showcase THAT’S ONE “HACK” OF A DOMAIN!

[QUAD DOMAINS]

Simply put, hacked domains are cool. Yeah, they don’t meet the criteria some domainers/investors have as it relates to readability and the radio-test; but they’re appealing nonetheless. At least to some.

If you think about it, hacked domains are the closest thing to owning a TLD in the centralized domain space. Imagine if there was a centralized “.om” extension. “c.om” would have immense value and appeal. It would be the proverbial “king of the king” in a sense.

It’s something about a hacked domain that screams creativity and breaks away from the status-quo of naming. Be it for branding, or simply because you can, domain hacks are a cool option when you can snag one.

What cool domain hacks have you come across or do you hold? On this end, they’re “Aristocr.at” and “UAEDub.ai”. Drop your creative domain hacks/views below.

🗣Mel
QUAD DOMAINS

 

[richardcoogan]

ch.at

 

[biggie]

Hi

what most think are hacks, are just crap.

imo...

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for starting the thread, @QUAD DOMAINS and to all who contributed. I have no meaningful hacks in my personal holdings, so instead will contribute some information .

One can find domain hack sales on NameBio by setting the Category to Niche and then Subcategory to Domain Hack. Here is a link to list organized by price. They tend to use the narrower definition of a word split by the dot. The list shows 70 sales over $10,000 and 5 over $100,000.

I have written about domain hacks a few times over the years.

• In this 2019 article, I looked at Ten of the Best Domain Hacks in Active Use.
• With guidance from @DomainGaze.com, this 2022 NamePros article provides several dozen examples of domain hacks in many different sectors: Gaze At Domain Hacks with DomainGaze. That article also mentions in a section some of the hacks used by major companies like Pep.si, Ti.me, Ta.co, YouTu.be, etc.
• An emerging trend is to further hack in let the dot represent various things, usually a vowel. I wrote about the sale of N.ke to Nike in One of the World's Top Brands Acquires a Single Letter Domain.

The ICANN Wiki on domain hacks has some good information.

The official NamePros discussion on domain hacks, started back in 2007, is worthwhile reading.

-Bob

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I have clever.me. I consider that a domain hack.

I also have runti.me and script.me. I'm a developer so these appealed to me...

 

[BaileyUK]

ch.at

OK, I'm always open to persuasion, So I've taken the time to read through the entire thread. So what have I learnt, if anything.

Only super, super short REAL hacks work for business use and the 4 letter ones, they do appeal even to me. Anything more than 4 to 6 letters in a true single word hack is probably never going to go anywhere. Only the most popular single, SHORT, desirable word hacks have a market place.

These double word combos aren't hacks they are just split 'word-plays'. If they were any good you'd be better off just registering a domain with a hyphen in place.

Will the market expand - NO is the short answer. really clever stuff will keep its place and that's all. Lot of money being wasted by mostly youngsters and inexperienced in domains (guessing age) I'm sorry to conclude.

Any one buying for their own personal use, personal names etc, I can see the appeal there. But not for reselling. At best, some good return for popular first names and they may increase

 

[Nodws]

gimmicky domains switch to the .com as soon as they can since they get trashed by the SEO by existing sites with non typo domains (unless you are extremely popular like visual.ly )
you might even attract attention of legal on accusations of hijacking, copyright infringement or squatting. So only real usage is for shortening your existing url.

 

[alcy]

u can count valuable and liquid hacks on your 2 hands... the rest is useless domainer imagination.. thinking something looks cool... but being too newbie to know cool rarely means valuable or even sellable

 

[Musta.ng]

I've been in love with Domain Hack since 2018 and currently hold the following domains:

Optimistic about its prospects, so the investment is huge.

Ju.pe

Fan.cy

Mer.cy

Agen.cy

Curren.cy

Capit.al

Shino.bi

Jubil.ee

Cobr.as

Coug.ar

Couga.rs

Muebl.es

Musta.ng

Mustan.gs

Pleasu.re

Parki.ng

Welfa.re

Thro.ng

Upta.ke

Leisu.re

True.st

Deli.st

Met.as

Jagu.ar

Line.ar

Bla.st

Di.ke

Gir.ls

Di.gs

Ne.al

La.ne

Bo.ne

Si.mba

Lap.top

.....

 

[HotKey]

₿.ug

A double hack, combining the bitcoin symbol with an extension, forming a word

Hacks are fun. A fugly ccTLD this one. I've resolved it to a sales lander.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

“ Antisoci.al “. Love it!

Would be nice for a social network

 

[rightdomains.net]

 

[okaydomains]

ch.at

That really is a great one, especially now that chat.com is off the market forever (and of course with ChatGPT taking over the world).

I wouldn't sell that for less than six figures.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

chat.com was just purchased for millions of dollars by the founder of HubSpot. He's never going to sell it.

I think I just had an email saying it sold for 8 figures again...

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Don’t know if counts as a domain hack , but I’ve got Coinstinct dawt com

Not that

 

[MadAboutDomains]

ch.at

My friend, that is beautiful. Imho

 

[.tv]

Flowers is my best, out of hundreds of hacks I own.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

ch.at

Truly incredible domain hack. Congratulations!

 

[okaydomains]

He sold it again, already. With good profit I may add. Unless he's talking shit on LinkedIn.

You're totally right, blows my mind. I assumed what you'd heard was just an echo of the first sale. My apologies.

I just heard him talking about buying it on a pod recently. That along with him talking about his "Chat interface" concept and how passionate he is about that idea... I'm shocked he sold it. But a truckload of money is a truckload of money, everything has a price, etc. Im impressed.

I had also heard that there was a other buyer for chat.com (possibly on the Domain Name Wire podcast?). Some corporate outfit that really wanted it but was being slow/difficult about closing the deal and thus he was able to sneak in and get it. I wonder if that's who bought it from him.

What a story!

 

[Entrepreneurl]

Lovely domain hacks y'all!
I am the creator behind domainhacks.info (work in progress) - a website that allows everyone to generate and list domain hacks free of charge. We also have an overview of domain hacks actually used (domainhacks.info/famous-examples).

My favourite domain hacks: e.moj.is and art.ifici.al.

 

[Callmejohn]

The new .Esq TLD offers a few, any word ending in esque or esk (esk is more of a stretch)

D.esq (maybe a stretch - for desk)

The following are ideas from @jberryhill

burl.esq
grot.esq
Kafka.esq
pictur.esq
statu.esq

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

I own one of the best

isl.am

 

[Andreas B.]

Funny thing:

For months, if not years people talked about apple naming its device
Reality Pro / Reality One....


At the morning of the presenation, I regged RealityP. ro

Then, when I heard about Vision Pro as name, I get to the computer,
just to see, that someone already regged VisionP. ro

> Months & years no one regged RealityP. ro
but in a matter of minutes someone got his hands on VisionP. ro


I say congratulations!

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

chat.com was just purchased for millions of dollars by the founder of HubSpot. He's never going to sell it.

This comment didn't age well

 

[diclonius]

Mine:

mala.ga
jen.ga
won.ga
botte.ga (shop in itallian)
bon.ga
jog.ga
tug.ga

 

[bigdomainer]

I now also have

BigNam.es

as a companion to BigDoma.in