For Domainers (advanced topic): So, what does it take to justify buying a domain?

Well, this topic may not be that advanced, but some of the concepts may be new to someone outside the domainer/domaining world. Basically, a process I apply (which may be a secret to some domainers or something they might not like to share so eagerly) to purchasing domain names is:

1) simply conducting a keyword search to see how often it it it is searched monthly. Of course if no one is searching for the phrase, it probably doesn't justify buying it because that's the primary indicator there' s no interest in it. There's a reason why Sex.com sold for $12 million. It's regularly the #1 or #3 searched term on the Internet. Make sure you check "unfiltered" on any site that helps you figure out what search words are the top words if you want doublecheck this somewhat known fact.
2) if it is popular, I evaluate to see if the people who would "directly navigate" to this domain by typing in the words and then adding ".com" to the end of it would actually see something they might want to click on for a domainer to monetize it.

However, the question I pose to domainers and experts out there in the field is how many searches justifies making efforts in creating a website around it. One hundred (100) searches a month? 1000 searches? The latter is not as common as the former in terms of actual statistics. So, how do you know if you are looking at domains that appear like "diamonds" (diamond.com coincidentally sold for $7.5 million dollars) or "gold"? Is it when you see a phrase that's searched 1000 times a month and the domain is still available? Hhow about the lower end of 100? How about 300?

It's a question that needs to be verified & I'll pose it to some common domainers and key figures in the domaining business. Look for a follow up on this post later on.