discuss Domain Myths and Lies

[ThatNameGuy]

I'd like to start this thread with the statement I hear so often from "so called" professionals in the domain industry, "All the Good Domains, especially the .coms are already taken"

This couldn't be further from the truth Having started, operated and yes NAMED dozens of businesses in my lifetime, I know better. Regardless of the business you're looking to start, chances are I can find or locate a name that's more than satisfactory to run/operate your business within an hour. Seriously, naming a business isn't rocket science, but to listen to those who make a living from the domain industry, they would like for you to think it is

Having discovered this industry just a little over two years ago, I've hand registered a couple thousand names of which I still own a little over a thousand of which 80% are more than satisfactory for running a business.

Other myths to discuss;

"Shorter is better"

"Older is better"

"New gTLD's are garbage"

Please feel free to chime in. Thanks

 

[dirk]

I'm not so sure how easily it can be done? I've trademarked four, now five names with the last one being 9Time™. I'm far from an expert, and I'm sure you've had a lot more experience. I just know I can't trademark IBM, and as a VAR, I sold IBM systems for years

Yeah, you may run into some obstacles trying to obtain a trademark for IBM depending on the category you file it for as it's such a well known brand.

I'm not sure if their tm covers sports but theoretically you should be be able to trandemark the term IBM for a new golf brand if it doesn't.

 

[Joe N]

Now I know there's a chance you've been to Paris. How do they say it there? Savor or Savour....inquiring minds would luv to know.

I think they say "saveur"...

 

[wurdd]

Savor Golf. Savor Golf. Savor Golf. Hmmmmm, I like the way that sounds. I think you might be on to something.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

@ThatNameGuy he's right when he says

Your domains are not bad, they all sound good and because you might have a lot, maybe some are good.
Here is the thing.
You haven't started selling them, meaning no landers or / listing them on marketplaces.
You should do that right away, for all your domains. With make offer, at least, if for some reason you don't want to ruin your valuation or whatever.
You can also set bin and activate afternic fast transfer with a lander set on make offer, no future customer from the time when your plan is ready will be able to know about previous pricing.
Using conventional methods, you could have already had 2 years of expertise. If you don't try to sell your domains the conventional way, you won't learn what sells and what doesn't.

You learn faster and better when you actually put them for sale, the conventional way.
Not trying to sell them only slows you down.
Also a critical fact is that a good brand is not the same as a good domain name.
You have experience naming businesses, your names sound good, but your targeted markets might be too narrow to make your names good domains that sell.
List them for sale and see what sells / gets offers, while following your original plan.

Windoms...it turns out my rep at Go Daddy Mike Fear has really let me down. He was suppose to take charge of my portfolio of a little over a thousand names over six months ago, but when I realized he had dropped the ball about a month ago he apologized, and I supposedly approved a new file to be listed at Afernic a little over a week ago, but I still don't see them listed. SavorManhattan, SavorCanada and CatchGourmet are just three of about 600 I approved for sale, and I still don't see them listed? I just sent him an email, and he should be embarrassed as hell, and I told him in the email that I expected ALL my names to show for sale by no later than Monday at midnight.

Now...yours was one of the nicest critical posts Windoms I've read, and it motivated me....than you You're right about me having pretty good names, I've always known that, and I'm getting better and better at this game every day. Despite all this, I actually have sold a few domains off the grid. I'm determined NOT to share any sales information here because that's an exercise in futility That's all I got, and thanks again.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Ok, but can you help me understand? In the name of helping/teaching those of us who don't have your same vision and experience?

Of all my Savorxxxxxx.com domains SavorGolf is ok, but names like SavorManhattan, SavorCanada, SavorEarth and SavourGreen.org ad SavorFitness are all better in my opinion. Besides, when traditional golf dies, and 9Time™ replaces it, there will be no need for SavorGolf

 

[Joe N]

Of all my Savorxxxxxx.com domains SavorGolf is ok, but names like SavorManhattan, SavorCanada, SavorEarth and SavourGreen.org ad SavorFitness are all better in my opinion. Besides, when traditional golf dies, and 9Time™ replaces it, there will be no need for SavorGolf

But can you help us to understand why "savor" is the one keyword above all others that buyers will decide is perfect for their needs?

