Comments on: What do end Users Look for in a Domain Name? Forget everything you know!

By: Santa

Santa — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:41:25 +0000

Most of the rehashed rules about “quality” domains, are actually targetting other domainers who are trading the names among themselves. So therefore, if you have a group of people who adhere to these “rules”, these people would naturally seek and pay premium price to domains that follow these rules. And if you are a domainer who wants to earn money trading names, it does make sense to stick with the rules because the number of domainers out there outnumber the actual end-users. Meaning, you will have more chance of selling your domain to another domain trader, rather than an end-user.

For end-users, anticipating what kind of name they have in mind is highly speculative. You will eventually run out of money trying to register names that “you think” someone out there would be willing to buy from you because you got it first. If I was the end-user with a great real-world business, I’d rather get a cheaper and nifty domain name, rather than pay a million dollars or euros from the aftermarket. These million-dollar deals only come once in a blue moon.

By: Helder

Helder — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:41:50 +0000

It’s true Menius, and i would also add that in Europe not only end users, but also domainers like dotTV a lot, it’s considered very brandable, while in the US it’s still seen as something like “let’s see where it goes”

Even some known big domainers who said the worse about dotTV, are now starting to sell dotTV

Kind regards

By: M. Menius

M. Menius — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:28:14 +0000

End users relate well to the .biz extension and understand the “Business” abbreviation. .US and .biz are commonly found on the internet across a wide variety of companies and industries. I see these in a variety of situations including local business … on business cards, truck logos, magazine and internet ads. Same with dotTV. DotBIZ in particular surpassed the 2 million registration mark earlier this year.

By: Jarred

Jarred — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:21:22 +0000

Great post James!
Some other factors that quickly come to mind include if the domain passes the “phone test” and if it’s even memorable or not.
Many companies (and domainers) overlook these important aspects of their brand.

By: Helder

Helder — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:25:52 +0000

True very true, i say that a lot of times, domainers have a few rules of their, and end users no, in fact most end users i talk to, seem to like the hyphens, because there’s a common belief that the name will better read and understood.

Usually they don’t like much the so famous LLLL.com most think it’s just a bunch of non sense letters, there are exceptions.

Extensions, dot com still rules, ccTLD’s are coming right after, but i see end users liking all kind of extensions, and prefering the right keyworks over extensions.

It’s like you said, it really depends on the person who’s buying, once again this is another proof that appraisals worth nothing. Big domainers like Schwartz, Latona or Schilling think the same thing about appraisals.

Another sentence that tells it all is ” One man’s trash is another man’s treasure ” once again the key is the costumer and what he/she wants

The domains that stand a better chance of pleasing the majority of buyers are the generics, and longtail specific search keywords.

Kind regards