Premium Letters and what you should Know!

[Ross]

3Character.com

The quality of the letter composition can play a significant role in determining 3-letter valuations. General concensus states that the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T are considered premium letters. Other lesser high quality letters include: J, K, U, V, W. Lower quality letters include: Q, X, Y, Z. Domains selling for less than the above figures would represent a strong buy in today's market. Premium letter only domains tend to fetch a 500% to 600% premium (or more) over the Minimum Wholesale Price. Mixed letter quality domains have valuations somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

According to 3Character.com and most other domainers this is how the list goes:

Premium: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T
Semi-Premium: J, K, U, V, W
Anti-Premium: Q, X, Y, Z

Now the big problem with this is that there a lot of domainer that dont judge a book by its cover so to speak. Just because it has a "u" in it does not mean its not a "premium" name to some domainers. I for one think that "U" is has much better queaity than an "N".

Another thing i would like to point out is that some languages don't include some of those letters. Other languages might think that some letters that are "anti-premium" are "premium" i.e. "X" in china.


http://www.mcgees.org/fourletterdomains.html

Registration rate for domains beginning with a certain letter:
Most popular:
a: 72.7%
w: 70.4%
t: 68.0%
u: 66.4%
i: 66.3%
Least popular:
v: 37.6%
y: 34.2%
z: 33.6%
x: 32.1%
q: 26.7%
Registration rate for domains containing a certain letter:
Most popular:
a: 72.7%
s: 70.9%
c: 68.3%
i: 67.4%
t: 65.5%
Least popular:
v: 43.7%
y: 41.8%
x: 35.6%
z: 32.9%
q: 22.2%
Registration rate for domains containing a given two-letter pair:
Most popular:
us: 91.4%
in: 90.1%
ma: 90.0%
sa: 89.5%
as: 88.8%
Least popular:
gq: 10.3%
qv: 10.3%
qk: 10.2%
vq: 9.3%
fq: 8.9% (46 of the 50 least popular two-letter pairs contain q. The most popular q-pairs are iq, hq, and aq.)

As you can see "U" is ranked up there with some other "premium letters".

I made this thread so newbies can find out what premium letters are and for discussion the topic. This is so we can avoid the "What are premium letters?" question.

Discuss!

 

[unclewalter]

I thought Y was considered a semi-premium.

 

[Ross]

I thought Y was considered a semi-premium.

According to the chart. You thought wrong.

IMO i would consider it a semi-premium and would have to agree with you.

 

[Pred]

These is a loose 'guide', usually for noobs to give them some boundaries

One example, are you telling me 'z' for example wouldn't be a premium letter as a first or second letter in a LLL.com say for a big financial firm in Zurich?
The main economic centre in Switzerland

What about the country of Zimbabwe?

What about K as fisrt letter for a firm in Kansas?

See? Very small examples and just the Geo angle. Who wants to get onto different languages?

German, Russian anyone?

Lmao

 

[Ross]

These is a loose 'guide', usually for noobs to give them some boundaries

One example, are you telling me 'z' for example wouldn't be a premium letter as a first or second letter in a LLL.com say for a big financial firm in Zurich?
What about the country of Zimbabwe/

What about K as fisrt letter for a firm in Kansas?

See? Very small examples and just the Geo angle. Who wants to get onto diferent landuages?

German, Russian anyone?

Lmao

This was the exact reason for the thread. I provided some loose info and where we derive the infomation from. To show noobs what a "premium letter" is.

I completely agree with you on this one arnie, but some people believe in the list in the first post.

 

[Pred]

yep. cool. lots of useful data you give.

the atats for first letter? is that for just LLLL.com?

as 's' is far and away the the most popular first letter for domains, by millions in fact.

 

[Ross]

http://www.mcgees.org/fourletterdomains.html

That is the source and it is obviously pointing to 4letter domains.

 

[mwzd]

Let me butt into this conversation -

What are and what are not premium letters are not subject to random statistics or studies. A company using that particular combination of letters will find that domain premium, regardless of what domainers think. What is or is not premium is actually directly related to the applicability, the more the applicability the higher the value.

This of course does not take into account Pronounceable names - these are more valuable as brands as they can be easily branded and promoted. Thats why premium cvcv's have gone through the roof.

 

[Ross]

Let me butt into this conversation -

What are and what are not premium letters are not subject to random statistics or studies. A company using that particular combination of letters will find that domain premium, regardless of what domainers think. What is or is not premium is actually directly related to the applicability, the more the applicability the higher the value.

This of course does not take into account Pronounceable names - these are more valuable as brands as they can be easily branded and promoted. Thats why premium cvcv's have gone through the roof.

I agree with you on this. An end-user does not care what is premium and what is not.

It is domainers that have the perception of the premium and non-premium letters.

To anyone reading this thread, i would like to point out this thread was to show NEW PEOPLE in the industry that did not know what a "premium letter" was what they are. Also be a discussion thread about "premium letters". Im sure most of the verterans here can understand what the VALUE of a NAME is rather than look at its letters.

 

[notlikeyou]

All letters are premium if they match the enduser!

Nice summary Tivo & MWZD (repped)

 

[Red Rock]

Great Thread Tivo,

Thanx Alot for your info!
I plan to look back at this thread often.

Just one ques...
What do you think of VMBZ
I just picked that up. and thought it was GREAT.
It looks by your thread, I was wrong..V least popular,
and Z being in the bottom also.
I saw it this way...
I was thinking....What could I market this for/as?
The first thing that popped in my head was....
V=Video, M=Marketing??? BZ=Biz.
So with that being written, even though it starts with a V,
and HAS a Z, isn't the letter PLACEMENT, kinda key?
Just Curious about your thoughts?

Thanx Again,
and Rep Added!
Very Useful Info.
Red Rock!