Acronym domain valuation

[Alex]

I am actively watching the acronym domain space, and I see that too many times there are discussions about letter quality.

Many times I see people that are not aware of their domain potential. In both ways. Some are over-evaluating those, and do not sell even if they get a fair market price for it while others undervalue them.

Discussion about premium letters/bad letters is very important, and I see some very big price discrepancies between let's say an LLLL.com domain with only (so called) premium letters, and one with 3 premium letters + a U or a W.

End user price "evaluation"

As a note, I must talk about end user prices. Many times I read the appraisal section where a member asks about his acronym domain. And many people say reseller price $xx, end user price $xxx or so. An end user who needs your VYXZ.com does not care that it is VYXZ or it is HAHA. They need your VYXZ and do not care about market value, most probably they are not even aware of it. Never make valuations when facing an end user offer. Always treat them separately, with the eye of the end user, because the domain is worth as much as it is worth for them.

These days I saw some very cheap TVll.com sales. Maybe they did happen because V is a so called bad letter. In the case of TVLL domains, that V is far better than many other combinations. Always look if your domains do contain something like TV, IQ, OK, GO, VC (Venture Capital), IT, US, UK (and any other state or country abbreviation), etc. These are far better combinations than most made out of "premium" letters.

Acronym languages

Do not forget than when evaluating letter combinations the majority of the population is evaluating it according to their acronym POTENTIAL in the ENGLISH language.

Z, W are very good letters in German, H is almost non-existant in French (with some exceptions), K means nothing in Romanian, Q, X are very good in Chinese, and the examples can continue.

Sales prices

A domain that is non-sense for English speakers might be premium in Chinese (1/5 of the world). However, remember that most documented domain sales happen in the English speaking community. Most of the sales happen in the English speaking communities, and the biggest prices are paid by English speaking companies. Because the most customers on the internet are English speaking persons. (This may slightly change in the future however).

Country codes

An aspect that is very neglected by many domainers. Country codes. Let's give an example of a small business in Germany that is targeting German customers. They have a WZGT acronym. What will they choose? Buying their acronym in .com from a domainer, or registering their acronym in .DE, a cctld that is very strong in Germany. In most of the cases they opt for the second choice, because they target local customers that are more familiarized with their cctld than with .com or .net.

So, again this may lead in most .COM sales to English companies. Because .COM is like a country code in the US of A.

Letter importance

I see many statistics, that deal with letter usage. However what is important when taking into consideration acronym domains? Their STARTING LETTER POTENTIAL. How many times is a particular letter used as the STARTING LETTER of words. So any statistic has to be done keeping in mind that in domain names we are interested in starting letters.

Common words

As I said in previous posts, some letters are more end user friendly than others. One will see the letter O in many developed sites, at the end or at the beginning of the domain. Because O in many cases is a substitute for Online. Like O, I may stand for International, V for Virtual, E for Electronic, L for Limited, A for Association or Agency etc.

There are very used words that are common in acronyms (Association is very common since many associations have 3 or 4 words so they opt for an acronym), while other used words like for example Beautiful that are not very used in forming acronyms.

Branding potential

Some letters are not that strong in their acronym potential but sound very clear, so they pass the phone test. That is why CVCV's or VCVC's are more valuable, because they are easier to remember.
When auto-evaluating your domains, ask yourself how easy to pronounce it is. X may sound very cool sometimes, V sounds in most of the cases very clear, while K may be mistaken with C in some languages.

Acronyms - Examples

Finally, maybe as a helping tool, I made a list of most common acronyms for a letter. This is a partial list, but I hope you may find it useful in forming acronyms for your domains. If you have any suggestions for improving this list, please post in the thread.

As you may see some words are stronger (more used) than others. I tried to make the list with the most used words in abbreviations.

I wrote mostly English words here. Keep in mind the world is not all English

Obviously I missed many good words, but take this list as a non-complete work.

A

A is a strong letter having both quantity and quality acronyms. From a branding POV, it is also easily pronounceable.

Association
Area
Agency
Administration
Ampere
About
Account
Advanced
Action
Article
Author
And
Ad
Ask
Annual
Analysis
Active
Apple
Answer
Adult
Academy
Army
Anonymous
Alpha
Amateur
Analog
Auto
Acronym
Austria

B

Big
Byte
Business
Bank
British/Britain
Bureau
Bio
Bar

C

Copyright
Corporation
Celsius
Company
Click
Category
Complete
Cost
Clear
Committee
Congress
Character
Carbon
Cent
Catholic
Conservative
Compute(r)
Coefficient
Calorie
Centimeter (CM)
City
Channel
Church

D

Digital
Day/DAily
Division
Democrat
Date
DAta
Database (DB also)
Director
Display
Device
Defense
Delay
Delta
DEpot
Diesel
Digit
Doctor
Deutschland (GErmany)
Department
Diet

E

Electronic (as in e-mail)
East
Email
Energy
Earth
Engine(er)
Exterior

F

Plenty of acronyms, but less used words.

