advice 5L.com Should I go for it?

[Merakilous]

I have a few 5L domains in mind that I'm thinking of purchasing. Some are in the category VCVCV, others CVCVC and one is CVVCV (pronounceable and brandable in my opinion). Should I go for it? Do you think the market for this category will be better or worse in 2018? Do you have reported sales or get offers for your domains?

Thanks in advance,
Merakilous

 

[Kate]

Yes but we are not in 1996, we are in 2017 and 130 million domains are registered in .com alone. The .com zone has been mined to the death by thousands of speculators over the course of two decades. If you find a name that nobody claimed for $10, ask yourself how you are going to resell it for more. It could happen. Maybe it is just a question of timing, being at the right place at the right time.
Of course, there are exceptions like recent drops, but a good name shouldn't remain unregistered for years.
The yet unknown domain names we are talking about must have been scanned hundreds of times, yet discarded by domainers. Maybe there is a reason. Just saying.
Now the names may be pronounceable and fairly brandable, but that still doesn't mean there is a buyer. Millions of decent names are waiting for a buyer that will never come, such is the reality of our trade.

 

[Dominic Belley]

Tons of domains could have been overlooked over the years.

New technologies, new terms, new trends are all factors that can make a worthless domain suddenly appealing.

Also people are uneducated. If a domain is available they think its worthless. If a domain is for sale, they think it must have value.

 

[Amphibia07]

Just done a quick availability check on 5Ls to see which letters are most popular

1st: all 26 letters so it's not exactly CVCVC
2nd: all 5 vowels
3rd: all 21 consonants
4th: only a and i
5th: only s

This gets to 5460 combinations. Then I checked availability for the first 3000 on GoDaddy, in batches of 500, out of 3k about 240 were available for hand reg.

2nd vowel. Doesn't seem like it's that important. Pretty normally distributed, i slightly more popular than u.
u 67
o 46
a 44
e 42
i 41

3rd letter. This is more interesting. See results below.
q 72
y 34
j 25
z 23
h 20
x 18
w 12
f 10
k 8
c 5
b 4
p 3
l 2
v 2
m 1
r 1
d 0
g 0
n 0
s 0
t 0

You should read in reverse order, if many letters are available for hand reg, then it means the letter is not that popular. Q is clearly the least popular. 3rd letter Also - no domains for hand reg are available with d, g, n, s, or t in the middle.

Of course this is assuming 5th letter s, and 4th letters a or i. Otherwise there would be too many results to test. But it's still an indication.

 

[hookbox]

Just because it's pronounceable doesn't mean it's any good. There is tons of of pronounceable 5L's that are pure junk. When you find one ask yourself if you would use it or if you could picture someone else actually using it. If not then don't register it because in a few years you will end up dropping it. Remember there are tons of choices for potential buyers to choose from at every price point.

 

[Joe N]

5Ls are nice, but the issue with them is that each one is a little lottery ticket. If the name has no real meaning and no existing potential end user, you're playing a waiting game, hoping someone will come along and like it. A solid (maybe optimistic) expectation would be to sell 1 or 2 percent of your 5L portfolio per year, which means you really need to be buying and selling them at the right price to not only break even, but make profit from them.

Some users on here make the model work quite well. Perhaps @JimJammy would be willing to jump on and spread some wisdom...

The best model I've seen is to invest heavily in good, solid, pronounceable names, and give them a lot of exposure. If you don't own a portfolio site that gets a lot of traffic, that means hoping they get accepted at a marketplace like BrandBucket where they can get a lot of eyeballs on them from real buyers, and can sell for 100 to 300 times their purchase price. And for the ones that don't get accepted, you put them up on every major aftermarket site with a reasonable BIN.

5Ls are not a fast path to easy money. I only own a few because I refuse to spend more than GD closeout prices on them, and I'm picky enough that I like to be able to derive meaning from the name without having to think too hard.

I've never had a sniff on my meagre collection of 5Ls, but I like them enough to hold them for a while:

Cabya
OMGok
Nomry
Adzow
Fisqa
Zazya (might drop this one)

 

[mr-x]

No doubt, pronounciable 5L.com would be the next big thing in a couple of years. Shortnames.com report proper sales of these items. A meaningful keyword in the 5L serves as the icing on the cake.
My few 5L.com purchases that I would like to hold for now: botxy, enrzy, enrzi, enrjy

6L names are selling just as well, better average price than 5L.

 

[Amphibia07]

I didn't look at sales figures. Only looked at .com availability for hand-reg. Only 5L domains ending with "as", or "is". So just that. With different endings, eg. "er", or "ly" other middle letters can be more popular. I am sure there is a lot geographic variability too.

I will post an update later with more complete results, once I have time to run the rest of the names through GoDaddy.

 

[stewmath]

I have been doing well with cvcvc names, but i paid no more than reg fee for each one.

