>I immediately gravitate towards the keyword descriptive dotCOM. It instantly exudes trust & authority
Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing.
Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations.
But I guess if the general public still likes those types of domains it shouldnt affect their value.
I can see your point of view.. What I was trying to convey - albeit poorly - was a more holistic view of the domain, ie. the domain on the side of a truck. The domain on a tablecloth. The domain on a bumpersticker.
If I saw a plumber driving around Atlanta with www.AtlantaPlumber.com on his truck, #1 - it'd be easy for me to remember, and #2 it'd be a more positive than negative perception of that business.
This is even more important if your business uses e-mail to communicate with customers.
I used to own a print business with a .net domain name. We'd often tell a new customer our e-mail address at the end of our first phone call. But too many times customers would just type .com in the e-mail address and then assume that our business has lousy service.
After a few months I paid a cyber-squatter (if that is still the appropriate term) $1600 for the .com version of our name and I never regretted that decision.
People click strong and authoritative names. Generic domains often are strong and authoritative, but they aren't the only example of strong and authoritative names. I think your article misses this point.
One thing I would mention is that many people know that names like "BikeTours.com" were the first to be registered in the early Internet days, and these days do carry a degree of trust through age.
They type what they want into the search box of Google or Bing. Domain names now only matter to the extent that search result ranking algorithms prioritize hits in the domain name.
As for myself, I am automatically wary of domain names that do not include a known trademark, and have no plausible reason to exist (and pay its own operating expenses) aside from advertising.
Without even visiting "vacuumreviews.com", I immediately presume it is operated by a vacuum cleaner company that presents false or biased reviews, to drive consumers to purchase their product. Such a site would only ever be visited by someone researching a vacuum cleaner purchase, and few would bother returning once that need has been satisfied to leave an honest review there. Guaranteed useless to click on the link.
Just pick a memorable and appropriate trademark for your business, and use a non-squatted variation on that as your domain name.
> The general public no longer types domain names.
I partially disagree. My opinion is that the general public has learned to type the first letter/s of a site they've previously visited, into their browser url bar. The median Pinterest user on the Web is not going to Google to get to Pinterest.com, even if a small percentage of users do so. Typing those first letters into the browser has become radically more common for the typical user than using a search engine for sites they visit regularly. The majority of Web users have long since figured out that typing into the browser reveals sites from their history.
I tend to agree with your view, or am biased because it reflects my pattern. However I would add, browsers (Chrome at least) have a bit of a dark pattern that pushes people towards a search making searches very common although not always needed/intended.
For example, when I type the first 4 letters of my bank's URL, the omnibox has 3 suggestions prior to the direct bank URL even though it's a site I frequently visit and google knows that. They want me to search "BANK NAME" because then I'm more likely to click on the top link which of course is an ad.
>For example, when I type the first 4 letters of my bank's URL, the omnibox has 3 suggestions prior to the direct bank URL even though it's a site I frequently visit and google knows that. They want me to search "BANK NAME" because then I'm more likely to click on the top link which of course is an ad.
This is strange. For nearly every letter on the keyboard, Chrome's first suggestion in the address bar is a site I regularly visit. I.e. for p its paypal.com, for e its ebay.com.
There are almost no cases where the first suggestion isnt a direct URL. I wonder what settings differ between us.
You missed the general point. The discussion is about unknown domains. If I was looking for vacuum reviews, I wouldn't type vacuumreviews.com but rather search for vacuum reviews. If was was looking for football scores, I wouldn't type footballscores.com but rather search for football scores. The former used to be a common way to browse before the advent of search engines.
That's not to say that there is no SEO value for footballscores.com; there is.
So, you say that people are more interested in "web content about Facebook" than "web content about weather", and they aren't typing in "facebook" to get to facebook.com, and going through google (likely unintentionally)?
I actually watched a friend google Facebook and go to the website through the results... It seemed so strange to me. Maybe some people have become trained to do that? I've only seen it once but it stuck with me as odd.
