Value of Domain Hacks

[xman]

Here's my question..what is the value of domain hack? I've seen some good domain hack and i was wondering about the value of it. I myself own one and i'm not sure whether or not i should get more. I haven't seen any sale of domain hack. Why do we register domain hack? Is it because the domain looks cool or because there's a potential end user who's willing to buy such domain?

 

[smartpc]

I just reg`d ha.ha

couldn`t resist.

I cant imagine that domain having much value ie. biz-2.biz the hyphen is killing it and still biz.2.biz would be best. Can u reg 1 character .biz domains???

who.is is succesful and highly rememberable, but thats mostly industry specific users.

whois.com would be king.

domain hacks are marketing gimmics and take alot of branding else your competition will be lapping up the traffic if you dont own the .com

 

[scandiman]

ha.ha, that's cute. What country is that?

 

[Alex]

There is no .ha cctld actually. I don't know what you regged

 

[smartpc]

LOL.....it`s the Peoples Republic of HA

Bad joke lol

 

[Halobitt]

will.i.am is on ebay atm.
Now that's a hack!

 

[MyPGP]

Being a musician, i thought Arpegg.io would be a good name.

 

[dpari]

radioand.tv

I thought what the heck, what do you all think.

thanks

-dpari

 

[xman]

I would really like to see a well developed domain hack. Reading from all the replies I think there is a potential.

 

[lzy]

http://del.icio.us
http://ma.gnolia.com/

Can't think of anymore right now but all the web2.0 domains usually are domain hacks :hehe:

 

[Toker]

who.is domain hack is an excellent example. i do believe that domain could have a very good value. i would think that domain name worth much much more than reg fee.

Who.is is not really a domain hack as it's 2 seperate words.
A domain hack is really something like Excedr.in in case you have
a headache. Or Hairp.in, Cityb.us for example.

I've never tried to sell Excedr.in tho, I also have uAsked.us or You Asked
Us but it's not really a hack.

How about a misspelled hack, Love.org.in, never tried to sell that either
I keep it around cause I like it.

 

[lzy]

isn't 'whois' a word by itself? why doesn't who.is count as a domain hack then?

 

[Toker]

isn't 'whois' a word by itself? why doesn't who.is count as a domain hack then?

Because the word itself has to be split, who is is actually 2 words.
Like I posted a hack is a word split and ending with the TLD.
One of the best hacks is Inter.net

 

[SeanPreston]

can someone explain to me here and how I can reg these type of domains?

 

[Toker]

can someone explain to me here and how I can reg these type of domains?

Any Registrar that registers the TLD.
If it ends in .net (inter.net) anyone who registers dot nets.

The easiest hacks to dream up are for the tds .gs or .ws as any word
ending in g or w plural like bedbu.gs or Goodne.ws for example..

 

[MyPGP]

I think the value of a domain hack depends on how you market it.

 

[xman]

I think the value of a domain hack depends on how you market it.

I have to agree with you on that statement MyPGP. blo.gs was bought by Yahoo and perhaps the owner of bu.gs can market the name with spyware company.

 

[xman]

I wanna bring this thread back due to the popularity of domain hack. IMO domain hack could be very valuable in the future. I just aquired my 4 new domain hacks and I'm thinking to reg more. Now the question is would there be a legal issue in domain hack as far as TM is concern? For instance could microsoft force someone to give up the Windo.ws domain hack?

 

[lzy]

I wanna bring this thread back due to the popularity of domain hack. IMO domain hack could be very valuable in the future. I just aquired my 4 new domain hacks and I'm thinking to reg more. Now the question is would there be a legal issue in domain hack as far as TM is concern? For instance could microsoft force someone to give up the Windo.ws domain hack?

windows general common dictionary word. I believe no problem as long as they don't to sell microsoft software.

It'll be awesome if it's an Apple website thou. :hehe:

 

[TheBaldOne]

Value, well Li.st sold for $5,000 last year.

 

[htmlindex]

Value, well Li.st sold for $5,000 last year.

That's a nice sale! Only if my 2-character domain hacks would be worth that much.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Although the definition of a 'hacked domain name' usually only quotes one word the thing is that it can be two words if they are normally associated. The good example on this thread of this is 'i.am'. Remember that 'hacked domain names' are essentially publicity/advertising/marketing tools, they are for the public to recognise and associate with. All too often on threads like this one 'domainers' ridicule hacked domain names because they are outside the earnings via parking group of names.

As more and more advertising revenue poors into online advertising this almost self rightous attitude will be dismissed as irrelevent as advertisiers look for and acquire domain hacks that they can develop to both publicize their own product and also refuse access to it for their competitors. Domain hacks are really the quintessence of a good advertising domain name: they are novel, easily recognisable, easily memorable, brandable, and with ones such as 'blo.gs', 'sexie.st', and geographic hacked names very easily marketable.

(You may gether I am a fan of hacked domain names.)

