Criteria: Common Factors to consider when appraising a domain name

[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.