In some of my previous postings (such as Are Premium Domains Worth It and 2012 – A Year Of Failures), I wrote about how hardly any of the domains I bought to flip or develop in the past few years have made any money, so I was done with that. So to start the new year, I took the next logical step in the advancement of my business, and bought another big domain (BrainTumors.com). Why did I dive back in you might ask? I have no good reason, other than I can’t help myself. The allure of creating another high ranking money making site was just too much for me to resist.
It started when I was scanning Godaddy.com’s auction site (of domains that are about to expire because the owner did not pay the bill) and saw the minimum bid for BrainTumors.com was only $300. I figured for that price, I couldn’t lose, so I put in a bid. I decided I would go up to $1000 for it. Why was I reading the Godaddy.com auction list in the first place, you might ask, when I was not looking to buy any more domains? That is just what an addict does. Soon the price of BrainTumors.com reached $1,000 and I decided, well, I will go up a few hundred dollars more since it is still a good deal. One thing led to another and in a frenzy of bidding activity, I finally won the auction at $6,600.
I still consider BrainTumors.com to be a great deal at $6,600. It is appraised for $67,000 at estibot.com, and sold for $15,900 in 2008. And, the singular version BrainTumor.com sold for $23,444 in 2012. All of those factors indicate the price I paid is good. The reason I wanted this domain in particular is that it is a topic people often research online, so if I can get it listed at the top of the search engines, it will get a lot of traffic. Having the top domain in the industry should help me with that. The topic also has a high paying ad rate in AdSense.
I spent about a week making BrainTumors.com what I think is one of the best sites about brain cancer. Unlike some of the hospital and research sites, my site is better organized and easier to read, and covers a wider range of treatment options. I also spent a long time adding some unique features, such as a playlist (embedded YouTube music videos) of songs about cancer and another playlist of songs to help inspire people during their cancer treatment. Plus I added a page of cancer jokes. Hospital sites don’t usually have stuff like that.
Worst case, I figure that I can always sell the domain for what I paid. There are hundreds of cancer clinics and cancer hospitals around the world, as well as thousands of brain tumor surgeons, who would all want the BrainTumors.com domain. Plus, there are many companies that sell cancer related books, medications, vitamins, videos, and related products. One way or another I am pretty sure I won’t lose money on the deal, so that is why is worth a try.
No offense, but the site looks like it is straight out of the 90’s. When people are looking for info on brain tumors I would guess they want to see a site that looks professional/credible. For something serious like that I want to make sure the site I’m reading stuff on looks like an authority. From the header on down it just doesn’t do it (at least for me) and if you installed Google Analytics I would take an educated guess you’ll get a very high bounce rate as a result of the presentation of the site.
I agree. I just wanted to launch the site as soon as possible so I can get it listed in the search engines. I have never found having a fancy site design makes any difference in search engine rankings. In fact, my simple looking sites usually do better. For a serious topic such as cancer though, having a credible looking site is important.
It probably will get listed in Google fast and near the top, but it won’t stay there if your “bounce rate” is high.
You can keep your site design modern and minimal but you’ll still need to spend time thinking about user experience. The goal should be to help users spending more time on the site and hopefully they’ll be willing to share it with others.
Yes, that is true. I will put Google Analytics and the site and see what the stats show.
Eric,
Good luck with the site – I recently purchased – LungCancer.co.uk and also plan to launch a site on the domain however if it doesn’t take off I think I might donate it to a charity to use instead.
Regards,
Robbie
I donated a medical domain to charity last year and deducted $5000 (the appraised value) for it from my taxes, so keep that in mind.
All these medical term domains are a waste of money
Poeple nowadays are smart enough to go to an AUTHORITATIVE site, not some EMD with a few pages knocked up
As for surgeons wanting it…LOL
Any brain surgeon (by definition, elite) gets more referrals than they can handle.
They don’t need to advertise.
Man, you should know better after all the mishaps with your EMD domains…how there is little correlation with success…
I disagree Aggro. I could see elite surgeons proud of their craft wanting a classy domain. How about medical groups run by top doctors…lots of cash in health care. How about drug companies flush with cash?
“I spent about a week making BrainTumors.com what I think is one of the best sites about brain cancer.”
Eric – that’s classic.
I wish we can find cures for cancer. It’s a terrible disease in all of its form. With all of our advances in medicine and technology, we still don’t have a cure for cancer.
The “advice” give about the site not looking credible or professional is all crap. Hahaha, betting that the bounce rate will be high is equally laughable as advice.
How can you know that? It sounds like something you read on a forum or a blog.
Plain doesn’t equal ugly. And webmasters look at webpages differently than users.
I swear that there is no end to the number of people who play business on the Internet, rather than getting their advice from experience.
My bounce rate for BrainTumors.com is 73.85%. That is about the same as most of my other sites. I think for a site about a serious topic like cancer, having it look nicer can only help. But, I am not selling or promoting anything, so all that really matters is that people get the info they want.
Great name and though your site is not on top at SERP but I think its type-ins are reasonable.
Great post.
High bounce rate isn’t bad it just means that people got what they where looking for on there first search and left.