Domain name appraisal from SEDO

TVsOut of interest and seeing as I have never used an appraisal service for many years I decided to pay for a SEDO appraisal for the newly purchased TVs.co.uk which is one of my better domains - the valuation that SEDO make would not be something I would put a whole lot of weight on, at the end of the day a motivated buyer dictates a sale price and that can vary greatly dependant on whether the seller is motivated to sell.

Still, out of curiosity and as an experiment I spent the $29 on a basic valuation report and thought it may be of interest to some of you, you get to see the various aspects and considerations that SEDO use when coming to the value of a domain.

APPRAISAL FOR TVS.CO.UK
1. Top Level Domain

The Top Level Domain (TLD) or domain extension (e.g., .com, .net, .co.uk, etc.), has considerable influence upon the value of a domain name. However, not every TLD suits every term, nor does it suit every market. The domain tvs.co.uk has the .co.uk TLD. The .co.uk extension is unrestricted and is preferred by local firms and websites in Britain, positively affecting the value of your domain. In some cases, the .co.uk TLD can even be more relevant to a targeted market than its .com variant. In most cases however, due to the unusual addition of the subdomain “.co”, the value of a .co.uk name is reduced relative to the more typical .com TLD.

Status of similar domain names
tvs.de is already registered
tvs.eu is for sale at Sedo.co.uk
tvs.mobi is already registered
tvs.at is already registered
tvs.ch is already registered
tvs.com is already registered
tvs.net is for sale at Sedo.co.uk
tvs.org is already registered
tvs.info is already registered
tvs.biz is already registered

2. Length and Retention
The domain name tvs.co.uk is short (3 letters). At 3 letters, your name is considered to be of an ideal length, and you should see a positive impact in the domain’s value due to the length factor. Our research has shown that shorter domain names (from 2-7 letters) tend to be the most valuable, while domain names over 10 letters long are worth slightly less. Long names of more than 20 letters become unwieldy and are worth only a fraction of the value of a shorter name. The term is easy to remember. The easiest domain names to remember tend to be those that consist of a single real word or a popularly-used expression. Because “tvs” is a common real term, this domain has the potential to capture user mindshare with only minimal marketing support.

3. Linguistic and Phonological Suitability
From a linguistic point of view, the domain name tvs.co.uk is considered valuable as it is a meaningful single word in the English language. Due to the inherently limited number of meaningful words in the English language, as well as the relatively advanced state of Internet development in the English-speaking economies, these tend to be the most valuable category of domain names.

4. Typing Error Sensitivity
Companies often have a range of domain names that they might use to establish their online presence. This is commonly referred to as a domain portfolio. As a result, a company should try to acquire all possible variations, spellings and combinations of its name and its products’ names. In many instances however this has not been the case, and holes in domain portfolios have been tolerated. Not surprisingly, these holes can cause traffic diversion. In practice, companies which only register one variation of a name (as opposed to registering every variation possible) experience substantial loss of visitors due to users being lead to incorrect domain names. The two primary reasons for traffic diversion are typos and use of the wrong TLD. To prevent the former, a domain should be easy to spell and be as short as possible. To prevent the latter type
of traffic diversion, a domain should use the appropriate TLD for its target market. For example, a UK-based business should use the .co.uk extension and a German company a .de TLD. In terms of tvs.co.uk, one reason for traffic diversion could be the wrong choice of TLD. Through this error, other domain names are often entered into the browser instead of those which the user originally intended (example domain.com instead of domain.tv).

5. Legal Situation
Legal requirements and jurisdiction have a deciding influence upon the registration and sale of domain names. As long as there are no current disputes over domains comprised of trademarked or fancifully-coined terms, legal problems do not usually occur. If the ownership status of a domain name is under dispute due to potential trademark conflicts, this will have a severe and negative impact upon the domain name’s value. Likewise, if the domain could be susceptible to future trademark disputes, or has been a subject of disputes in the past, this could also negatively impact the domain’s value. The domain name tvs.co.uk can be categorized as a generic or descriptive name. Because trademarks granted on generic terms are less restrictive than those granted on unique terms, generic domain names are generally less susceptible to ownership disputes arising from a trademark conflict than are brandable, non-generic domain names. However, problems have arisen in certain cases. Because of this, you should consider consulting a qualified trademark attorney if you are unable to determine definitively whether or not the domain infringes upon preexisting trademarks.

6. International Usage
A domain’s ability to be used internationally is a valuable asset. Though not imperative, it does considerably increase the value of a domain. Both language and TLD influence the suitability for international usage. Due to its .co.uk extension, tvs.co.uk is only relevant for use in Great Britain. However, it is possible that international businesses and organizations with a presence in Great Britain will be interested in the name. Overall, names which are not suitable for international usage, such as .co.uk domains, are subject to price devaluation.

7. Comparable Transactions
Here we have domain sales that fall into a similar domain-related category, and which could be placed in a similar price bracket as tvs.co.uk. These domain names were chosen because they share one or more of the following characteristics with tvs.co.uk: 1) Extension; 2) Number of words; 3) Comparable commercial potential.

