I spent most of the past year building a bankroll to buy some solid domain names. Names that have value unto themselves but also the ability to generate cash flow. Along the way I’ve realized that too many domainers hold an enormous amount of absolute junk. Junk that is not going to serve them well, no matter how long they hold.
Who am I to say what is junk? I can answer this one pretty easily. I am the person that the internet is trying to reach. I have money and use the internet daily in my life. The internet is a pretty simple concept. People reach a domain either by typing it in or finding it through a third party. You are looking for domain that will give an extra boost in the quest to reach those visitors. The domains I see most people owning are giving absolutely no help. That’s why a domain has value, no more, no less. Here are a few signs your name sucks
1. You have to tell people what it could stand for. If the post offering the domain for sale has a “could stand for” in the title, drop the domain value to almost nothing.
2. You have a tld that I’ve never heard of. If I have never heard of it then I can guarantee most of the world hasn’t heard of it. You’re going to need a heck of a website to offset that crazy country code
3. You have a hack. You know what hack stands for? I’m going to give a lot of traffic to the dot com. There is a reason the successful hacked domain websites end up buyin the dot com. Hacks are for hacks
4. You have two word domains where the two words don’t many any sense together or even by themselves. WealthilyCatholics.com is yes, two dictionary terms, but together they make no sense, and wealthily for that matter isn’t that strong
5. Any brandable domain that isn’t a dot com is worthless. If it’s brandable why in the world would you brand anything but the dot com and if the dot com is already branded, then obviously it’s not your brand anymore.
6. Anything with two hypens in a row. One hyphen can work but two hypens in a row? Worthless. or should I say worth–less
7. Backwards keywords. Some say Google doesn’t know the difference, I think they do. I know the domains make no sense. I know people may be looking for “little black dress” but do you really want the name dressblacklittle.com? This is a time when you have to take valuate and estibot estimate with a grain of salt.
8. Anything dot mx. I can guarantee you that no Americans are typing this in. Heck, even Mexicans barely use it. I think these have very little value
9. You combine more than two of the above. “YROUYMTT.mx Could stand for “You Really Open Up Your Mouth This Time” Very popular Mexican Saying” You laugh but these types of names come up all the time.
“You have to tell people what it could stand for.”
LOL. Love this one because people can come up with some funny phrases to try and make sense out of a domain.
#4 – Yes, I see a lot of that too with some pointless combinations.
#7. Backwards keywords. – It’s true: Google will still give value under certain circumstances even if the keywords are mixed. Using your example, a better combination would be “black little dress” for “little black dress”. It still makes sense for users and it can still get those keywords.
You hit the nail on the head!
In defense of Estibot:
$20 dress black little
$120 black little dress
$21,000 little black dress
…but it’s still a valid point. We’ve all seen wack sequences of words with inflated prices.
Exactly… there are SO many distractions in this market it can be hard at times to keep focused on the prize which still remains .COM, short+catchy, type-ins and names that have “gravity”. The more limited your budget is, the less time/money you should put into buying “bad” or speculative domains and instead work on getting the few — or even just one — really good .COM.
Awesome title and a great post. Maybe there should be an annual “evaluate your portfolio day” where we all go through and drop domains that suck. Pass your portfolio to the domainer to your right and scratch out the crappy names.
Love the title!
The truth is, there is no sure recipe to succeed with domains. There are numerous recipes for disaster though 😀
TGIF!
A lot of valid points but domains that look like crap sell every week in the dnjournal report, when they wouldn’t sell for $10 in a forum. You just never know what is treasure to someone else, though there are steps you can take to get better quality names for sure. The biggest thing I see in forum domain sales are people who say a short domain is pronouncable, but in reality it isn’t!