ZebraDomain.com

As we shall do here on a regular basis I decided to to have a quick look at some of the recent domain names sold online. This week I will have a look at 13 domain names sold and published (May, 1, 2009) on Sedo.com.

1. Studentprogram.com – $2466
2. Roller-hockey.com – $666
3. Worldtravler.net – $1416
4. Pana.ma – $5000
5. Ixpo.ca – 529 £
6. Allocated.com – $1212
7. Gbs.com – $25,800
8. Slowcookrecipes.co.uk – $700
9. Nexteer.com – $3500
10. Point-g.info – 2500 EUR
11. Tutoweb.com – 1000 EUR
12. Croydon.co.ik – 9000 £
13. Grunder.de – 8400 EUR

First of all we can see that only 6 our of the 13 have .com TLDs. It will be interesting to see how this will evolve over time, but good .com domain names are already pretty hard to come by. When we examine the list more carefully we can see a few interesting points. Pana.ma was sold for $5000. Interestingly I was unable to find any info on this Moroccan TLD (no WHOis info of any sort). 

GBS.com is a different story. First registered back in 1993 this is a 3 latter .com domain and its no surprise it reached almost $26k. This domain went through a lot since it was originally registered. According to Wayback Machine in the late 1990’s this was home for a computer consulting firm (called Graphical Business Systems) which than changed hands (or name) and became Green Bridge Station and finally a website for an autoimmune disease called gbs (Guillain-Barré syndrome). Apart from the history lesson we can see that a good short domain name can easily be used for any number of different websites (and different topics) and the more obvious point: a 3 latter .com domain name will probably never be cheap.

Last but not least a few words on Point-g.info. This adult domain name was sold for an extremely impressive 2500 EUR (around $3300). Why do I even bother mentioning this domain? well, two reasons actually: 1. it has a hyphen (which typically go against what most experts will tell you when it comes to buying domain names). 2. the TLD is .info – typically a fairly low value for money TLD (I have a personal story to tell about Google and .info domains but lets leave it for another post). What can we learn from this purchase – I honestly can’t reach any conclusions but I will love to hear your input.

Ever bought an existing domain and wondered which websites it held before? I recently stumbled across a nice little online tool which can help you find out what was on the domain in previous years. This tool is called the WayBack Machine and is actually a part of the Internet Archive (a non profit organization created in order to record the “history” of the entire internet). Although the purpose of the WayBack Machine is mostly academic it could actually be a pretty useful tool for domain buyers looking to invest in an existing domain.

Here is an interesting example: the domain hybrid.com is currently offered for sale on Sedo for $990,000. Using WHOIS you can trace back the creation date of the domain way back to 1992, but much more interestingly using the WayBack Machine you can view some of the websites which used this domain starting back in 1996.

When you consider buying a top domain like hybrid.com the importance of knowing everything about your potential purchase is clear (nobody spends these sums of money without doing a proper research). But even when considering to purchase an existing domain for far less it might be a good idea to check the domain “history”. After all you would not like to find out by chance that your new religious website is sitting on a domain which used to hold an adult site or that your charity organization was once a home for illegal internet gambling.

There might be another reason for using the WayBack Machine. If you are considering buying an expired domain it might be a good idea to check its history. Why? Because you might find that in the past it hosted an online business. Some people used this knowledge to create a similar website on the same domain which could help them draw in more traffic, improve their search engine ranking and eventually make them more money.

I am going to continue using the WayBack Machine and report any interesting findings as I go along.