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question Wordplay domains using country code extensions?

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Jack Lauer

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Hi guys, I'm brand new to domaining and have recently started by handregistering about a dozen domains. My question to those with experience in the business is whether it makes sense to invest in domain names that only make sense with a certain extension. An example, though not mine, would be something like acapul.co.

From what I've gathered, these kinds of country related extensions typically don't fetch as much as .coms, but do you think that this could be weighed up by having a domain that reads like a word or sentence?

I'd appreciate any input regarding this. Thanks in advance! Jack
 
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called domain hacks. They do OK usually. There's some value tied into the rarity. If you use twitter, you'll notice about every single company uses these hacks for their URL in branding ('URL shorteners' in these cases). it's not limited to cctld. Example, google owns .gle just so they can use goo.gle as a shorterner, which you see a lot on places like twitter. I like it better in nTLD where you can get something like a DOUBLE hack, where the left of dot is a word, the right of dot is, and the whole phrase is. Something for example, I just bought today: since.rest
 
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@madhache I remember seeing that term floating around, but didn't know the meaning. Thanks alot!
 
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You may also want to check out namebio for reported sales data.

Under Category select "niche"
Under Subcategory select "domain hacks"
Then click the search button

This will give you a list of some reported sales for domain hacks.

Hope this helps
Good luck!
 
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Absolutely hate that name as it makes the brand strategy sound dodgy and even illegal. It's like "domain squatter", did people have access to dictionaries when they started using this term?
 
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@JayT Thanks for the reply. The first thing I did when I found out about domaining was dreaming up ideas for domain hacks... Most of them were taken already though. ;) I like the idea of double hacks, but didn't even know these extensions existed. I don't think I've seen them on godaddy, which is where I registered my domains.
 
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@DomainRecap It was just an example, I didn't know whether or not it's safe to share the names of my domains here. I'm brand new to all of this.
 
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@DomainRecap It was just an example, I didn't know whether or not it's safe to share the names of my domains here. I'm brand new to all of this.

I was referring to "Domain Hack", which must be the worst descriptive term imaginable for what this actually is. Literally, tell 100 average Joe's on the street that you have a "Domain Hack" you want them to visit and 99 will run away.

Hacks or Hacking is viewed as unethical and/or dangerous by the vast majority of people, so by marketing these as "Domain Hacks" it means you're starting off behind the 8-ball.

There was a thread about this somewhere, and I posed a pile of potential replacements, and I believe Domain Span won out. Not great, but at least it makes sense.
 
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@DomainRecap Sorry about that, got it now. Couldn't agree more, hacking to me is connotated with getting "unfair" or "hidden" access to something. Being a complete beginner, when I first read the term, I thought note to self, find out how to protect yourself against those domain hackers. Turns out I was one myself :D
 
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I also think calling them something other than hacks would be helpful, even though there is a strong movement to take back positive sense of hack.

The name was proposed quite some time ago I think based on the idea that they pieced the word or phrase together using both sides of the dot, like we hack a solution to some everyday problem using various available bits and pieces.

If you look in the replies to my article there is some discussion of whether we should change the name. I also asked it on Twitter. Personally I would prefer a name that involved unity, unification or as @DomainRecap proposed span or spanned across dot.

Certainly some, no matter what we call them, have sold for good amounts. The Li.me rebrand is one of the more recent major corporate moves to one.

Best wishes for domaining and thank you for starting thread, @Jack Lauer.

Bob
 
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@Bob Hawkes thank you for linking your article, great read and very helpful to me! I appreciate the warm welcome, I've already learned alot during the three days I've been here. All the best
 
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Certainly some, no matter what we call them, have sold for good amounts. The Li.me rebrand is one of the more recent major corporate moves to one.

Sure, but these sold in spite of the "domain hack" moniker, and I don't see many (any?) high-priced ones marketed using the term. I've seen "Domain Words" used a few times.
 
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Sure, but these sold in spite of the "domain hack" moniker, and I don't see many (any?) high-priced ones marketed using the term. I've seen "Domain Words" used a few times.
Agree 100%. I think domain hacks should rebrand as a term universally viewed positively, and it might well open new opportunities for higher value sales. Possibly a place here for a specialized marketplace that would come up with a great name for them, do some advertising/promotion, and have a selection of excellent unified domain names for sale.

There is also an issue of what we mean by term, which varies as the responses to the blog article demonstrates. Some include any phrase split by dot (which means almost all new gTLDs, among other things) while others define it only when a word is split by the dot.

Bob
 
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I define it by the latter, a word or popular phrase split/joined by the dot, but it must be a true split, not an artificial one using a single-word new gTLD extensions. Otherwise the numbers would be insane and the term would lose all meaning.

Hypothetically, something like sto.re and topsto.re would qualify, but not top.store.
 
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So something like sto.re and topsto.re would qualify, but not top.store.
So by your definition point(.)to would be one (and almost any other word with .to) and also things like buy(.)it and many others for the .it extension?

I like domains like such as those a lot, but to me they are in in the same category as new extension names with one word to left of dot. It seems to me dividing on basis of whether a country code or new is arbitrary.

To me, when the word itself is split, is something qualitatively different (I actually aesthetically like them less, but to me that is what 'hack' should mean although early users of term seemed to go the direction of both split words and phrases).

Bob
 
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So by your definition point(.)to would be one (and almost any other word with .to) and also things like buy(.)it and many others for the .it extension?

Nope, that would be the same as Top.store - those are very useful and marketable, but I'm just going by the definition I adhere to, where the entire word or phrase that truly "spans" the dot.

Maybe it's easier if I list them:

sto.re - Yes
topsto.re - Yes
top.store - No

Or

point.to - No
buy.it - No
stilet.to - Yes
rabb.it - Yes
bunnyrabb.it - Yes
 
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