Five or ten years ago there was a domain name that I really wanted, I probably would've paid in excess of 10 to $20,000 for it, today I was e-mailed about that domain, it was for sale for the low price of $299. I had noticed that it had come due previously, but chose not to buy it because I didn't need it, it wasn't getting any traffic before, and I already had a similar name which was generating more than enough traffic, ranks well the search engines, and therefore I simply didn't need it anymore. Indeed, more and more people are discovering this. Let's go ahead and talk about it.
It used to be that people would register cool and tricky domain, realizing they were valuable Internet real estate, and knowing that they could sell them at a later date and make a huge profit. Although I had never bought domain names for that purpose, I had secured several great names back in 1995, and I had used them for various purposes. Eventually as my business endeavors changed, there were some which I no longer needed. I can remember selling one for a huge amount of money, and I thought about it later, and it almost seemed like a gift out of the blue, when someone offered to buy it.
They wanted it more than I did, and they had the money, and therefore I sold it. Indeed, I still have some very good URLs that are getting a tremendous amount of traffic, names which would be considered incredible Internet real estate. I haven't bothered to offer them for sale because the market does not seem to be interested in paying a lot of money for such things. There also seems to be an economic cycle that goes along with this.
After the dotcom crash of 2000, many of these domain names became next to worthless, and folks were not even paying to renew them because they knew there was little if any chance they could sell them. I can remember people offering me domain names for only $100, quite decent names. Long about 2004, the prices started to rebound slightly, and by 2006 and 2007 names were actually worth something again. Then the financial crash of 2008 came, and these domain names have been reduced in value ever sense.
Further, many new startup companies are picking obscure names or nonexistent names when it comes time to pick a brand and a name for their new company. Cyber squatters for domain names can't possibly come up with endless "created words" to register and hope someone will buy them. And all the cool, tricky, and common names don't seem to be worth much anymore. Please consider all this and think on it.
In the Social Media Age, You Still Need Your Domain Name Why Domain Age Matters
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