domain Gardening.com - Reg'd since 1994

[DomainEmpire.com]

We're genuinely interested in collecting opinions and honest appraisals on our domain Gardening.com (development and money making potential, domain value for a possible resale, what's the best way to use it etc ...)

There's a medium competition for the "Gardening" keyword in Google so there's for sure some potential behind it, we think ...

Next September we'll decide what doing with it while we're actually starting to test its traffic.

Thanks since now for sharing.

 

[Keith]

Mid 5 figures to well into 6 figures. Really depends on how motivated a buyer is.

 

[ruzeen]

At least Mid 5 figures.

 

[bmugford]

This is one of the best domains I have ever seen put up for appraisal on NamePros.

It is worth well into six figures. There are countless major players in this field.
It has a really high potential ceiling to the right buyer.

Brad

 

[FM]

Six figures. Just be patient with it, and sooner or later, someone will hopefully contact you for the name.

 

[Domainace]

Could be a million dollar domain. It's a category killer, and interest in gardening is booming, especially as more people want to grow their own food and herbs. I don't think that's going to slow down. If you choose to develop it (properly - not the usual domainer development), it's a name you can retire on.

 

[Ralph JR]

$xx,xxx to low $xxx,xxx - Of course this is only to the right buyer

 

[TheBaldOne]

If you plan to sell the domain then spend a little time marketing it, say 2-3 months, then make sure you have the Directors/owners names, email addresses, telephone numbers of all the major plant nurseries, online gardening sites, major home improvement retail stores, gardening equipment manufacturers, etc. (it is actually a HUGE niche), in ALL major English speaking countries.

Contact them directly by snail mail and by email. Explain that you own the domain name and are considering developing the domain into an internationally niche killer website and you are looking for potential advertisers or partners for the site and would they be interested in either and who to speak to further about it. (If your aim is to solicit bids to buy the domain then explain you are contacting all the major players in the field - this will let the contact know he could lose out by not trying to purchase/lease the domain from you. )

If you want an evaluation I will give you several.

Undeveloped and just the domain name, sold to a domainer at somewhere like TRAFFIC then a minimum of $500,000 and possibly up to $1,500,000. (May I suggest that you contact Rick Schwartz immediately by the way if this is something you are considering, I am sure he will talk to you about how to handle the sale and get the major publicity possible for it.)

To an end-user the domain undeveloped could achieve between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000, though of course the higher the figure the harder it would be to sell as it would reduce the number of businesses able to afford it. This brings me to leasing or renting the domain out to an end user. I would think that somewhere between $400,000 - $750,000 a year could be achievable in rental income.

Now the biggy!

As a properly developed site, with advertising nationally based around the world, I would imagine that you could be looking at revenue from affiliate sales and advertising in excess of $20,000,000 a year within 2 years. Of course against this would be major costs, the initial site being the largest cost, but you would break even within the first 2 years if done correctly and showing a profit against running cost in your first year.

This is just my opinion, but you have got a gold mine that may if handled correctly also produce platinum.

My advice. Think long and hard what route you want to take before you take it.

Am I jealous? Hell YES. But do I wish you all the best, of course I do.

 

[enlytend]

There's a medium competition for the "Gardening" keyword in Google so there's for sure some potential behind it, we think ...

That's the last metric I'd go by for this domain - it's a category killer and there is a lot of overall interest and so much development potential in all the sub categories of that niche!

This deserves a 6 figure price tag - great name, good luck with it.

 

[D. Wells]

I won't take less than 6 figs for this name...

 

[Maxwell]

$150k-$450k

 

[Maxwell]

To an end-user the domain undeveloped could achieve between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000

No, it's not worth that much. A fluke sale for this domain would be like $750k. I would not recommend this guy to hold out for $2,000,000-$4,000,000.

 

[DomainVP]

A decent amount.

 

[Keral_Patel]

200,000 atleast. And anything above it won't be surprising.

Great domain name

 

[TheBaldOne]

No, it's not worth that much. A fluke sale for this domain would be like $750k. I would not recommend this guy to hold out for $2,000,000-$4,000,000.

In 2011 the total of the gardening and outdoor living market was worth $187 billion and projections put it at $220 billion by 2016 (reportlinker.com/ci02008/Market-Gardening.html), and gardening made up approx. 55% of this (bulbs, plants, growing materials), and although this is just a rough metric it shows the size of the target market to which the domain is aimed at.

But the figures given are just my opinion.

 

[johname]

When you start pushing this up to 2-4 million you have to start asking who would spend that much?

This is planting carrots in your backyard. Now before I get all the piling on I fully understand its a powerful domain name. But what's the largest investment of a gardener? A rototiller? Does Toro need this domain? And after the once every two decades rototiller buy, garden investment costs really falls down a cliff. Of course It would make a great online magazine but these people have limits just like we do on a smaller scale. A seed company maybe.

When looking at the top domain sales ever, the highest 'ing' domain looks to be Investing.com at 2.4 mil. No brainer at the huge money in the investment field. The opposite of the mostly frugality motivation of gardening

When looking at domains that sold for $500,000 or less (all the way down to 200k) I see so many I would rather have then this one. Which makes me want to put that range as the sensible cap on the domain.

Goodluck

 

[TheBaldOne]

Right my last post on this, only because I happen to know a little about the 'gardening' business having a few years ago researched it.

