What makes for a good brandable domain ? Showcase your brandables here

With thousands of startups needing a name for their new company and many more existing businesses also branching out all the time and needing names for their new line of products and services it seems that brandable domains is one of the areas that could be very beneficial to domainers both old and new and deserves to be explored further.

Below are a few points of discussion to get this thread started, if I have left something important out please let me know so that it can be added to them. If you have any tips or advice about brandable domains please feel free to share them with the rest of us.


1-What is a brandable domain.

2-How many different types of brandable domains are there and is one type better than the others.

3-What makes a brandable domain stand out amongst thousands of others.

4-What is the optimum length for a brandable domain, how long can a brandable domain be and still qualify as being a good choice.

5-What types of brandable domains are most desired by startups and existing businesses.

6-What is the best way to find brandable domains.

7-What is the best way to sell brandable domains.


Attention Newbies: It's probably best to first hear what some of the more experienced domainers have to say about this subject before you consider getting any domains, and even then it's probably best to experiment with just a few domains at a time. You should be able to sell one domain and then use the proceeds from that sale to get more domains, if you cannot even sell one domain then you are doing something wrong and need to adjust your strategy. IMO

 

For me a huge turn off is a name that incorporates the extension into it, like delicio.us. I find that incredibly annoying. I look for short and sweet, making sure it doesn't sound like another social media rip-off.

 

Brandable domains are probably the most fun yet most challenging names to work with. Outside of stuff like cvcv.coms where the vowels rhyme, it's often very hard to determine if a domain is worth five dollars or five hundred thousand. It's all a matter of personal taste and 'feel'. Just look at some of the mega sites like google, yahoo and so on. The difference between yahoo and yoohoo? About 50 million. Why? Who knows? it just felt better to someone.

how do you know what to base a price on? That's not an east question to answer because beauty really is in the eye of the buyer. For instance, I had two brandables. both started with 'Y", both had seven letters, Both sounded very similar, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, both happy sounding, but one got several offers and one got hardly any. And the one I liked was the one with fewer offers. I thought it had a chance of making big bucks, so I priced it high and priced the other around $1000. I barely had time to list it before it sold. And now it's a pretty spiffy software website. I learned to late that I should have listed it without a selling price so I could take offers and eventually auction it.

Anyway, unless you have an obvious winner like boohoo or vudu, the key is to keep it clean. By that I mean easy to say, easy to spell, unique and cool sounding. Finally, what it sounds like makes a difference to how it's used: woohoo probably doesn't fit a fertilizer company, but might be great for a candy bar.

 

A short, easy to remember and easy to type domain are the main ingredients of a good brandable domain, but that would be useless if the site is not constantly updated or the site is not unique and has short term marketability.

 

This is such a subjective market and risky. You could hold a name for years without any offers and never sell it or you pick one up and sell it for a huge profit weeks later. So if you don't have patience or the money to wait it out this market is not the right one. Resellers barely touch them (unless they are clear gems) because of the low liquidity potential. So most resellers would only buy if they can grab a deal, usually pennies on the dollar.
Usually there is no parking revenue so holding 100's of these names could get expensive.

Here are some things to look for when buying brandables;

- Does it make sense, is there a partial word or meaning in it, like a bido, fiverr, digg, etc.

- "Radio test" some buyers want to be able to say the name without spelling it (note: only some, not all want this)

- Shorter the better

- pronounceable is a must

- random 5 and 6 letter combinations don't constitute a brandable name

- There is no expert in this game as the only expert is the end user who likes your name. So if someone gives you their opinion its just their opinion and how they see the value in names. one mans treasure is another mans junk.

- best acid test; before buying a name, think to yourself "would I personally use this name myself to build a site" if the answer is no then don't buy it.

- trying to hand reg a few letter combinations thinking they would make a good brandable name will leave you poor.

- if you want quality names be prepared to pay more for them.

- look at the past sales and see what people want.

- the bulk of goodbrandable names will sell in the $x,xxx range. crap one's will never sell and awesome names could fetch any price.

- if you are starting out its always good to find a few peers you can bounce the name ideas off of to see if they have potential. Its always good to get more than one opinion within and outside the domain industry.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input,

Most of us have a general idea about brandable domains, lets dig in more into this subject and bring to light some of the fine details that can be helpful to those who are considering investing in this category of domains.

 

I'd wager that a majority of domainers who regularly use the term 'brandable domain' have essentially no meaningful comprehension of what a 'brand' is.

Sure, they can run off to wikipedia or dictionary.com, collar a broad definition and feign knowledge, but 'branding' as a practice is as wide as 'medicine' or 'landscaping' or 'farming'.

