From ugly to $1 million, guy wants to trade up his ugly domain name

[domaindigger]

I just saw this on digg and wanted some perspective. This guy wants to trade up his oneuglydomain.com for a more "beautiful" one worth $1 million. It's like that oneredpaperclip idea, but with domains.

My question is, does he have a chance or is this just a parody? I have a couple of dead domains I wouldn't mind trading for if I can feed off the publicity this might generate.

Thoughts?

 

[briman1970]

WHy are you dumbfounded? I mean, what is so great about three meaningless characters followed by a .org? AmericanHit.com gives you an instant brand, a niche that one will remember and come back to. qvr is meaningless, just like f9y.com. Oh, they may both have some value as collectibles by domainers, but who else is really going to buy those domains as an end user?

Nothing is special about QVJ.org except it's inherent collectible value as perceived by domainers, which is at least $225-250 IMO. If I was trading away YOG.mobi (or YoG.mobi as everyone likes to describe it), I wouldn't want the name I'm getting to be valuable exclusively because of it's "brandability". Good looking brandable two-word names are not as hard to find as bad looking LLL.orgs in my experience.

I think F9Y is doing so well because it's got a lot going for it... it's a LNL.com, it is bundled with all it's major exts, it's generic, plus it's brandable. I have a notion that AmericanHit.com would do poorly at auction compared to YOG.mobi or QVJ.org... or even VoiceTone.mobi, RealitySeries.tv, ReleaseParty.com or CelebrityAffairs.com. No offense if it's your name. I'm just speaking my mind.

 

[SharonTucci]

Sheesh, I almost had a heart attack when I caught up on this thread and saw f9y.com. I was SURE I owned that and then checked database and saw it was f9q.com!

 

[briman1970]

Sheesh, I almost had a heart attack when I caught up on this thread and saw f9y.com. I was SURE I owned that and then checked database and saw it was f9q.com!

:lol: I've never had that happen before. :red:

 

[SharonTucci]

:lol: I've never had that happen before. :red:

LOL glad I'm not alone.... hmmm maybe I should put f9q.com up for sale since people seem to think f9y.com is worth something... then again it is bundled with the .net etc etc

 

[Archangel]

I decided to remain quiet throughout this vote so as to not influence voters. I had to defend my offer a bit, as you read. Now that the vote is over, let me address a thing or two before I contact Andres.

Nothing is special about QVJ.org except it's inherent collectible value as perceived by domainers, which is at least $225-250 IMO. If I was trading away YOG.mobi (or YoG.mobi as everyone likes to describe it), I wouldn't want the name I'm getting to be valuable exclusively because of it's "brandability". Good looking brandable two-word names are not as hard to find as bad looking LLL.orgs in my experience.

I think F9Y is doing so well because it's got a lot going for it... it's a LNL.com, it is bundled with all it's major exts, it's generic, plus it's brandable. I have a notion that AmericanHit.com would do poorly at auction compared to YOG.mobi or QVJ.org... or even VoiceTone.mobi, RealitySeries.tv, ReleaseParty.com or CelebrityAffairs.com. No offense if it's your name. I'm just speaking my mind.

WHy are you dumbfounded? I mean, what is so great about three meaningless characters followed by a .org? AmericanHit.com gives you an instant brand, a niche that one will remember and come back to. qvr is meaningless, just like f9y.com. Oh, they may both have some value as collectibles by domainers, but who else is really going to buy those domains as an end user?

I'm afraid that if you believed AmericanHit.com was the best because QVR and F9Y were "meaningless" and that AmericanHit.com was truly the better, I cannot argue with you other than your accusation that the 3 char/letter domains carry no worth. You've implied that 3 letter/character domains were just a collection-thing and were never used/developed. I'm sorry, kind sir, but there are a billion websites with a 3 char/letter domain. So I'm unsure where this thought comes from.

Where is the value? Let me say this: F9Y.com could be used with 100% every website in existence and with the other ext. under its belt, it is more of an Internet property than anything. QVR.org is similar; its limitations are in the ext .org and that there are better QVR extensions in existence (that hurts in that if www.qvr.org became popular, the .com would have a big edge). But it is still a great domain.

Now, AmericanHit.com is longer and all, yes. Does that make 3 letter/char more valuable? No. But AmericanHit.com is far too limited and cannot be used as most 3 char/letters are. I couldn't see anyone using AmericanHit.com for anything more than what the name implies.

