- Impact
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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
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
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
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