1. Type google.com into the address bar. They don't know that modern browsers can directly redirect search input to your favorite search engine.
2. Type the domain (including extension) to the google search input.
3. Click on the first link.
The most horrifying part is that they probably do this every time they want to visit that domain, and don't even know what a bookmark is.
Never mind about writing <html><head></head><body><ul><li><a>link1</a></li><li><a>link2</a></li>...</ul></body></html> and using a simple list of their favorite links as their home page.
My only consolation is that when these people grow up and have some money to spend, the HN crowd will all look like Odin, with all the magic we can work using our mastery of the runes. I bet I sacrificed some of my eyesight by sitting too closely to old, low-res CRT monitors, too.
You're putting the cart before the horse. Going by domain name is the equivalent of planting your business on the side of the highway. You're going to get a ton of traffic just based on walk-ins alone.
Since when is making money a questionable financial motivation?
I think it's unlikely you'll find anyone reviewing vacuum cleaners online because they love the engineering prowess exhibited by a Dyson. It's so they can make $3 off your Amazon purchase.
For all the talk of side projects and acquisitions and growth hacking and SEO, HN tends to have an inherent distrust of anyone attempting to make money online by any way other than subscription SaaS.
Making money isn't a questionable motivation, it's a biased one.
Just like "discount provided for an honest review" on Amazon, stuffing keywords in your URL for affiliate traffic is a very clear bias.
It's shouting "I profit from traffic, so I want to get you here by all means necessary" — this is less true as algorithms become more intelligent, but it's been my experience since the advent of the internet.
Now, of course — that's not always true. Some great sites have also relied on keywords and affiliate revenue... but I'd wager that a reputable site with a keyword based URL and affiliate links is a one in a million phenomenon (thenightlight.com is the best example I can think of)
tl;dr As an internet user I've been trained to equate all keyword stuffing with spam. It's like "banner blindness" but for keywords.
> I think it's unlikely you'll find anyone reviewing vacuum cleaners online because they love the engineering prowess exhibited by a Dyson. It's so they can make $3 off your Amazon purchase.
You'd be surprised. That's what differentiates the ad-based Internet from the good old Internet "by people, for people".
Personally, my way of searching for / evaluating a product is to find a legitimate (not sponsored) community around this product category and search the archives for recommendations and discussions. This makes it much easier to get real opinions and avoid various kinds of marketing.
Sure, marketers have been trying to game this technique since time immemorial. That's one reason I consider them malicious actors.
>I think it's unlikely you'll find anyone reviewing vacuum cleaners online because they love the engineering prowess exhibited by a Dyson.
There are literally dozens of sites for every niche and topic where people are writing about it for personal satisfaction. Rather shocking you would think that given the number of personal blogs that pop up on HN.
Google and that concentrating on SEO brought us to a state where the Internet is full of content with descriptive domains/business names filled with content created for Google but not for the actual user. If you choose a more creative business and domain name and write good content for reals human it would still perform SEO-wise because of low bounce-rates and long duration times but experienced SEO content marketers will outperform you every time.
I sometimes buy domain names on my phone, late at night, in my bed. Usually after hours of laying in bed building out a business in my mind and iterating over and over to see where it leads. Buying the domain name seems to be the last step in the processes, it helps me sleep.
I look at the list of my domains every once in a while and pick ideas to work on, but sometimes I have no idea what drove me to buy them, like parttimehuman.tips
As an aside, I first heard about instantdomainsearch.com from Beau at a Y Combinator event. He was working on Snipshot, and considered the domain search as an old side project that wasn't all that interesting anymore. It's interesting to see that the domain search is still up and running and Snipshot is gone. I wonder which one made more money in that decade+.
Instant Domain Search did. People visiting the site tend to be ready to buy a domain, and Go Daddy does an amazing job of converting that intent into an actual sale.
Most if Snipshot's users tended to use the tool to crop and apply filters to photos they posted to social networks. Whoops.
