Many people, when they want to sell a domain name, immediately go to an appraisal site. There are a number of sites you can use to get an appraisal of your domain. I like to get an appraisal from several, so I can see if there is a lot of variation and this can give me an idea of what I might expect from selling a domain. Some free appraisal sites include:

URL Appraisal

EstiBot.com

Valuate

These appraisals are just guesses, they are not a guarantee that a domain will sell for the price they list. Remember too that it can be tempting to believe only the appraisal site that gives the highest value, but the reality is that if you can run an appraisal on your site domain, so can your potential buyers. And they will want to spend the least amount of money they can.

What Makes a Domain More Valuable

There are some rules of thumb about what makes a domain more valuable. Most people who are looking to buy a domain want to buy one that is already successful, and most people on the web define success on page views and customers. A site that is already proven, even if it changes ownership, will carry some of those previous users over to the new site.

Some of the things you should look at when trying to value a domain include:

The length of the domain—The shorter the domain is, the more it will cost.

How many words are in the domain—Similar to the length, domains with very few words cost the most, so a one word domain is the most valuable.

How long has the domain been live—Domains that have been around for a long time rank better in search engines, and so this increases their value. However, most sites that have been around for a long time aren’t for sale, so convincing the owner might take even more money.

Spelling and use of the domain word(s)—A domain that is a common word (or words) and has a common spelling that is easy to type and remember is going to cost more.

Domain extension—The best extension for a domain is the .com extension. This is because it’s what most browsers default to, and most users assume that is the name of the domain. So the same domain name with a .com extension is going to cost more than the domain at .net.