Screencasting.com: Aaron Francis's $5,000 'Steal' That Defined His Brand
Aaron Francis makes a living teaching developers through screencasts. So when he found Screencasting.com available for $5,000 in 2022, the decision was obvious.
Two years later, he looks back on the purchase with one thought: "What a steal!"
The Screencaster
Aaron Francis has built his career around creating high-quality educational screencasts for developers. His courses on Laravel, databases, and web development have reached thousands of developers looking to level up their skills.
But in the education space, credibility is everything. When you're asking developers to invest time and money in your courses, every signal matters. Your website, your production quality, your domain name—they all contribute to whether someone trusts you enough to click "buy."
Aaron understood this. If he was going to build a brand around screencasting, he needed a domain that immediately communicated what he does.
The Perfect Domain
Screencasting.com is exactly what it sounds like: the definitive domain for screencasting. It's generic enough to represent an entire category, but specific enough to immediately tell visitors what they'll find.
For Aaron, it was perfect. The domain wasn't just a URL—it was a statement: "This is the home of screencasting."
When he found it available on Afternic.com in 2022, listed at $5,000 through GoDaddy's Buy Now pricing, he didn't hesitate. No negotiation needed. No drawn-out bidding war. Just a straightforward purchase of a domain that was exactly what he needed.
The $5,000 Decision
$5,000 is real money for most independent creators. It's not pocket change. For a bootstrapped course creator, spending $5,000 on a domain means that money isn't going toward marketing, production equipment, or any of the other costs of running an education business.
But Aaron saw it as an investment, not an expense. The domain would:
- Establish instant credibility: Screencasting.com signals authority in the space
- Improve SEO: Exact-match domains still carry weight in search rankings
- Simplify branding: The domain is self-explanatory and memorable
- Support future growth: Whether launching new courses or expanding his business, the domain scales
The domain wasn't just supporting his current courses—it was infrastructure for everything he'd build in the future.
The Value Multiplier
After purchasing Screencasting.com, Aaron built it into the hub for his screencasting courses and content. The domain became synonymous with his brand and his teaching.
What makes a domain valuable isn't just the name—it's what you do with it. Aaron used Screencasting.com to:
- Host his premium courses
- Build authority in the developer education space
- Create a memorable brand that developers trust
- Rank well for screencasting-related searches
The domain amplified everything else he was doing. His production quality was already excellent. His teaching was already effective. But now he had a domain that made all of it more discoverable, more credible, and more professional.
The Retrospective
In 2024, looking back on the purchase, Aaron's assessment was simple: "ikr" (I know, right) to someone calling it "what a steal!"
And they're right. At $5,000, Screencasting.com was dramatically underpriced for what it represents. Category-defining domains like this typically sell for five or six figures. Aaron got it for a fraction of that.
More importantly, the domain has paid for itself many times over in the credibility, traffic, and brand equity it's provided. When potential students search for screencasting resources, they find Screencasting.com. When developers want to learn through video, they remember the domain that literally describes what they're looking for.
For a screencaster building an education business, Screencasting.com wasn't just a good domain—it was the right domain. And at $5,000, Aaron got it for a steal.
You can follow Aaron Francis on Twitter at @aarondfrancis to learn more about his screencasting courses and insights on developer education.