Funny: I've watched the vote extensively. F9Y.com had the first 3 votes. Overnight, AmericanHit.com got about 5 votes and eventually overtook F9Y.com by a vote. It received 3 more votes and then went dormant. I don't think any of those 8 votes were legit.

QVR.org is a good domain and it was a good competition. I hope you well in your endeavors with it.

But AmericanHit.com doesn't strike me as an immediately good domain. It needs development. F9Y.com makes for a good trade-up IMO RogueWriter, you sound a little bitter about not winning... but I came across the same way when my WebPortals.org wasn't readded to the vote so I guess I should excuse you.

 

[briman1970]

I'm afraid that if you believed AmericanHit.com was the best because QVR and F9Y were "meaningless" and that AmericanHit.com was truly the better, I cannot argue with you other than your accusation that the 3 char/letter domains carry no worth.

QVR.org is similar; its limitations are in the ext .org and that there are better QVR extensions in existence (that hurts in that if www.qvr.org became popular, the .com would have a big edge). But it is still a great domain.

QVR.org is a good domain and it was a good competition. I hope you well in your endeavors with it

Thanks for the kind comments Archangel, but the domain is QVJ.org (not quite as good, I'm afraid). I WISH it was QVR.org, which could stand for "Quick Virtual Reality" or "Quality Virtual Real Estate").

 

[Archangel]

Thanks for the kind comments Archangel, but the domain is QVJ.org (not quite as good, I'm afraid). I WISH it was QVR.org, which could stand for "Quick Virtual Reality" or "Quality Virtual Real Estate").

Oh -- my mistake. I'm extremely sleep-deprived and I've been working hard on a book so I guess my mind slipped a bit.

 

[BrandYourself]

You want to be careful what you say archangel ! As the current owner of americanhit I deeply resent your remark !!!!! especially as you are TOTALLY inaccurate - if i'd gone to the trouble of rigging votes surely I'd have made more effort !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF YOU'D HAVE DONE SOME HOMEWORK INSTEAD OF SHOOTING YOUR MOUTH OFF YOU'D HAVE NOTICED A FEW POSTERS IN THIS THREAD VOTED FOR AMERICANHIT

I'VE PARTICIPATED IN EVERY ROUND AS I'VE ENJOYED OUD THUS FAR !
I HAVN'T EVEN VOTED ONCE IN ANY ROUND - DUE IN THE MAIN TO THE FACT THAT I'VE HAD AN ENTRY IN EVERY ROUND SO FAR. NEITHER HAVE I ASKED ANYONE ELSE TO VOTE FOR ME !!!!!!!!!! AND I DON'T NEED MORONIC AND SLANDEROUS AND TOTALLY INACCURATE STATEMENTS OF VOTE RIGGING FROM YOU

Funny: I've watched the vote extensively. F9Y.com had the first 3 votes. Overnight, AmericanHit.com got about 5 votes and eventually overtook F9Y.com by a vote. It received 3 more votes and then went dormant. I don't think any of those 8 votes were legit.

 

[Erdy]

You want to be careful what you say archangel ! As the current owner of americanhit I deeply resent your remark !!!!! especially as you are TOTALLY inaccurate - if i'd gone to the trouble of rigging votes surely I'd have made more effort !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF YOU'D HAVE DONE SOME HOMEWORK INSTEAD OF SHOOTING YOUR MOUTH OFF YOU'D HAVE NOTICED A FEW POSTERS IN THIS THREAD VOTED FOR AMERICANHIT

I'VE PARTICIPATED IN EVERY ROUND AS I'VE ENJOYED OUD THUS FAR !
I HAVN'T EVEN VOTED ONCE IN ANY ROUND - DUE IN THE MAIN TO THE FACT THAT I'VE HAD AN ENTRY IN EVERY ROUND SO FAR. NEITHER HAVE I ASKED ANYONE ELSE TO VOTE FOR ME !!!!!!!!!! AND I DON'T NEED MORONIC AND SLANDEROUS AND TOTALLY INACCURATE STATEMENTS OF VOTE RIGGING FROM YOU

Writing in capital letters is considered to be shouting. It doesn't make you look good. People are having just some fun. No need to get too carried away with it.

 

[BrandYourself]

thanks for the info marcel - i was aware about the upper case = shouting thing
perhaps I wouldnt have used upper case if I hadn't been falsely accused of vote rigging

Falsely accusing people by shooting your mouth off makes certain people look a lot worse or perhaps this escaped your attention

(ALL LOWER CASE !)

