In the same way a prestigious address influences the price of a piece of real estate offline, domain names play a huge role in the value of your virtual real estate, your web sites. Did you know there are over 200 million dot com domain names registered? If you add in the others, like dot net, dot org, dot info and others, that figure is almost double.

So I hope you understand the value of the domain name you choose for your web site. Sometimes a domain name can make or break the success of a business. The value of domains are so great there are entire businesses online built around the buying and selling of domain names. Domains can generally be classified into three categories and we’ll look at each of them in a bit more depth.

Generic Domains

Generic domain names can be quite valuable, primarily because there are so few left. A generic domain name is sometimes referred to as a ‘type in traffic’ domain name. The reason is because it’s generally a word people type in when searching for an item or information, for example, chocolate, or sofa, or arthritis. Those names, and other names like them, have been long gone.

The popularity of generic domains is, in part, due to their flexibility and ability to appeal to a much wider customer base. It’s almost impossible to get one today, even an expired one. There are companies online whose business it is to keep a close eye on expiring domains. Their automated methods and advanced technology enable them to snap up generic domains before most of the public ever gets a chance to see them.

Premium domains

The term premium domain refers to domains for sale that are high quality names and are typically only available through the secondary domain market. These names are considered investments, as prices and demand continue to rise while quality dot com names become even rarer.

Premium domain names are known for their excellent marketability and their branding value. The best will have only a few characters or contain a valuable keyword or a brand name. They’re usually expected to have an aggressive development history, high traffic, and large numbers of unique visitors.

Domain Industry

The domain industry is growing at explosive rates, with more than 500 million domain names predicted to be in use within another decade. You can become a part of the domain industry by joining a domain investors club, or using the services of a domain name brokering company.

There are domain seminars you can attend, to exchange news and ideas with other ‘domainers.’ The future of the domain industry is extremely promising and under the right circumstances will no doubt prove to be hugely lucrative for those with the foresight to invest in the right names.

As more and more people enter the online world for the first time, and a generation of children raised on computers become old enough to be interested in generating income online, the domain industry is on target to be a highly profitable business for many years to come.

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