If you’re like most people, you have more than one domain name and website that you no longer have any interest in continuing to develop. Perhaps you wanted to become a reseller web hosting company at one time, bought the domain name, designed a website, but have found yourself with little time or interest to pursue that dream. What do you do with a domain name and website that’s just sitting around gathering Internet dust?
Assessing a website’s value
Unless you purchased a domain name consisting of nonsensical letters and numbers like werwqpo45kja.com, your domain name has value and there’s someone out there who will pay good money for it. If you also have a developed website (design, logo, traffic, ranking, monetization) to go along with that domain name, the value just went up. Way up. Your first step should be to assess the value of your domain name and website. How do you do that?
dnScoop will give you an estimate of your website’s worth. dnScoop looks at the following to determine just how much value your site has:
-
Domain age
-
PR ranking
-
Inbound links
-
Traffic ranking
-
Alexa ranking
Once your domain name and website has been appraised, you can choose to sell your website or keep the domain and put it to good use.
Selling a domain name and website
If you have a solid, short domain name or highly monetized website, you can easily sell those online at one of many websites who specialize in just that.
-
Snapnames can put your domain up on the auction block and appraise its value.
-
eBay can auction off your domain name and website to the highest bidder.
-
sedo will help you sell your domain by giving you pricing advice and listing services for free.
-
DNForums is a website that specializes in domain names and they have a public forum where you can sell fully developed websites or just the domain.
Putting your unused domain name to good use
Even if you have no desire to continue developing your website, you can still choose to keep that domain name and put it to good use. For example:
-
A domain name with high PR value can make for an excellent backlink for websites you are still developing.
-
You can build a niche store.
-
You can park the domain with your domain registrar for later development.
-
You can donate the domain to a local school where students practice website design, server management and how to operate Internet businesses.
-
You could put a promotional website up.
-
You could use the domain for email only.
-
You could have the domain forward to another website.
Just because you’re not using your domain name or website does not mean it is void of value.
What will you do with your unused domain?