Please note that I am not belittling or running down anyone's opinion on the value of the domain in question here, I am simply giving my opinion. I think before people make a gut or erroneous valuation of the domain based on some unrelated matric they should consider fully what 'gardening' encompasses as a business.

Most people will think quite normally of plants, lawns, flower pots, water hoses, basic gardening tools, etc., however, 'gardening' is much more than this, indeed as a business it is much, much more.

Think about the following (which is a very brief and definitely not an exhaustive list):

• Garden sheds
• Garden Offices and other buildings
• Greenhouses to orangeries
• Garden ornaments
• Garden statues and art
• Home extensions
• Conservatories
• Patios (incl. patio dining sets, heaters, outdoor cooking, etc.)
• Garden Ponds
• Garden marquis
• Bird Tables and bird seed (a multi-million pound industry in the UK alone)
• Fencing
• Swimming pools
• Lighting
• Garden Landscaping
• Garden Toys (from sandpits to swings to chess to miniature railways, etc.)
• Garden pets
• Beekeeping
• Outside Christmas ornaments
• Books, DVD's, magazines (especially emags), on gardening and associated subjects such as bird watching, garden design, etc.
• Garden architects
• Business listings of local gardeners, landscapers, tree surgeons, etc.

Now imagine this targeted specifically at individual countries, although most of the articles would be ubiquitous the advertising and affiliate marketing would be by country (indeed in many countries this could be divided down into regions).

Take into account that to get a landscape architect to design a modestly sized garden and to get the same garden landscaped often is in the 5 figures. A swimming pool can be in the same ballpark, whereby even the most modest shed or greenhouse is in the 3 figures (though these are purchased many thousand times more than swimming pools). So I would hope that with this 'brief' non-exhaustive outline the 'op' will see the value of the domain as it could be as a developed site. (I think I have given enough free ideas anyway. )

To close I would like to stress that this is just my opinion and I am not ridiculing anyone else's opinion.

If the 'op' wishes to discuss the matter further please PM me, I really do not want to be seen as taking over or in some way spamming the thread. :D

 

[Domainace]

I would add that gardening is growing, not for reasons of frugality, but because people are rapidly losing trust in their food supply and want foods they can trust, and because they want fresh foods (herbs, veggies, fruits). And then there are all kinds of hobby gardeners, with trees, flowers, etc. An awful lot of relatively wealthy people take up gardening as well.

It's probably cheaper to buy veggies at the supermarket than to grow them on a small scale for personal use. Bald One left off the annual expenses - including compost, seeds, fertilizer, etc

 

[Horizonconcepts]

As said already,get on to Rick or Adam Dicker,Andrew Rosener these guys are hooked up,and point you in the right direction,with a name like that,you should have the best brokers in the industry after you,IF you donot want to sell,to develop,you could partner with any of the above to finance the site,ads,etc etc etc,to maximise it.

 

[buyselldoms]

Low to mid 6 figures. Its a nice domain although I think it has limited potential for an ecommerce website. I have actually purchased gardening materials online so its use wouldn't be far fetched but people would typically jump in the car to the nearest gardening, diy/home improvement, supermarket or hardware store.

A better idea for use would be a gardening resource website (portal) ... although the value would be less as it would cost a bomb to develop a 100,000+ page website with how-tos from people who know about gardening. It would be one hell of a community website of people sharing photos of their gardens and learning how to improve their gardening, discover new types of plants etc

 

[capiche]

I'm with the middle of the road crowd. It IS an awesome domain with many possibilities, and one of the best I've seen on NP. But I think a realistic value would be around 200-250k. That is to a very motivated end-user. If the planets align, perhaps a little more.

Best of luck with it. I hope you get the most for it.

 

[enlytend]

One thing occurred to me on this - this domain without the "ing" (don't want to post it in case they have alerts set up for mentions of their name ) is an ecomm site owned by a company which runs several other keyword domain ecomm sites. They're using a tm in their logo. USPTO shows a tm application for the name (with the .com) which appears to have been cancelled in 2008 (and was filed by a well-known plant and seed supplier, who doesn't appear to be associated with the present site.) - IANAL, just a head's up!
Lots of awesome development opportunities (I kind of like the idea of a big niche authority site - quality articles, how-to's, news and advice, revenue from ads and possibly value-added subscriptions). Of course a potential buyer would have to factor in costs to develop, market and run the site into their budget along with purchase price of the domain ...

 

[tomcarl]

A lot of people said 5 figures = nah
Don't take less than $100,000k on this one, and even at that price buyer is getting a good deal.

 

[DomainEmpire.com]

We've received an unexpected amount of positive feedbacks from multiple forums and channels in the latest 48h about Gardening.com and we thank you all for letting us know your honest opinion about it.
We're not yet sure about its future, we'll decide within September what doing with it, if developing, renting, considering joint-ventures or selling but for sure we'll keep updated all people who inquired about it privately.

We're also taking a note about all those who showed interest in a possible future cooperation: should we move in this direction, we'll study a genuine partnership proposal which will guarantee a fair and permanent profit to any of the involved parties.

We've appreciated all of your opinions, maybe sometimes "a bit too optimistic" but surely we'll keep them all into serious consideration before taking a final decision about our domain.

We'll surely make our decision public for next September to get involved anyone with an interest in the domain, to help us selling, renting, looking for new partners or to gather some targeted content and ideas for a possible development at mutual advantage.

 

[TheBaldOne]

"DomainEmpire" - Good luck to you.