you own SportsCarHire.com, for example, how will the development of SportsCarHireUK.com affect the value of your closely related domain. Your domain is better anyway; it will get more type-ins, it’s more generic, and has more chance of advertisers buying space on it from around the world and not just the UK.
Supposing a big company with plenty of money to throw at branding and getting good traffic to the SportsCarHireUK site bought that domain and developed an outstanding, well trafficked website on it, how much more do you think your domain, your piece of virtual land, would be worth? Lots more!
For a start, you know who to approach to sell your piece of virtual land to, should you choose to. If they’ve foolishly overlooked approaching you to buy it in the first place, you could gently educate them as to why it’s more valuable than their existing plot of land, reminding them that you are (probably) already benefiting from the extra type-ins and free advertising from passing trade.
There was a Fish and Chip shop in my hometown, it was at the bottom of a lane several yards from the main street. It had built up a good reputation and being in the company of surrounding successful commercial properties, the land on which it was built was worth quite a lot.
Opposite the shop and hidden from view, was an abandoned chemical factory, a couple of acres at least, of now unused land that nobody really wanted because of its past, with buildings in a sorry state of disrepair. Surrounding the factory were many houses, home to a lot of people. Tesco saw the potential of this ideally situated, yet very problematic, (chemicals etc) plot of land and after a few years of negotiation, finally got their way and built a supermarket on the site.
The value of all the surrounding homes and commercial premises rocketed, including that of the fish and chip shop. Not long after Tesco had moved in, the land on which the fish and chip shop was situated was sold to developers for much more than it had previously been worth, simply because it neighbored the now well developed land where the factory had once stood. The shop was demolished and now other properties will be built there instead, but Tesco could easily buy that land as well and expand on to it.
Your domain values can rocket too if they’re in the right neighborhood and you see the opportunities created by the development of neighboring domains.
’til next time
Marcus
2 Comments | Tags: Domain Value, Encouragement
22 Jul 2008 - 4:45
Very good post! But what about the risks? I have a similar case with a domain reg’d 1998, a big company happens to have this name, but they registered a longer version of the same name in 1999 (This is the official one). However, in the whois of that domain I can see that their email-domain happens to be a shorter version than the official domain, and this domain is reg’d 1996 (probably when the company started). My idea is to approach this company and sell the domain, but i fear there is a risk they will claim this domain through WIPO. The name is not unique to them though since part of it is a common word. Of course there is a lot of type-ins on this domain cause of this company..
23 Jul 2008 - 13:45
@Bjorn: Thanks for your comment. If your domain is generic, ie no trademarks in it, there shouldn’t be a problem. I guess, if in doubt, seek legal advice before approaching them.