It doesn't matter what the purpose or goal of a website is, every single site on the Internet needs a domain name.
Domain names are often the first interaction your client base and guests will have with your website and choosing a name that is both fitting for your site and memorable is highly important.
This is why selling domain names can be a surprisingly lucrative business. Simple domain names that quickly and easily explain what the website is about can sell for large amounts of money
If you're able to pick up one of these domain names cheaply, you can sell it for a large profit in a few years' time,
However, how do you know which domain names are going to be sold for life-changing amounts of money? Which domains have already been sold for small fortunes?
In this article, we will look at what domains have sold for life-changing amounts of money and how to look out for these domain names yourself.
Let's get started!
What Domains Have Sold For Life-Changing Amounts Of Money?
Let's begin by looking at what domains have already sold for life-changing amounts of money. This will give us an idea of the figures we're talking about and will also help us see which details they have in common.
Unfortunately, the sale prices of many domains are not publicly known so it's impossible to create a definitive list of the most expensive domain names. We do, however, know some domains and their sale prices so we will look at these.
The most expensive domain name that has been publicly reported is carinsurance.com. This sold for an amazing $49.7 million. Interestingly, the shorter and more straightforward insurance.com sold for less than this at $35.6 million.
The next two domains are both related to the travel industry. Vacationrentals.com and privatejet.com sold for $35 million and £30.18 million respectively. The fifth most expensive publicly reported domain is voice.com, which sold for $30 million and is currently an NFT trading site.
That means that five publicly reported domain names have all sold for over $30 million.
Although the definition of life-changing money can differ from person to person, I think everyone can agree that $30 million is definitely life-changing!
What Makes A Domain Worth A Life-Changing Amount?
Now that we've seen that some domains can truly be sold for life-changing amounts, let's look at the criteria that these domain names need to have.
If you keep the following criteria in mind as you're looking for domain names to sell and flip, it will help you identify the domains that can potentially make you a fortune.
A domain suffix is the part that is at the end of the domain name. It usually follows a dot and some of the most common domain suffixes are:
There are also various domain suffixes related to specific countries and many domain sellers now offer a variety of interesting domains such as .site, .info, and .xyz.
All of the domain names that we introduced in the previous section shared the same domain suffix. In fact, every single domain name in the top 25 of the most expensive publicly reported domain names shared this same suffix as well.
This domain suffix is .com.
Whether you are buying a brand new domain or an already established one, having a .com suffix will make the domain name more expensive when compared to other suffixes.
This is usually seen as the go-to domain suffix and is the most popular one across the Internet. It's the domain suffix that people are most familiar with and most people will automatically assume your domain has a .com suffix.
If your website has a suffix other than .com but there is a website that has the same domain name that does have that suffix, you're likely to lose traffic to the rival site. The .com suffix is ingrained in people's brains that it has become the default.
When it comes to selling domain names for life-changing amounts of money, the only suffix that is capable of doing this is the .com suffix. We would advise only looking for .com domains and ignoring others.
Another common factor all of our life-changing domains had in common was that they were all relatively short.
Every domain name included either one or two words and in the cases of the domains with two words, they were common combinations such as "Car Insurance."
Shorter domains are easier for people to remember and they're more unique than sites with longer phrases as their domain name. This makes them more in demand and able to sell for a higher price.
Domain names that use common abbreviations such as TV, DVD, or USA are also in high demand and can sell for large amounts of money.
The shorter your domain name is, the higher the chances of it selling for a large amount of money. Prioritize simple and easy domain names when you're looking for that life-changing domain.
This point goes hand-in-hand with the previous one. All of the highest-selling domains are ones that are easy to spell and use common words.
Guests need to be able to navigate to a website and if the domain name includes complicated words that are difficult to spell, it increases the chances of them typing the wrong domain into the address bar.
For this reason, domain names that include punctuation don't sell for such high prices as well.
Hyphens can make entering domain names difficult and are often confused for underscores, so domain names that don't include these will sell for higher prices.
How Do I Assess The Value Of My Domain Name?
If you already have a domain name and want to know whether it is worth a large amount of money or not, there are some evaluation tools online that can give you some figures.
These appraisal sites use a variety of tools to value your domain name, such as market sales data, and algorithms designed to assess your domain against criteria such as those listed above.
Many of the sites that sell domain names offer this service. We recommend the tools offered by
GoDaddy and
NameBio. Do keep in mind, however, that these are just estimates and are not guaranteed amounts.
There are many external factors that can affect how much a domain name will sell for, such as the state of the market and general economic conditions.
In this article, we looked at what domains have sold for life-changing amounts. We found that the highest publicly reported sale for a domain name was for carinsurance.com, which sold for $49.7 million.
In all, five domains have sold for a publicly reported amount of $30 million or more.
We also looked at the common criteria expensive domains have in common.
By looking for domain names that have these criteria, you can increase your chances of finding a domain name that will sell for a life-changing amount of money.
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