DuiAttorney.com — worth 7 figures? Yea, ok..
So apparently the domain + existing 1 – 2 year old “business” over at DuiAttorney.com sold for 7 figures. I voiced my 2c worth over at Elliot’s Blog who broke the news of this sale and there seems to be a big debate. So lets see… Was it a good deal? Depends who you ask 
Head on over to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and see for yourself:
[dui attorney] global searches = 3,600 / month and 2,900 / month in the US. DUI lawyer/s doesn’t really do any better either.
If you ask me, I think the buyer overpaid big time, anything over $1.5M and even $1M as it will take him a long time to recoup that large of a sum, and the seller got away like a bandit… Good for him. Scored a great deal!
DUI Attorney’s don’t make a killing with their cases like injury lawyers, divorce, corporate, etc… They are probably very busy however, but in the same category as immigration, bankruptcy, etc… Which is a few thousand worth in fees after all said and done.
Gotta have some balls to drop 7 figures on a website/business that looks like it was put together in as little as 1 – 2 weeks… Not sure what it has going for it other than the “category leading” domain name, and some 1 year old search engine rankings for some terms which generate only a few thousand searches per month.
Wish the new owners all of the best. We shall re-visit this in a year or two and see where they are at… Lets just hope there isn’t a parking page on this awesome domain, which everybody is so stuck on and in-love with all of the sudden… This is probably one of the best buys of all-time?! Not!! LOL!
If I had a 7 figure budget for this kind of a venture, I’d rather acquire duiattorneys.com or duilawyer.com or duilawyers.com for much less and spend all that cash on a nice proper website, marketing, etc… But to each his own 
But anyways, what do YOU think? Is it worth 7 figures??! Where is all the value in this sale? What am I missing? Lets hear it… Please “enlighten me” ya’ll.
The name obviously is not the driving factor, neither is the site… it all comes down to the current contracted sales. In the blog post it sales the site was sold for a very low sales multiple figure.
So if I could buy something today for $2MM which is going to generate $500k in sales (with minimal expenses) every year that is a good deal.
The question is whether the sales continue into the future now that the website has been sold. No way to tell this unless you can see the financials and the contracts.
So in the end, no way to know if this was a wise move or not.
“The question is whether the sales continue into the future now that the website has been sold. No way to tell this unless you can see the financials and the contracts.”
Exactly… The business is too immature, barely 1 year old
Odds are greater that it will crash and burn rather than flourish anytime soon, or at least recoup the original investment, but whatever… The new owners got a lot of work to do. Hopefully they got their shit together and have a business plan.
Am I completely off base in registering these domains?
DrugDefense.in
DrugDefense.org
DrugImpaired.ca
DrugImpaired.co.uk
DrugImpaired.com
DrugImpaired.net
Drug-Impaired.com
DrugImpairedDriving.com
DUID.ca
DUID.co.uk
DUID.info
DUIDAttorney.net
DUIDAttorneys.com
DUIDDefense.com
DUIDDefense.net
DUIDDefenseAttorney.com
DUIDDefenseAttorneys.com
DUIDDefenseLawyer.com
DUIDDefenseLawyers.com
DUIDLawyer.net
DUIDLawyers.com
Robert McLean
You should always ask these types of questions BEFORE registering the domains
Now, reality is, you are stuck with them… Hopefully you got a plan and can do something with them.
Totally agree with you Mike.
I regged all my great names with wisps of ideas as I saw them dropping … now … agonizing over what to let drop and what to re-reg
Well the buyers don’t seem to be wet-behind-the-ears when it comes to good domains and websites. Spending that kind of cash, they must have done some due diligence and know what they are getting into.
Kind of like when Hallpass Media spent 6 figures on CookingGames.com – to many it looked like a high price, but Hallpass knows their business and what the domain could do for them.
‘DUI Attorney’ will likely stay a hot keyword term for many years, and with the buyers experience in building websites for generic terms, they can probably enhance the value.
Remember we are talking the legal business here, and this website and directory can be used by people in every state and every city in America. Many businesses normally sell for 10x to 20x earnings in the ‘real world’, but I know waiting 10 or 20 years to get your money back in the online world seems like an eternity – lol.
Only 1 – 2 years old?…
…Groupon.com is only 2 years old – and they’re doing $100m pa + just turned down a $6 billon offer from Google…..So how long DUIAttorney.com’s been around is totally irrelevant.
The name ‘Groupon’, is pretty ordinary, too – and I wouldn’t have paid reg fee for it, either….LOL
So….The argument you advance against a 7 figure value to DUIAttorney.com is nonsense…
…Its ALL in the numbers the business is doing – and its potential into the future – and you do NOT know what those are.
Not sure how duiattorney.com and groupon are similar that you are trying to make a comparison… They are not even %.0000000000001 remotely close to be even put in the same sentence! lol.
Well, I chuckled when I heard of this sale. My first reaction was that the buyers must be crazy. But then again, I realized that there is indeed a real business behind the name, so the whole transaction should be viewed as something of a corporate takeover.
From a business point of view, the buyers would have done their due diligence before making the offer to buy. They would have taken into account the monthly income generated by the business. And if this income can produce a nice profit after deducting all the overheads, including the monthly loan repayments, month after month, then I would say that this is a calculated risk that will actually turn out to be a great investment.
I like the name DuiAttorney.com, of course I would have liked it a whole lot more if it was mine and I was popping the cork after that escow payment cleared.