*Please remember that past domain sales are not necessarily indicative of future sales potential.*
with.co.uk 17.625 £
covers.co.uk 10.000 £
digital-tv.co.uk 10.000 €
TVSet.com 3.120 $US
tip.co.uk 10.501 £
theaters.co.uk 16.000 £
college.co.uk 27.500 $US
The fact that domains similar to tvs.co.uk have been sold is generally positive for the domain appraisal, and the chances of a sale being made are greatly improved. However, it may be that at the time of sale there was a special interest in these domains, and so we may not be able to generalize from this entirely.

8. Estimated Value
Based on our analysis of this domain, we conclude the following: the estimated value of tvs.co.uk is: £ 22,000
 

lcd.jpgThe valuation of £22k ($44k) seems a little low to me but probably there or there abouts for an undeveloped domain at face value, that is not to say I would sell it for that as I certainly wouldn’t, it also doesn’t mean I would be able to sell it for that if I wanted to, a valuation is not an offer and therefore for myself holds novelty value. Furthermore I intend to have the domain ranking and earning which can add unmeasurable worth in the future.

I also think the comparable sales are not very comparable - I can’t see how covers.co.uk , with.co.uk or college.co.uk could in any way show indicating factors to the value of my domain apart from the fact they are single dictionary words but that doesn’t take into account the commercial value of the industries they describe.

I think you would be just as likely to get accurate valuations on domain forums with better arguments for and against your domains but for $29 they do fair a job and if you agreed with the price you could use it as a reference point.

About Scott Jones

Scott hails from the north east of Scotland and started earning online at the end of 2000 building websites for local businesses during which time he won an award from Lord Alan Sugar for Excellence in Enterprise. After having quite a bit of success with domaining Scott mainly runs educational evergreen websites which generate over 3 million visitors per month but is always on the lookout for a fresh thinking out of the box way to turn a buck. Follow on Twitter.

Comments

  1. That was a nice test and like you say for $29 well worth it. How much do you think it will be worth when you have it ranking?

  2. I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

    Matt Hanson

    • Am I the only one who thought that Matt’s comment sounds like blogspam?

      On a hunch, I did a Google search for “I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts”

      And I was right. Spam. Although I admit it’s better than the “I couldn’t understand parts of this post” crap that’s been going around.

      • Yep, I think that is the second time I have seen the exact same text.

      • Yea, i had the same comment on my blog a while ago. And it pointed to the same site. Anyway, since he is spamming, at least he could have considered a more targeted link anchor 😛

        • The reason they do something innocent like that is to get themselves past the spam blockers and/or the blogger who holds comments from all new authors in moderation. Once comments from their email address show up right away, they start spamming.

  3. I suspect that for a domain the key valuation driver is traffic and revenue earned from that traffic, which in this instance was not avaliable.

    In the absence of this any valuation is really blue sky and probably already factors in some development. But as with all these things everyone will have a different opinion of value!

    Good luck with the project, you have obviously got yourself a bargain and developed and SEOd well will bring even more value

  4. When I said traffic above i did of course mean direct type in traffic!

  5. I would still say the 21K profit is pretty sizable, even if you think it’s undervalued!

    • Would be, I think I can add a fair bit of value through rankings though, but your right it would still be a good profit if I could be motivated to sell.

  6. I personally don’t think you will get £20,000 for it, maybe in a few years but not now. Anyway, how much did you spend to buy it? Was it purchased for $10 or did you buy it off someone that already registered it?

  7. Nice gem, not the 50k yet, but with you work I am fully confident it will be there soon!

    Great writeup on the details of valuations. I have used some websites before to estimate valuations and that gave me a rough idea, but to see it in the full writeup is very valuable. The funny part is how similar it reads to a real-estate writeup when selling a property. They use some older sales in the area, they through in some further outlying sites, then they say it is worth such and such. They are right if you intend to sell right away, but there is no allowance for building out a property.

  8. I think this is a pretty accurate appraisal actually.

    Thanks for the post. I just asked Sedo to “aquire” a domain for me, as I can’t get hold of the owner anymore, and I believe they still have his contact details. As part of that they do an appraisal, so I was very interested to see what sort of report they would produce.

    Cheers,
    Charles

  9. Interesting report … thanks for posting this. The report is actually more well done than I anticipated. Although, like you said, the “comparable transactions” seem a bit iffy.

    This is a great domain you have, and I look forward to seeing what happens with it. I need to find a domain like that 🙂

  10. The valuation you got looks nice and all, but when referencing comparable sales, the DATE of the sale is VERY important in determining the relevance of the comparable sale. They really should have gone that one step further to earn their $29, IMO.

    The relationship between buyer and seller is also important, so it would have been better if they indicated who the previous and current owners of the comparable domains are. You want to be looking at sales between bona fide buyers and sellers dealing at arm’s length, after all.

    And the conclusion of a valuation should NEVER be a single amount. We’re not dealing with certainties here, so a value RANGE would have been a more honest conclusion. You know, something like $20 000 - 27 645.99, rather than $22k, neat with a lot of little zeros.

    Congrats on your valuation. Sorry for pissing all over the quality. You acquired a real gem in tvs.co.uk, but I think you paid too much for that valuation.

    Thanks for the warning, though!

    • Good points Nafi, I wonder if the recent sale of cruises.co.uk for £560,000 would have featured in the Comparable Transactions if I ordered it now and what that would do to the possible valuation. Not worth the paper it’s written on as you say and impossible to peg down to a nice round number.

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