An uncomfortable truth about domains
When registrations for .com domains began in 1985, a total of six names were registered that year and forty-four more the following year. Two decades later, there are now more .com domain names registered than there are words in the English language.
Back then, interest for domain names resided predominantly among large, global corporations that saw its potential, or universities that experimented with new Internet technologies.
Some examples of early domain name registrations include:
| XEROX.COM | January 9 1986 |
| HP.COM | March 3 1986 |
| GE.COM | August 5 1986 |
| SIEMENS.COM | September 29 1986 |
| ATT.COM | April 25 1986 |
| ADOBE.COM | November 17 1986 |
| PHILIPS.COM | April 4 1987 |
The landscape has changed significantly. As at 24th October 2007, a staggering 74 million .com domain names were registered (or taken). Compare that to only 171 thousand words in the English language. Furthermore, popularity and ownership of .com domains has now spread to the wider community and mass market that use the web for work and play.
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com registrations source: Name Intelligence
In Australia .au domain name registrations are approaching the one million mark. While availability of .au domains has not yet reached critical levels and great names abound for the savvy businessperson, registrations are growing at a rate of almost 13% year on year and the space is rapidly crowding.
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AU registrations source: Auregistry
So what does this all mean in practical terms?
Over the last few weeks you may have visited a florist to buy some flowers for an important anniversary. At work you may have used a printing company to print some more business cards. Or you may have called into your local pet shop to buy some pet food for your dog. These are all common, real life businesses that provide everyday products and services.
Now imagine for a moment that you wanted to start up one of these companies – a pet-shop, a print shop, or a florist. As part of your business plan, you will have to choose a company name, your brand and position in the market. Part of the process is selecting a website address or domain name that is marketable.
A marketable domain name is:
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Memorable
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Registered in a popular extension (.com preferably)
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Easy to spell
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Brief (one or two words maximum)
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Based on product/service key words (this helps with search engines)
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Consistent with your brand (low price, premium brand)
Remember, no matter what industry you operate, your website address is your shop window on the busiest high street in the world. You can’t afford to get your domain name registration wrong.
Let’s get started then. For our flower shop we could go for the following domain name options:
Option 1 bestflowers.com – two words, highlights great quality product
Option 2 perthflorists.com- two words, highlights local presence
Option 3 jannysflowers.com – two words, based on company name
For our print shop:
Option 1 fastprinting.com – two words, highlights great service
Option 2 printingservices.com – two words, great generic industry key words
Option 3 charliesprinting.com – two words, based on company name
And finally, our pet shop:
Option 1 adelaidepets.com
Option 2 mypetshop.com
Option 3 happypets.com
These are all great domain name options that a business or marketing consultant could validate.
Now that we have some domain name options, the next step is to visit any registrar’s website like www.melbourneit.com.au to check the availability of these names. At this point, we may realise that “good” (or marketable) domain names are practically next to impossible to find. Note, we haven’t even tried single word domain names like florist.com, as there are practically no single-word .com or .com.au domains left.
At this point we may choose a .com acronym as a way around the availability problem. So adelaidepets.com becomes ap.com and so on. Just try some combinations of two or three letter acronyms, or take my word when I say they are probably all gone.
We have a few more options from here:
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add another word making it a three-word domain and with some risk of making the domain too long and clunky
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use other less popular domain extension like .net, .biz, .info
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invent a new word or quirky spelling with the risk of customers getting it wrong
Domain name secondary market
The lack of domain name availability has driven the growth of a secondary market in the .com space. The concept is simple. As an example, happypets.com is already taken, but the current registration holder may be willing to sell this domain name for the right price. Domain name registration companies like Melbourne IT offer their customers the opportunity to buy registered domain names from the current owners (registrant). This is purely a supply/demand driven industry and no doubt certain industry types are more competitive than others, thus increasing the need for secondary market domain names, and, of course, their price.
While the com.au domains are not available in the secondary market as it is a highly regulated space, it would not come as a surprise if this eventually happens.
An example of a competitive online industry is real estate. The industry has shifted from traditional offline marketing methods to online and the result is a very crowded domain name space and a burgeoning secondary domain market. Read more about the secondary domain market
These are some examples of real estate domain names currently available in the secondary market:
| domain | appraised_price | domain | appraised_price |
| aplushome.com | $2,888.00 | homehand.com | $3,388.00 |
| arental.com | $2,000.00 | homehints.com | $2,800.00 |
| babyrental.com | $1,688.00 | homehoncho.com | $1,888.00 |
| bearhouse.com | $1,688.00 | homeintime.com | $1,980.00 |
| bhouse.com | $3,388.00 | homejewels.com | $2,488.00 |
| bithouse.com | $2,888.00 | homelabor.com | $2,500.00 |
| bizrentals.com | $2,288.00 | homelandit.com | $1,588.00 |
| condocare.com | $1,800.00 | homerest.com | $1,688.00 |
| condoguard.com | $2,888.00 | homeroyal.com | $1,988.00 |
| condonow.com | $2,888.00 | homesbyfax.com | $1,888.00 |
| condosfast.com | $2,388.00 | homescorp.com | $2,888.00 |
| condoshub.com | $1,688.00 | homesdc.com | $2,488.00 |
| condosman.com | $1,688.00 | homesfast.com | $2,288.00 |
| eurealty.com | $2,488.00 | hostelhome.com | $1,700.00 |
| exechomes.com | $1,800.00 | houseband.com | $2,288.00 |
| experthome.com | $2,488.00 | houseindex.com | $2,500.00 |
| eyehome.com | $2,300.00 | housemoves.com | $2,888.00 |
| farmsales.com | $6,000.00 | itrental.com | $8,000.00 |
| finehouses.com | $2,000.00 | jazzhomes.com | $1,888.00 |
| forahome.com | $1,688.00 | jeffhome.com | $1,688.00 |
| fotohouse.com | $2,488.00 | jpghome.com | $2,888.00 |
| funhome.com | $2,000.00 | lanhouse.com | $2,488.00 |
| garciahome.com | $1,688.00 | lawyerhome.com | $1,888.00 |
| gunhome.com | $2,188.00 | momhome.com | $1,488.00 |
| hashhouse.com | $1,688.00 | mortgagehi.com | $2,288.00 |
| heavenhome.com | $1,800.00 | multihomes.com | $1,488.00 |
| hebrewhome.com | $1,500.00 | myhomepix.com | $2,288.00 |
| herohome.com | $1,688.00 | myhomeport.com | $2,300.00 |
| holyhome.com | $2,300.00 | namerealty.com | $2,500.00 |
| home1st.com | $4,688.00 | naturehome.com | $2,000.00 |
| home4free.com | $3,488.00 | ndrentals.com | $2,288.00 |
| homeexec.com | $1,888.00 | varental.com | $2,500.00 |
| homeflare.com | $2,088.00 | webathome.com | $2,288.00 |
| homefone.com | $1,500.00 | wholehomes.com | $2,500.00 |
| homeframes.com | $2,888.00 | wiserhome.com | $2,088.00 |
| homeglobe.com | $2,288.00 | youthhome.com | $1,500.00 |
| homegrowth.com | $2,288.00 | zmortgages.com | $2,488.00 |
Above is a list of Premium Names available as at 25th October 2007.
Search for more secondary market domain names using Melbourne IT’s Premium Domain Names Search.
Related articles:
- Covet they neighbour’s domain
- Hot property online
- Are you at risk of domain typos?
- eFinance driving premium names
December 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
G’day, I was wondering what my domain name would be worth if I was to sell it? Is this the sort of thing you do as well? Dan.