What Makes A Great Domain Name?

by Chris Connor

This is the second part of the Getting Started in Domain Names series. You can read the first installment here. 

What makes a great domain name? The simple answer is a domain that somebody else is willing to pay a large sum of money for. The not-so-simple answer is that a domain needs to offer something special to attract prospective buyers. If it does not, the domain may still sell eventually but it will likely be at a huge discount or to somebody who just happens to come along at the right time aka pure luck. The best way to buy a domain name is to make sure that it falls into at least one of the following categories (the more categories a name fits into the better):

• Two or three character names 

• Type-in Traffic

• Link Traffic

• One Worders

• Generic Two Worders

• Brandable Names

• Familiar Industries

• Hot Industries

Two or Three Character Names are valuable because none are available in the major extensions anymore like .com, .net, .org, and now both .info and .biz. In order to buy ones of these names you will have to contact a current holder and likely have to pay a large amount since there value continues to climb. 

Type-in Traffic can probably be found in a few other categories, but is still worth mentioning on its own. When a domain has type-in traffic, it can mean one of a few things such as a very generic term like games, a hot news item like the latest virus, it was typed in by mistake (a typo), or that domain was once a site. You can still manually register domains with type-ins but they are not the easiest domains to identify. The best way, short of actual stats, is to type in the full domain name here. If your name yields search results then there is a good chance (though not 100 percent) that the domain has type-in traffic. 

When a domain has Link Traffic it normally means that site was once developed. Of course, the more links the better but the traffic from the links is the real key here. Like type-in traffic names, link traffic names can either be sold or parked at a company like Sedo or Domain Sponsor to earn income. The amount of income from traffic names depends on both the amount of traffic and the type of traffic. For example, game traffic gets significantly less money per ads than hosting traffic.

One Worders that can be found in a Webster's dictionary are usually all taken in .com. The more a word applies to a certain commercial industry the better. One worders in .org can also be quite profitable for you if they are not in the sex, hosting, and gambling industries or are involved in commerce. .Org one worders must also have a good use. For example, scams.org could be used to report Internet scams. 

Generic Two Worders can also be hugely profitable if they fit the right industry. However, Generic two worders are substantially more common than one worders. In fact, most of the minor deals between resellers consist of generic two word domains. In addition, keep in mind, that three word domains offer very little value unless they are very special like CheapWebHosting.com or DomainNameStore.com.    

Brandable Names is the trickiest category here because some brandable names can be worthless. In fact, most of them are worthless unless they are developed by the right person or company. The only ones that have any value without development are those that are from a dictionary like about.com and amazon.com. Otherwise, it usually costs an enormous amount of money to make a brand name really work. 

Buying domains in Familiar Industries stands out as one of the best bets for inexperienced domainers and can turn out to be a great money maker. Why? The answer is that you likely know the end users! You don't have to blindly try to find a buyer because you already know somebody who may be interested. For instance, most of my big sales have been website and domain related because I knew the buyers and I knew what they wanted. 

Buying domains in Hot Industries requires good timing more than anything else. You have to know what is extremely hot and you have to pull the trigger fast. Buying names in this category can yield major sales and income from traffic, but it can also lead to trouble if it's a trademarked name. You also need to judge if the industry or news item has legs. If it does not, you would be better going for a quick sale if you can. 

Stay tuned for Part Three: Selling Strategies

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