Premium Letters – Should you Really Worry About This When Buying Domains
There seems to be an obsession amongst domainers about premium letters for their two, three and four letter names. Now I can see how Booo.com has more value than Xqwz.com (which by the way I think is utterly worthless)
But people seem to get so hung up on having premium letters in their names.
A good example of this is my name CXC.com – I entered it in the appraisal section at a few of the forums and was amazed at some of the comments from people. “Having a non premium has really hurt the value.” “If you didn’t have the X this name could be worth serious $$$.”
What an utter load of tosh. I feel a large amount of people have been brainwashed by a few who have put together guides about what matters and what has value in the marketplace.
So which letters and numbers are considered premium and which not:
Premium domain letter guide
Letters
Premium: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T
Lesser quality: J, K, U, V, W
Low quality: Q, X, Y, Z
Numbers
Premium: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9
Lesser quality: 4 and 6
Low quality: 0
Michael Goldman recently said on DNForum, that premium letters only matter to resellers. End users don’t care.
I agree with this 100%. It all depends on the marketplace you are operating in. If you sell the majority of your domains on the forums to resellers, then Yes, the letter “quality” matters. But if you are mainly dealing with end users then the letter quality has no meaning.
Oh yes and whilst we’re on the subject. Y is not a vowel! It’s quite amazing the amount of people I get trying to sell me CVCV.com’s with a Y and asking for top dollar. I don’t mind people trying to hustle a little, but it really is getting quite tedious.
Anyway rant over. I hope you guys are still turning names over as I’ve noticed quite a slowdown over these past three weeks.
James
Your on the ball with todays post.
All this rubbish about whats in a domain CVCV, numbers etc.
Endusers dont care - As long as it meets there requirements and they are motivated to buy it.
Quality is king!
Buy domains that people shall want not just for the sake of owning a 3char or 4char domain.
Regards,
Robbie
I agree, end users don’t care about that, if the letters match what they want, it’s very worthy for them.
Another thing, premium for who? for the english language? how about the other 200 languages or more in the world? Q, X, Y, Z can be very worthy in China, or German speaking countries, just an example.
How about numbers? the 4 and 6 are low quality? why? if it’s a sex site the 69 will be valuable, and how about the 4? 247 is very worthy, even the 24, imagine a brand or business that wants to tell the costumers they are available 24 hours.
I think a lot of domainers should look more to end users and to the world around, the “rules” are just a guide, not the law, it all depends to who you want to sell, and where you want to sell.
Kind regards
“Xqwz.com (which by the way I think is utterly worthless)”
Very true, you are not alone.
Hi,
Actually the letter Y is both a vowel and a
consonant depending on usage.
I remember in first grade we were taught the
vowels were: a e i o u …and sometimes y.
Read more here:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutother/lettery
To me any domain that is shorter i.e 2, 3 or 4 letters is definitely worth than idontknowhowtorememberthis.com But one can easily argue that remembering doesn’t matter if the domain expects traffic only by search engine. Both has their tradeoffs. Atlast it is the niche of the site that brings in the traffic not the domain. It’s just a name.
when i started out - i did just that - i bought CVCV’s as they were the trendy thing. Thankfully i got them at a big reduction still to todays price - but it still hurts when i think about some of the offers i’ve turned down in the past for them. Well said Rafiq, “it is the niche of the site that brings in the traffic not the domain.”
value only exists in relation to development/meaning; a name that is nonsense is just that. there is no rarity to justfy otherwise