Ask HN: How much would you pay for the perfect domain?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1672172

by evanjacobs • 16 years ago

1 8 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Let's say you're a bootstrapped company about to launch an amazing new web service. You've been thinking about the perfect domain and a quick search reveals that that name is currently up for auction! How much would you be willing to pay for that domain considering that every dollar you spend means that you have a shorter runway?

michael_dorfman• 16 years ago

That depends: how much additional revenue would the "perfect domain name" generate for me?

evanjacobs3• 16 years ago

It's hard to say since an A/B experiment would only be possible if I owned the "perfect" domain and could test it against a less perfect one.

jpmc2• 16 years ago

The perfect domain name today might not be the best name tomorrow. Really think about what you want your domain to say..if anything. Don't corner yourself in by your domain name. I am sure a variation or a unique name is avaialbe. Take that perfect domain name and play with it and see what comes up. You might find an even better domain at the standard registration rate.

To really answer your question I would have to weigh the cost(are we talking hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands?) against the return. Is this the most common word or phrase for your service that a user would search for? Or is it too generic?

evanjacobs3• 16 years ago

As a back-up plan I've been collecting variations of my "perfect" domain at standard registration rates.

The cost is approaching $10k now but I don't know what the final value might be. There is less than a day left for the auction.

byoung2• 16 years ago

The cost is approaching $10k now but I don't know what the final value might be

WIll you get $10k+ worth of additional revenue from having that name alone? What else could you spend that money on that would net the same benefit?

brk• 16 years ago

I still think that sites like "ebay" or "facebook" (granted that had some small significance to Harvard students) or "craigslist" or "etsy" or "google" or "skype" (though that is more oriented as a client software) prove that the win is in the product itself and the positioning. xkcd is another example, though not every geek necessarily loves xkcd.

A good domain name DOES help people understand what your product is about, but it is not the absolute make or break success criteria that so many people seem to think it is.

Ask HN: How much would you pay for the perfect domain?

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