Received an offer for a domain name - any suggestions?

[lilactree]

I’ve had two gluten-free-related domain names since 2010, though I never got around to using them. GoDaddy estimates the values to be be about (A)  $620 and (B) $970. I have never actively tried to sell them, but I received an offer for A, at first for $200 and the offer is now up to $750. This is also via GoDaddy, where the buyer would pay commission.

I don’t intend to sell B any time soon, unless perhaps I get a huge offer somehow. I think I’ll plan to start creating content at some point. In some ways it is a better domain name than A, I think.

I do believe gluten-free will continue to be a big deal, and even more so in some ways.

I don’t want to leave them hanging too long, it took me awhile to respond in the first place and I didn’t mean to be rude.

Thoughts? Thanks!

[Research-Geek]

If you don't really plan on using domain "A"  anytime soon and even slightly prefer to use "B" for yourself  then selling it seems like a decent route to go.  Just so as long as you put that money straight into an investment account ;-)

[RyanAtTanagra]

I would sell it while you can.  I know people have dreams of lucking out on a domain name that a company wants to buy for 5 figures, but it just doesn't happen.  $750 is really good for a domain name you're not getting any income from.

[BicycleB]

I know nothing, but I'd take the money. It would mean my domain name reservation had turned out profitable!

You could poke around other corners of the internet (Google search "is GoDaddy estimate of domain name value accurate", etc)...if that is uninformative, sell ASAP.

[Mr. Green]

Worth noting is that ICANN has opened up extensions to anything you want if someone pays to bring it online. 10 years from now .com addresses may not be worth nearly what they are now because of that. Maybe everyone will be using .news or .blog or whatever. Google is making strides to make URLs less relevant as well, though who knows what that might look like in the future.

[lilactree]

Thank you all for your replies.

Update: I didn't end up accepting the offer of $750, saying that the topic is important to me and I don't feel comfortable selling without knowing what they're going to do with it. (Maybe if it were a super-high offer I would be more inclined, lol!) I thought I would eventually try to do something with it myself.

This month I received an initial offer via DomainAgents.com for $800. I haven't responded yet and they've increased to $1000. I assume this is a different buyer, but who knows, maybe the commission is lower with these agents. I don't know yet if I'll decline or counteroffer a huge amount.

Honestly if I found someone who wanted to collaborate on something and I really believed in their approach, I might not ask for a lot of cash. But that's probably a lovely thought that would be hard to make a lovely reality.

So I've just read MMM's post from 2013 (like 6 years old): https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/01/17/how-to-start-a-blog/. One thing I'm not clear on yet is whether or not to use WordPress (probably with Bluehost), because I don't understand if they limit flexibility in terms of monetizing.

I have started planning some topics for content. The actual writing will be a key piece of this... let's see how that goes! 

[terran]

Bluehost won't limit monetization, though as with an shared host they won't be able to handle insane amounts of traffic. You can worry about that if it becomes a problem.

Personally, bluehost and the others often mentioned on blogs (godaddy, hostgator) give me the heebie jeebies a bit, mostly because I figure the commissions they offer for referrals are a big reason they're being recommended. As far as cheap hosting goes I've had good experience https://www.siteground.com/ (client site) and https://www.hawkhost.com/. https://wpengine.com/ is kind of one of the gorillas in the when it comes to WordPress hosting, and they sometimes get some flack because of that and they restrict some things (like plugins that they've found to be inefficient), but they have some nice tools around backup/restore and staging sites. They're significantly more expensive though.

As far as the domain, I would take the offer. A domain isn't going to make or break a site, so it's not like you're really giving them a huge competitive advantage even if you don't agree with their business (which you have no reason to believe is the case). You could think of it as we mustachians are trained to think of investments and consumption goods in order to avoid sunk cost bias: If this domain was available on the open market, would you pay $1000 for it to use yourself or to keep others who may or may not use it for purposes you disagree with from using it? If not, then you should sell it because choosing not to sell something for a particular amount is the same as choosing to buy it for that amount.

[ketchup]

Bluehost won't limit monetization, though as with an shared host they won't be able to handle insane amounts of traffic. You can worry about that if it becomes a problem.

Personally, bluehost and the others often mentioned on blogs (godaddy, hostgator) give me the heebie jeebies a bit, mostly because I figure the commissions they offer for referrals are a big reason they're being recommended. As far as cheap hosting goes I've had good experience https://www.siteground.com/ (client site) and https://www.hawkhost.com/. https://wpengine.com/ is kind of one of the gorillas in the when it comes to WordPress hosting, and they sometimes get some flack because of that and they restrict some things (like plugins that they've found to be inefficient), but they have some nice tools around backup/restore and staging sites. They're significantly more expensive though.

As far as the domain, I would take the offer. A domain isn't going to make or break a site, so it's not like you're really giving them a huge competitive advantage even if you don't agree with their business (which you have no reason to believe is the case). You could think of it as we mustachians are trained to think of investments and consumption goods in order to avoid sunk cost bias: If this domain was available on the open market, would you pay $1000 for it to use yourself or to keep others who may or may not use it for purposes you disagree with from using it? If not, then you should sell it because choosing not to sell something for a particular amount is the same as choosing to buy it for that amount.

+1 for Siteground.  We use it at work, after getting crapped on by GoDaddy and Network Solutions.

[tawyer]

Would you buy (A) for $1000 today? If not, then I think you should sell it, because you are being paid more than it is worth to you.