@trickytobeat a few of your .com names might cover the money you are going to lose on the other extensions that you registered. I also have no idea what DUID is?
Good Luck.
From the looks of it, this article inspired another domainer to register questionable domains. I would commission another writer, or to personally take on the writing task to make back at least the cost of registration.
I find it all too common where domainers will register names similar to DNJ sales, or when another writer analyzes a particular sale. The slighest variance in the name will deem the lot a tough investment.
As for the $1+ million sales of DUIAttorney.com, the high purchase price was probably due to recent .co and .org sales in the similar category, paid web directory customers, unique traffic, and many other reasons. The names is definitely brandable. I like the singular domain versions, but the plural can also work, as well. I find names with less than 1,000 local searches scoring higher clicks than those with thousands of clicks.
It really depends on the owner. If they plan to continue using the directory, to prepare relevant content, use adwords, hire SEO services, and to focus on growing the site, then the invest is well worth the cost. I don’t think there are too many buyers that spend above a million and worry whether they made a bad investment.
Groupon spends a ton on advertising. Even though the company was originally purchased for $200K, they have to pump in a lot of money, time, and effort to build the site. I always receive Groupin emails, which I have no clue how they find my email address.
However, there’s a major difference between a name in one niche as opposed to one in another. DUI Attorney is highly competitive and has a high CPC. The site’s unique traffic is estimated at 24,000K. The page views are eqaual to the unique, suggesting that visitors are not looking for information other than finding a local DUI attorney. The local searches are actually at 74,000 per month. Many people need a DUI attorney after their second and third DUI, or else their looking at a heavy sentence.
I would look into Traffic Attorney, GEO attorney and lawyer domain names, trademark lawyer or attorney related names, and divorce attorney/lawyer names. You can probably find data to determine the demand for every category. The divorce rate is high. IMO, DUI cases are common, but traffic attorneys and lawyers seem to be in higher demand.
My reference to Groupon was ONLY in relation to Wanna Develop’s basis of criticism of the DUIAttorney.com deal – ie that DUIAttorney.com was only 1-2 years old – and that the name wasn’t a top premium domain name.
The Groupon example shows that the length of time a business has been around is irrelevant….And, it shows that not having a premium name is no bar to building a high value business quickly, either.
This DUIAttorney.com deal for 7 figures all depends on what the actual business revenue numbers are now – and what the potential future revenue is…….My point is, Wanna Develop shouldn’t publicly criticise – or question – a deal when he has NO idea what those numbers are.
… ok blah blah
We will agree to disagree. Don’t have a heart attack my friend! All is well. Moving on..
I can confirm that a great company bought a great business asset in this transaction, and that there was extensive due diligence from both sides. Innovation HQ is an awesome company to work with, and Brian is a very smart guy with a lot of character and business sense.
BTW, DUID stands for “Driving Under the Influence of Drugs.” It is not a very commonly used acronym, and hence why there are a lot of good domains that contain it still in the wild.
Of course we wouldn’t expect to hear otherwise from you… Gotta be a great deal
If it’s not a secret, which really it shouldn’t be since all of the info is already public… Just to save us some time, can you share how many advertisers total are there on the site currently and what does it cost to lock in exclusivity for county or state.
Thanks a lot for sharing this with all of us you actually know what you are talking about! Bookmarked.
What about DWI?
I just got my hands on dwilawyer.org and registered dwi-lawyer.co trying to set up two leadgen sites on these domains but I have absolutely no idea if that will bring in any cash.
I’ll let you know once the first bucks come in.
DuiAttorney.com is more than relevant then you can imagine.
Mentally – take into account the kinds of people that will be searching for DUI Attorneys, careless people that got caught doing something they could of avoided.
Ok, so they visit a site like that in desperation for a DUI attorney in their state. Now when there conversating with there friends and there laughing over how scared they were – its so easy to drop
I went on duiattorney.com
Who wouldn’t remember that name?
I think people should spend time in understanding SEO than simply domaining.
Its a very generic name, that if you did a search for you will see that the most prominent places in the world that have the highest DUI cases – search for DUI Attorney
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=dui%20attorney&geo=US&cmpt=q
Google’s Keyword Tool is by far a poor estimation for setting a number as to how many potential searches a word or phrase gets.
There’s many side doors for names that don’t get any searches, looking at the related keywords to a name in Google’s eyes – lets you know how many phrases your site could target and rank for happily.
If i was to rank for everything related and everything relevant to DUI Attorney – in relatively a worthwhile time i could be the immediate choice based on the title i went with for the most prominent places that DUI attorneys in America make the most cash or want more advertisement.
Its an evergreen domain name, there’s so many other related money hungry niches that are evergreen that you can link to and formulate an empire of domains and then sell collectively – rather than just one domain name. The thoughts are endless
If you want real advice on domains to register – follow this site
http://www.spyfu.com/TopList.aspx?listId=3
Highest cost per clicks, although DUI is not as prominent as it was a few months back – everything has its cycle and if you know the underground process of finding the best and most relevant domain names – you really could have a small domain portfolio that would be worth as much as those that reg anything and everything in site.
Advice, get pally with someone that works in the stock market and let them divulge whats really going on throughout the year – and you will soon start to see and understand relevancy with generic domain names.
I have a DUI domain name myself, its tempting – to either fill it with human generated content or sell it. Choices are endless.
Fill it with content and rank for the top 20 most prominent in demand DUI services in the states and then contact each firm individually….
And i sure would be getting way more than 3500 searches a month – and thats all just from SEO