Social media usernames and domain names have more in common than you might think. The right username, just like the right domain name, can bring you traffic, improve your brand and attract attention from potential buyers or advertisers. Many companies have gone out of their way to try and acquire the right social media username.
According to the New York Post, Chase Giunta was offered $20,000 to sell his Twitter username @chase. Elsewhere, a Twitter user with the handle @N has been offered as high as $50,000 to sell their name. But would you trade a social media username for a domain name?
Yesterday, a NamePros discussion was started by @JagG, after they noticed that the Twitter account @American is offering to trade a domain name in exchange for ownership of the @American Twitter username. According to the tweet, the owner of @American is looking for a “high level domain name”, which is clarified in a subsequent tweet as being a “2-3 letter or dictionary domain name”. The extension isn’t defined, but I assume that it’s meant to be .COM.
Two-letter .COM’s have routinely sold for over $1 million a piece, while three-letter .COM’s are firmly valued in the five figure range as a wholesale price. I don’t see that @American is worth anywhere near the value of a two or three letter domain, but I find it to be an interesting proposal, and something that could work in certain situations. For me, that would be a three or four figure domain name that is exchanged for a popular social media username that I could make money from in some way.
Twitter, along with most social media companies, has specific terms of service, stating that usernames cannot be bought or sold. Twitter’s terms state:
However, sales and trades do happen. I have never seen a domain name traded for a social media username, but I have read reports of account owners being paid a consultancy fee in exchange for their social media username. In one famous instance that was reported by the Guardian, the State of Israel paid a six figure sum for the Twitter name @Israel.
So, would you trade a social media username for a domain name? In certain circumstances, I would say yes. For me, the social media username would have to be a very popular term, and the username would have to already have a significant amount of followers, which would allow me to monetise the social media handle in some way.
It would be a serious risk to exchange a domain name for a social media username, since you are never the owner of the username. No matter how popular your social media account becomes, you never have full control of the username, and it could be suspended or taken away in an instant. In that regard, a domain name is far safer.
Aside from trading domain names for social media handles, exact match usernames can be used to successfully close a domain name sale, which I shared on the NamePros Blog in 2015.
Yesterday, a NamePros discussion was started by @JagG, after they noticed that the Twitter account @American is offering to trade a domain name in exchange for ownership of the @American Twitter username. According to the tweet, the owner of @American is looking for a “high level domain name”, which is clarified in a subsequent tweet as being a “2-3 letter or dictionary domain name”. The extension isn’t defined, but I assume that it’s meant to be .COM.
Two-letter .COM’s have routinely sold for over $1 million a piece, while three-letter .COM’s are firmly valued in the five figure range as a wholesale price. I don’t see that @American is worth anywhere near the value of a two or three letter domain, but I find it to be an interesting proposal, and something that could work in certain situations. For me, that would be a three or four figure domain name that is exchanged for a popular social media username that I could make money from in some way.
Twitter, along with most social media companies, has specific terms of service, stating that usernames cannot be bought or sold. Twitter’s terms state:
However, sales and trades do happen. I have never seen a domain name traded for a social media username, but I have read reports of account owners being paid a consultancy fee in exchange for their social media username. In one famous instance that was reported by the Guardian, the State of Israel paid a six figure sum for the Twitter name @Israel.
So, would you trade a social media username for a domain name? In certain circumstances, I would say yes. For me, the social media username would have to be a very popular term, and the username would have to already have a significant amount of followers, which would allow me to monetise the social media handle in some way.
It would be a serious risk to exchange a domain name for a social media username, since you are never the owner of the username. No matter how popular your social media account becomes, you never have full control of the username, and it could be suspended or taken away in an instant. In that regard, a domain name is far safer.
Aside from trading domain names for social media handles, exact match usernames can be used to successfully close a domain name sale, which I shared on the NamePros Blog in 2015.