I've been sniped a few times with instantdomainsearch.com when actually proceeding through to godaddy, but then not buying it within about a day. Haven't had any issues when not going through to godaddy, though.
Not to burst your bubble but I'm convinced we're moving into an era where your domain name and TLD are becoming less and less relevant. Google and Social are all that matter. Had you asked me 4 years ago if I'd ever consider building a business on .io or .co I would have laughed in your face. Now I'm building products on both of them.
FWIW, I used to buy/sell domains and I think it's a terrible investment strategy now. I can't tell you how many thousands of dollars I've wasted.
Unless you're able to pick up one-word / 3L .com's for very cheap and know you can easily flip them, it's just not worth it.
In the context of YC, here's what pg thinks about domain names:
"If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your name.
The reason is not just that people can't find you. For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness. Unless you're so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain suggests you're a marginal company. Whereas (as Stripe shows) having x.com signals strength even if it has no relation to what you do."
How many companies have started without x.com that are now huge? Tesla was TeslaMotors.com before it was Tesla.com, Square was SquareUp.com before it was Square.com, DataDog was Datadoghq.com before it was Datadog.com; I can keep going.. (yes, they're still .com's, but you wouldn't consider datadoghq.com investable. In all likelyhood, Datadog only used that name because it was a $9 registration.)
The domains didn't make them succeed.
I mean sure, if you're going to invest in domains, I'm not going to argue that buying turtle.com for $9 is a good idea, but those days are long gone. Anything that's dropped or available now probably isn't going to be worth anything; unless you're paying $8k on NameJet and flipping for $10k.
gotta disagree, with all due respect. But I do like the .io extension..
but confused - you say Google & Social are all that matter.. Google indexes domains. And once a user visits a domain and has a positive experience, the domain would be that much easier for them to remember. And with social, you don't own or control the content - so if they fold (or change the rules), you're up the creek.
The point is returning people dont remember your domain anyway. They type the first few chars of your brand and hope for a suggestion. Thats why "getbrand.com" domains are a bad idea, and tlds dont matter because costumer akquisition happens over social or backlinks anyway.
Personally, I think of buying a domain as a form of procrastination rather than the first step of starting a business.
It gives a feeling of achievement while staying in your comfort zone (seriously, it's just choosing a name and paying ten bucks, how difficult is that?).
What I noticed to work is reaching out to people, telling them about your business or project and getting their interest.
Getting the first clients puts more pressure on you, but also gives a huge motivation to continue working on it.
Buying a domain makes you pick a name and I think having a name helps with morale and motivation. Buying the domain also helps because you've spent some money and you have this thing there, waiting to be used.
agree.. and I've found the more I invest, the more dedicated I am to the project.. spend little, and it just turns into, 'eh, I'll start that project next week'..
At my current top-side-project, I accumulated so many placeholders of "whatever I'll call it", "demain name comes here", "$DOMAIN", etc, that I had to quit coding for a while until I settled down on a name and brought it.
But yes, even getting a no from a potential customer will push you much more than getting a domain.
I am (was) a serial domain buyer. Now, I guess its somewhat true that buying a domain to go with your idea can really inspire you, I have a lot of domains I let expire or still hold on to because I haven't yet or never did anything with them. I don't think its a good idea.
thanks for the feedback.. it works for some folks, not for others.. true. I wanted to simply try and shift the thinking for anyone out there dabbling. Once I saw domain names in this light, it really helped me focus and concentrate on building..
I am definitely motivated by purchasing a domain. Yes, not all ideas pan out but it gives me a good jolt to explore the underlying business and implementation.
Maybe it's just that I lack follow through, but I disagree. I have a horrible habit of buying domain names thinking that I have this great idea, I play with it for a day or two and then abandon it.
