The Resurgence of Hyphens aka "The Hyphens Revenge"

[ukguy]

I have some i-'s and e-'s offered to me between 1000 and 3000 USD. Now these aren't average ones, but good ones, like i-sales.com.

I know they are hyphenated, but they are best positioned hyphens, not in the middle of a domain name. They potentially add value to a name.

"i-" I believe is popular in Asia. And i-/e- names in general are showing a resurgence from a brief lull, I think this is reflective of hyphens in general which seem to be gaining more acceptance. Why? Because all the "good" simple names finished long ago, and these hyphenated names (at least the good ones) were registered back in the late 90's!!!

I believe that investing now in hyphenated names (or at least the "good" ones) is a sound investment that will pay off with greater returns (i.e. you will get more back on your initial investment) than non-hyphenated names in the short mid and long term.

Coupled with users familiarity with the internet (and comfort in using a hyphen) these will soon be seen as just as normal as non-hyphenated names. In some cases easier (i.e. cheap-sales rather than cheapsales)

This is the "Revenge of the Hyphens". And its coming.

Invest now whilst you can. You have been warned!

 

[Ronald Regging]

The appeal of hyphens as far as I have seen is in SEO for keywords. I recently registered Trademark-Lawyers.org for this exact reason. Just as a domain, it doesn't seem to be worth much, but it holds a lot of development potential due to its keywords... I've been wanting to setup a TM site for some time now anyway, just explaining basic TM law and some insight to TM for Internet/domain usage, so it seemed like the most appropriate route. I'm also going to provide services for registering your own TM and finding a TM lawyer, which of course are just partner sites through affiliate programs. But I figure if I can place high in the SEs, it should make some decent money.

 

[ukguy]

I agree with you.

When you get companies like Deutsche Telekom using "deutsche-telekom.de" does the hyphen worry you? No.. of course not.

For sure, I am glad I purchased some good hypenated names. You know, there may be snobbery in the domain name world... but does your average user care?

Of course not...

I bet your average person might even say i-sales.com was more valuable than sales.com "because it has something to do with the internet".

Of course getting the "-" over to the average user, "go to i-sales.com" is harder than saying go to "sales.com"... BUT... many people don't use word of mouth and select purely via the internet, to many, i-sales.com (for example) sounds like a "cool" internet name.

especially the i's coming into fashion with the "iPod".. "i" standing for (as it always has) internet.

Mark my words. The e-'s i-'s and plain "LLL-LLL" are going to make a marked resurgence.

 

[WhiteWebServices]

They fail the radio test, and they're difficult to type; sorry, but I can't stand hyphenated domains.

 

[verbster]

I bet your average person might even say i-sales.com was more valuable than sales.com "because it has something to do with the internet".

While I agree that some hyphenated domains are great, and some show promise, to suggest that i-sales.com is more valuable than sales.com (by whomever) is pushing a bit too far.

especially the i's coming into fashion with the "iPod"..

Well managed companies perform extensive marketing research on product names and how they translate to internet addresses. The hyphen is missing in ipod for a reason.

As mentioned, hyphenated domains do well in searches. For that reason, and because of the scarcity of non-hyphenated dot coms, their popularity and value may dramatically improve in the next year or two.

 

[gazzip]

Mark my words. The e-'s i-'s and plain "LLL-LLL" are going to make a marked resurgence.

They already have been I have been keeping a beady eye :blink: on hyphen sales for a few months now, dozens including sales of around $10,000 can be seen here http://www.namepros.com/domain-name...hyphen-domain-sale.html?highlight=hyphen+sale

I have a small handful myself but have never sold any yet.
.

 

[Volholic]

I have quiet a few----big fan
I have some very good e-

e-401k.com
e-appraised.com
e-voices.com
e-auditors.com
e-mailmessages.com

And I am making some good money on some other hyphens
Love em

 

[Broker]

I have two with high hopes for both,

Wireless-buys.com
Philadelphia-casino.com---------coming soon :hehe:

 

[Domain Jedi]

I own Luxury-Cars.com...

 

[nombre]

a lot of people don't spell too well

that Deutsche Telekom name is a public service, makes it easier to spell. i think a lot of 2 word longer names are _better_ done with a hyphen

 

[WhiteWebServices]

Another drawback: hyphenated domains will always leak traffic to the unhyphenated version.

 

[Badger]

They fail the radio test.

Thankyou, theres the answer....

This is, and always will be, the reason hyphens only work with strong brands..

In fact, initially hyphens were preferred when a site needed to contain 2 words, the name looks cleaner and the URL more readable.

However, there is no-way round the radio test. In fact, just the other day, I had to spend an ugly amount of time telling my friend the URL that cool golf game "shot-online.com"... Its shot, hyphen, online.com...............

 

[Ronald Regging]

You guys seem to only be focusing on domains that are meant to be branded and will rely on word-of-mouth advertising. There are lots of people who make great money optimizing for search engine traffic and by getting lots of backlinks. And having a good hyphenated keyword domain will definitely help achieve good rankings. At the end of the day, if I'm getting tons of traffic and making a good bit of money, I really don't care if the domain is the best looking domain in the world or passes a radio test...