Has anyone here approached a large company with view to offer them to lease a premium domain name?
Whats the going rate to lease PD name?
BTW it's a .com name

( dave if you read this we need to keep the client confidential )

I haven't leased a domain but i've been looking into this as i have a few PDN's .com.au 's though.

I'm of the opinion that it would be the same as leasing a piece of realestate and what someone is willing to pay, if you have it and its parked and ranks nowhere then thats like a "back street corner store", but if it ranks well then you have a "pacific hwy service station" .

The next thought is , what is the perceived ROI by the prospective client, i explain it 2 ways to clients........ whats it worth to have it and what it is going to cost you if your competitor has it !

eg: last year i was commisioned to do a marketing strategy for an australiawide business, first thing we did was secure over 100 domain names related to the business, keyword/phrase based . this year we we be building the websites and i managed to get 20 completed before xmas.... they all rank first page google and the clients investment is almost already paid back from sales made so far in just 4 months AND we have 80 more to go !!!

SO what was that worth to him? $35,000 ( + ongoings ), but by my calculations he feels that investment is worth $8 million+ to him.

now this was backwards as he owns the domains but my point is you can never really know what the clients budget is and this guy screwed me down from 50K to 35K and then i found out how much money he was going to make but i can't complain i've still haven't quoted him on the next 80 domains LOL

So i hope someone can give us a formula on how to work it all out, in the shop rental market you just look to what next door got leased for.

I think leased domains is going to grow and grow, my opinion is that it won't be like a car lease where after 4 years you pay $1 and get it, i think it will be more like a London flat where you never ever ever get to own it. When i was in London 20 years ago i was running pubs, i was in Mayfair which is the most expensive part of town, i had a regular that was very much like Ab Fab and she had just leased her flat for over 1.5 million UK pounds ( 1990 mind you ! ) and it had a 35 year lease, after 35 years she had to pay again !!!! crazy but i think for those looking to lease domains "history tells the future" and if you have a HOT domain then don't give it away lightly

I think domain leasing is a great idea. Huge potential.

Great analogy you give on London property as well Tim. The same leasehold situation happens a lot in New Zealand - particularly Auckland. It is an accepted practice.

__________________
Tewantin.com.au | Gundagai.com.au| Bowral.com.au | SunshineCoast.com.au

So neddy what do you think? "car lease" or "london lease" ? which is the way forward?

imho if you "car lease" then you may as well join the finance industry

The better analogy imo is shop front rentals (where you loose the passing trade when you move)

It is simply a case of willing landlord / willing tenant based on ROI, gut feeling or whatever justification results in agreement

Compare investing $500K in a factory or $500K in premium domains

The factory would yield around $40k net in today's market; I would expect that the domain portfolio could yield 2-3x that amount

__________________
www.viro.com.au (very rewarding); www.domainone.com.au

Have leased names before. It sounds attractive to domainers but it only works in certain circumstances, usually where a deal to buy can't be worked out because of funding or perceived risk by the buyer at the price level being asked.

Most of the time the buyer will want a buy out option and I've only ever had interest in it from names with high type in traffic and in one case high search stats + moderate type in traffic. ie there is an obvious ROI for the person leasing it. Usually price it on earnings.

Leasing also has pretty high monitoring costs involved, chasing up payments, deciding when to pull the plug when they don't pay etc (very common). Needs a well written contract.

Personally I would not try to find someone to lease a name, but rather would use it as an option when a sale can't be agreed to. Typically it is much less likely to result in a deal compared to trying to sell something.

__________________
Net.au - Trusted by The Goulburn Railway Bowling Club and other leading businesses. Menu now online! Sunday Special: $9.90 MEAL DEAL - STEAK or SCHNITZEL with CHIP & SALAD or VEGETABLES + A FREE OF "BRUER BRIGHT" BEER.

Thanks for your input, if its worth buying then its worth leasing ! in actual fact it is less risk for the person to lease a domain then to buy because a domain name can MOVE but a shop location can't , you could lease a domain name and it disappears to page 443 of google !

on the other side of the coin what i tend to do is make sure i am involved in easy to remeber domain names like people.com.au or rockhamptonauto.com.au ( both fake for the purpose of example)

"buy out option" , YES, i've been working on that and thats why i am in this thread, I own over 100 premium domains in a VERY specific area and i just can't decide what to do, lease or sell ???

i've come to a possible solution at this moment and that is a 3 year lease then a buy out , hopefully my service will be exceptional and they will continue to use me as there host etc, BUT then i think ? hang on these people didn't have the foresight i had so why should they be able to then go away and pay each year their "mate" who doesn't know what i know b ut succeeds because of what i have created !!!

Also its like building a block of flats and selling it for $5K !!!!

If there is no buy out clause then the risk is obvious, they are developing someone else's name. If there is a buy out clause there is still a risk that something can go wrong down the road, ie owner changes DNS and disappears, sells to someone else...etc.

I don't really think this is a choice sellers have. It is dictated by the requirements of buyers.

Not sure I follow on this.

__________________
Net.au - Trusted by The Goulburn Railway Bowling Club and other leading businesses. Menu now online! Sunday Special: $9.90 MEAL DEAL - STEAK or SCHNITZEL with CHIP & SALAD or VEGETABLES + A FREE OF "BRUER BRIGHT" BEER.

snoppy thanks, you bring up many valid points, your first being "RISK"

risk: this is where there is an opening in the market for "realestate agents" of domain names , not brokers that arrange/sell/leave but people who are the escrow of the domain that way both sides are protected.

your second point about the buyer dictates terms means to me you are taking the " low road " , supply and demand makes the terms not either party.

eg: i have a site an offer it to a business in say ? newcastle , they say no so i offer it to their competitor etc etc etc and everyone says no, i then convert the site into an affiliate site that pushes sales to a national sales network and its making $XXX a month in commissions.

these are sales someone is missing out on, so NOW i hold the real estate that is valueable to them. i'm not being nasty i am just putting forward thoughts.

does the table turn? i think yes.


the 3rd point, i'll try to clarify, WHY use all my knowledge that has taken me years to gain to end up giving it away after 3 years of a lease? i bought the land , i built the flats, i made them pretty and then i just got 3 years of rent !!! just doesn't make sense, i want rent FOREVER.

I'm talking "main street cbd" , why would i give it up? and if nobody wants my terms then i just go back to point number 2

I think the "killer application" here that you have bought up is the protection of the leasor , alot of my clients are from screwed over wannabies that have disappeared, whereas i have got the same mobile number for 12 years and people LOVE that, plus with hundreds of current clients as referals it builds trust.

protection of leasing: i'd love to expand on this as snoopy i think thats the key area of concern you nailed.

I did some google searches today and made some phone calls but wasn't happy with the responses i got, it was more like website designers posing as website brokers to me, NOOOOOO i am not one......... i looking for a solution not trying to BE the solution.

many years ago we have had the experience of leasing "com" domain but discovered they were redirecting the leased domain to their own brand....upon lease expiration after 6 months we asked for no redirection / forwarding and they decided to buy it.