Actually, in the spirit of this article, if anyone here is interested in any of these, let me know:
addressauth.com -- Was going to be a physical address verification service using lob.com's postcard sending API.
atomicthings.com -- something vaguely iot related
http://blankpage.press -- a news site that only posted things that were important (but I realized that would mean I'd need to read all the news and figure out what was important).
http://commn.co -- an inventory tracking system for DIY entheusists that allowed you to track your crap, but also see other peoples crap and trade/sell to others if you don't need it anymore.
http://difftos.com -- a tool to watch service's ToS for changes and easily see what actually changed.
hydramatic.net -- ifttt, but for programmers (it's the name of the first automatic transmission)
http://shit.land / http://shit.foundation -- "The Society for a Homogenous Internet of Things Foundation", an obviously dumb name for a website that I was going to setup a wiki to track IoT stuff, mostly protocols and maybe eventually something with security vulns.
virga.link / http://virga.space -- My plans for a fully decentralized IoT 'protocol', there's actually a couple blog posts on here that lay out what I was thinking.
If you have an existing project that's not in risk of dying that one of these would fit, I'll gladly give it to for free. (I just ask that if the project does die you'd give it back to me and not sell it.)
Also, slightly unrelated, but since I'm listing domain names, https://knock.ninja was another one of these, but I've actually gotten myself to keep working on that on, if a bit slowly. I actually am pretty proud of coming up with that name. (Although the content on that site it pretty shit, btw. I need to come up with better ways of describing it with fewer words.)
> Yeah, I think I need to get away from the term 'access system' everyone I've asked didn't get it and I think that was the main part of the confusion.
Have you looks through condo/apartment amenity listings and figured out what words they're using to describe these systems? I imagine people would probably pick up on and use those names?
I just call it a "buzzer" and explain to friends "enter the code or find me in the directory and it'll call me"
I've never seen any that actually specify it as an amenity. I think it's assumed that buildings will have that these days.
In searing for how they're actually sold, I've seen mostly "Phone Entry System" and "Phone Access System", but I felt like that was super generic without context.
You're getting it right. The problem with terms like "buzzer", IMO, is that they're super generic and very regional. But I suppose it might be more generally understandable than what I've got, I guess I should try it on a few people.
That's not what this does though - it hooks into a system like that to automatically let in certain people at certain times, as a one-off, or until the owner/tenant next returns, etc.
I've found, the more I invest into a domain name, the more focused & serious I am to develop it.
I tend to only buy dotCOM, as that's what the general public is most comfortable with. I've found that if you buy any gTLD, you immediately create a headwind that you're fighting against out of the gate..
I'm curious what you mean by how much you "invest". Do you mean how much you pay for it? Isn't .com $13 in most places? Or do you mean to say you spend a couple k from a broker? If it's the latter, I'd hope you're prepared to be serious and focus on developing it.
I refuse to buy domain names from speculators. I think it's one of the scummyest (legal) things you can in relation to the internet. You're buying cheap resources on the hope that someone is desperate enough to give you more money for it later. They're middle men that provide no service and add zero value to the world. They're just selfish.
invest=what I spend to acquire the domain name. The renewal rates per year are around your $13 estimate, yes..
I mean to say that I buy domains from auction when an original owner abandons a domain.
And don't be so put off from buying a domain from a speculator or broker.. If someone owned a piece of mountain-view property, would you consider them scummy? There was no guarantee these domains would appreciate in price.. These domain investors took a huge risk in the early days. And it happened to pay off for them.
Your Internet of Things domain names are quite... catchy, so to speak! I started a blog recently on Internet of Things that I think I chose a unique name and url for: http://iot.salon/ let me know what you think if you have a chance.
I once wrote a python tool to diff terms of service, and I had a domain name though I honestly don't remember what it was. If you would like to discuss collaborating, my email address at gmail is the same username that I have here.
I built https://www.findlectures.com entirely without having a domain; my experience has been that having a domain too early locks you too much to the concept it references.
But at the same time not having it soon enough means someone else can swoop in and keep it from you.
Domains are cheap. I buy them for $10 before discounts. If the concept changes spend another $10. You'll spend far more than that trying to negotiate it back.
-There would be a high likelihood of that domain name being available as opposed to buying the KEYWORD domain from a squatter for thousands.
