#1 Tip: A domain is only worth what someone else will pay for it. Below are just some of the numerous points that should be considered when appraising a domain name. Please feel free to critique, add on on, or give me green rep for this post. Thank you and I hope this will be useful to many. Its best to value a domain based on the following items (in no particular order): 1.length length is one of the most important factors in determining value. The general rule is the longer the name, the less valuable it will. 2.Extension the extension is also one of the most important factors in determining value. .COM has had the dominance for years, but .us, .net, .org, and .info are also other alternatives. You can check out recent sales to see if people are buying your extension http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm 3.brandability Another very important factor in determining a names value. A great example would be google.com. Brandable and easy to remember. help.com is much better than zqpo.com. 4.Commercialability When a domain is commerciable, its value will increase significantly. For example, shop.com over free.com. 5.google results Type your name in google.com with Ҡaround the name for the results. For example, forexample.com would return: Results 1 - 10 of about 991,000,000 for "for example". The more results returned, the great in price the name will be. 6.yahoo results Type your name in yahoo.com with Ҡaround the name for the results. For example, forexample.com would return: 1 - 10 of about 252,000,000 for "for example". The more results returned, the great in price the name will be. 7.msn results Type your name in msn.com with Ҡaround the name for the results. For example, forexample.com would return: "for example" Page 1 of 89,319,206 results. The more results returned, the great in price the name will be. 8.Overture / Wordtracker Go to http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/ and type your domain. For “webhosting.comâ€, type “web hostingâ€. Overture will usually display more results (our example shows MUCH more), as it logs more searches than wordtracker, but wordtracker will log singular/plural differences and word order, which overture does not do. More searches = more value. 9.Pagerank Type the url at http://www.urltrends.com. More backlinks will increase the value of the name. 10.traffic If a name already has some traffic, it's value is increased quite a bit. http://www.alexa.com can give some hint as to the traffic, but it's best to get actual stats from the seller. 11.backlinks in google Type the url at http://www.urltrends.com. More backlinks will increase the value of the name. 12.backlinks in yahoo Type the url at http://www.urltrends.com. More backlinks will increase the value of the name. 13.backlinks in msn Type the url at http://www.urltrends.com. More backlinks will increase the value of the name. 14.Availability of other extensions This point is huge and one many appraisers forget. I like to use http://www.pcnames.com and type the name in to see if other extensions are available. If they are, the name value is slightly decreased (one can easily register the same name with a different extension for under $10). 15.age This one is pretty simple. The older the domain (without dropping) the more valuable it becomes. 16.any numbers Numbers will generally decrease the value in a name. For example, 1call.com is worth less than onecall.com. 17.odd characters (such as -) Odd characters really hurt name values. For example, domain-name.com is worth much less than domainname.com. 18.dictionary word (s) The name increases in value if it is listed in the dictionary. A great online dictionary is http://dictionary.reference.com/. 19.DMOZ listed A DMOZ listed name usually gives it a strong PR backlink and adds some value to it. Usually depends on the category and pagerank of the category. Generally add $50 to $100 to the value. 20.Yahoo! Directory listed Much like DMOZ listed, Yahoo! Directory ads to the value. Generally add $50 to $100 to the value. 21.trademark violation A domain that violates a trademark GREATLY reduces its value. Many times this can be considered cybersquatting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting. A search for US trademarks can be done at: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=dvpllq.1.1