That extra 's': Singular vs Plural domains

[Arpit131]

What does that extra 's' in your domain do?
Well here are some of the actual cases:

Essential.com sold for $250,000 while Essentials.com for $32,000.
DataCenter.com sold for $500,000 while DataCenters.com for $190,000.
Ride.com sold for $325,000 while Rides.com for $120,000.
Estate.com sold for $165,000 while Estates.com sold for $23,600.

Source

Any instance when you have seen the opposite happen?

 

[Web Assets]

What a coincidence looks like plurals are less valuable...

 

[doubleU]

There are some good examples of the extra 's' adding value - 'price' and 'ticket' often sound better with 's' included when used has a suffix eg.

shareprice.com sold for $4,000 - shareprices.com sold for $16,000

 

[TerriJ]

Old thread but I was gonna make a new one to rant. Now I can jut reply here:

I don't see the point in people claiming that plurals are bad. Sometimes a plural makes sense and a singular doesn't.
Like if I want to buy a domain name to sell/flip to an ebook seller and I can purchase either:
ebook.com
or
ebooks.com

I would think the latter makes more sense.
When I see ebook.com, I'm thinking it must be a site related to a SINGLE ebook. Not a whole store of ebooks. But when I see ebooks.com, I think, "Oh, it's a store with many ebooks."

Does a domain being ONE letter less really make it that much better? I know short is good but shouldn't logic play into it as well?

I guess if you have the funds, buy both! Maybe you can sell it as a bundle. I mean, if you were a large ebook seller, wouldn't you want both so someone doesn't try to piggyback on your success or grab up "typo" traffic?

 

[LaunchUp.com]

Plurals are great IMO...rooms, houses, waterbottles etc.. I don't think anyone has problems with plurals as long as it's used properly. The singular may go for more because it is more brandable... example: bolt vs bolts. Bolt can be used similarly but almost be branded for any other thing: movies, products, running, money, tech etc...

the only time plurals are not great are when domainers use it in a way that doesn't make sense or flow:

startup"s"Jobs instead of startupJobs.com, Investings, greatsDomans, getmoneys.com etc..

 

[TerriJ]

the only time plurals are not great are when domainers use it in a way that doesn't make sense or flow:

startup"s"Jobs instead of startupJobs.com, Investings, greatsDomans, getmoneys.com etc..

Right! I see this a lot and I'm like... why???
I imagine everything else was taken so they had to settle on this one.

 

[baseballworld]

Plural to singular the common domain war. Basically boils down to checking the stats on both of them as well as making sure which version sounds better in the keyword phrase.

 

[Essentials.com]

What does that extra 's' in your domain do?
Well here are some of the actual cases:

Essential.com sold for $250,000 while Essentials.com for $32,000.
DataCenter.com sold for $500,000 while DataCenters.com for $190,000.
Ride.com sold for $325,000 while Rides.com for $120,000.
Estate.com sold for $165,000 while Estates.com sold for $23,600.

Any instance when you have seen the opposite happen?

Fun fact: I was offered 'essential.com' singular for $15k at the same time as purchasing 'essentials.com' for $32k from an auction — quite a while before 'essential.com' eventually resold for $250k, and even higher offers were received for 'essentials.com' — but the intention, at the time, was to use it to launch a new business.

I declined the singular, as never felt the singular for this particular one-word domain was as attractive, memorable, and nice to say without being misheard, and needed the budget to gather the other essentials TLDs.

Essential.com then went on to be used for a new smartphone brand, which sadly never saw success.

Neither singular nor plural name has been used for anything since.

Essentials.com is now owned as a collection, including the matching TLDs:

• essentials.com
• essentials.net
• essentials.co.uk
• essentials.uk
• essentials.eu
• essentials.us
• essentials.cn
• essentials.hk
• essentials.tw
• essentials.fr

DM's open for expressions of interest.

 

[Kingslayer]

Fun fact: I was offered 'essential.com' singular for $15k at the same time as purchasing 'essentials.com' for $32k from an auction — quite a while before 'essential.com' eventually resold for $250k, and even higher offers were received for 'essentials.com' — but the intention, at the time, was to use it to launch a new business.

So this was in 2014 (10 years ago), bet you have kicked yourself a few times?

Essentials is a great domain, but Essential is well above it and i find it hard to believe you have turned down higher offers than $250k for essentials, if you have then again i bet you have kicked yourself a few times. Why do i think that? Because you are offering this domain out to investors a lot in the last few days, that says to me its a domain struggling for interest.

As for this thread, depends on the word.

