Criteria: Common Factors to consider when appraising a domain name

[jeremiah]

I always wondered about this, because we always ask for an appraisal and people come and appraise. Most of the times appraised values are off the right value. While I am not demanding for the right value of the domain name in question but I do want the appraisal to be with tolerance that tolerance may be +/- 20% of the possible selling price.

That said this is how I appraise a domain name:
1) TLD of the domain
2) Generic nature and direct navigation probability and Traffic(available stats). Will also consider and evaluate the traffic source, that whether the traffic will last or is it just a temporary trend
3) Keyword value of the domain
4) Brandability
5) Comparing the domain to similar previous sales

These are the main things I look at when appraising a domain name. I will appreciate others methods too as they will be very useful when evaluating or appraising domain names. Please share your thoughts!

[Eve]

Length. One to two simple words work well.

[jeremiah]

Length. One to two simple words work well.

That is the part that makes it hard to judge a value but great point Eve. Some don't see brandability unless the concept is already developed for long tailed domains, or unless the long tailed keyword is an obvious one. Some valuable domains may also consist of 'stop words' which may drop the name value a little for the additional characters but hold almost or very close to the equivalent seo weight in the serps as the name with no stop words. Food for thought none the less.

Additionally, I also look at space for development. If I think the name could be an asset developed rather than resold, I might cough up a bit more for it. I may also look at the age of the domain and the existing PageRank of the domain.

[WhiteHatCrew]

Shorter it is, easier it is to remember are two big factors for me.