If You Had $1 Million Which Domain Would You Buy at DomainFest?

@ Steve

Looks like Dating.com is the most popular name so far. I probably shouldn’t have put it in there because it’s unlikely the name has a reserve of $1m or below as my post would indicate.

If I HAD TO it would be dating.com, however in saying that we have looked at this name and I have a ” partner ” who has done very well in this industry for years, at the most we couldnt see it being above $500k on a good day as the roi is far too high at $1M. You arnt buying with your heart at $1M ( I hope ) and when your head tells you that uv/conversion rate/lead payouts would put you beyond 30 years at $1M you have to follow that.

I personally like Karate.com and BoardGames.com, but I wouldn’t use my own money for them

Karate.com because there is a huge community of karate enthusiasts who pay for classes, read books, watch videos, buy related products…etc. I see it being the destination for the sport.

BoardGames.com because there’s a tangible product that has thousands of titles. Downside is that board game sales are probably way down in the last few years.

Again, I wouldn’t personally pay $1m for any of these names with my own money but it’s a hypothetical question anyway

Dating.com without a doubt

There are clearly some very nice names on the list but one would have to seriously consider the potential ROI from a $1 million investment in one domain. How much traffic will it bring you (type-in + search)? How easily will that traffic convert into the sale of a product or service? What sort of margins does one earn on that product or service and how easy would it be for new competitors to enter this market? How much more will one have to invest in development to attract the search traffic one is anticipating?

There are a lot of good deals out there in the 5 to 10k range. Forget that list, take the million and go on a hunt for 200 good names at 5k a piece…you can easily double your money if you pick the right names.

@ Anthony

That’s essentially my business model Buy in that range, sell for a profit, and move on to others.

Call me crazy but I think you have a higher success with a developed site owning a name like datingadvice.com

Buy dating.com for a million

or buy datingadvice.com for 100K and invest 900K into building a site around it.

I might be biased but I think dating.com is a bad name at that price.

I would have to go with Jeans.com. Dating.com would be my 2nd choice.

Thanks, Jim

[...] reviewing the domain names in the auction and hearing that Slots.com was sold for $5,500,000 this week at Snapnames (as reported by Rob [...]

I like Karate.com but will not spend $1M for this domain. It will take 20+ years before you see a positive revenue.

Domains are overrated nowadays. I’ve seen domains not getting any bids.

Regards,
Em

HHHmmm Dating $1.75M !

Guess fourth times the charm, only a matter of time before and end user or moron pops up.

I too think dating.com would be the ‘best’ name (from a domain investors point of view). However, if it was my own money and business, I would buy ‘safety.com’ and build a business (its a huge industry) on that name, just because it interests me more than dating.