Domain #1 is a generic, two word .com that I am currently monetizing through a domain monetization company. It has consistently been earning on average over $1,500/mo. for the past 3 or so years.
Domain #2 is a generic, two word .com whose traffic I have been sending to a friend of mine for $15/sale. It makes 5-6 sales/day, and if I factor in returns (very few) it makes in the neighborhood of $2,300/mo.
If I wanted to sell them (and I’m not in any hurry), what should I ask for them? What are some standard valuation models?
Since you don’t appear to have any redeemable content, valuation would be a pretty straightforward product of how many people visit the domain.
If you have any web bugs collecting statistics on your visitors, you can track why your domains receive traffic, and if advertise the domain for uses relevant to the search terms or referring sites that funnel traffic towards you… with higher prices due to the better location.
What you should ask is “What are you going to do with it?” If it’s just another douchebag cyber squatter, take him for everything you can get. If it’s someone that’s actually going to put original content online, sell it to them for somewhat less. Which is hardly a “standard valuation model”, but it would be nice.
Maybe it’s just the seething jealousy, but og. I work 160 hours a month. Real, quantifiable work. Yeah, I’m entry level, but I’m only 20, so its no big deal. You, you (in your own words) sit on domain names. You didn’t create them. You didn’t come up with some clever wordplay that has some sort of creative value. You simply own the rights to some arbitrary points of data. And people pay you… they pay you more than twice what I make in a month, for the goddam privilege of using your names.
My real world work, my time, my contribution to our society to keep us all alive and fed and sheltered… That’s not even worth half as much as some generic two word names? Is this a joke? Has everyone gone insane?
You can treat it like a “perpetual annuity” and do a “present value” caluculation. It’s actually pretty simple.
First you decide on your “discount rate” (which has nothing to do with a “discount” like a cheaper price you get at the store – it’s a term of art.) The discount rate is basically the interest rate you’ll need to achieve a certain amount starting from another certain amount. It depends on the risk of the investment, the state of the current market, and many other fairly arbitrary factors. For example: If I buy a government bond that’ll pay me $1000 in one year, and I pay $950 for it, then my investment has a discount rate of 5%. This is pretty low, because a government bond is very low risk, and there’s a very small possibility of my bond not paying out. However, if I buy a junk bond that has very high risk, I’ll demand a higher discount rate.
I’ve done a lousy job of explaining it, but you can look it up. (It’s not the same as an interest rate.)
Anyway, once you’ve chosen a reasonable discount rate (say 10%), you take it’s reciprocal (so that’s 10), and multiply that by the annual income of the thing you’re trying to sell (in your case $3800) to get your present value. So together, your domains could sell for $38k. Of course, 10% is a very low discount rate, which would usually be reserved for something with a reasonably low risk for failing to pan out. (Like a government bond, or an already-successful company.) In reality, I imagine your discount rate should be in the 50%-75% range. (Which translates to $7600 to $5067.) But that’s what accounts are paid to figure out.
I agree with your sentiment, but not your response.
A person can produce money via labor or via investment. The OP started a microbusiness which took a micro amount of capital & and micro amount of effort which produces a whopping rate of return but only a small cashflow in an absolute sense.
He or she is no technology genius (or at least those skills have nothing to do with the success).
It’s statistically impossible for 100% of us to own money-making link farm web sites. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for YOU to own one or two. Or to do something totally different which amplifies your economic status.
Unless you do truly unskilled work, you have some skill which increases your income over that of the unskilled. You don’t think of that as wrong or evil.
One of the amazing results of the internet is it opens an essentially limitless quantity of “real estate” for new ideas, and for old ideas slightly recast. The last good idea is a long way in the future. There’s plenty of room for you to have an idea, or simply copy a sucessful one somebody elese has. The link farms the OP owns are hardly new ideas; thousands of them exist, each making some money for somebody.
Grab the ball & run with it. The main obstacle to your success is you.