 

[RogueWriter]

I'll answer in bold under each comment......

I'm afraid that if you believed AmericanHit.com was the best because QVR and F9Y were "meaningless" and that AmericanHit.com was truly the better, I cannot argue with you other than your accusation that the 3 char/letter domains carry no worth. You've implied that 3 letter/character domains were just a collection-thing and were never used/developed. I'm sorry, kind sir, but there are a billion websites with a 3 char/letter domain. So I'm unsure where this thought comes from.

Yes, there are quite a few valuable three letter domains, many which I wish I owned, such as sex.com , faq.com , url.com , etc. I would love to own lll.coms where the letter were commonly used letters, absolutely you could find companies to sell the domain to for big bucks. I have yet to find a company using the letter/number/letter combination of F9Y, nor can I think of a combination of terms in which F9Y could be used to make sense. Ergo my comment that the domain has limited value, both as a collectible domain and also as a potential end user's domain. AmericanHit.com might not have as much value in your eyes, but then I suppose AmericanIdol.com would have had even less value in your eyes, before it was developed. AmericanHit.com has potential, whereby F9Y.com, IMO, does not.


Where is the value? Let me say this: F9Y.com could be used with 100% every website in existence and with the other ext. under its belt, it is more of an Internet property than anything. QVR.org is similar; its limitations are in the ext .org and that there are better QVR extensions in existence (that hurts in that if www.qvr.org became popular, the .com would have a big edge). But it is still a great domain.

I would say that, yes, you could use it for anything, because the initials really don't stand for anything.

Now, AmericanHit.com is longer and all, yes. Does that make 3 letter/char more valuable? No. But AmericanHit.com is far too limited and cannot be used as most 3 char/letters are. I couldn't see anyone using AmericanHit.com for anything more than what the name implies.

And why is that a bad thing? Using sex.com for a porn site does not necessarily imply it is a bad domain, right?

Funny: I've watched the vote extensively. F9Y.com had the first 3 votes. Overnight, AmericanHit.com got about 5 votes and eventually overtook F9Y.com by a vote. It received 3 more votes and then went dormant. I don't think any of those 8 votes were legit.

I do not own AmericanHit.com , and I voted for it ( one time ), so you are wrong, there. I have no interest in that domain, other than as someone who is interested in this contest. I did not have any of my domains accepted into this round, actually, though I think he debated putting Crissy.us in.

QVR.org is a good domain and it was a good competition. I hope you well in your endeavors with it.

But AmericanHit.com doesn't strike me as an immediately good domain. It needs development. F9Y.com makes for a good trade-up IMO RogueWriter, you sound a little bitter about not winning... but I came across the same way when my WebPortals.org wasn't readded to the vote so I guess I should excuse you.

Again, it wasn't my domain to lose, so there is zero bitterness on my part, not sure where that is coming from. Perhaps the difference of opinion between us is that I am an affiliate marketer first, and a domainer, second, whereas I think the roles might be reversed for you. As an affiliate marketer, I look at a domain and think to myself about:

1. How easy is it going to be to get this domain found for specific keywords.
2. Which niche will I use the domain in.
3. Is there enough room in that niche for me.
4. Is the domain intuitive, easy for people to recognize the focus of the domain by looking at the domain name?

With AmericanHit.com, my thought process went like this: AmericanIdol.com. Hmmm, a contest, music oriented. Well, how about people uploading their music videos, soloists, bands, orchestras, all genres, and you could have a weekly 'battle of the bands' kind of contest.

So, I saw potential in a domain name, I saw a way that surfers could provide my content, a mix of YouTube/AmericanIdol which allowed me to give value to that domain over any other domain submitted.

Having all of the extensions reserved is fine, perhaps a great addition to an end user, if you can find one, but until you find one, it also means you have to pay registration fees for all of those domains, so you've got five times the maintenance than you do with my choice, a single .com.....

One last comment....... I need a couple of months to straighten out my finances, they are just horrible right now. But when I am ready, I will definately be putting an offer up for one of the domains in this round..... take a guess at the one I am interested in!

Congratulations to the winner of this round's voting, it is great to see the contest moving on, and interesting to see everyone's opinions on which one should win.