Where a hacked domain name does not generally have value is in natural traffic, this is what domainers generally cite as the reason for them having no value. This is generally followed by an argument along the lines of 'you would have to spend a fortune marketing the domain name!'. You may well ask whether these domainers keep abreast of the business news, after all how much do companies spend on advertising a year? Now imagine if instead of renting space on a top website and competing with their competitors they owned the top website, what a saving in monetary terms but also what a coup to prevent that site to your competitors.

Some quick maths:

Hacked domain name purchase.........$100,000
Website development.....................$500,000
Competition prizes..........................$250,000 (aimed at target audience)
Marketing.....................................$500,000

Maintainence/updating....................$250,000 a year

So for an initial outlay of less than £1.5 million and running costs of $250,000 a year thereafter a major corporation such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Ford, etc., can corner an advertising market. Even if you multiplied all the above figures by x10 this would be a snip in the ocean in any of their advertising/marketing budgets. Of course though smaller enterprises who rely on quality can also utilise hacked domain names, perhaps even more so for they can use the novelty value to prove they are different from the run of the mill competitor.

But anyway that is my little rant over and done with, now over the next few months I aim to prove it.

 

[Archangel]

As more and more advertising revenue poors into online advertising this almost self rightous attitude will be dismissed as irrelevent as advertisiers look for and acquire domain hacks that they can develop to both publicize their own product and also refuse access to it for their competitors. Domain hacks are really the quintessence of a good advertising domain name: they are novel, easily recognisable, easily memorable, brandable, and with ones such as 'blo.gs', 'sexie.st', and geographic hacked names very easily marketable.

I don't see how they're so recognizable, brandable, etc. I still believe www.blo.gs looks choppy and ppl would't remermber it too well, not knowing where the second . goes (don't underestimate intelligence/stupidity. Not everyone acknowledges the existence of .gs anyway). And I'm pretty sure ppl would think of the URL as www.blogs.com. But if ppl can develop popular websites with a hack, the more power to them. (These just my opinions, of course, and I haven't data to back them up)

 

[TheBaldOne]

The problem is that 'domainers' tend to see things from the perspective of domaining! The general public are not concerned whether or not there is a suffix .gs, as long as when they have seen it they can type it in and hey presto a blogging site appears.

The way to look at it is this is a domaining site populated by domainers, now how many of us drive cars? Well over half I would imagine. If you see an advert saying that 'product X' when added to your fuel tank will give you 100% more miles per gallon and it costs a fraction of the cost of the fuel then some of us will try it. If it works word will spread, and guess what we will all buy product X and add it to our fuel tanks. Only a very few of us might understand or even want to know the chemistry/physics behind product X and how it works, the thing is it works so we will use it. Yet go to a forum about mechanics and everybody there will be analysing it as a product, what is the best result per ratio mix, speed driven, weather conditions, etc., etc.. But us domainers we do not care as long as it works! The opposite is true also though, the mechanics don't care about the suffix, as long as it works and they get to the site they wanted they could not care what domainers think about an extension.

By the way Blo.gs has an Alexa 3 month ranking of 71,904, not great by any means, but not bad either, I wonder if that is because the site is 'blo' or 'blogs' according to its users?

 

[Archangel]

The problem is that 'domainers' tend to see things from the perspective of domaining! The general public are not concerned whether or not there is a suffix .gs, as long as when they have seen it they can type it in and hey presto a blogging site appears.

The way to look at it is this is a domaining site populated by domainers, now how many of us drive cars? Well over half I would imagine. If you see an advert saying that 'product X' when added to your fuel tank will give you 100% more miles per gallon and it costs a fraction of the cost of the fuel then some of us will try it. If it works word will spread, and guess what we will all buy product X and add it to our fuel tanks. Only a very few of us might understand or even want to know the chemistry/physics behind product X and how it works, the thing is it works so we will use it. Yet go to a forum about mechanics and everybody there will be analysing it as a product, what is the best result per ratio mix, speed driven, weather conditions, etc., etc.. But us domainers we do not care as long as it works! The opposite is true also though, the mechanics don't care about the suffix, as long as it works and they get to the site they wanted they could not care what domainers think about an extension.

By the way Blo.gs has an Alexa 3 month ranking of 71,904, not great by any means, but not bad either, I wonder if that is because the site is 'blo' or 'blogs' according to its users?

Nice way to look at it. Reps added.

Although I still don't see blo.gs in a bright light, I suppose it can be said that as long as it works, nothing else really matters. As hard as it might be for ppl to remember, it's not like it'd matter much. I can't remember the last time true word-of-mouth ie spoken got me to a website. I follow links I'm sent. I never see people verbally giving web addresses.

 

[TheBaldOne]

ArchAngel, thank you for the rep, much appreciated.

I do agree 'word-of-mouth' is not as important as exposure in generating interest in any domain name. One of the best examples really was 'TheMillionDollarHomepage'. The exposure this got in the press was phenominal for a website, and it worked! Now as a 4 word, 24 letter domain name it broke the rules, but it succeeded, and as you say that is what matters. With hacked domain names it is the requirement for marketing that is used against them.

(Anyway, I'm seeking all the help I can get and even bringing in the church to help now, just picked up JesusChri.st on a drop, excuse me while I start preying! :o )