-Having a brand or name would give it more authority and a feeling of a mom and pop store.
-It is still descriptive.
Not to mention that if you do decide to go through the KEYWORD domain route you will be competing with a lot of people that are scouting for KEYWORD domains to build spammy affiliate websites or if by any chance the website has some history and backlinks then you will be competing with people who want to snatch it to build PBNs.
"The next big step is combing through the 100k domains that expire every day. And creating a process to scan and filter so you don’t go cross-eyed."
For me the title gives away the idea of the post. I read it. Not impressed. [0] The following line gave me the impression the writer didn't realise the value of the above statement. Want a ^potential^ business, build a tool that allows you a better way to solve the above problem.
[0] read "Before the Startup" 'Game paragraph' on playing house ~ http://paulgraham.com/before.html cf "We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for it: playing house. Eventually I realized why it was happening. The reason young founders go through the motions of starting a startup is because that's what they've been trained to do for their whole lives up to that point."
I've been casually interested in small time domain name "investing" (with and without intention to develop) since the early days and when it so happened that during a stint at GoDaddy, I was charged with the UX of the domain auction product, imagine my surprise to discover were a handful of very big players, some of whom ran bespoke software (not unlike a Bloomberg terminal) and were so profitable for the company that they essentially had their own in-house concierge.
That certainly dampened my enthusiasm when I realized it had long since become more like commercial real estate investment than the American West land rush.
Similarly illuminating was working at a regional bank and learning how much of their growth was based on investing in a patch of dirt as it was in the operation of the branch location that sat on that dirt.
Made me realize how uninformed I was about business in general.
> Similarly illuminating was working at a regional bank and learning how much of their growth was based on investing in a patch of dirt as it was in the operation of the branch location that sat on that dirt.
Reminds me of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc's famous quote "We are in the real estate business; not the hamburger business."
My understanding is that Godaddy employees are forbidden from buying and selling domains and have been for at least the 6 years I've been purchasing the occasional domain in their auction platform. When were you at Godaddy?
I was there 2010-11 and can't recall the specific policies. One fun thing I do remember was the internal testing system which provided for an unlimited "budget" to purchase any domain which only resolved internally. So, for example, I could register google.com on my test account. But since it only resolved internally, if I wanted something to appear at that address it had to be a GoDaddy product that functioned on that system (various website builders, etc.)
wow, I've run a domain registrar since 1999. Most domain name purchases are crap, domains are not assets but for a tiny tiny fraction of the top sites.
don't be a fool and give your money to a registrar. Build a business by solving problem that many folks have. After you solved a problem buy a domain to market your solution.
What some of the posters here have pointed out is that buying a domain name early scopes your idea and limits the possibility of you adjusting the purpose/audience/main concept of the start up.
Scoping is not bad per se, but starting up an idea is more of a creative process than concrete problem solving. You might not know what problem you're yet about to solve.
I like the idea of using expiring domain names to generate business ideas (especially domain names that are fetching a good price).
But what if, instead of buying the domain name, you... didn't buy it? What if, instead of dropping $5K on an exact match, you spent $10 on a B+ domain name, where you can set up a landing page to see if there's interest in the business idea you've generated?
That way, if you are getting signups, or even actual customers, then you try to get a better domain name; but if not, you're not out $5K.
Or am I missing something? I guess you can still sell the domain if you don't end up doing something with it, but what if it declines in value?
"I like the idea of using expiring domain names to generate business ideas (especially domain names that are fetching a good price)."
Personally, I think buying domains that seem good, and then brainstorming ideas for them is risky. You're more likely to end up with a questionable foundation ("Maybe it could be a site about dogs with funny socks?") or something outside your area of interest/expertise. IME, it's better to set your idea and then find the domain.
By all means, speculate on domains and collect a few strong ones (I do), but I'd be wary of picking ideas based on the domains you can grab.
You used to be able to make easy money from SEO-oriented sites based on keyphrases, but that's dried up a lot and content/concept is king again.
