I Don't Get Some of These Appraisals...

[Schmoe]

Hello all. First post here. I'm trying to come up with a new name for my site, and I'm trying to learn what makes a "good" domain name here.

Okay, granted I'm a complete "domain name newbie", but I don't get the rationale behind some of the valuations. It seems that names are valued based on what they could be used for only. For instance, if a name is to be used for a hosting company, it has to be named goodhost.com, or if its for a video store, it has to be named videosonline.com. However, this reasoning doesn't really fit with the truly successful companies on the net.

Most successful net companies have names completely unrelated to their content. Instead, they choose a name just because its "catchy".

No one here seems to value names based on "catchiness"...

I just get that feeling that, ten years ago, some of you would have told the founder of Amazon.com:
"That name is worth the reg fee, maybe you could use it for a site about Brazil or a porn site about tall women, but books????? NO WAY!"

or:
"Yahoo.com? You mean like the cowboy expression? No one is gonna be able to spell that."

or you might have heard the phrase:
"Google? What the hell does that mean?"



As I mentioned, I'm a newb trying to learn a little about this, so can someone explain it to me?

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by Schmoe
Most successful net companies have names completely unrelated to their content. Instead, they choose a name just because its "catchy".

Excellent post, Shmoe. You hit the mark on a few points.

It's important though to distinguish between catchy names (yahoo.com, google.com, ebay.com, etc) and descriptive names (pets.com, cheaptickets.com, hotels.com)

Catchy names are generally used by companies willing to put forth the money and effort to 'brand' the term to their business.

There's a place for both types of names, and it all comes down to the marketing strategy of the company that uses the names.

As for valuations, it's harder to put a price on a catchy name. Like with your example for Yahoo.com, if the portal never existed and never spent the millions in branding, what would their domain be worth? One could reasonably argue not more than a few hundred dollars. The value in these names is largely in the eyes of the beholders.

With more generic descriptive terms, like cars.com or even awesomehosting.com to a lesser extent, the value is relative to other names of similar descriptive quality.

I appreciate your question, it's a good thing for domainers to think about when picking names. I hope we can continue the discussion.

 

[Schmoe]

Originally posted by -RJ-
It's important though to distinguish between catchy names (yahoo.com, google.com, ebay.com, etc) and descriptive names (pets.com, cheaptickets.com, hotels.com)

This brings up another point- which is the better way of choosing a domain;"catchy" or descriptive? I notice that the descriptive-named sites that you mention aren't NEARLY as successful as the "catchy"-name based. In fact, I can't think of a REALLY successful description-based site. Hmmmm.... Maybe "catchy"-naming is the way to go when choosing a domain.

Originally posted by -RJ-
As for valuations, it's harder to put a price on a catchy name. Like with your example for Yahoo.com, if the portal never existed and never spent the millions in branding, what would their domain be worth?

That's just it, though. Way back when I first started using Yahoo, there were no ads, and no concentrated effort at branding. At the time, Yahoo was just an unknown search engine started by two guys in their apartment, and the only advertising was word of mouth. Who's to say that the "word of mouth" would have been so great if their name had not been so catchy...

 

[Beachie]

You have to consider that Yahoo was also one of the first in the marketplace. Given the lack of competition, it was obviously going to gain some popularity.

Secondly, the value of any catchy, but nonsensical domain is going to be directly related to the amount of money you are willing to sink into it to make it popular. If you have a few million dollars to build a valuable business around scrootie.com, and run an advertising campaign, then sure, it's worth something. Otherwise it's just a one in a billion sequence of random letters - why would anyone pay you for it when they can create their own?

Arguably, "Yahoo" isn't just catchy, it's a popular term of excitement. I always presumed that "Amazon" is a reference to the rainforests being cut down to make paper for the books they sell. Weird marketing, if you ask me. I wonder how many greenies buy their books from amazon.com?

 

[DomainOgre]

Great observations but you are picking examples that you can not duplicate personally. The Yahoos, Googles, Amazon.coms, and Ebays of the world were not just based on a name but great ideas at the right time and excellent execution (ie money and management).

As RJ said, these companies spent millions of dollars to create brand awareness. Generic names do need that advertising because it should be obvious in the name itself what service or product they provide.

For your example about Yahoo, you liked it because it was the best search engine/portal at that time not because of its name. You don't seem to taking into account that there have been countless companies with "catchy" names that have failed miserably in all areas of the Internet. Why? Because they did not have great ideas at the right time and excellent execution. What are those names worth? I guarantee not much unless they had traffic from links etc. That said, I think this is a case of comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Schmoe
... Who's to say that the "word of mouth" would have been so great if their name had not been so catchy...

Good point! :D

For consistency, I have to move this now to the "Domain Dicussions" Forum ... as there is no specific domain name to be appraised. However, I DO hope that we all can continue on some of the fine points ("Catchy" versus "Descriptive", for example) here over there in that setting ... very *worthy* IMHO.
In the interim, could you please appraise, comment on my undeveloped domain name "CoolHost.com". :D
How much would it cost me to develop, implement, market, brand and run efficiently to be worth, say, 1/10th the market capitalization of Yahoo, IYHO? What can you envision on the site? Would one appraise it as a domain name, or for its perceived potential? Other than for (web) hosting, what could it be used for?!? Is it either descriptive or catchy, neither or both?
See you in the a.m. and Welcome to #1 Namepros.
-Jeff

 

[Brian]

imho
any domain whether a catchy name or a name targeted to a specific area, they all have potential, its comes down to the money backing it, and the idea of the site.
Personaly for my own development, i prefer the catchy names. that is one of the reasons i picked up xeet.com recently, its short, and easy to remember in my opinion. what does it deal with exactly? just by the name you can not tell, that also makes the people visit the site stay a little longer to find out what exactly the site is about.

in regards to "CoolHost.com" , there are a few possibilities of what it could be used for imo.
First and probably most noticable is for a hosting company. Then there is maybe for a host rating site, the top host could be deemed "CoolHost of the week/month/year" stuff like that. Using it for that would make it a good resource for people in search/need of a host.
Another possibility though probably not a good one, is host can also refer to people hosting parties, like big hollywood to-do's people coudl "rate" how the stars/famous/rich people throw parties, though this idea is far fetched it is another 'remote' idea of what the domain could be used for

 

[Schmoe]

I dunno. To me, something just seems more "user-friendly" about a catchy name. If I were purchasing a tv online, I probably wouldn't buy from a site called "buyatv.com". A name like that just seems kinda cheap and unprofessional to me.