Can i ask what your looking to spend on these names?

 

[stewmath]

If reg fee then go for it, i have seen a growing demand for these names in the last few months.

Feel free to drop me a pm with the names after you purchase them, id be interested to know what they are

 

[Dominic Belley]

For a good pronounceable 5L, you can't really go wrong if you pay reg. fees.
9$ for a possible return of $250 to $1000 is a good bet.

 

[Kate]

I tend to look at any unregistered domain with suspicion. How come it's still available if it's any good ?

 

[1Darko]

I tend to look at any unregistered domain with suspicion. How come it's still available if it's any good ?

The same we could say for registered domains but not developed

 

[creataweb]

What does Uneqld stand for?

Unequaled probably.

 

[DomainVP]

CVVCV (pronounceable and brandable in my opinion). Should I go for it?

What is the last vowel? The last vowel usually makes or breaks a 5L. Thanks in advance.

 

[Dominic Belley]

What is the last vowel? The last vowel usually makes or breaks a 5L. Thanks in advance.

It is just my opinion, but I think E, U and I at the end is weaker than A and O.

 

[London555]

Yes but we are not in 1996, we are in 2017 and 130 million domains are registered in .com alone. The .com zone has been mined to the death by thousands of speculators over the course of two decades. If you find a name that nobody claimed for $10, ask yourself how you are going to resell it for more. It could happen. Maybe it is just a question of timing, being at the right place at the right time.
Of course, there are exceptions like recent drops, but a good name shouldn't remain unregistered for years.
The yet unknown domain names we are talking about must have been scanned hundreds of times, yet discarded by domainers. Maybe there is a reason. Just saying.
Now the names may be pronounceable and fairly brandable, but that still doesn't mean there is a buyer. Millions of decent names are waiting for a buyer that will never come, such is the reality of our trade.

Exactly why we now buy mostly Chinese pinyin names-great post-thank you.

 

[Merakilous]

Thank you to everyone participating in this thread. I'm reading all your posts and learning a lot. If someone wants to spread more wisdom on this matter please jump on

 

[stewmath]

I would probably stay away from VCVCV unless its a really good pronounceable name like iLive etc

I prefer CVCVC names, i recently sold on Rekut(.)com for $340 on NJ

 

[Bullock]

The same we could say for registered domains but not developed

I think so, there are tons & tons of crappy registered names!!!

Now the names may be pronounceable and fairly brandable, but that still doesn't mean there is a buyer. Millions of decent names are waiting for a buyer that will never come, such is the reality of our trade.

 

[London555]

Bingzo is a 6L.

Hey you're right! lol We're still upset we missed it-it's a great name.

 

[LiamShiff]

I have PAGOG.com
Think it's a pretty good one!

 

[DomainDepot]

I think there are a few good rules of thumb for 5L that will allow you to buy the better ones:

• Stick to 2 syllables or less when possible
• Try to spend under $50/name (its a numbers game with 1-2% sell rate)
• Think about whether you personally would start a company with that

I don't have many 5L, but I do have a few I think fit most of this criteria:

Kubsy//com
Zeery//com
Spraq//com
Zipno//com
Ovixa//com
Vuzos//com
Ejeqt//com
Kluda//com

 

[Mary Muse]

Hand reg'd Blaez.com just a few weeks ago, so they're out there still.

 

[platey]

One of the best luxury brands in the world is a cvccv with the last letter being an I

By rights most would not have bought its domain in. Com for reg fee back in the day but are more than happy to wear its luxury brand today

A brand is what it's owner makes of it

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Yes but we are not in 1996, we are in 2017 and 130 million domains are registered in .com alone. The .com zone has been mined to the death by thousands of speculators over the course of two decades. If you find a name that nobody claimed for $10, ask yourself how you are going to resell it for more. It could happen. Maybe it is just a question of timing, being at the right place at the right time.
Of course, there are exceptions like recent drops, but a good name shouldn't remain unregistered for years.
The yet unknown domain names we are talking about must have been scanned hundreds of times, yet discarded by domainers. Maybe there is a reason. Just saying.
Now the names may be pronounceable and fairly brandable, but that still doesn't mean there is a buyer. Millions of decent names are waiting for a buyer that will never come, such is the reality of our trade.

In general I agree entirely with the view expressed by @Kate. With so many domain investors searching, it is unlikely one will find an unregistered .com with high value.

However, as she says, there are exceptions. I think that among these exceptions are changes in what is popular and valued in society (new technology, but not only that). Also harder to define changes in what is considered 'in' in terms of business naming. Recently a lot of interest in names ending in 'io' and 'ly', either with the io extension or not, and a bit further back names ending in 'co' and 'al' were popular (and continue to be).

Thanks @Kate for sensible and eloquently expressed advice (as always!)