cygnus007

Hi, I am fairly new to domain business, what i want to know is why is 3 word domain .com worth a lot of money, i mean for even domain like tyh.com that doesnt make any sense can worth a lot of money. If someone can please explain this to me, i would really appreciate it =)

maximum

At the beginning, you could register 1 and 2 character domains in the .net/.org/.com extensions. You no longer can. You can buy them from their current owners, but if they ever expire they are gone for good. Very few of the 260+extensions allow 1-2 character domains. Currently there are only 6 single-character domains in the .com/.net/.org combined (q.com, x.com, z.com, i.net, q.net, x.org) that are registered. The shorter a name, the more rememberable it is, plus the more valuable it is due to rarity (to a point...3-charceters being smallest length still registerable makes them hard to come-by without paying more for them). Assuming A-Z, 0-9, and "-", the possible combinations are such in each extension:
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-newbies/152081-new-in-domain-industry-a-question.html

1-character domains: 34 possible in each extension (only 6 regged in all three top extensions, out of a possible 108)

2-character domains: 1156 possible in each extension, but not available for registration if current one expires and is "drooped/deleted" from the registry

3-character domains: 40460 possible in each extension (those doing the math...has 1 extra, as middle character could be "-" )

As of 1/16/05 (last date I have data for) the following number of domain names were actively registered in each of the top three extensions:

.com - 33,351,738
.net - 5,324,213
.org - 3,307,122

This means that your tyh.com is one of only 40,460 (39,304 if the middle character is not a hyphen "-"), and is even more valuable becuase it is all letters - only a small 13,824 possible.

Take this into consideration, do to exponentially adding another character. 3-character letter-only names can only be one of the 13,824 possible, yet a 4-character letter-only name has 331,776 possible combination. Add another character (5-letters), and you get a wopping 7,962,624 possible.

Do the math

--- Speaking of math, if any of mine is wrong..please feel free to correct me

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dongan

Really a cool analysis.

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SanchoPanza

Is there an explanation or rationale for this?
Just curious.

maximum

The ablity to register them in 1-2 characters was removed by restrictions placed by the international authority ICANN. To Wit: http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements...pk-26apr01.htm (albeit, this is outdated, technically...the rules still the same basically). However, those that had registrations before these rules took effect were allowed to keep the names, so long as the names where never allowed to expire and drop from the registry (once they do, they become ICANN's by defualt). This makes the holders of these names folks with valuable commodities. IF, for example, you owned abc.com and let it expire...Folks could fight over who was first to register it the moment it was deleted. However, IF you owned and let expire then drop ab.com or a.com ICANN would own the name automatically since no registration could occur on it after it drops. Some registers that have these names (like NetSol.com) have found technicalites to avoid ever dropping the names, so they can auction them off once they expire. But, any 1 or 2 character name in any extension this rule applies to (some extension's registries never allowed their registration...and some extensions this rule does not apply to - but for those, the names still valuable due to rarity), once deleted from the registry itself in ICANN's records can not be registered by anyone (even a register company). ICANN is considering changing this, and releasing those names, but this is highly controversial (look for info on NamePros boards); and do to this controversy, may never happen.

The unavailablity of these names (ie: you have to buy them from current owner as they will never be publically available again, unless the rules change..then again, rarity would still make them $$$ names) makes their value skyrocket. An example, one of the only 6 in the .com/.net/.org is up for sale on Afternic.com (albiet, I have not confirmed it is legitimate). Q.net is up for sale, just taking open bids (assume no reserve price set, and has no "asking" price). Only one bid so far, and that was for $115,000 US$. The owner, knowing the value and rarity of such, didn't even click the email to not accept the offer..They just let it expire (offers expire if not accepted or counter-offered in 7 days). For such a name, $115,000 is so low an offer, the owner didn't even waste time replying as far as anyone can tell

There is ALOT of talk (read info) on this on NamePros (become best-friends with the search at the top of the pages here ). And, maybe someone will give more details. But, till then, hope this answers your question

__________________
--- The greatest truths ever told, and the greatest lies ever told, all consist of exactly the same three words:
"I LOVE YOU"
--- The best say little, only say what is important.....then they shut up and sit down.

SanchoPanza

Thanks, I knew about the one letter domains but didn't know those rules extended to the two letter ones as well.

thanks for your time, rep added, etc. etc.

holeinone

I hold 2 Ph.D's
One in Forensic Psychology & one in LIFE. I have learned alot more from my LIFE education than from all the other schools I've attended combined..
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Nothing like others who have all sorts of ads...

EdwinJ

Why is a 3-letter acronym like tyh.com worth a lot of money?
A quick answer is, it can be the perfect, easy-to-remember domain name for a company or organization that has those initials in their name.