Full
false
Failure
Fahrenheit
First
Friend
Find/Found
France
Force
Forward
Filter
Flag
Frequency
Female
Football
Fantasy

G

General
Group
Gram
Giga
Green
Gold
Gas
Ground
Golf
Good
Gross
Gate

H

Hour
Help
Hospital
Hydrogen
Home
House
Half
Hardware
Hold
Hungary
Husband
Humidity
High

I

One of the strongest meanings. Plentry of powerful keywords

International
Incorporation
Italy
Industry
Information
Internet
Investment(s)
Independent
Interactive
Input
India
Immigration
Inspection
Intermediate
Indicator
Interstate
Interest
Inter -

J

Outside of these words many names start with J (John, Julia, JAck, Jill, Jeremy, Jesus)

Journal
Job
Java
Jet
Just
Joint
Join
Junction

K

Less keywords, but still some strong keywords. Good branding also

Knowledge
King
Kilo-
OK
Kelvin
Kindergarten
Karat
Key
Knot

L

Limited
Legal
Large
Literature
Local
Level
Line
Liter
Left
Low
Loss
Light
Launch
Load
Label
Laser
Lap
Law
Leader
Laboratory

M

Media
Management
Month(ly)
Male
Middle
Meter
Music
Member
Money
Master
Machine
Mission
Material
Museum
Manual
Mass
Miss
Meta
Minor
Married/Marriage
Medium
Millenium
Military
Moderator
Multi

N

Non
Neutral
North
Number
Nano
Night
Noun
Normal
Natural

O

Online
Office(r)
Organisation
Operator
Oxygen
Orange
Official
Optional
Order
Outdoor

P

PM
PArk
Post
Page
Program
Power
Protect(ion)
Partner
Port
Provider
Priority
Portable
Processor
Problem(atic)
Parent
Petrolleum
Primary

Q

A very underrated letter IMO. Nice acronym potential

Question
Quality
Quantity
Quit
Quick
Quarter
Query
Queen
Quiz
Queue
Quarterly
Quake
Qualify/qualified
Quintal

R

Restricted
REpublican
Right
Reverse
Racing
Radar
Radio
Rate
Real
Risk
Rural
Reverse
Require(d)
Reset
REject

S

Social
Society
South
Second
Search
System
Sound
Sign
Store
Subject
Section
Short
Safe(ty)
Storage
Secret
Savings
Seminar
School
Superb
Smile
Star
Silver

T

Television
Telephone
Train
Trainer
Training
Time
Technology
TEam
Test
Term
Traffic
Teen
Temperature
True
TEmporary
Tax
Town

U

You(r)
University
United
Used
Unit
Ultra
Utility
Universal
Upper
Uniform
Urgent
Und (and in German)

V

Virtual
Video
VErsion
VEry
Value
Voice
Vice
Vision
Valley
Vehicle
VAriable
Vacation
Vegan
Visit(or)

W

World
Web
Work
West
White
With
Water
Window
Win
Write
Who
When
Where
Why
Wide
Week(ly)
Weight
Woman
Weekend
Wife
Wire
Width
Warm
Wholesale
Warehouse
Withdrawal
Waiver
Weight

X

Not very much acronyms. Probably the weakest letter from this POV. Still very brandable and good sounding.

Extra
Experiment
Exchange
Ex
Extreme
X ray
Ecstasy

Y

Yes
Year(ly)
Yard
Yen
You(r)
Young

Z

Not the strongest English letter but a very premium one in German for example). Also for branding it sounds very good.

Zone
Zero
Zodiac

 

[namehopper]

This has helped me out so much! Thank you for putting so much work into this thread!

 

[kleszcz]

Any update? :p

 

[allroundguy]

Yes, but there are no such things as good and less good domains. It is purely a matter of appreciation. Many big players redirect their main url to a LL, LLL, or LLL or even NL, LN, NLL etc. Spreading load over different servers is easy by setting links rather to some LNLN etc somewhere than keeping it in the same domain (server). This has many advantages. That is why unpronounceable combinations are being sold everyday. The big guys know what they do while most domainers don't. When will people understand that it is content that counts for traffic, and not the domain? It is probable that all short character combinations are being collected right now under our nose. And most cannot be trademarked because they have too many dictionary meanings. A short but fierce acronym boom could be heretomorrow already ...

 

[abid286]

Great post! Thanks!

 

[squarepie]

Great advice and kudos for the effort to share, Alex. I have over time purchased many 4 and 5 letter dot coms using that reasoning you describe. People of the old school of thought, that words must be spelled out and correctly to convey a memorable comprehensive message may find themselves needing a translator to read a simple text message on their cell phone. And cell is rapidly displacing Laptop and PC for internet traffic. The non-English speaking world may not recognize our long winded words but I'll bet they can easily grasp and recall TV or DV or FX or EZ or CD or IQ.

