This note is in case you have been here before, you’ve returned and you’re going “what the heck happened? For 14 years, this thing has been dormant, and now suddenly it becomes Hello, Nearth? And all the old content is gone?”
Let me explain.
A Deluge of Two E-Mails
Within a single week, I received two e-mails asking me about selling my domain name.
The first gentleman argued that they should have the domain name because it would make it easier for them to market their products. “Having noticed that the site has been sitting still for a while, I wanted to ask if you’d allow us to buy it.” Since they were a small outfit, all he could offer was $500.
The second gentleman wrote the following day. “I see the site is clearly loved but has not been used in some time. I am offering $250 for the rights to the name.”
This struck me as odd. It’s not as if I get weekly e-mails about selling my domain name. Now, suddenly, two people wanted the same domain, with one offer exactly half the other? Weird.
I checked the senders. Both messages came from gmail accounts. According to a cursory web search, both gentlemen live in the state of New York and share similar interests. Weird.
What Is This Thing Worth, Anyway?
My next course of action was to check what value the domain hellonearth.com might actually have. Now I know that this is a highly subjective thing and that all domain appraisal services could be considered a sham.
Keeping that in mind, this is what I found:
Domain Appraisal Overview
| Appraisal Service | Estimated Value | Reasoning by Appraiser |
|---|---|---|
| Domain Price Check | < $100 | “The prices shown are non-binding estimates” |
| DomainIndex | n.a. | “[…] please update your account type.” (i.e. pay up) |
| Epik | n.a. | “Request Professional Appraisal For $399” |
| EstiBot | $2300 | “Highly Searched: hell on earth receives over 4,400 searches per month on Google” |
| Flippa | n.a. | “To provide an accurate valuation of your online business we need to ask you some questions about your business?” Heck no. |
| Free Valuator | $614.77 | n.a. |
| GoDaddy | $3,316 | “Popular keyword: on is a frequently used keyword.” |
| Sedo | n.a. | Pay us $100 and we’ll tell you how much your domain is worth (or words to that effect) |
| SitePrice | $7,985 | n.a. |
| Website Outlook | n.a. | Error message: “No enough Data available” (sic!) |
I also found out that I own this domain since February 5, 1998. That’s an effing long time. (And a funny story.)
What Have We Learned
Domain service appraisals are, as I’d strongly suspected before, a sham. One will lowball you, others will generate bizarre valuations with decimal points and still others won’t tell you anything without cash on the barrelhead.
In the end, the value of a domain is what somebody is willing to pay for it. From the point of view of a domain owner, of course, it’s the price you are willing to accept.
This Doesn’t Answer The Main Question
I have had this “Hello, Nearth” idea for several years. As a matter of fact, the idea started to gestate when I received an inquiry about my willingness to sell hellonearth.com three years ago.
Thanks, two guys from NY, for motivating me to finally pull through!
MOATMAI, June 2021