No smart domainer would ever use an automated “domain appraisal” website service to determine their domain’s value. You need to have a human eyeball or two on that domain, in order to give your domain an analysis of the almost 100 variables of how to give that domain value.

I want to give you credit for giving me a subject matter to write about on my own blogsite. My comment here was too long so I moved it to my blog. I will give you a linkback on my site.

This is an important subject to discuss for domainers, because renewing a large domain portfolio can be costly, and you don’t want to keep renewing domains that you “like” but don’t have a chance to be a brand or generic descriptive niche domain that can create optimum monetization paths for itself.

My good buddies Adam Strong and Frank Michlick at http://www.domainconsultant.com provide excellent appraisal services. Rob Sequin is also very good. They are putting their eyes on your domains and they have qualified understanding about domain values, and they don’t use some code to try to “appraise” your domain.

For more info regarding appraisals and understanding your domains’ value and how to go about inexpensively finding out how to know if you’re on the right track, I humbly ask for a link to my blog showing my reply about your article. http://www.successclick.com

Thanks Mike.

My approach is similar to JP’s. Estibot is one of 4 or 5 tools I use when I evaluate a domain (the rest are not appraisal tools).

If all a domain has going for itself is a good Estibot value, I will consider getting it for reg fee up to $59 or whatever the backorder fee is. These names usually don’t make much money from parking but the chance of selling them for $500 or more is decent.

If a domain looks great by all 5 of my tools, it’s usually a parking winner as well as a name a business would want. In this case, I use a formula to calculate what that domain would make in 5-7 years and that sets the upper limit on how much I’d spend for it. It also depends on how many words are in the domain. If it’s a one worder, I’d go as high as 20x earnings and if it’s 3 or more, I’d go as low as 2x earnings.

I know there are a few people who have this down to an exact science. The greatness of those like Frank, Kevin, Yun Yi, Rick, Mike, etc, is that they were able to do this before PPC was mainstream and before these tools were available.

Realisitcally, you can use estibot to your advantage and it can work to your disadvantage depending on your position. I’m sure the domain owners selling in this auction are real excited about estibot right now.

Like Mike said, Estibot has a “use” just like any other tool. I just use estibot to get sort of an “idea” of how excited I should be about a domain. If estibot gives a domain 6 figures then I like the domain more than if it had 5 figures. I kind of look at it as more of a star rating than a dollar rating. Its just another metric in the decision making process. Although we shouldn’t disregard that fact that so many domainers actually blindly trust those estibot appraisals, even if they say they don’t.

How so?

I guess we will see when the results come in. Having said that it is still the best automated appraisal system by a very wide margin.

I give estibot very little credibility.

That is always the case.

it all depends on the law of demand and supply. How much the user is willing to pay.

I think Estibot has a use, like all tools do.

If it values a domain at $60K I think the domain has value, not necessarily $60K or even 20K, but a value.

So if your looking at a domain like DurableGoods.com which has a $68K value and a $2K reserve, its probably a good buy.

Do I think DurableGoods.com is worth $68K or you will be able to sell it for that, No.

On the other hand domains with low values probably have a low value. Domains it values at “Reg fee” probably are not worth much.

Having said that keep in mind that Estibot is automated, no eyeballs are looking at the domain, so the value is not going to be incredibly accurate.

Also the tool can only be used to value a pure domain, not the site on it.

Also the tool only covers .com, net and .org’s, don’t try to use it for a .me for example.

that what your site is….