What's wrong with these?

[TheBulldog]

Ok, I want to try a different approach to names. I picked up the below names thinking they are really sort of what we are all about: picking up top level domains. I tossed em out for an appraisal and received a collective "meh". Not looking for appraisals, although that would be nice, I am looking for some advice on what not to get so that my time isn't wasted.

So what is wrong with them?
tldomain.org
tldhunter.com
tldscout.com
tldomainer.com
tldrops.com

I know the org is kind of bad just because it's org, but the rest? I would think someone around here would find them good because of the business around here IS tld work.

I very much want an open discussion about this because no one seems to give a toss about requests for appraisals in the other section.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

My take: I register "domaining" domain names for my own use, not to sell. Most domainers need a modicum of creativity to make it on their own, and will not need to buy a non-premium domain name for their own use (For example, if I owned "Domainer.com" that would be a good domain to try to sell, but "HotDomains.net" while not bad, isn't going to get the blood boiling for most domainers.).
They are sort of unique names, admittedly, but they only serve a small niche of an even smaller market... You'd have to hit a solid string of luck to find a domainer who couldn't find a better name, and was willing to pay sufficiently to get those domains from you instead of even better names for the same amount...
Just my .02
-Allan

 

[TheBulldog]

Thanks Allen.

To be fair, I wasn't even looking for profits, more looking for what to look for, if you get my drift.

 

[sukelis]

I very much want an open discussion about this because no one seems to give a toss about requests for appraisals in the other section.

I'd like to see a good discussion about this as well. I'm very new to domaining, so my opinions may be way off base. But it seems to me that domain names are often selected without any real thought of them as an end product. Your list is perhaps less guilty of that because you had a specific group of end users in mind, but as Allan pointed out, it's not an end user group that's likely to buy (unless you had a really superb name).

Furthermore, regarding this list specifically, I think it's a poorly considered keyword choice for your target group. I mean the TL stands for top-level but, in fact, we're a lot more interested in the second level... the actual domains. For example, tldhunter and tldscout would be much better as domainhunter or domainscout. How much hunting does one do for a TLD? There are a limited number of them to choose from, even counting the country codes. I think the other 3 names have even less merit as domainer names.

Expanding the discussion to include other lists I've seen posted here... it often seems like many domainers think that registering a domain is an immediate acquisition of property, rather than a speculation. Thinking up a clever name may be reason enough to buy it, but it is not reason enough to think that anybody else is ever going to buy it. And unless it's a good type-in traffic generic, then one should have a really clear idea of what to do with it before registering it, or be entirely willing to toss the reg fee (like a losing lottery ticket).

I think that the future of [successful] domaining isn't going to lie in having a massive portfolio of clever names or in quick turn-arounds, but in having a well-considered portfolio of names that one is actively working. Fortunately, well-considered is pretty subjective and leaves lots of room for many different strategies!

 

[TheBulldog]

Well if that is true, then there is a good chance the market could stagnate.

Most of the original .coms are taken or prohibitively expensive. Most people outside of domainers look at the other extensions besides org and net with a huge amount of distrust. So either longer, multiple-word .coms start being accepted, or dot net starts to take its place as the second level of the net.

Personally, I am skeptical of things like .mobi. (It won't stop me trying to make money). But I have to look at .mobi from a user perspective. If I am going to try and go to a website on my cell phone, I don't want to type out bigboobbonanza.mobi. I am going to type boob.mobi and then give up becuase my fingers are tired. So to me registering anything more then a one word or maximum 8 character mobi is foolish to me.

So that brings me back to dot coms. And what is left, short of spending a large sum of money on an existing domain name, is finding clever word combos that aren't horribly wrong.

As to tld names above....I am aware they are very specifically targeted. But they also server as an example of where the new names are headed: very targeted. So instead of going after the mass audience: discounttires.com, you will have to start going after the smaller industries: discountaquariums.com. In that example, let's say 75% of people have cars and need tires. But all those names are pretty much gone or oversaturated. But the market for aquariums is smaller and we as domain name vomiters have not sunk down to the lower level of businesses yet.

Wait until the days when you have to target discountamradios.com.

 

[Domainate.com]

Here's my take: Let's look at another often used LLL acronym, VIP. Then look at VIPerson. It simply loses it's luster. In general, going partial-acronym happens a lot, usually to shorten the full name, and happens a lot with businesses utilizing a personal name (like HK Bentley or GAR Appraisals, 2 fresh in my head). However, people are already used to VIP and it's full meaning, Very Important Person. VIP has been widely keyworded such that it means high quality and elite...I don't know how that began, but it's fairly widely used that way now. So when you spell out part of it, or use only part of it with another word, it looks to people like taking part of a word and putting it with another part, and it's magnified by the fact that it's partial acronym partial spelled-out. With Top Level Domain being a technical term within the domain industry, I think you really have an uphill battle brandably keywording TLD (branding it to mean "domain" or TL to mean "high quality"). TLD honestly isn't a hugely popular term in its normal use anyways (not a lot of domain related websites have TLD in their names), so combine all that together and you've pretty much got reg fee names in tldomain.org, tldomainer.com, and tldrops.com.

I'm still not a fan of tldhunter.com because again you're trying to brand TLD to mean "domain", and I just think it you would have to advertise the hell out of it and have a cool site in order for that to work. tldscout.com is better, as you could mean it to scope out domain drops in a particular extension, effectively "scouting" the TLD, though that's kind of a roundabout way of saying a site has droplists or whatever.

Personally, I think if you're going to go for a brand name for a domain site, or for any site really, use the ol' thesaurus and Google and try to find replacement words for one of the words you want in the name. Sometimes you can simply think up synonyms of particular words and check and see if the name with the synonym is available. One of my better regged names, CompleteVideos.com, is a perfect example of a name I got because FullVideos.com was taken (and ironically I have seen that name since sell for $4k). I personally don't think the name loses that much...it's just a bit longer and has less searches from a generic perspective, but when you're doing brand names, you have a little more leway as people are after mostly generic names and not brand names.

A good exercise to do is look at 2 letter or 3 letter domains in a list (like one on Sedo), and try to think of acronyms for the letter combinations for the site you want. You'll find yourself coming up with some synonyms for certain words and/or changing words around or changing slightly what the name will get across in order to fit it to a letter combination. Before I ultimately settled on NameTrader.com for a domain related name where I could list my portfolio and ultimately in the future start a domain marketplace, I kicked around the idea of a LLL.com, and found the creative juices flowing based on what was available for sale.

Also note that at the time I purchased NameTrader.com, it was the most I ever spent on a domain, which brings up another point. I see many domainers have their own sites with lists of names for sale, and they can have some really great names...but the name of the site itself is BAD! I never understand how domainers, who are at the forefront of getting the message across to people that great domains help sites succeed, can fail to see the message when it comes to their own sites. It doesn't mean you have to spend your life savings on the name, but seek out premium names, and try to get the best deal. I could have been at DNX.com, DomainTrader.com, Domainex.com, DNT.com, etc., but NameTrader.com was the best deal I could get, and I've come to love it just as much as those others and much better than anything domain related I've ever hand-regged (the best being probably DomainAssociate.com, though I'm better at finding great expired domains than a lot of people).