What can you reasonably expect to pay for a domain name?

What does a domain name cost?  On the low end — nothing.  Many web hosts give you free registration of a new domain when you open an account with them.  Generally speaking, registering a "fresh" domain typically costs in the $10 range, and rarely over $50, depending on the extension or "TLD" of the domain — .com, .net, .co, etc. 

On the high end, it's quite different.  Smart marketers and big players have recognized the huge value of owning a strategic domain name — in particular, a category keyword domain name.  Consider the following sales:
 

Pizza.com $2,605,000 Beer.com   $7,000,000 Toys.com   $5,100,000 Clothes.com   $4,900,000 Shop.com   $3,500,000 Wine.com   $3,300,000 Flying.com   $1,100,000 Software.com $3,200,000 Diamond.com $7,500,000

Cameras.com   $1,500,000 Loans.com   $3,000,000 Wines.com   $2,900,000 Candy.com   $3,000,000 Poker.de $957,937 Shopping.de $2,858,945 Cruises.co.uk $1,099,798 Kredit.de $1,169,175 Credit.fr $851,875

The shocking cost of not purchasing a domain name

When considering a domain name purchase, companies consider the cost.  This is natural.  But too often, they consider only the cost of purchasing, and fail to consider the cost of not purchasing the domain name.  That can be costly indeed.  

How costly?  So costly it can lead to outright ridicule, as this outstanding video from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. makes clear.

If the video doesn't come in for you, click here — you don't want to miss this!

Unfortunately, in today's wireless world, the high costs of not getting a domain name doesn't stop with money.  They can extend to bad business press, stakeholder anger and stock value loss.

The shocking cost of underutilizing a domain.

It's important to buy a strategic domain name.  But buying it is not enough.  Would you buy a $10,000 computer, only to use it as a doorstop?  Of course not.  Yet companies often underutilize their domain names.  Even major companies that are usually quite savvy.  This article, which every marketing executive should read, explains how Procter & Gamble is wasting half a million dollars a year by underutilizing a domain name they own, toothpaste.com.

P&G Is Wasting Half a Million Dollars a Year on Toothpaste.com

There's even more to the story in this rich, important article.  It reveals a little-known, inherent conflict of interest that your advertising agency — and by implication, your SEO firm as well — may have in their relationship with you.  We spill the secret here.