It's like saying "what's the best land for farming?"

It depends on what you intend to farm.

Some markets are best served by an abstract brandable domain, others a keyword brandable. Some of the most potent 'brandable' domains are single, common dictionary words, branded to represent a product or service. If Steve Jobs never existed and someone came to Namepros asking what to do with Apple.com, most people here would think fruit.

That's why they're here.

 

Brands have existed long before Internet was created, many of us although not directly involved with brands but have heard or seen them all through our lives on TV, Radio, and magazines or on store and business signs or billboards or even on the actual products and packages that we have bought. What we like to discuss here is how brands function in the Internet age and what constitutes as a good brandable domain. I am sure that there are at least a few members here who have experience in buying and selling brandable domains who can tell us which type of domains they have had the most success with. Whether it’s short and pronounsable 3 to 6 letter domains or whether it’s a single or multiple keyword brandable domain or whether it’s a made up or coined term that is a play on partial words or repeated or omitted letters we all have seen them here and there, we just want to explore this category of domains in more details so that we can take advantage of any opportunities that perhaps we have not paid enough attention to in the past. IMO

 

branding isn't the name...its what you do with the name.

 

and you turn your name into a brand, no

 

Well I think there are probably two things being discussed here. I think Fonzie is talking about the complicated process that is building a worldwide, evergreen brand. There is a lot involved with the overall branding process that most domainers most likely have little experience with, although some may.

I think what gets talked about on domain forums is what is a good short brandable type name that will sell well on a boutique site like Brand Bucket. If we look at this past week and the sales charts from Sedo and Afternic we see some names that people wonder how did they sell ? They probably feel they have similar names that are better in their opinion. Names like Bitgo.com selling for $9,999 or Phast.com selling for $3499 are names that were held for a long time showing the patience needed with brandables, Bitgo was actually dropped twice.

Those names posted here in appraisal threads would have received mixed reviews, for every person that loved the PH being used as an F to make Fast, there would have been someone else who said they don't like that kind of domain name.

I think another thing that separates the crowds on brandables is what someone sees as within their portfolio reach. It would be great to own a one word name like Mango or Avocado, igloo or Amazon and brand them in a fashion not related to their obvious meaning. Most new domainers know they are never going to own names like that, they are simply out of reach, so someone looks for a Foozo or Evora.com and tends to like that style of branding. There is no right or wrong way, but there is the path of least resistance. Names like Mango or Avocado would have burn down value, the start up using Mango can close and the name still have value. If owned by a domainer they could find liquidity with Mango any day of the week. The person owning Foozo needs the perfect buyer, or sell at wholesale to another domainer looking for a 5 letter pronounceable.

Look most people would love to own a Rolls Royce or a Bentley, most cannot afford that and have to find happiness and utility in their budget.

 

yes

the name identifies the brand you have built

best to pick a name that is easy to remember, spell and relates to your business.

 

I am sure that a new start up or existing business has to put a lot of thought into choosing a name that they want to create a brand around and the process could become very complicated if you are on the end-user side of this, but domainers have the luxury of not being limited to anything in specific and as long as they can come up with something that is short and memorable they have a chance in making a little money if their domain catches someone’s attention.

 

I'd also stay away from hyphens-in-the-domain-name if you want it to spread by word of mouth offline. Most people will forget to mention the hyphen, and even if they do, it's easy to forget when you're typing it in.

 

What makes a good brandable domain?

A buyer willing to buy.

Users who recognise and remember it.

Google results. Since Google are now more interested in brands and do not value keyword domains and may punish them, why should an enduser buy an expensive generic? Site content and branding are worth the effort then.

 

That's a very good point, although in some places like Germany they don't mind having hyphens in their domain, but if a company wants to create a global brand it's best to stay away from hyphens. You also want to make sure that your domain doesn’t mean something negative in other languages.

Also it's best if there are not too many variations for spelling your domain, if someone hears your domain on the radio and has to wonder how to spell it then it can cause confusion. You have a better brandable domain if your domain rolls off the tongue easily and can only be spelled in one way.

PS: a longer domain that can pass the radio test might actually be more desirable then a shorter domain that doesn’t or that has to be explained how to be spelled every time. Although there are some companies that like to make the difficult or strange spelling of their domain part of their brand, but it will cost them a lot more to make that brand famous in the long run, but once it becomes famous then the difficult spelling or strangeness of it might help them stand out more.

