Your domain name is the .com, .net, .org or some other dot something that people use to get to your web site.
A group of investors headed by Jake Weinbaum (the guy behind Disney’s go.com) paid $7.5 million for the name Business.com back in 1999, aiming to make it a showcase B2B site. Yes, it’s a terrific name — short, sort of descriptive and easy to remember.
Each year for 15 years the first $500K in profit goes toward amortizing the cost of that domain name. That could also pay for a terrific affiliate program, a truckload of banner and PPC advertising, and a nice BMW lease for Mr. Weinbaum (who probably doesn’t need a BMW).
But the Business.com thing has set off a wave of domain name speculation that staggers the mind. People are snapping up domain names and ransoming them off to wide-eyed entrepreneurs with business plans and dreams of riches. Being a hardcore capitalist I am torn about domain name speculation — I am tempted to applaud the person making a buck by getting there first and grabbing up the good names, but I am annoyed at the restraint of commerce that takes place while someone negotiates with one of these guys to get the right name.
So if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa, most of them should be easy to remember names, right? I would argue that only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.
I keep hearing that the reason these so-called generic or descriptive domain names are so valuable is that some people just type domain names into the address bar of their browser rather than using a search engine. I find it hard to believe that someone looking for information on a particular business would type in www.business.com. Furthermore, if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.
I wondered how many people actually type in their address bar (address bar?) instead of using a search engine anyway.
What makes me believe that people typing stuff into their address bar doesn’t happen much is this simple fact. In other words, instead of typing in http://www.ebay.com, people Goggled EBay and clicked on one of the results. That is absolutely hysterical.
If your domain name can get the minority of people who just type into their address bar to your website without a search engine, its worth more than someone who can’t.
Here are some of the legendary domain name sales in the past several years.
$14,000,000 – 2006 – sex.com
$7,500,000 – 1999 – business.com
$5,500,000 – 2003 – casino.com
$5,000,000 – 2002 – asseenontv.com
$5,000,000 – 1999 – korea.com
$3,500,000 – 1996 – worldwideweb.com
$3,350,000 – 1999 – altavista.com
$3,300,000 – 1999 – wine.com
$3,000,000 – 1999 – eshow.com
$3,000,000 – 1999 – loans.com
$2,750,000 – 2004 – creditcards.com
All of these with the exception of eshow.com (computer networking) should get address bar traffic, because people who type will type in the descriptive names — if I’m looking for sex-related stuff, I’ll type in sex.com. If you’re selling something on asseenontv.com that nets you $25, you’ll need to sell 200,000 of those George Foreman grills just to pay for your domain name.
It also dawned on me that if you pay $12,000,000 for sex.com, the free publicity generated is probably also worth millions.
So now everyone gets dollar signs in their eyes and thinks they can make a million with their domain name. Some examples of listing on EBay while ago.
6usiness.com (yes, that’s a 6) – $7,000,000
ajobformom.com – $3,500,000
Exbay.com – $1,000,000
Well, there’s some good news and some bad news.
You can choose a pretty good domain name, put together some terrific content, employ some simple Search Engine Optimization and buy some keywords or exchange some links and you have a pretty good chance of getting people to your site the first time. Since most of them are coming via a search engine they’re not going to notice your domain name until they get there anyway, so your domain name means the same thing (nothing) to the majority of people using the search engine.
One last thing: if you’re hoping to be close to the top in the search results (the so-called organic SEO), having your keywords in the name of your website gives you a huge boost. In this case, Google ignores TLD unless you tell it otherwise.
So if you think getting near the top of the organic search results is more important than having someone type your name directly into the address bar (and you very well could be right), then grab yourkeyword.cc or yourkeyword.to. I’ve done it, and I’ve suggested it to others.
No matter how great your name is, if the content is lousy they won’t come back anyway.
So should you buy a domain name?
I bought the name because I liked it, I liked the number of incoming links to it, and I felt comfortable paying for it. I would try to come up with my own name before I bought someone else’s
Try to go with a .com. It’s the name everyone associates with the Internet. Any other Top Level Domain (TLD) like .org or .net is just going to confuse people, unless it sounds better than the .com. For example, if you are about networking or a network, a .net is more natural. If your site is informational, you should use .info if it sounds okay. Hands down the most ingenious use of a TLD is del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. The use of the .us TLD is absolutely brilliant.
If it’s a choice between this-domain.com, thisdomain123.com and thisdomain.net, take the .net. No one remembers to put the dashes or the numbers in, unless they are an integral part of the name like studio54.com or e-books.com.
Remember, every additional letter is a potential typing error.
If you have a domain name that needs to be reinforced, get a good logo and sprinkle it liberally on your web site, along with some slogan that will reinforce the name in people’s minds.
If you can save a few bucks with your own domain name or by buying a cheaper domain name, do it, and use the money to get yourself placed higher in the search results or Ad sense placement.
If you can’t come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way. Depending on your site’s focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people’s minds, get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing.
Ask your wife, friend, boyfriend, husband, dog, lawyer, associate, Mom, Dad, cousin, uncle, Police Chief, blog writer.
There’s more good news though — in the real world most domain names sell for $1,000 or less.
Go to a site that sells domain names, and put in a word that describes your business. See if the name is taken (it probably will be). Open your word processor or go to thesaurus.com and put the word in. If there’s a .com available and it looks good, grab it. If not, add the word site or blog or online to your word, and see if that works. Don’t wait.
If you want something a little more sophisticated there are several sites that are good for helping you come up with a name.
Search for a word that describes what you think people will associate the name of your site with, and see what pops up.
Domain Name Journal tracks domain name sales. Going there is always fun.
We all know that in the world of domain names today, the presence of the DNS domain name system is very much significant. It is interesting to know that the acronym DNS actually stands for Domain Name System/Service/Server.
Domain names are the hottest net-real-estate on the internet. It’s no wonder services like: “Domain Name Back-ordering” is available to the public. Can someone really back-order your domain right from underneath you? Guess again…
