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discuss Is it time to thiink new about 'radio test'?

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Bob Hawkes

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NameTalent.com
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There has been heated discussion in some blog comments about the recent thiink (com) sale for $50k. I think too often domainers jump to say those outside the community, whether end users, startup owners, branding experts or marketing specialists, are wrong about domains. I think it would be more productive as domainers to ask what trends are we seeing, and adapt to them if we think they are likely to persist.

In this case many criticized the name based on radio test. This caused me to look at past week of highest value sales on NameBio, and thiink is far from alone. I just tweeted this summary:

What do thiink, nuuday, ejemplos, centure, veridic (com) 4U (tube) have in common? 6 of 14 non-numbered domain sales >$10k in last week probably struggle with radio test. We should constantly ask ourselves: Is your domain 'truth' up to date?

I suspect if brandable marketplaces published their sales the radio test 'fail' ratio would be much higher.

Now I am not arguing to ignore the radio test, but rather we should be alert to trends in branding of late. Sometimes I think we are too resistant to changing views.

Bobb (AKA Bob :xf.cool:)

BTW I think the end user is always right. They know their business and what aspect of the domain name is important to them.

I am sure this will generate discussion!
 
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The discussion around Thiink had me look on NameBio for sales involving ii that were not part of a word. If I have not missed any, Thiink is actually second highest value (viia at just under $60k highest). Some of the others above $10k include wiise, smiile, fiix, miid, miip. Interestingly there were a few significant sales in multiple word ones CentralOrganiic for $21k and TelefoniicDigital for $10k and SkiinInstructorCourse for approx. $5k. There were a bunch of $5k level sales like tiingg, piic and triiple at $6k and piik at $8.5k. There is some indication such names more often since 2015, but small number stats not conclusive. Thre were also a number of ii at the end of words.

Bob
 
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Traffic was sold or just domain?
Always thiink about that before any conclusion...
 
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... Interestingly there were a few significant sales in multiple word ones CentralOrganiic for $21k and TelefoniicDigital for $10k and SkiinInstructorCourse for approx. $5k. There were a bunch of $5k level sales like tiingg ...
The 4 above are available to hand reg.
Edgar Allan Poe said:
Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.
 
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I thiink it may have been an end user like www.thiink.in. Otherwise, it makes little sense.
 
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I thiink it may have been an end user like www.thiink.in. Otherwise, it makes little sense.
It could be them or 20+ other companies use name thiink. There are major ones in both Australia and US as well as one you mention.
 
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The 4 above are available to hand reg.
Thanks for being alert, @ecalc! BTW you say 4 but just 3 in the quote and post?

It turns out the first one of them is my fault. The name is CertifiedOrganiic(com) not Central. Sorry about that!

The Telefoniic one was (slighly) active in past (Wayback) but you are right not currently registered. It seems specialized to use by probably only one company. Of course even in the $1 million up .com sales a surprising number not in meaningful use, as I have commented previously.

And I got the name wrong on the third one :xf.frown: I should only post when I am alert! (the name is active, but not really a double i except literally, it should have been SkiInstructorCourses).

Thanks for being alert! And sorry everyone for me not double checking before I pushed Post.

Bob
 
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Is Think.com an already existing website? I have not found anything
Is Think.net an already existing website? There is something but doesn't look like a business
Is Think.org an already existing website? There is something but doesn't look like a business
Is Think.co an already existing website? Listed for sale
and so on...

Think.com is more valuable now due to AI and it's worth millions. So, Thiink for 50k even though fails radio test but for branding maybe it was needed
 
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Thanks for being alert, @ecalc! BTW you say 4 but just 3 in the quote and post?
Four including tiingg.com which per domaintools is not and has never been registered.
 
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Four including tiingg.com which per domaintools is not and has never been registered.
Thanks. The name was supposed to be TIING. Sorry my keyboard repeats characters. It is such a pain. Sorry did not catch that. The name is currently for sale at Uniregistry I see.
 
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This might be besides the point, but, if I'm not mistaken, "ejemplos" is Spanish for "examples" and isn't a misspelling. It probably wouldn't fail the radio test were it on a Spanish radio station. I'm not particularly fluent in Spanish, but I've never heard another common Spanish word that sounds quite like that one. It's pronounced something like ay-HAYMP-lohs. The E's are a bit like English's long A's (hay, day, weigh), the J is like an English H (ham, hard, hat), the O is a long O (no, go, so), and the S is a hard S (sand, same, sauce). Accent is on the second syllable.
 
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Thank you @Paul Buonopane - the point of needing to check many major languages is a good one. A domain that has RT difficulties in one may well be perfect AI in another!

Slightly off topic, but is there a thread or article that looks at the relative value of similar structure words in different languages as domain names? I guess it would be really hard to do. I have always felt that words that span several languages must have significant worth advantages.
 
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from the perspective of the domain investor .. unless it's an extremely rare super exception because it's a unique/strong/cool misspell .. then it simply is not worth investing in these domains.

The reason is because of the multitude of potential variants. You need to buy and hold significantly more domains .. to end up selling fewer domains. So sure some will sell .. some even for high prices .. but when you look at the entirety of acquisition and holding costs vs the probabilities and amounts of potential sales .. then most of these domains are absolutely horrible investments. Thiink about it .. how many potential alternatives did the company have for $50?

I think @Ategy.com made a really good point early in this thread. Even if we accept that domain names that fail the 'radio test' might still be good for end use, that does not necessarily mean that they make sense from a domain investment perspective, just because once you get into creative spelling, etc. there are lots of possibilities.

I see the argument each way. As Ategy notes there may be special misspell that just are a terrific case (I would actually see thiink and wiise, both of which sold for good amounts, as in this category).

So I was wondering....
  1. Do you invest at all in deliberate creative misspells of this type?
  2. If so, do you have a large enough portfolio of them that you can share a meaningful sell through rate / average price, to help suggest if investment in them is worthwhile?
Bob

ps my personal answer to (1) is no and therefore have no data re (2)
 
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There has been heated discussion in some blog comments about the recent thiink (com) sale for $50k. I think too often domainers jump to say those outside the community, whether end users, startup owners, branding experts or marketing specialists, are wrong about domains. I think it would be more productive as domainers to ask what trends are we seeing, and adapt to them if we think they are likely to persist.

I have been preaching about the double " i i " for quite a while now.

In Canada a huge financial institution is now using

siimply.com as a banking site

another is freshii.com which is making huge grounds.

I also noted that piink.com has huge potential




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And then who can forget my absolute favorite....

Picture0011.png



In my opinion from all similar type of domains the double ii has one of the greatest potentials.
 
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smiile.com 18,000 USD 2016-09-12 Sedo

A developed French website now.
 
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wiise.com 18,000 USD 2018-05-14 Sedo

An accounting software company.
 
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fiix.com 17,000 USD 2015-02-08 Uniregistry

Nice looking home repair website.
 
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I personally like it. As a brandable. But I consider myself incompetent, having invested in a crypto misspell (CRYPTTO).

I like it so much, that I wish I had the brains and money to brand a business around it myself.
 
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