On to yet another domain-choosing point:I think there's something to be said for the "memorable" factor. I use newegg.com all the time for computer purchases. They don't advertise, it's not a catchy name, and "newegg" has nothing to do with their business, but I always remember that URL because its so odd. Maybe I should name my site something like bozofart.com. Who'd forget that? :lol:

Anyway, you guys know more about this stuff than I do... so let me see if I've got your basic points straight.

1)If you have alot of money to advertise, choose a name based on catchiness.
2)If you don't have money to advertise, choose based on descriptive words.

 

[Brian]

Originally posted by Schmoe
Maybe I should name my site something like bozofart.com. Who'd forget that? :lol:

that is now etched in my mind, i wouldnt forget it

 

[DomainOgre]

Yes on 1 and 2 but keep in mind that very descriptive or generic words in some industries can be very expensive too.

 

[armstrong]

A concrete example is books.com. This goes to the the Barnes and Noble website, which is of course a direct competitor to Amazon. Without being prompted by any advertising, many people type 'books.com" in their browsers and see that there is an online alternative to Amazon. Without books.com, not many people will be bothered to type 'barnesandnoble.com', nor will many know that their official site is named 'bn.com'.

Less people will type buybooks.com, discountbooks.com, or bestbooks.com, but there will be some. This is probably free traffic forever.

 

[Coastalguy]

Some names sell themselves. FreeMoney.com would probably cost less to market than say...Kunduffle.com.

If one was to appraise Kunduffle.com at $1500+ based on its catchiness, and with not knowing its end-user and their budget, it might discredit all your future appraisals on this forum.

Kunduffle.com is available, by the way.

Just some brain droppings from Coastalguy. Interesting topic!

ST

 

[domdom]

agree with all said

any cute or cathy name can be worth 0-1000000000
xeet.dom is very good. if u promoted it and spend millions it could rival yahoo or google no problems.

generic name as mentioned can be used for more recognition without spending as much money. it also has many more uses, strategy, marketing, pyschological, , consider books.com , bn might have bought it just to reduce amazon sales. and and ingrain 'books = barnes nobles' into peoples minds.
you cant do that with a catchy name.

before you mentioned which has been the more profitable. ? catchy has been. simply because they were promoted and developed.

alternativbely, some of the best descriptive names in the world are just sitting there being hoarded and squated. never reaching their potential. very wasteful.

in conclusion, descriptive names are better but are rarely used to their potential. if yahoo or yahoo had used search.com would this have been even better ? i think so.

 

[Schmoe]

I dunno guys. You seem to be valuing these descriptive names based on the idea that they're going to generate free traffic just by nature of their descriptiveness. This would be valid if your domain was books.com. But, a domain of this quality would run you 100s of thousands of dollars.

Likely, if looking for a descriptive name, you would have to settle for something like "bookplace.com", ...or worse. Now, is this name gonna generate any type-in traffic? Not much. Is anyone gonna remember the URL? Not likely, its too generic and just wouldn't stick in most peoples minds.

On the other hand, name your site xeet.com, and create some cute little logo/character and folks will remember it. Heck, Brian just mentioned it once in his post and I still remember it.

Let me pose my previous question to all of you: Would you buy a television from a site called buyatv.com?

-------------
Schmoe
Webmaster, bozofart.com

 

[Coastalguy]

BuyaTV.com...probably not but now you are getting into 3 words. TV.com, BestTV.com, eTV.com all very good IMO and easy to remember. I don't totally disagree with everything you have to say but the bottom line is A NAME IS WORTH WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT.

ST

 

[nextway]

A domain name is only worth as much as a person or company is willing to pay for it.

Someone can easily evaluate a domain using the basic criteria like a dot com, top level domain. Name short easy to remember or catchy and or the the name itself and how it relates to the product or service you are offering or wanting to offer.

Using that criteria on a domain name like nextway.com one could and has evalued the name to be worth between 20 and 100 thousand dollars....yet in reality as i said from the start the domain is only worth as much as the person is willing to pay for it. I have been offered 300.00 and up to 6000.00 dollars for the name in the last 3 years.....who knows what tomorrow will bring.

I think schmoe made perfect sense in his first few posts. In my opinion if there were more schmoes on the net thinking or questioning the methods like that then maybe the internet would have developed a little better in a business sense.

 

[Coastalguy]

These appraisals are only people's attempt at "predicting" what a name is worth. Obviously it is not an exact science. One forum rates the worth of a domain at $1500 another at RegFee. Who really knows until the name actually sells (and even then you don't really know...that next big potential buyer may have been 2 weeks down the road).
I will swallow my pride and admit that a name is ultimately worth what someone will pay for it (as nextway has mentioned) but to sway the odds in your favor it does help to "get that name out there".

ST

 

[nextway]

I agree "the right place the right time"

 

[darksk8er]

Developed Names = Higher Value.

Simply put/

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by darksk8er
Developed Names = Higher Value.

Simply put/

That's a gimme, but the question is, what kind of name do you develop?