An intelligent marketing strategy for any "old school" operation would be to attract emerging traffic with fresh targeting to a new generation of customers using short (let's call them) new words that blanket advertising could easily implant. (i.e.- The "You deserve a break today" generation still eats at the same place but are in the vast minority and "I'm lovin' it", cause I bought todv.com, tofx.com, ezitv.com, gotcd, among others.
For now I await, I suppose like we all do, for some imaginative well funded easy venture capitalist to sponsor our ambitions. BTW any offers for ezvc.com??? LOL

 

[Lio]

thx alex for ur info...its great.... :wave:

 

[opalxx]

Great stuff for a newbie like me. On your info i have just regged okhe.net, npax.net...mainly because my partners christian name is pax (which is peace in latin) but it also has 240 backlinks and czic.net (seasick?). Am i on the right track? What is the situation with names that may not have any or only a couple of premium letters but may have traffic or backlinks? How do we evaluate which is a better investment..one with all premium letters or one with non-premium but with traffic? What about one that is pronouncable with no or 1 or 2 premiums as compared to one that is non-pronounceable with all premiums. Is a CVCV or VCVC worth more than a VVCC or CCVV etc???

Just as a matter of interest..i regged dogy.tv which i came across in my search for good nets.

 

[Standout!]

This is how I see it: Dictionary > Good pronouncable > CVCV > VCVC > All Premium > ... the rest ...

If you've got targeted traffic coming in though, that's going to trump everything. Those are gold...

 

[Malaysia]

This is how I see it: Dictionary > Good pronouncable > CVCV > VCVC > All Premium > ... the rest ...

If you've got targeted traffic coming in though, that's going to trump everything. Those are gold...

have to add in geo LLLL as well.. those are valuable

 

[opalxx]

If you've got targeted traffic coming in though, that's going to trump everything. Those are gold...

Nice info and a great help in putting things simply. So, what exactly is targeted traffic and how do we determine where the traffic is coming from? As i said one of the names (npax.net) has a couple of hundred backlinks but i have no idea how they got there or if this any value to the name although estibot valuation is $130 and not reg fee like most nets i look at. I do know that there is not an old archived website. One name i have xpes.net has an alexa of 17468444 and does have some traffic. Is that targeted and if so how did you arrive at that? Is this name more valuable than most due to traffic even though it doesn't really pronounce as a good word?

So, do you reckon that say 10 good nets are a better investment say than one mediocre com? Is the name more valuable if some or most or all of the other tlds are taken? And finally, once again, where do you reckon is the better place to resell nets. With 11.5m names on sedo i would be surprised anyone ever stumbled over one of mine in the next 10 years

 

[opalxx]

ok..i give up..how does one delete a duplicate submitted message??

 

[deboer123]

Oh really, wow i didnt now

 

[sourcez]

Very interesting; a good picture that shows another way of placing value on domains.

Personally I'm not interested in 4 letter domains; although I wish I had kept hold of mine for longer and sold them now for more!

Good work.

 

[srigopaldaliya]

Great First Post :hearts:

The price gap between triple premiums with a W and those with an H is the other example that I had in mind of a psychological blind spot. Another is the over-emphasis on CVCV structure - many highly pronouncable / brandable LLLL names are not CVCV or even VCVC, and some CVCVs are pretty marginal, IMHO. The thing is that these psychological blind spots tend to continue and betting against them can be frustrating.

For those just starting:
Premium letters: ABCDEFGHILMNOPRST
Semi-Premium Letters: JKUVWY
Anti-Premium Letters: QXZ
CVCV = Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel
VCVC = Vowel - Consonant - Vowel - Consonant
LLLL = Four letters, no numbers or hyphens
.com = You really are just starting, eh?

This is a very good post for us (Newbies :hehe: )

Anyways i would appreciate if you also provide the Premium, Semi-Premium Numbers :blink:

Thanks anyways for the wonderful effort there

 

[briguy]

Thanks for the nice words and reps. I will try to improve my acronym examples as soon as I get some time.

lol I probably will take a few days just to acquire the knowledge that you shared in your posting!

 

[dotnom]

Missed the topic
I could suggest some alternative meanings to my QWA.com auction sale

 

[Federer]

Umx.com

This is a great thread, thanks for all the useful info.

Just landed this lll.com after having won an auction: Umx.com

Thinking of flipping soon for low BIN, between 9k-11k

Any acronym ideas?