 

[ThatNameGuy]

But can you help us to understand why "savor" is the one keyword above all others that buyers will decide is perfect for their needs?

i aleady told you, it's sexy, sophisticated, refined and worldly

 

[Joe N]

i aleady told you, it's sexy, sophisticated, refined and worldly

But aren't those subjective opinions?

If I understand correctly... You expect that by telling various NYC publishers about this domain name, they'll recognize what a great name it would make for a publication, and will buy it from you for the purpose of creating that publication?

I'm 100% not mocking the idea, Rich. I just want to understand. Are you selling names they currently need, or are you selling ideas you believe they will want, and will thus pay a premium for your domains to pursue those ideas?

 

[ThatNameGuy]

But aren't those subjective opinions?

If I understand correctly... You expect that by telling various NYC publishers about this domain name, they'll recognize what a great name it would make for a publication, and will buy it from you for the purpose of creating that publication?

I'm 100% not mocking the idea, Rich. I just want to understand. Are you selling names they currently need, or are you selling ideas you believe they will want, and will thus pay a premium for your domains to pursue those ideas?

NO...do you want to pay for my research Joe?....i'm sure you can't afford it

 

[Joe N]

NO...do you want to pay for my research Joe?....i'm sure you can't afford it

Okay, you're not selling an idea and a name. Just a name. And buyers will want the name because "savor" is sexy, sophisticated, refined, and worldly.

So as other domain investors wanting to understand the methods you're teaching, how do we translate this strategy into our own successes? How do we know when a name or keyword is sexy and sophisticated enough to entice a potential buyer?

 

[Randolph]

"Shorter is better"
Grammar and usability are better. 4-letters especially, are hyped up with no real-world use. Normal people don't care if they have to type 15 characters — or 3+ words — as long as it's memorable and easy to spell. They definitely don't get stars in their eyes when they see a business with a short/4-letter domain.

"Older is better"
Lazy domainers love this one. Older domains that haven't been used and been flip-flopping web pages for years are heavily penalized by search engines. A new domain that starts popping up everywhere (links, etc) will rank better, faster.

"New gTLD's are garbage"
If it works, it works. But as you move down the tiers of TLD popularity, there is an exponential drop in value, trust, and usability.

 

[bmugford]

MYTH - Experience in other fields will automatically lead to success with domains.
MYTH - Name dropping will lead to sales.

Truth - Fake it until you make it doesn't work that well in this field. Most experienced domain investors can see right through it.

Truth - Talking about what you are going to do, but never actually doing it, will not lead to sales.

Truth - If you have limited experience and results in the field, you have limited credibility.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

"Shorter is better"
Grammar and usability are better. 4-letters especially, are hyped up with no real-world use. Normal people don't care if they have to type 15 characters — or 3+ words — as long as it's memorable and easy to spell. They definitely don't get stars in their eyes when they see a business with a short/4-letter domain.

"Older is better"
Lazy domainers love this one. Older domains that haven't been used and been flip-flopping web pages for years are heavily penalized by search engines. A new domain that starts popping up everywhere (links, etc) will rank better, faster.

"New gTLD's are garbage"
If it works, it works. But as you move down the tiers of TLD popularity, there is an exponential drop in value, trust, and usability.

Randolph...all good answers....so you're a Full-stack engineer? I thought that meant you weren't playing with a full deck This helped; https://skillcrush.com/2017/02/27/front-end-back-end-full-stack/ Thanks again for your honest straight forward anlaysis.