> Personally, I think buying domains that seem good, and then brainstorming ideas for them is risky.
Your ideas have to come from somewhere, but I think it's risky too. That's why I suggested buying a cheaper domain to vet the idea before buying an expensive one (if at all).
> Also, how often do you end up not using an expensive domain name, or find out it was a dud?
I use & develop every single premium dotCOM that I acquire. I dropped $26k on a domain recently, and the jury is still out whether that one's gonna be a dud.. It's always possible.
* A site that posts startups that flame out spectacularly due to poor business models (models that everyone knew would never work but money was still invested, etc.). Like that F* Company site that used to exist, or whatever it used to be called.
* An incubator for startups devoted to the proctology industry. (I assume that's what you would call this sub-industry of medicine.)
* A p0rn site, duh.
* An incubator for startups devoted to the adult industry.
* A bathub company for folks with reading disabilities. (Sorry.)
* A startup focused on developing the next generation hardware programming language to replace legacy ASSembly language. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist considering the expected audience here on HN ;-)
I own meatgalore.com, I thought it would be a cool idea to have a business that sold rare meats and cuts online... but never really got the supply chain worked out.
Sorry, but i really dont like the style of the article, i always feel like the author wants to tell me one little trick, doctors hate him for, which enlarges your penis by two inches.
For the amount of money he's spending on auctioned domains, wouldn't it make more sense to find a 'related' (eg. backyardziplines.com vs ziplines.com) name and do exactly the same thing (set up a site, contact a partner, etc) and spend the thousands of dollars on advertising?
Maybe it's just me, but google doesn't really put that much stock in the url itself, does it? A non-scammy site and some good lead ins will put you high in the search results regardless, no?
Author here..My focus isn't a google seo play, it's a 'build a business' play that leverages all forms of marketing.. word of mouth, bumper stickers, billboards, search, social.. A neat, easy to remember domain can do lots of good when building a brand..
Related domains can do as much harm as good.. a good article to read:
> I’m talking about viewing domain names as an asset
Another way to read this, which the author indirectly touches on in his listing of expired domain auction results, is the $$$ value of the domain itself.
It's kind of insurance for the situation where your side project/business either fails to materialize or goes nowhere. A solid domain should at least retain its value so you can view the perceived authority/trust as free (or a dividend) on the initial investment in the domain.
This is the basis I've been using for some of the prospective side-projects I've been mulling. I've been buying some decent domains as investments both in the domains themselves and the value they would bring to my projects.
Here's a specific example:
I've got a few ideas related to energy, eg. a system that'll let IoT devices/smart appliances/software base decisions on the cost and environmental impact of the energy required for an application. So I bought http://energy.io as the eventual home for this. It carries the authority/trust that the author describes, at least as a developer-focused business, and in the worst case I'm sure I can resell it for an amount comparable to what I paid.
+1 for promoting an idea that a single-noun (such as Amazon or apple) could be purchased as a domain and be worth lots of money.
However, while the bottom statement is a truth, are you sure you have the cause and effect right?
We buy go on amazon.com to buy books because of a plethora of other reasons that Amazon does better than a bookstore.com that comes before an affinity for the Amazon brand. This ranges from ubiquitous options to their cost-cutting operational and source efficiency to their shipping options to Amazon prime benefits.
Descriptive URL's like "BikeTours.com" convey the opposite to me. It's going to be swimming in ads and malware and full of BS reviews hoping for some affiliate link clicks.
Also buying domain names ("great" or not) is a bad way to get started. There are a million things that need to happen to launch a side business and a domain is literally one of the least important things. You can always buy getX.com, Xapp.com, Xnow.com, etc and buy X.com when, if, you make it big. Buying domain names is fun, I used to do it regularly but it just gives a short rush where you play through different scenarios and then you forget about it until you get the notification to renew it a year later. You want to build a side business? Then build a side business. Want to fantasize? Buy a domain.
