Most people have no idea that domain names sell for six and seven figures all the time

No matter what industry you’re in, it can be easy to forget that people who aren’t in the same industry as you, don’t know some of the foundational things that you know. This is especially true in the domain name world where most people don’t even know there’s an industry with conferences around the world that continues to grow and thrive long after the so-called “.COM bust in the early 2000’s.”

One of the things that I always find interesting is the disconnect many people have with the value of premium one-word .COMs. Just to be clear about what I’m talking about, I mean domains like California.com which sold for $3M earlier this year or Ice.com which sold for $3.5M lasts year.

At the same time, six-figure sales happen weekly, and in some weeks they happen multiple times or even daily. Heck, a few days ago Free.games, a non .COM in a domain extension that most people have ever heard of (.GAMES) sold for $335,000.

While you and I see six and seven figure sales happen all the time, most people don’t, and they don’t even believe it’s happening. If you’ve ever had the chance to field inbounds on a seven figure domain, you’ll really know what I’m talking about. Monster domains, that you find yourself turning down $500,000 offers on also get $500 and $1,000 offers from buyers that honestly think that $1,000 will seal the deal.

Trying to explain to someone with an $1,000 budget that the domain they are interested in buying is worth seven figures, and that you turned down a half a million dollar offer yesterday is hard for them to understand. Which is why, in most cases – domain owners just ignore these offers.

The challenge is, when a domain sell for six and seven figures, it rarely gets covered in the mainstream media. Yes – all the blogs you and I know and love cover it…but let’s be honest, your average person on the street has neve read a domain blog, doesn’t realize there is such thing as a “domain industry” and therefore has no idea.

This is what makes domain investing so different from anything else that it gets compared to. People compare domain investing to real estate investing or stock investing…but it’s easy to forget that there are a ton of articles about real estate and stock investing, in just about every broad-based publication in the world, every single day.

No real estate investor would put an $1,000 offer on a three bedroom home in San Francisco, but a domain that’s worth just as much, sure they’ll do it, because they have no idea what domains actually sell for.

So what can we do as an industry? At the end of the day, I’m personally less concerned with the awareness problem and more interested in how we, as investors, respond to offers. There are really two paths you can take when someone offers you $1,000 on a $1M domain.

You can choose to ignore the offer or send a friendly email back saying, sorry but I’m looking for $1M+ for this name so I don’t think it’s a fit. Or, you can send a nasty email back to the person telling them how insulting their offer is and chastising them for not knowing how much domains cost.

I encourage every domain investor to take the high road and just realize the simple fact that most people have absolutely no idea that domain names sell for six and seven figures all the time…or even ever. So be nice, you never know what happens when you leave a door open.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton