How much are you willing to pay for a great domain but for a hobby site?

[Kevin]

I'm just curious to see what opinions of others are on this one.....

Say you're creating a new site, it'll be operated as a hobby site (meaning it may have Adsense or similar on it but you're not expecting to actually make any money from it), it's a niche category and nearly every common keyword & phrase domain in the .com TLD is already taken but... it turns out that you can pick up a desirable domain that would be easy to remember and would likely get some traffic from people just randomly trying the domain interested in the niche with one little caveat: the domain price you could get it for is likely underpriced if you were to do the project as a commercial venture but is way out of the budget for a hobby site with no revenue expected.

Do you bite the proverbial bullet and pay the high amount for a great domain or keep it grounded and spend as little as possible on the project knowing that the backup domain, while short & easy to remember, is not as desirable for the niche and likely wouldn't generate as much traffic?

 

[haqzore]

Yes - potential good investment.

Assuming smart financial decisions (ie - you aren't going to go hungry because of it) - good domains are like real estate. They're finite, and when they're gone, they're gone.

So I'd bite the bullet and get the best domain possible.

"If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right."

The only real consideration is how FAR out of the "hobby" realm it is. $10k? I'd pass... Etc...

 

[Kevin]

The only real consideration is how FAR out of the "hobby" realm it is. $10k? I'd pass... Etc...

Not that bad but still 4 digits.

 

[haqzore]

Not that bad but still 4 digits.

You could always use the "premium" domain as a bit of an unplanned motivator to maybe put more effort into the site someday. Eventually. Maybe. Because you have a good domain. So why not.

Type of thing

 

[Nabix]

I rarely go for the highly overpriced 'premium' domains registrars offer. Content is king and thats what is most important. Having a sweet .com is great but I'd rather focus on content and have a domain that simple and effect. Now, I'm not saying id go buy a .xyz domain anytime soon lol

 

[haqzore]

Having a sweet .com is great but I'd rather focus on content and have a domain that simple and effect.

Who says they're mutually exclusive?

 

[Kevin]

Well, the Sedo sale is underway; payment sent, now waiting on transfer. It'll either be a great little domain to add to the collection and eventually put a site up on (which has been the cause of my IPS deep dive lately) or it'll be an expensive boondoggle. Once again my short attention span combined with boredom has gotten me in trouble! D'oh!

 

[Kevin]

I rarely go for the highly overpriced 'premium' domains registrars offer. Content is king and thats what is most important. Having a sweet .com is great but I'd rather focus on content and have a domain that simple and effect. Now, I'm not saying id go buy a .xyz domain anytime soon lol

Just remember, when it comes to domain names the age of the demographic you're after is still a factor. For many of us 'old timers' the Big 3 TLDs (com/org/net) still rule since we remember what they were supposed to represent (though in more recent times the .io TLD has been accepted by tech geeks of all ages).

For the offline world short, simple, & easy to remember .com TLDs still matter if you're trying to do marketing. Afterall, you can't expect us old guys to see some weird and/or long URL printed in the real world somewhere and then try to type it into the browser on our tiny little phones!

 

[overcast]

I have seen people spending like madness in domains. I think 100$ is max I'd spend.

 

[haqzore]

I have seen people spending like madness in domains. I think 100$ is max I'd spend.

Fair for a personal limit, but $100 really isn't close to the realm of "premium" domains.

 

[LeadCrow]

200$ would be my best offer.

A site with its own branding should reliably generate traffic if updated with fresh content, including keywords in your domain name is no longer factored in by search engines like in the days, and a dead/parked domain will not weaken your own site's visibility.

 

[R0binHood]

Is it a domain that has had content in the past? If so are there any back links or SEO benefits that you could utilise?

Is there any traffic to the domain from a previous site that you could redirect to new content on your site?

If so, it could definitely be worth forking out some money for that.

If not, I think it depends on how important the domain is to the branding of your site. Can you spend some time coming up with a different brand and domain option to save a grand or two and spend that money elsewhere on the site?

If it's a hobby site you have to see it as written off money never to be seen again, and if that gives you the excitement and drive to build and grow your hobby site because you love the domain and brand, and you have the disposable cash, then go for it! Whatever makes you happy.

'Alot of money' is relative though. I spent $50 on a new TLD a while back and I thought that was a lot for a domain that no one had.

However I've tried to buy domains in the past that are pretty boring, but have been purchased and squatted upon and the prices ranged from $500 - $5k starting offers. They offer nothing apart from branding. For a hobby that could be a huge amount, for a small business it could still be a large amount, for someone building a big brand or someone with an existing business it may be considered a bargain compared to the historical price for some major domains.

I think you need to share the domain now so we can all argue about whether it was a bargain or you're mad for paying

 

[haqzore]

I think some are missing the core of the question here.

The question wasn't one of SEO, and domains will impact far more than SEO.

Branding, merchandising, recognition, etc will benefit heavily from efficient & catchy domains.

 

[R0binHood]

The question wasn't one of SEO, and domains will impact far more than SEO.

Not necessarily, if there was an existing site there before. There could have been good content on the niche that drew organic traffic, if that traffic could be redirected to new content to draw new members in then traffic is traffic, and traffic makes for a thriving community, hobby or not. It's not easy to drive traffic to a new site, and if there's already people trying to access that domain due to old indexed content or back links, paying extra for that domain could be worth it in terms of time and money that would have to be invested elsewhere to try and make the site a success.

 

[haqzore]

Not necessarily, if there was an existing site there before. There could have been good content on the niche that drew organic traffic, if that traffic could be redirected to new content to draw new members in then traffic is traffic, and traffic makes for a thriving community, hobby or not. It's not easy to drive traffic to a new site, and if there's already people trying to access that domain due to old indexed content or back links, paying extra for that domain could be worth it in terms of time and money that would have to be invested elsewhere to try and make the site a success.

Of course - agree with all of that.

I didn't say domains don't/won't benefit from SEO.

My point was SEO isn't the heart of the OP in this instance.

We traffic addicted admins jump straight to SEO when discussions come up

 

[overcast]

Fair for a personal limit, but $100 really isn't close to the realm of "premium" domains.

True. Premium would min. start from 1k OR 2k at the most.

 

[Kevin]

To answer some questions....

• The domain is TikiLounge.com - to me it's generic enough that I can use it and still have a different name for the actual name of the site. One of the reasons why I liked the domain is that it is very easy for the targeted demographic to remember.
• The domain had no prior content for the past several years. From what I can piece together, back around 2005 a photographer was using the domain for posting some of his photos even though the domain had nothing to do with photography. What archive.org has available is that the photographer simply liked the domain.
• The original registrant of the domain (the photographer mentioned above) allowed the domain to lapse and since then it's been passed around various domain squatters without ever being used.
• Because of the above, any traffic stats would be meaningless. For my own curiosity though I did throw Google Analytics on a generic landing page just to see if there'd be any hits; excluding me and China there's been about a handful of random visitors daily.
• I've bit the proverbial bullet and bought the full IPS suite to throw on it. Really, if XF had official equivalents of Pages and a Calendar then I would've kept within the XF ecosystem but going forward my mantra is to use as little 3rd party add-ons as possible and to avoid having to write my own code as well (Why? To quote Roger Murtaugh, I'm getting too old for this 'stuff'). It's the same reason why I didn't go with WordPress. For what I envision long term IPS has 1st party official offerings; those offerings may not be as fully featured versus their XF counterparts (yes, matter of opinion based upon years of experience with XF and a recent deep dive in IPS, no, I don't wish to start any debates about it) but, to be blunt, a component with underwhelming features is better than having no component offering at all.
• The price was $1,818 USD; a price that I really didn't want to pay for a hobby but the seller wouldn't budge on the price. Google searches shows that "1818" has symbolism in some cultures. If/when I encounter a similar situation I'll have to remember to try making offers based on numeric values with specific symbolism to them to see if that helps. No, I'm not 'going to go hungry' because of that price but it is the most I've ever paid for one of my online fits of whimsy and it means I have to resist buying shiny toys for bit of time so my slush fund can get built back up. It also means I can't complain for awhile about Mrs. Kevin buying more shoes and purses.
• Yes, someday if I ever get the site up & running I will be fully expecting somebody to remember this thread and comment "You're an idiot for paying that much." and I will likely be inclined to agree with them. For those I've known for years in my circle of online friends it'll be a good source of ribbing at my expense, anybody else I'll ignore.

As a tangent.... I had been bidding on a related domain at GoDaddy and for the 9 days or so it was going on I was the only bidder. After waiting the whole time I had a long night right before the auction ended and fell asleep about 30 minutes before the auction closed. Sure enough somebody outbid me with about 5 minutes to go by just a few dollars. They got the domain for $15 and now have a landing page up trying to sell it for $2,995! That domain was TikiOhana.com ("Ohana" is Hawaiian for family/community). Lesson learned, make sure I don't fall asleep right before an auction ends. Que sera, sera, such is life.

 

[zappaDPJ]

"You're an idiot for paying that much."

I'd say you've got a very good domain for a reasonable price. I doubt I'd pay that much for a hobby domain but I would pay it for a potential investment which I think that could well be, especially with some good content behind it. I certainly don't think you were robbed.

 

[haqzore]

Nice domain. Congrats.

Appreciate the insight & explanation behind your decision. It's very educational & valuable.

 

[Paul M]

The most Ive spent is just over £200, and that seemed like too much to me, I would not spend that much again.