>There are a million things that need to happen to launch a side business and a domain is literally one of the least important things
Different strokes, different folks.. My thought is, why not come out of the gate, guns blazing, with a killer product/service and the exact match domain of the industry.. Instantly compete with the leaders of your market. No ramp up needed.
bidding networks, yes.. those four links I included at end of article grant you access to those networks. Those sites will attempt to grab domains when they drop. Not all expiring domains truly expire, though.. some are what they call 'pre-release', and are auctioned before the drop at a selective marketplaces.. Namejet is a popular one..
I'm familiar with this syntax but thought that Google's punishments take the form more of a sliding scale (which diminishes general authority or prevalence for certain searches) than a binary system (good/show, bad/hide). And that simply checking the index as above wouldn't reveal too much actionable info. Eg. if a domain is categorized as having adult content.
Offers.com (at the time a record-breaking price paid for a domain name) is still getting peanuts in traffic compared to retailmenot, which has the dumbest name ever. And I'd argue offers.com has marginally superior content, except for the odd exclusive deal that retailmenot is able to swing based on their identity. But retailmenot got there first, and it hit the ground running building marketshare, and that has made all the difference.
>Offers.com (at the time a record-breaking price paid for a domain name) is still getting peanuts in traffic compared to retailmenot, which has the dumbest name ever.
Is it possible to spend lots of money and build a brand on a junky domain and drive lots of traffic, yes.
I agree that if you think of a good domain name and it is available, then you should buy it. It's a very cheap investment. But be sure to write a super brief business plan explaining what this is for. You might forget by next year.
Even if you don't end up using it, you may be pleasantly surprised (as has happened to me) that in a few years someone offers you ten or twenty thousand for it.
I do not agree with the "just" buy a great domain. The domain name has very little to with the success of your business. I also, as others have said, disagree with "keyword descriptive" names. I don't think that search engines reward your for descriptive names, and they are poor choices for brand names. You want people to be able to Google your brand, and have your page come up first.
Just to be clear, this isn't an seo play.. this is a 'build a side business' play..
And no, you're right, you don't 'just' buy the domain. I'm sorta suggesting that the domain be the inspiration for the business you create.. Maybe I shoulda said 'Start with a Great Domain name'..
Your grit and hustle will determine the success of your business, not a domain. If you have a great name, though, success is a little more in reach, I feel..
Wrong, very wrong. Generic names say that you are generic, not special.
Al Ries[0] describes this as the "The Law of Generic": a brand dilutes itself when it tries to refer to a generic category because it doesn't distinguish itself from competition. He gives 2 examples. There was a company making biscuits that called themselves National Biscuits Company. They abbreviated that to Nabisco and became a brand. There was a company making electrical appliances that used to call themselves General Electric Company. They abbreviated that to GE and became a brand.
That hypothesis is difficult to falsify and therefore difficult to believe. Can you give an example company that can serve as a proxy for the counterfactual National Biscuit Company that never changed its name?
> Can you give an example company that can serve as a proxy for the counterfactual National Biscuit Company that never changed its name?
If I could then it would be an evidence that the thesis is false. Look around, among most successful sites and companies in the world which one as a clearly generic name?
Name one that kept the generic name and failed because if it.
An alternative explanation is that large companies like to copy each other, not because it's a good idea, but simply because they're afraid to be different. Most people like to conform.
Now that we know for more than 15 years that domain names are a crappy business we are back at it? Why? I mean in the 90s it makes sense because there were still reasonable domain names not taken. But everything is taken now, despite a few creative ideas that only work for a short time. And domain names are also not as important any more since people tend to click on the first google link more often than the second, and they don't switch that pattern because the second link is dotCOM.
I would say having a random string as domain name that ranks highly for certain keywords is a much better investment than a cool, creative domain name.
So, why start the whole thing again? If you have money to lose, I can also give you my paypal ID and you just send it to me.