 

[randomo]

[...]Where is the value? Let me say this: F9Y.com could be used with 100% every website in existence and with the other ext. under its belt, it is more of an Internet property than anything. [...]

Congratulations on your victory, but I honestly don't see how F9Y.com could be used with any website. What in the world does it mean? How can people remember it? LLL domains make lots of sense to me; LNL are puzzling.

[...]Funny: I've watched the vote extensively. F9Y.com had the first 3 votes. Overnight, AmericanHit.com got about 5 votes and eventually overtook F9Y.com by a vote. It received 3 more votes and then went dormant. I don't think any of those 8 votes were legit.[...]

Wow. That's a pretty heavy accusation to lay on somebody. I don't blame the domain's owner for YELLING about it.

[...]But AmericanHit.com doesn't strike me as an immediately good domain. It needs development.[...]

Sure, but why does a domain have to be immediately good? Isn't "potential for development" a large part of most domains' value? This one sounds excellent to me - like a future reality show or something.

It may be true that not-much-worse American[whatever].com domains are available for reg'ing, which casts some doubt on the value of this one. Still, would you be surprised to see a name like this go for high $XXX or low $XXXX at SnapNames? I wouldn't.

 

[Travis]

Congratulations on your victory, but I honestly don't see how F9Y.com could be used with any website. What in the world does it mean? How can people remember it? LLL domains make lots of sense to me; LNL are puzzling.


Wow. That's a pretty heavy accusation to lay on somebody. I don't blame the domain's owner for YELLING about it.


Sure, but why does a domain have to be immediately good? Isn't "potential for development" a large part of most domains' value? This one sounds excellent to me - like a future reality show or something.

It may be true that not-much-worse American[whatever].com domains are available for reg'ing, which casts some doubt on the value of this one. Still, would you be surprised to see a name like this go for high $XXX or low $XXXX at SnapNames? I wouldn't.

It could even go for $100,000 to the right buyer, any domain name could. I'm sure even 4b9d.com could fetch $2,000 to the right buyer. I personally think AmericanHit.com wouldn't sell for over $50 under regular circumstances. I think Andres needs to look more towards domain names that have immediate definate value such as Yog.mobi was, and etc.

 

[Archangel]

I see some bad blood in this so I think I should address these things and hope afterward, we can all wash our hands of this:

RogueWriter: I wasn't implying you were the owner of AmericanHit.com but the way my words were jumbled up, I see exactly why you assumed as you had. I typed that out around 3am and I was tired. I don't think I had it in me to perfect my diction. Sorry about that. I agree and disagree with your replies but let's not debate it. This thread is starting to sound a little (er, a lot) heated. But I like your thinking on why you believe F9Y.com isn't worth as much as I believe. You have a thought-out answer and I respect that.

bargaindomains: It is true that I shouldn't have added that last part about the votes being questionable. I apologize for that, as I know it was in bad taste. But I apologize for nothing more. I told people what I saw and I will not apologize for that. It looked suspicious how it received votes in such bulk quantities. I shouldn't have said the 8 votes should have been questioned. That was wrong of me to say. But the rest still stands. I think it looked suspicious and I'm not changing my words on that. But I won't say you were or weren't cheating. I'm just going to say "it looked suspicious" and move on.

randomo: I know it sounded a bit odd how I proclaimed F9Y.com could be used for 100% any website. How do I justify the claim? F9Y -- let's face it -- is meaningless. The value in 3 char/letter domain is in their length and how they can be remembered. An owner has to MAKE something out of the domain. I've seen many LNL.com's used for directories/SE's, personal sites, adult sites, information sites, sports sites, etc. Since F9Y doesn't apply to one thing, it can be used with any site. That's not saying it'll be a successful site just because of the domain. I'm just saying it could be used with any site you can think of. The .org was the same with the exception that the .org extension on a non-organization site might seem odd and a lot of ppl might not remember the mental link between a profit and a non-profit site, thus ppl might think more of ABC.com than ABC.org.

And about "immediate value": Every domain in existance has potential if developed properly, even trgdbtryxrth.ac. It is agreeable by many that a domain like AmericanHit.com would be worth a load of cash if it was develped but not a lot right now, undeveloped. YoG.mobi, it can be agreed, is worth several hundred dollars as-is with no developing. If Andres accepted domains that had potential opposed to domains that were valuable NOW, OUD would be at a stalemate with itself. "This round: UglyHairyFeet.com! It needs development but -- what a beauty!" F9Y.com isn't a million-dollar domain but I wouldn't have traded it up for a domain that was worth about $20 as-is and needed development to have a $xxx value.

