Here are 7 Things I Think About For When Selecting “Premium” 5L dot coms

I have received a lot of emails over the last week regarding 5 letter dot coms and asking me to do a post on how I value them and suggest a good place to sell them.  5 letter dot coms like 4 letter dot coms,  are very hard to value.  While I can’t put a value on “premium” 5Ls I will tell you what I think puts a 5L into the premium category.  I put all 5Ls in the premium category as $100 to $1000 in the reseller market.  The end user values are endless, it all depends on how much someone is willing to pay.  What I can do here is tell you what I think has value and what is junk.   I will add this, most 5 letter dot coms are junk.  I repeat…… are junk….worth a reg fee.

First of all,  this post excludes all dictionary words as they have their own value and it’s above and beyond normal pricing.  It’s not to say that a good “regular” 5L can’t be worth more but in general, they are much more valuable.  Here are the things I look for when putting a name into the premium category.

1. You want a name that cannot be misspelled.  All names that end in “i”, all sound alike spellings, all phonetically wrong names, if there is any chance that someone is going to spell it wrong when you say it out loud then your name’s value has taken a tumble.  As seen in an earlier post today, someone sent me a name they thought was great “Fuxus.com”   Say it aloud and two MAJOR problems.  Spelled phonetically wrong and would you really want to buy from a company whose name is pronounced “fuc#$ us”

2. Names that have the last three letters end in a repeating consonant followed by a “Y”, “O” or “U”  ie   kibbo, kibby, kubbu, do very well in the sales

3.  Names that have no connotation are more valuable.  I find that companies or people that want to start companies want name that will not brand them.  They want to brand the name not have the name tell the world what they do.  It is OK to have a name have meaning but it can’t be too constricting.  Helpo is a good name but it will have to be a company that helps or does good will.  It would be a tough name to use sell gloves. Kibby would work fine

4. The amount of results on Google does not put value but if you find that many people like to use that word as a screen name or it’s a last name then you have a better chance of selling it for more money

5.  Three consonants together is bad.  I can’t think of any name of value with three in a row.

6. Names that start in “i” are harder to sell.  Although the ihand and all the “i” products are great for Apple, companies don’t want names starting with “i” because in today’s world it makes you think of Apple.  Not a bad thing but if you are trying to be your own brand, you are not separating yourself very well with this type of name. Of course, there is some reseller value and many people think they may be able to have the name of the next big Apple device coming out later.  Other than that, names that start with “i” are too soft.  ififi and ilolo are examples of names that have no strength as a brand name

7.  A repeating vowel of “o” or “e” in the name seem to do well.  ie loopy or weeba

Obviously, there are a million exceptions to these rules and those that fit this category aren’t necessarily valuable,  but it provides a good starting point.   95% of the names that get sent to me for evaluation are just not that good but on the positive side, the ones that are seem to be fetching $500-$2000 on Sedo.