The exact keyword match domain name business tanked years ago when google updated their algorithms. Back then, if you had the domain freepoker.com and someone googled for "free poker" your site would get a huge ranking boost due to the domain name.
this ain't an seo play, this is a 'build a side-business' play. A keyword rich domain carries a lot of weight when you're knocking on doors, cold calling, meeting folks at conferences..
Great domain names are not going to save most. It's going to save one depending on how great the domain name is. But figuring out what is great is as hard as figuring out what products are great.
I own over 50,000 domains, mostly generics or short 3-6 letter .com. Sales revenues last year was few millions US$ and we had over 20M in offers, offers which we decided to wait on. Good .Com domains aren't cheap, anything decent is over 10K and anything good is over 50K. You can always start with .Junk (that's what they really are) but when you make it, in all likelihood you'll end up upgrading to a good .Com. I know because I see it every single day.
I think people simply like saying 'it's a zero sum game'..
So, I'm not creating value if I build a real business on a neat domain name? If I bought MilkDelivery.com and launched a nationwide milk delivery service, I'm not creating value?
I like this idea! Yeah, I could see some folks using it to get into shadier practices. But i could also see it as being a trigger/catalyst for prompting me to get into a decent-enough business that I (might be good at but) would never have gone into otherwise. I think i'll give this a try.
Side note: Kudos also to the author for a lovely, and humorous writing style! (I've subscribed to your mailing list because of it!)
I really should do more with "downside.com". It had the first search engine for companies that returned financial data from SEC filings, back in 2000. But now everybody has that. The SEC data updater stopped working at the beginning of 2017 because the SEC shut down FTP access in favor of HTTP, so I either have to fix the ancient Perl code or turn that off.
But could we all agree that a shorter, easily spelled, 'radio-friendly' (unambiguous) .com domain can save a load on marketing costs?
I work backwards from my startup ideas and check the drop daily for domains that match my keywords. It doesn't take a lot of time and occasionally I find something perfect.
Halfway through reading, I was going to criticize the author for lack of quantitative evidence, but he partially redeemed himself by using actual numbers in the Expired Domains section. Anyone can write an article saying "X is important!" but a business owner will not give attention unless dollar values are assigned to the importance. Still, I'd like to see some more evidence in this article than the Bobblehead case study that using keyword domains actually increases sales in that market.
all I can say regarding building businesses on keyword descriptive domains.. it just makes everything easier..
Easier to communicate your biz. Easier to get your foot in the door somewhere. Easier for introductions. Easier for consumers to remember your name (https://blog.nuts.com/were-going-nuts-dot-com/). Just easier all around. All those things added together can directly impact sales..
Yes, I believe it has an effect, but I think everyone knows that valuable domains are important. But when purchasing a $200k domain, is there any quantitative method a business owner can follow so determine whether the domain will be worth 200k?
Kind of off topic, but if someone has a domain as valuable as "nuts.com", why ruin it by putting a subdomain in front of it? Why isn't the URI scheme "nuts.com/blog/were-going-nuts..."? There's no significant technical reason anymore for splitting multiple services into multiple subdomains.
Me personally, I simply look at how long it'd take me to pay off the domain. I like to pay them off in 1-1.5 years. So effectively, I'd need my company throwing off enough profit to pay off those domains in that time period. That rough guide keeps me on track so that I don't overpay at auction. But since most folks I compete with are speculators, and need to flip for a profit, versus me who wants to build a legit business, I can typically pay more as my profits can cover the extra expense..
And I'm with you on the subdomain on nuts.com. A really bad idea, imo.
It speaks volumes about human psychology. The fact that sometimes all it takes is a catchy name to build a company from nothing that has not one single innovation.
Just look at one of the most hilarious examples: "meundies.com" It has a cute little name that people like, so it's gaining traction. Is there anything innovative or good about the product or business model? Nope. The catchy name is all.
This is exactly what I do. It might not be for everyone but when I find a domain that I subjectively really like, I instinctively know what I'm going to build on it.
Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing.
Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations.
But I guess if the general public still likes those types of domains it shouldnt affect their value.