Hotels is better than hotel.
Cars is better than Car
Sports and Sport are about equal.

 

[Essentials.com]

So this was in 2014 (10 years ago), bet you have kicked yourself a few times?

Essentials is a great domain, but Essential is well above it and i find it hard to believe you have turned down higher offers than $250k for essentials, if you have then again i bet you have kicked yourself a few times. Why do i think that? Because you are offering this domain out to investors a lot in the last few days, that says to me its a domain struggling for interest.

As for this thread, depends on the word.

Hotels is better than hotel.
Cars is better than Car
Sports and Sport are about equal.

Thanks. Nooo, never envy another person's good luck, well done to them! All domains need a good home (page).

If you like the singular, then throw in a bid, it doesn't seem to be used now. I think they have different meaning's, too:

Essential implies offering one conceptual thing. Eg: Perhaps someone could make "The Essential Podcast" and essential.com would be a great domain for it.

Essentials implies a collection of things. Eg: Clothing collections. Homewear collections. Knowledge collections. Hence Amazon, Salesforce, Microsoft, Target all use the plural in that context for their sub-brands.

You can also get a quick idea of the popularity of each, where the .com would likely end up ranking top:

google.com/search?q=essential 6,550,000,000 results

google.com/search?q=essentials 6,370,000,000 results

Some similar, some different depending on the word and it's common uses.

You say; "Because you are offering this domain out to investors a lot in the last few days, that says to me its a domain struggling for interest."

I say; 10+ years, plenty of offers, happy to wait another 10 years or maybe just use them for a project. Just happened to discover this forum thread and thought to say hello.

Everything is worth more to you when you hold it than when you're bidding or spectating on it.

If you were bidding on hotels.com you might have one value in mind. If you owned it, you'd have another. Basic psychology and owner/prospector negotiation biases.

Just thought you might like to know the story, since there's so much speculation online, sometimes it's nice to get the primary source background, too.

I agree, many singulars can be better, or just different. It's a word-by-word, use-by-use case.

Maybe you can generalise, but all negotiations will only ever be around one specific, so the generalisms become less relevant.

A good old "it depend" question and answer

 

[AEProgram]

Depends on the domain and luck. Check how much domains go for the exact word hotels vs hotel, the s goes for way more (check car vs cars)

Luck also plays a big role in high price domains. You need someone that is ok in spending a lot and has that money. Most names never get offers, really good names get a few offers, of those almost none are for any significant price.

The longer you wait, the more likely someone will come along and offer you a great price. But even that just increases your chances by almost nothing. Some people hit the lotto. A trend pops up that matches a domain they hold or extension and they get offered 10x what they even thought they will get.

You could also discover you are very unlucky in domains. I hold a 4l .com for many years that would be a perfect upgrade to a company with the 4l .io that has the capital to buy my .com. They don't care to own the dot com.

 

[pb]

Not a strict rule, but most of the time:
* singular are brandable domains
* plural are product domains
The price depends on which use has more value.

 

[Essentials.com]

Depends on the domain and luck. Check how much domains go for the exact word hotels vs hotel, the s goes for way more (check car vs cars)

Luck also plays a big role in high price domains. You need someone that is ok in spending a lot and has that money. Most names never get offers, really good names get a few offers, of those almost none are for any significant price.

The longer you wait, the more likely someone will come along and offer you a great price. But even that just increases your chances by almost nothing. Some people hit the lotto. A trend pops up that matches a domain they hold or extension and they get offered 10x what they even thought they will get.

You could also discover you are very unlucky in domains. I hold a 4l .com for many years that would be a perfect upgrade to a company with the 4l .io that has the capital to buy my .com. They don't care to own the dot com.

Nice. An exact match .com for a search term will typically win the search rankings above all others. Perhaps time to build a brand and launch a website on that name, considering all the almost free traffic it will get.

 

[Essentials.com]

Not a strict rule, but most of the time:
* singular are brandable domains
* plural are product domains
The price depends on which use has more value.

That's a good way to look at it.

 

[Zir0]

Yes I noticed this too, plurals are easier to buy at registars, I just got hold of norwegian and swedish domain plural for crypto, cryptos, for .no .se and .com but premium domains anyway. As well plurals make it sound less pro.

 

[MariaEl]

Merriam-Webster's dictionary indicates "Essential" can be either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, it is a highly valuable brandable name. As a noun, the plural is far more commonly used, and its value in market terms is ultra premium.

 

[Essentials.com]

Like many things in life, it's the "similar but different" nuances that can make all the difference.