IMO

---------- Post added at 07:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 AM ----------

Those are all good points,

By the way as far as I know the less results you see when you search for your domain before it is turned into a brand the better it is (assuming it’s pronounceable) because that means it is not already being used by other businesses and there is less chances of it having trademark conflicts. IMO

 

It would be a good idea if people could show there brandable domain names, making this thread also a showcase for brandable names, i have have mentioned we are still in the infancy of the internet and heir are over 565,000 start-ups monthly, you can see that all those companies need a name, any serious business would own the king which is .com, i have a portfolio of 50/50 keywords and brandable domains, I really believe that we are going to see a boom of brandables being regged over the next few years and hopefully see more sales on sites like sedo and afternic for brandable domain names.

Here are a few of my brandables most recently regged!

Pinize.com

Wikeze.com

Cubegator.com

Tapgenie.com

Taggenie.com

Kewte.com

Buxks.com

Clickilla.com

Appriza.com

Tapixi.com

Cubeeze.com

Cubetab.com

Bufiy.com

Boxeze.com

Cubezip.com

Best Tony Newton

 

It would be okay to use a few of your domains as an example here and there so that others can get a better idea as to what you are talking about both as far as finding good brandable domains and selling them, but if everyone starts listing all their domains here then that might take this thread a little off course as the real subject matters that we like to discuss might get lost in all the noise. IMO

 

Speaking of short domains, the really nice brandable 5L/6L are long gone.
Of course, you can still create longer domains using two keywords. But not every available combo will do.
It's not much different than predictive domaining or domaining in general: good domains are not waiting to be registered.

There is one thing that is sometimes overlooked even by the end users. In certain languages/cultures a brandable word can represent or look like an offensive/negative word. While they may look extremely brandable and memorable they may not be universally acceptable.
For example, I remember many years ago there was a dishwashing liquid launched on the market in Switzerland (or some other European country), the brand name was SIDA.
But SIDA means AIDS in French (French is spoken in parts of Switzerland). The items would remain on the shelves because people didn't want to buy any. Clearly a major branding blunder from a multinational company that didn't research the local market.
There are many more such examples of branding mistakes :gl:

 

What you are saying makes good sense, but keep in mind that that’s more of a responsibility for the end user to choose the right domain for their specific target area and language, as far as domainers are concerned they might be able to sell their domain to someone in a different area or market that doesn’t associate it with anything negative and doesn’t care about having a global presence. IMO

PS: as far as 6L domains are concerned I just got a pronounceable 6L newly hand registered domain accepted at BrandBucket that is priced in the mid four figures.

 

That is another factor Kate you are right, I remember hearing about the Chevy Nova, and how it meant it doesn't go in Spanish.
Its got a whole story behind the branding.

Chances are you've heard about how Chevrolet had problems marketing the Chevy Nova automobile in Latin America. Since no va means "it doesn't go" in Spanish, the oft-repeated story goes, Latin American car buyers shunned the car, forcing Chevrolet to embarrassedly pull the car out of the market.

Chevrolet's woes are often cited as an example of how good intentions can go wrong when it comes to translation. There are literally thousands of references to the incident on the Internet, and the Nova example has been mentioned in textbooks and often comes up during presentations on cultural differences and advertising.

But there's one major problem with the story: it never happened. As a matter of fact, Chevrolet did reasonably well with the Nova in Latin America, even exceeding its sales projections in Venezuela. The story of the Chevy Nova is a classic example of an urban legend, a story that is told and retold so often that it is believed to be true even though it isn't. Like most other urban legends, there is some element of truth in the story (no va indeed means "it doesn't go"), enough truth to keep the story alive. And, like many urban legends, the story has the appeal of showing how the high and mighty can be humiliated by stupid mistakes.

http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/chevy_nova.htm

 

There are still good 5L and 6L's dropping on a daily basis - you just to know what to look for.

just listed: P h o s o .com (perfect for any photo related site/app) on Brand bucket Mid $x,xxx

 

Urlurl summarizes it nicely.

 

There are millions of brandable style domains registered and few if any ever sell because they are never seen. Naming a company is very complex and a true art form and most in the business world are clueless how to come up with a great brand name so they seek out sites like Brandbucket. If you are new to this game don't waste your money regging a bunch of names because they will never ever be seen by anyone. Its a rarity to come up with a great 5, 6, or 7 letter domain and then for an end user to come up with that exact same name and seek you out to buy it. Not going to happen or very rare. If Brandbucket accepts your name you have a chance of selling it. A chance not a guarantee and first the name has to be accepted by them which is rare in itself. With around 12 million 5 letter combinations, 310 million 6 letter combinations and 8 billion 7 letter combinations you can see how easy it is for that fantastic name you just came up with to get lost in the sea of massive amounts of short domain names. There are easier ways to make money in this business.

 

Such as?