Hopefully now, we can all just wash our hands of this and move along. To avoid confusion and to not insult ppl, I'll pay more attention to my wording. That said, let's get Round Eight started.

 

[BrandYourself]

archangel : If you're going to sort of apologise dont bother, either apologise or don't bother making a sad effort not to back down from your false accusation. A number of domains seemed to initially receive votes only to tail off ! How do I know? Because I was one of the people who was affected by the java issue (or whatever the problem was re: some people not being able to vote) every time I loaded the oud page I saw no option to vote but only a script error informing me of the current votes.
A half baked accusation and a half baked dubious apology add upto the same im afraid.

 

[dontknow]

Right on!
My former YoG.mobi finally rides into the sunset...
Glad to see it put up a fight and had to be wrestled
out of top spot by a gang of five!

 

[Archangel]

archangel : If you're going to sort of apologise dont bother, either apologise or don't bother making a sad effort not to back down from your false accusation. A number of domains seemed to initially receive votes only to tail off ! How do I know? Because I was one of the people who was affected by the java issue (or whatever the problem was re: some people not being able to vote) every time I loaded the oud page I saw no option to vote but only a script error informing me of the current votes.
A half baked accusation and a half baked dubious apology add upto the same im afraid.

I'll up the ante a bit and say that I don't believe you were cheating. You had 8 votes; if you were cheating, surely you'd have tried harder. Now take that any way you want -- take it as a full apology or just insincere words -- doesn't matter. I'm moving on, as this thread doesn't need either of us flaming the other.

 

[RogueWriter]

Archangel- hey, no worries between us, I like talking things out. Disagreeing on this topic is a-ok by me, I enjoy reading your thougths on this topic.

 

[Archangel]

We've had QVJ.org. I spent $xxx to buy F9Y.com/.net/.org/.info/.biz exclusively for OUD. Come on, ppl -- start submitting good names! I'd submit this round except I'm not keen on trying to 'win' my domains back but I'll still try to be helpful this round.

LeadingInsurers.com -- This would need development to really become of any value IMO

IntraBets.com -- It seems too random

PodcastLab.com -- I like this but it needs development. I'd say this is worth no more than $30 as-is


And the unaccepted...

WickedBets.com -- Not bad and I'd personally like to own it assuming I had more time to develop it. But as a trade-up, I don't think it'll work.
EnginesExplained.com -- Good for mechanic sites but still not a trade-up without development
SexFast.net -- Random. What does this mean?
HitCasino.net (plus GemCasino.net) -- I'd consider these simply because they are short casino domains and casino domains sell quite well these days. I don't care for 'hit' but 'gem' looks very brandable.
TenderSale.com -- It's not a well-used term
Fosi.co.uk -- What does this mean?
TooYummy.com -- I could see this developed being worth a lot but as-is, it might not touch $50.

 

[briman1970]

SexFast.net -- Random. What does this mean?

It could mean "sex fasting" also called "doing without". Here's a page from a search of Google using the words "sex fast" with the quotes... http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/home/90-day_fast.php

Not a trade-up in my opinion.

 

[Archangel]

It could mean "sex fasting" also called "doing without". Here's a page from a search of Google using the words "sex fast" with the quotes... http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/home/90-day_fast.php

Not a trade-up in my opinion.

Thanks for the clarification.

But I agree -- still not a trade-up.

 

[dontknow]

For this competition to progress,
people have to put away the mediocre
names, as the bar has been raised.

 

[Archangel]

For this competition to progress,
people have to put away the mediocre
names, as the bar has been raised.

Read this, from the site:

Sound simple enough? Cool, anyone can offer any domain they own, no matter how ugly.

Maybe he should change this provision as the "bar has been raised" and "ugly" domains won't lead up to a million dollars.

 

[dontknow]

Hey Archangel, it's nice to see your name up
on the wall of shame at OneUglyDomain.com...
I'm glad your awesome domain set was traded for my old YoG!

 

[RJ]

This trade was a step down for OUD, but not a big one. Maybe a $50 loss in value. Three letter .MOBI's have some demand at the moment with prices steadily increasing and nobody seems to be in the market actually looking to buy LNL.com's right now. This could be a stalling point, but keep the faith!