Online for the last 8 years, since 02-May-2000

Some of these are quite good:

Ultimate Music Xperience
Universal Mercantile Exchange
Universal Macro Extender
Universal Mail Exchange
Universal Market Exchange
Universal Money Exchange

 

[MaguirePhD]

HQ domians

Just saw this post. I bought hundreds of country codes followed by HQ for headquarters, as well as Canadian provinces and U.S. States but they can also have utility for busnesses.

IThq.mobi can be Italy Headquarters but it can also be Infortmation Technology Headquarters.

NEhq.mobi can be Nebraska Headquarters, New England Headquarters or National Education Headquarters.

Very few seem to agree with me.

Doc

 

[namenut]

Would you consider this name a double acronym or double abbreviation?

RXXP.com

TY
namenut

 

[Chapel]

have to add in geo LLLL as well.. those are valuable

Id have to add acronym LLLL somewhere as well. Great read!

 

[MaguirePhD]

Would you consider this name a double acronym or double abbreviation?

Would you consider this name a double acronym or double abbreviation?

RXXP.com?


I would just consider that a terrific short, easy to remember domain that can get traffic somewhere.

I agree with the fellow who made an earlier post in this thread, mentioning all this hype about type in traffic.

My personal take on it is. and I will use what is prevalent thinking in the mobi forum, that everything must be intutive type in traffic.
My argument has been that most people are NOT good spellers and if you could not intuitively spell at age 12, how are you going to inutitvely spell at age 35?

Short domains are the answer to get people to sites that they could not spell if you gave them all afternoon to do so.

After passing Carl's Kustom Kar Klinic, Lite and Brite Cleaners, and Sudz and Dudz, is it any wonder that they may have some trouble with intuitve typing of a domain name?

Doc

 

[Federer]

A.R.E.S.net

Any ideas on potential value:

Ares.net

.Net Quad Premium VCVC starting with "A"; 37 million google results!


• This domain has massive OVERTURE > 250,560
• Wordtracker per day: 9,042
• Traffic rank in Mexico of 300,000
• NASA have named their world famous rockets “Ares”
• Excellent GEO name
• Ares is a town in France (33740 Ares)
• Ares is a town in north-western Spain
• Popular word in Mexico: Ares Valles; this, along with the Ares area codes, explains the strong traffic coming from Mexico
• Brazil also has a popular region called Ares
• Numerous towns and villages in Portugal, Mexico, Brazil and Spain have ‘Ares’ in their name
• Ares is also a famous surname in Mexico, Spain and Portugal
• Registered in every extension
• 10 years old

Dictionary meaning: the Greek master of war
Etymology: Greek Arēs

Many abbreviations; here a few:
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Astromaterials+Research+and+Exploration+Science

Should I send to auction? Thinking of selling.

Cheers.

Federer.

 

[namenut]

Would you consider this name a double acronym or double abbreviation?

RXXP.com?


I would just consider that a terrific short, easy to remember domain that can get traffic somewhere.

I agree with the fellow who made an earlier post in this thread, mentioning all this hype about type in traffic.

My personal take on it is. and I will use what is prevalent thinking in the mobi forum, that everything must be intutive type in traffic.
My argument has been that most people are NOT good spellers and if you could not intuitively spell at age 12, how are you going to inutitvely spell at age 35?

Short domains are the answer to get people to sites that they could not spell if you gave them all afternoon to do so.

After passing Carl's Kustom Kar Klinic, Lite and Brite Cleaners, and Sudz and Dudz, is it any wonder that they may have some trouble with intuitve typing of a domain name?

Doc

Thank You for the feedback on rxxp.

I think the same amount of branding plays a much more effective role for a short catchy, made up name than the natural type-in generic. It seems, to me, people are more prone to remember a branded catchy name.

Shoes[]com -vs- Shooz[]com .... We want to remember the "cool" name (imo). They represent something new and different. And a bit of "rebel" in all of us might see shoes[]com as "old hat".

I know a natural type-in visitor might not be considered "blind traffic" but I think it actually is. Much more blind than a visitor that knows (branded) what to expect on your site.

 

[MaguirePhD]

Agreed

I agree on the cool name theory.
I own Ringytones.org and Ringytones.mobi and have been advised by traditionalists that it will never get type in traffic. Well, it will get more traffic that geturringtonesnow.com, wegotringtones.com, tonedownload,com etc.
And they only have to get to the site once and bookmark or save in their favorites.

Intuitive type in traffic is overblown.

No one ever got ahead that was behaving.

Doc

P.S. Short letter domains have an ability that longer type in name dont...they are recyclable. I have a 5 letter ..com that has been used for 4 different companies.

 

[Alex]

Short letter domains have an ability that longer type in name dont...they are recyclable. I have a 5 letter ..com that has been used for 4 different companies.

This is a very good observation. Branding the same thing different way.
A domain like DownloadRingtones.com while extremely valuable has only one type of end users, those that want to establish a ringtone related site.

This is not true with short catchy or acronym domains