What's your experience with these type of domains both for resale value AND for seo ranking for that specific phrase. I know personally, when I am looking to buy something I always type in "buy macbook pro" or "buy <anything>" into Google so naturally, ranking a domain on the first page for that phrase and using amazon affiliates, etc. sounds like a good idea, but am I missing something? Does Google have something against these type of domain names for ranking purposes?
Doesn't sound like your missing anything... holding all else constant, there's nothing search engines would hold against these domains. If anything, due to the emd + age of domain (because they are a little more premium), you'd think they would be given a little more preferential treatment by search engines (to whatever extent). Resale value...just think if you were a business selling a specific item. You may want it for any potential seo benefit, expanding online, maybe it's your business's motto (or variant). I know when ever I'm shopping for something I'll typically do a similar "buy" search, so having the domain can be a justifiable acquisition...but from a "stand-alone" branding perspective, I'm not a huge fan. I think it sounds a little tooo "pushy", but certainly still has it's value...
emd + age + whatever. at the end of the day it does not matter. What matters is if you have the ability, skill to make something happen. emd+age does not equate to success, in fact far from it. I have seen total crap domains have success, and total great domains fall into the pit. It was not the domain that failed, it was the owner...
I agree with you 100%, but from a developer standpoint, not a domain investor. I would much rather spend $20k on developed site w/ revenue that let's say "sells tickets", or "BuyTickets.com". But from a standalone domain, I wouldn't spend $20k on "123whateverrrr.com", in the hopes of building a site that revolved around buying tickets. It just wouldn't make any sense. So, a potential buyer for a domain would look at exact searches (potential type-in traffic) and the age of the domain (at least the domain's history) to come to conclusion on what that domain is worth. If I ran a business that sold tickets online, I would want the domain BuyTickets.com, not for any added SEO value, but just because it's my stake online (and the reasons listed above). A website is an idea developed. A domain w/o a site is just a potential idea. There's not much in the way of tangible evidence for the value of a potential idea (speaking strictly w/ domains). I could buy BuyTickets.com, open it up for funding, but express to the potential investors that I have absolutely no idea of what I would do with. So in that sense, the domain is really only worth the 20k I payed for it (probably less). But... to maximize my chances of success, I'm going to choose a domain that has some quality statistics to back it up, from a domain investor perspective. And those statistics would include the exact searches and the age of the domain.
Thanks for the reply guys; That's interesting since I wouldn't have asked this question 5 years ago but Ive been out of the internet marketing stage for a few year and with all the Google updates, I was unsure if there's something I was missing. I came across this blog post http://www.nichepursuits.com/goodbye-exact-match-domains-hello-brandable-websites/ which basically claims that have an emd makes no difference to Google anymore and that seems like a shame. I guess we'll see more and more emds available for registration now as their value goes down.