 

[Josh R]

 

[ThatNameGuy]

You just don't know how much I LOVE seeing you waste your time with me, even if it's just a few seconds...carry on Tiger

 

[Joe N]

"Shorter is better"
Grammar and usability are better. 4-letters especially, are hyped up with no real-world use. Normal people don't care if they have to type 15 characters — or 3+ words — as long as it's memorable and easy to spell. They definitely don't get stars in their eyes when they see a business with a short/4-letter domain.

I think the stated "myth" is a bit of a red herring. A seasoned domain investor would never claim that shorter is better just because it's shorter. It's more accurate to say that, all things being equal, shorter is easier to sell, and generally conveys more trust and authority to clients/customers.

To illustrate:

StructuralEngineeringCorp.com is clearly more meaningful to a potential buyer than ZWQP.com and thus likely easier to sell to an end user (liquid value is a whole other issue, though).

But... Nuvo.com is a heck of a lot better than NuvoStructuralEngineers.com

There's a very good reason that most brandable marketplaces report that the majority of their sales are of domain names that contain 8 characters or less: people like short names.

 

[Randolph]

Randolph...all good answers....so you're a Full-stack engineer? I thought that meant you weren't playing with a full deck This helped; https://skillcrush.com/2017/02/27/front-end-back-end-full-stack/ Thanks again for your honest straight forward anlaysis.

Domaining as a kid was what inadvertently led me to be a Full Stack Engineer! Had to spin up servers, code everything, and design it all because there wasn't money to outsource.

From server to front end, if I don't know a coding language/etc, I'll reverse engineer it on sight and be fluent in a couple weeks (it's all the same to me).

That article does a great job explaining all the differences between stacks, devs and engineers. Funny story — been full stack for 15+ years but I actually didn't know I was called a Full Stack Engineer until someone asked me "how I became one" a handful of years back.

 

[Josh R]

You just don't know how much I LOVE seeing you waste your time with me, even if it's just a few seconds...carry on Tiger

I actually agree with this fully.

This should be something I work on fixing next decade.

 

[bmugford]

I think the stated "myth" is a bit of a red herring. A seasoned domain investor would never claim that shorter is better just because it's shorter. It's more accurate to say that, all things being equal, shorter is easier to sell, and generally conveys more trust and authority to clients/customers.

To illustrate:

StructuralEngineeringCorp.com is clearly more meaningful to a potential buyer than ZWQP.com and thus likely easier to sell to an end user (liquid value is a whole other issue, though).

But... Nuvo.com is a heck of a lot better than NuvoStructuralEngineers.com

There's a very good reason that most brandable marketplaces report that the majority of their sales are of domain names that contain 8 characters or less: people like short names.

Good examples.

Saying shorter is better doesn't mean that every shorter domain is better.
It requires a little common sense.

Brad

 

[Randolph]

I think the stated "myth" is a bit of a red herring. A seasoned domain investor would never claim that shorter is better just because it's shorter. It's more accurate to say that, all things being equal, shorter is easier to sell, and generally conveys more trust and authority to clients/customers.

To illustrate:

StructuralEngineeringCorp.com is clearly more meaningful to a potential buyer than ZWQP.com and thus likely easier to sell to an end user (liquid value is a whole other issue, though).

But... Nuvo.com is a heck of a lot better than NuvoStructuralEngineers.com

There's a very good reason that most brandable marketplaces report that the majority of their sales are of domain names that contain 8 characters or less: people like short names.

Totally agree. ZWQP.com is what I was aiming at with my hot take. There are obviously 4-letters that are great and would be best to use — such as Nuvo.

While I agree that the majority of reported sales are on the shorter end, I think we're only focusing on one corner of the room. I'd say a large percentage of sales are unaccounted for but the big thing here is:

Many people scoop up a brand with all intentions to bring it to fruit. 90%+ of businesses fail within the first 2 years. In today's age, branding can be a huge decider on failing and staying afloat.

In my years of identity and branding, I've seen many oddly branded (cool on paper/concept) companies sink to the bottom while simple and clearly branded companies skyrocket.

TLDR; Big dreams don't equate to big things.