Without a doubt, domain names are typically worth much more than what they normally sell for over 95% of the time. I have no scientific or statistical data to back up this statement, but if I’m off on my 95% estimate, its because its even higher, not lower. I know because I’ve been at this game for a while, make thousands of observations, and sold and bought domain names on multiple forums. I’ll offer the following observations and examples to demonstrate why I believe this to be true.

To demonstrate what I’m talking about, let’s consider as examples a few domains of my own, as well as some recent domain name sales on Sedo.com. Among some of the great domain names I own, ones I particularly like that I feel are valuable include: CashJackpot.com, InternetHighSchool.com, eSalesman.com and URL1.com. I own many that are better and more valuable, but these are three that quickly come to mind to prove my point. Of the four, I’ve only attempted to sell one of them in the past — CashJackpot.com. I placed it on Sedo a couple of years ago and it drew several offers over the 3-month period I parked it at Sedo. But all the offers ranged from $500 to $1,500 — far less than the true market value of this domain, which could be used to promote a casino, gambling, a lotto or lottery, etc. None of the offers I received were from people willing to negotiate higher.

I am the original domain owner of all 4 of these domains and have renewed them every year since buying them several years ago. Given the success of online education and high schools offering courses online, one would think that InternetHighSchool would be of value to any number of educational companies or institutions wanting to offer GED curriculums or online high school courses. So how many offers have I received for this memorable domain name and search phrase. Precisely — NONE!

eSalesman.com is a great domain name that could be used as a portal for people interested in Internet marketing and sales, a community site that focuses on people who sell online, etc. It could even become a new dictionary word in the future to label anyone who does business online. So how many offers have I received for this domain over the course of years I’ve owned it? Precisely — NONE!

URL1.com can be viewed in two lights. One could view is as not worth more than $200 or $300 because its (1) 4 letters, and (2) is not all letters, but instead is a mixture of numbers and letters. However, one could also place a very high value on having it because of its brandablity and marketability. URL1 could literally be marketed and advertised as the “Number 1 address on the Internet.” It will always have sites linking into the domain name because hundreds of sites that offer information to webmasters and web users, often use in as an online example, URL1 and URL2 when comparing one site verus another, or explaning how to install or point software on one site versus another.

So how many offers have I received for URL1.com since I first registered it 10 years ago? Precisely — NONE!

Now what do all 4 of these domains have in common? The answer is this — with the short-lived exception of trying to sell CashJackpot.com on Sedo for a very brief period, all 4 of these domains have not been promoted as being “for sale.” That is, I have not tried to market them. But if I did choose to market them, I would need to spend a little time developing a plan and strategy on how, where and how long I would promote them to increase the chance of selling them for something approaching their true value.

The Key to earning top dollor for your domain names is in finding and getting matched with the right buyer. For what a domain name is worth to one person is very different to what it is worth for someone else. Getting exposed to the right group of prospects and ultimately finding the perfect match for a buyer is not as easy as it might sound. But when you do luck up and get exposed to the right buyer at the right time, the outcome is always a high sales price that will surprise most people.

To offer proof of this acclamation, consider 2 very recent sales on Sedo.com for HandyDude.com and BuilderZone.com. I can assure you from my personal experience in selling domain names on Ebay, that neither one of these domains would sell for over $50 on Ebay. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that depending on time of day, length of auction and the prices you normally see domains sold for on Ebay, these 2 domains would have sold for no more than $50 on Ebay, and more likely would sell somewhere between $8 and $30. But because of the greater exposure they received on Sedo after they got their initial bids, and because the right buyer happened to come along while the domains were still for sale, the actual selling prices for thee two domain names was: $1,800 for HandyDude.com and $5,800 for BuilderZone.com. The sales prices for both shocked me, but without a doubt they are classic examples of being at the right place at the right time.

The moral of this story is this: If you own a valuable domain name, you really need to promote it and get all the exposure you can for it before you start pushing to sell it and before you can hope to get a price something close to the true value of the domain.

Is there anything to the hype you read about making money scouring expired domain names lists in search of valuable domain names you can buy and resale? Yes indeed there is. Sure, it does have a catch, in fact several catches, but this is definitely a way to make money in the domain name sales business that works. I’ll give you a few examples of my own success stories.

By viewing expired domain names lists on a regular basis I have discovered, not tens, not hundreds, but thousands of domain names I think are valuable. By “valuable,” I mean I can sell the domains I purchase for $100 or more. Clear examples of domain names I’ve purchased after seeing them on expired domain names lists would include WhatsUpBaby.com that I wrote about earlier today (sold for $650 in 11 days), TexasBreastImplants.com (sold for $2,250), AllGals.com (sold for $1,200), Zoles.com (sold for $1,250), Ezappointments.com (sold for $300) and GoldenGateGiftBaskets.com (sold for $245).

There are many more I have sold. These are just a few. For example, I’ve registered over 150 four-letter domain names that I’ve founded on expired lists, over 200 single dictionary word .dot net domain names found on expired lists, and countless 2-word premium dot com’s.

The problem in selling domains, as I’ve stated before, is getting matched with the right buyer at the right time. Sedo.com, for example, has over 9 million domain names for sale on just their venue alone. That’s are too much competition when one considers that only 2,500 to 3,000 domain names are sold on Sedo.com each month. Nope, if you really want to sell domain names quickly and at a nice profit, you need to promote and market them. There are many ways to do this, if you’re interested in learning more about how to promote and market your domain name portfolio I welcome your comments and feedback.

I picked up WhatsUpBaby.com off a dropped list on March 29, 2008 for $7.05, registering it at Godaddy.com. By April 7 I had an offer to purchase the domain for $180. The true value of this domain name, which is a common phrase in America, is definitely 5-figures. I sold it today, April 9, for $650.

“Why?” — you might ask, would I sell the domain for $650 if I felt it was worth more. Good question. The short answer is selling a domain for 9,200 per cent profit 11 days after original purchase is never a bad idea, particularly when you consider the real value of a domain is often not fetched until years after you register it. I own hundreds of domains far more valuable than WhatsUpBaby.com that never have received an inquiry because I haven’t had time to promote them yet.

It would be easy to develop a brand and business around WhatsUpBaby.com. But the baby market is really not my strong point or where my passion lies anymore. My youngest child is 11 and even though shes my baby, she’s no longer a baby. Thus, my interests have evolved. Give me a couple of years and I might be interested in developing a teen site, or finally getting my sites TeenTakes.com, TeenStand.com or InternetHighSchool.com off the ground.