Thought I share a couple of ideas, thoughts and wise words that have stuck with me from the industry heavy-hitters. By the way, these are not their exact quotes, just how I recall them. Mostly from DomainSherpa interviews and industry blogs. And, my thoughts about the following ideas are just that: my thoughts. And they mostly relate to hand-regging. Feel free to contest them.
Let's start with Page Howe:
You don't really know if the name is taken or available until you check it.
So true. Changed my life. Well not really but still a solid advice. If you're crazy, cough, persistent and patient enough there's still a lot of names to hand reg that can realistically sell above $5k, I think. You just have to discipline yourself to not reg too much OK (meaning not that great) names. Which is very, very, very difficult because hitting that process payment button is just so rewarding
Next, 3 from Frank Schilling:
Domaining is essentially mining.
Closely related to Howe's tip about availability in my mind. By compiling MASSIVE lists of names in various TLDs you are IMO able to find good, even great names for reg fee. Custom word lists (a lot of them), some software (mergewords.com comes handy), dictionary and thesaurus will get you started. Also, morewords.com, love it.
Keyword Gravity
Schilling often uses this expression. This can be seen in two ways, or at least I do. First, search volume and high CPC indicate value (to someone). Yup, maybe a bit obvious... But the second take for me is that if the Keyword Gravity is strong enough even a weaker name with that KW (e.g. cash, money, loan etc.) in it can fetch high figures.
Stick with natural language.
This is especially difficult for me as I'm not a native English speaker. Two word brandables can be really tricky not to mention the made-up stuff (I'd advice to avoid these if you're not a native English speaker). Searching the words in quotes often helps a little, i.e. gives you context. By the way, this is probably not that big of an issue for speakers of Indo-European languages, German, Swedish etc. (My mother tongue is Finnish, a beast of a language, I might say.)
And, Rick Swartchz:
Buy names that, if you had that only one, would provide you a living.
Of course impossible for hand-reg budget in .COM space but very much applicable advice to new gTLDs. Think subscription services (my favorite), e-commerce, dropshipping, affiliate stores, listing services and so on when you're regging names. Or I do.
And, Mike Mann:
I'm a pattern reader.
Actually no freaking clue what he meant by that but sounds cool Anyway, a thought: there's a fixed set of words that go into domain names that sell in the aftermarket. Fixed, I say. Learn the vocabulary with e.g. NameBio.com. Also, Shane's got a lot of great commentary on domains, keywords and this and that in his daily lists.
Speaking of Shane Cultra:
Shorter is better.
Very hard to not insert jokes here... A fact. Shorter names are the first ones in end users' mind which translates to bigger buyer pool IMO. Unfortunately these names (less than, say, seven characters) are starting to dry up and the ones left are not that great most of the time. But there's still a lot of names to reg in less than 12 characters .COM space in my opinion.
Outsmarting the dumb, outworking the smart.
Love it.
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That's about it for now. Hope you enjoyed And if you happen to remember any other wise or clever quotes from big boys, do share!
Let's start with Page Howe:
You don't really know if the name is taken or available until you check it.
So true. Changed my life. Well not really but still a solid advice. If you're crazy, cough, persistent and patient enough there's still a lot of names to hand reg that can realistically sell above $5k, I think. You just have to discipline yourself to not reg too much OK (meaning not that great) names. Which is very, very, very difficult because hitting that process payment button is just so rewarding
Next, 3 from Frank Schilling:
Domaining is essentially mining.
Closely related to Howe's tip about availability in my mind. By compiling MASSIVE lists of names in various TLDs you are IMO able to find good, even great names for reg fee. Custom word lists (a lot of them), some software (mergewords.com comes handy), dictionary and thesaurus will get you started. Also, morewords.com, love it.
Keyword Gravity
Schilling often uses this expression. This can be seen in two ways, or at least I do. First, search volume and high CPC indicate value (to someone). Yup, maybe a bit obvious... But the second take for me is that if the Keyword Gravity is strong enough even a weaker name with that KW (e.g. cash, money, loan etc.) in it can fetch high figures.
Stick with natural language.
This is especially difficult for me as I'm not a native English speaker. Two word brandables can be really tricky not to mention the made-up stuff (I'd advice to avoid these if you're not a native English speaker). Searching the words in quotes often helps a little, i.e. gives you context. By the way, this is probably not that big of an issue for speakers of Indo-European languages, German, Swedish etc. (My mother tongue is Finnish, a beast of a language, I might say.)
And, Rick Swartchz:
Buy names that, if you had that only one, would provide you a living.
Of course impossible for hand-reg budget in .COM space but very much applicable advice to new gTLDs. Think subscription services (my favorite), e-commerce, dropshipping, affiliate stores, listing services and so on when you're regging names. Or I do.
And, Mike Mann:
I'm a pattern reader.
Actually no freaking clue what he meant by that but sounds cool
Anyway, a thought: there's a fixed set of words that go into domain names that sell in the aftermarket. Fixed, I say. Learn the vocabulary with e.g. NameBio.com. Also, Shane's got a lot of great commentary on domains, keywords and this and that in his daily lists. Speaking of Shane Cultra:
Shorter is better.
Very hard to not insert jokes here... A fact. Shorter names are the first ones in end users' mind which translates to bigger buyer pool IMO. Unfortunately these names (less than, say, seven characters) are starting to dry up and the ones left are not that great most of the time. But there's still a lot of names to reg in less than 12 characters .COM space in my opinion.
Outsmarting the dumb, outworking the smart.
Love it.
---
That's about it for now. Hope you enjoyed
And if you happen to remember any other wise or clever quotes from big boys, do share!