Think of IBM, NBA, NBC, CNN, BBC, USA, FOX, DHL, etc, etc. Everyone wants a 3-letter acronym. It becomes a part of everyday language.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152081

Your example, TYH: a brief search reveals plenty of companies all over the world that use those initials ~ a hardware industry in Taiwan, a marketing site in Singapore. and so on. How much would they be willing to pay to acquire such a domain?

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cygnus007

Thank you for the answers, then let me ask you this, how about 4 letters.com? does the value decrease that much or is it still valuable?

maximum

Thanks . It applies to the life of domaining too. NamePros has taught me more in the little time I've been here than all the other forums, domainers, and websites combined that I go to for domaining tips/advice. Reason I NamePros! But, what I do as a domainer (dealing with auctions, bidders, buyers/offerers, registrers, emailing, rejections, prospecting values, ect. - LIFE) has taught me even more. Nothing like real-life experience
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152081

The point in a nutshell. I wanted my company's initials (3 character), but the owner was an ISP who wouldn't even consider selling for anything near what we could pay - it was their biz, after all. If I had had the name, I'd have been the same way, though...So no hard feelings

Look around at the auction sites (Sedo.com/Afternic.com - biggest domain ones - and, of course those being sold here at NamePros ), and you'll see they can be a bit pricey, yes. But, since they are not as rare, the price is alot cheaper generally. Plus, it is often harder to find a company name or terms that match 4 characters exactly, that is also easy to remember. That fact makes them not near as valuable as a whole as the 3 character ones - unless you got a very good 4-character combo

__________________
--- The greatest truths ever told, and the greatest lies ever told, all consist of exactly the same three words:
"I LOVE YOU"
--- The best say little, only say what is important.....then they shut up and sit down.

holeinone

Where can i get a list of all possible three letter domain names...

smub

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=148755

some of the .net domains are posted here by one of the good members.

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hostlander

2-letter or 3-letter of course easy to remember but the more important is the content in it or popularity. i.e milliondollarhomepage.com has 21 letters but very popular and most of the surfers know it or heard about it.

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TUFKATH

Great post - rep added!

maximum

Thanks, Taylor My math is off (I was sleepy), but I'm not going to fix it now (I'm not sleepy tonight, just lazy ). But it got the idea across. I'll adjust numbers next time I get in the mood

__________________
--- The greatest truths ever told, and the greatest lies ever told, all consist of exactly the same three words:
"I LOVE YOU"
--- The best say little, only say what is important.....then they shut up and sit down.

AdoptableDomains

Here's a primer on the math of available combinations. However there are exceptions and the numbers get exponentially high afer 4 letters/characters. At 5 or 6 IDN combos kick in complicating the math even further in to algebra formulas.

The math of available combinations (ASCII, Not IDN):

26 x 26 = 676 (Two letters A-Z)
36 x 36 = 1,296 (Two Characters A-Z, 0-9)
10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 (Three Numbers only, no hyphens)
26 x 26 x 26 = 17,576 (Three Letters A-Z, no hyphens)
36 x 36 x 36 = 46,656 (Three characters A-Z, 0-9, no hyphens)
36 x 37 x 36 = 47,952 (Three characters w/hyphens possible for middle position only)
26 x 26 x 26 x 26 = 456,976 (four Letters only A-Z)
26 x 26 x 26 x 26 x 26 = 118,813,376 (five LETTER ONLY combinations).

You can see how the possible combinations jumps from 3 to 4 letters only by going from 17,576 to 456,952. Odds of picking a 3 letter acrnoym that's usable are fairly good worldwide at 17k, Odds go down greatly at 4 letters, meaning at 4 you need real words.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=152081

The math above still does not account for reserved names by ICANN such as other TLD letter combos in the second level domain position are reserved combos for ICANN and the registry itself such as nic.tld, www.tld, etc. Also, as you get to more characters, there are disallowed combinations such as two hyphens together that indicate IDN names, and some TLD's like the .us that reserve possible combinations of zip codes, phone numbers, and state codes.

In answer to the question, it's a matter of supply and demand. There is a high demand for TLA's (three letter acronyms),but a fairly limited supply on a world basis. TLA's can also be used as people's initials, and have the value of being very short to type as email addresses, even if harder to remember than real words. At 4+ letters, acronyms get very hard to remember. I'm in an organization that has a 5 letter acronym and new members never can get it right at first. Even so, The Domain Name AfterMarket chose tdnam.com as the short version of their name as a surprise to me, even though thedomainnameaftermarket.com also works.

Three word domains are valuable in .com solely because most good one and two word domains are taken based on the demand and size of the .com list of taken names and "default" nature of the .com TLD.

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maximum

AdoptableDomains,

Thanks Rep added for the math corrections

__________________
--- The greatest truths ever told, and the greatest lies ever told, all consist of exactly the same three words:
"I LOVE YOU"
--- The best say little, only say what is important.....then they shut up and sit down.