This article covers 2019 sales of
There were 49 sales above $7500 of domain names comprised of at least three words. These sales represent 3.9% of all
The highest-value sale was $57,000. Only 14 of the sales were at $15,000 or more.
Domain names in the health field represented about 20% of the sales. Betting, tourism, entertainment, food and general phrases were also common.
At time of writing, about 53% of the domain names had developed websites. Nearly 20% of the domain names were listed for sale again.
What is a Three-Word Domain Name?
I used data from the NameBio database, going through it by hand to identify
Defining a three-word domain name is not as straightforward as I expected. What about a name like
A name like
Sometimes it is possible to interpret part of a domain name as either two short words or a single longer word. For example, blockchain is usually considered a single word, and therefore the sale of
One sale I struggled to classify was
How many words are represented by a name like
Sales and Prices
After these classification decisions were made, there were 45 three-word and 4 four-word domain name sales in the reporting period. The names and prices are shown in the table.
The names I classified as containing four words were
The top sale was the name
If we compare the 49 sales in this set to all 1262
Only 8 of the sales were $20,000 or more, and just 14 were $15,000 or more.
If we compare this to the analysis of two-word 2019
Venues
I had a look at where sales of three-word and four-word domain names took place. Sedo accounted for more than one-third of all sales. Keep in mind that sales from many venues, such as Afternic and DAN, are not included in NameBio, unless individually reported.
Niches Represented
One of my motivations was to see if certain niches were more common among longer domain names. For each of the 49 sales, I assigned the name to one, or in a few cases multiple, niches. Categorization is subjective in a number of cases.
Here is what I found.
Current Status
I checked the current status of each of the domain names, and here is what I found.
The domain names were used for blogs, reference sites, business sites, online commerce, etc., with no dominant pattern in type of use.
A few of the more interesting uses were
What Do You Think?
I welcome your comments related to this topic.
I also wanted to mention that the idea for this article came from Laguna, who suggested it in the comments to the earlier article on two-word domain names. I always welcome suggestions for future NamePros Blog articles.
.com domain names that are made up of three or four words. The analysis is limited to sales reported in the NameBio database.There were 49 sales above $7500 of domain names comprised of at least three words. These sales represent 3.9% of all
.com extension domain name sales in that price range.The highest-value sale was $57,000. Only 14 of the sales were at $15,000 or more.
Domain names in the health field represented about 20% of the sales. Betting, tourism, entertainment, food and general phrases were also common.
At time of writing, about 53% of the domain names had developed websites. Nearly 20% of the domain names were listed for sale again.
What is a Three-Word Domain Name?
I used data from the NameBio database, going through it by hand to identify
.com-extension names made up of three or more words.Defining a three-word domain name is not as straightforward as I expected. What about a name like
Recipe4Living.com? Strictly speaking, it has two words plus a number. However, it seems to me that the idea is three words, so I did include it in the analysis.A name like
mHealthWatch.com was a tough call. It has two words and a letter, but I considered it a combination of three, and did include the name in the analysis. Similarly, I classified VeteransAndPTSD.com as a three-word domain name, treating the acronym PTSD as a single word.Sometimes it is possible to interpret part of a domain name as either two short words or a single longer word. For example, blockchain is usually considered a single word, and therefore the sale of
blockchainwallet.com was not included in the analysis. For similar reasons, I did not include golfsuperstore.com or crosswordsolver.com.One sale I struggled to classify was
orbitdownloader.com. While down and loader are dictionary words, I interpreted downloader as a single entity, and therefore considered this a two-word domain name, and excluded it.How many words are represented by a name like
LasVegasNightClubs.com? Strictly speaking, four, but in my mind Las Vegas should be counted as one entity, so I counted this sale as a three-word name. Similarly, I did not include TravelNewZealand.com in the analysis, interpreting New Zealand as a single component.Sales and Prices
After these classification decisions were made, there were 45 three-word and 4 four-word domain name sales in the reporting period. The names and prices are shown in the table.
Sales of three-word and four-word
Click on the image to see the table in magnified form
.com domain names in 2019 that had a sales price of at least $7500. NameBio is the source of the data. Click on the image to see the table in magnified form
The names I classified as containing four words were
HudsonValleyNewsNetwork.com, HistoryOfTheGame.com, HerHeartIsSouthern.com and eMarketingAndCommerce.com. The last one could arguably be considered three words.The top sale was the name
gambling-law-us.com. Interestingly, it was the only name in the set that included a hyphen, and it had two. A developed site had existed on the domain name for some years, with many backlinks, justifying the high price.If we compare the 49 sales in this set to all 1262
.com sales of $7500 or more recorded in NameBio for 2019, we see that three-word and four-word domain names only account for about 3.9% of sales $7500 and up.Only 8 of the sales were $20,000 or more, and just 14 were $15,000 or more.
If we compare this to the analysis of two-word 2019
.com sales, clearly high-value three-word sales are much more rare. For example, there were 19 two-word domain sales at higher prices than the top three-word sale. There were 60 two-word sales at prices of $30,000 or more, but only 2 three-word sales in that price range.Venues
I had a look at where sales of three-word and four-word domain names took place. Sedo accounted for more than one-third of all sales. Keep in mind that sales from many venues, such as Afternic and DAN, are not included in NameBio, unless individually reported.
- Sedo 39%
- GoDaddy 24%
- Uniregistry 12%
- Domain Market 10%
- DropCatch 6%
- NameJet 4%
- Flippa 2%
- Vegas Opt 2%
.com sales.Niches Represented
One of my motivations was to see if certain niches were more common among longer domain names. For each of the 49 sales, I assigned the name to one, or in a few cases multiple, niches. Categorization is subjective in a number of cases.
Here is what I found.
- Overall the niches represented are quite diverse.
- The most popular application was health and medicine, applicable to 20% of the sales. I included mental health and nutrition, as well as physical health, in the category. Names in this category include examples such as
SmartHealthCare.comandAllStarNutrition.com. - About 18% of the names were related to travel or regional entertainment. Three of the names included the word Vegas.
- 14% were gambling or betting related domain names. Examples include
GoGoCasino.comandSportsBettingApps.com. - While most of the names make some sort of phrase, I classified 12% as primarily a phrase. Examples include names like
MakeThatMove.comandWorkItMom.com. - 12% related to food in some way, such as
SweetPeasKitchen.comandPureLifeFoods.com. - I was surprised by how few of the names were related to online sales of an obvious product.
Current Status
I checked the current status of each of the domain names, and here is what I found.
- 53% of the names are developed.
- An additional 8% are in use for redirection purposes.
- Approximately 20% of the domain names are listed for sale again. Supposedly these were either domain investor acquisitions, or the original plans of the purchaser quickly changed.
- For 14% of the names there was no operating site or lander.
- About 4% were in use for monetized parking, but apparently not for sale.
The domain names were used for blogs, reference sites, business sites, online commerce, etc., with no dominant pattern in type of use.
A few of the more interesting uses were
HowThingsWork.com that goes to a domain name site, RememberMyName.com that directs to a Twitter account, and RunsOnRipple.com that redirects to the Ripple site.What Do You Think?
I welcome your comments related to this topic.
- What is your favourite three-word domain name from the list?
- Do you hold many three-word names in your portfolio?
- Have you yet sold any three-word domain names?
- Are you surprised by the prices, or the types of names, that sold?
- Do you feel that three-word domain names are likely to sell more often, or at higher prices, in the future?
I also wanted to mention that the idea for this article came from Laguna, who suggested it in the comments to the earlier article on two-word domain names. I always welcome suggestions for future NamePros Blog articles.
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