My favourite path is to check availability first, then check the actual site. I select the term before the .com, and press and hold ctrl. C copies. T opens a new tab. V pastes. Enter takes you to the domain. adding ‘www’ and ‘.com’ to the address bar.

But there is some meaning in the oft misused term. It refers to an instant zing that pulls it into a higher level of reality where it’s completely plausible and authentic as something to comfortably engage with. That means a company’s image, and in turn, its profitability.

Brandability online is different from offline, as for example, a single English word, which is not really special (and in fact quite the opposite, in a literal sense) can make for a professional, authoritative domain. Call your brick and mortar power tools store “Power Tools”, and see how far you get. Sell from powertools.com? Another story.

Acronyms have their moments without being words at all. Two and three letter acronyms can have great zing, but qjj.com does not.

Another type of brandable domain, and the kind I happen to enjoy most, is the perhaps nonsensical but at least sayable short words. I definitely don’t mind odd spellings, but with an important distinction: I want them to be plausible spellings, and not to look like impossible English words. The main way to know is to see if you can find a term where the variation in spelling/sound exists in another existing word.

For example:

most.com – a real word
moast.com – same pronunciation
toast.com – spelling that justifies moast.com

Still, even if you can find an example, use common sense, taking into account the normality of the word you’re using for justification.

final.com – a real word
finyl.com – same pronunciation
vinyl.com – spelling that would have justified finyl.com, except that y’know what? finyl looks weird in a way that moast does not.

Note, you have to be careful of being caught in Google trying to convince a searcher they aren’t looking for you. The last thing you want is people having trouble finding your brand because Google said “I think you meant this real word – here are those results instead”.

• http://www.federonslesgeculture.com/acheter-levitra-autriche/
• compre kamagra en linea con pago contra reembolso licoresveracruz.com
• viagra jmmarinesurveys.co.uk

Shaky Ground

First, it should be mentioned that at any given moment, this particular advantage can disappear. While in many cases it represents a worthwhile connecting of a user to an extremely relevant site, the potential for (and existing instances of) abuse make it a risky ranking factor. If Google decides that the bonus is doing more harm to their results than good, they can pull the plug.

A General Formula

When assessing most things, the calculation often comes down to a combination of quality and quantity. In this case, quantity represents search volume potential for the exact term (by default Broad Match is selected, and you need to check the Exact Match box to get the right figure), whereas quality can represent a few things, including potential to drive sales, and, in the easiest and most direct sense, the Google Adwords estimated average cost per click (cpc) for bids for this keyword. This figure represents what it would cost for a click from a Google ad, all other factors affecting click costs being equal. The more value that keyword can bring, the more people tend to be willing to pay for it, which drives the average cost up. So if you see a high cost, the keyword has potential, and any organic ranking advantage you can snag is probably worth it.

As such, while domaining obviously involves a large amount of factors, on this front a basic way to look at it is the Adwords monthly volume X cpc. This does not represent the amount you would earn per month, as from the Adsense side your money doesn’t equal the amount the person spent on the Adwords side (Google does take a cut), plus the exact domain doesn’t necessarily mean rankings, rankings don’t necessarily mean clicks from every searches, and clicks to your site don’t necessarily all turn into Adsense clicks.

At this point, it’s hard to really know what a volume and cpc combination would really bring your bottom line, even if you were certain you could lock up a top ranking. I just bought an exact match domain with over a million monthly exact searches and a lowish but not negligible estimated average cpc. With that kind of volume, I should see some return for sure once my site gets ranking, but it’ll be hard to know the potential until I do get the rankings going, and even then tweaking the design of the site along with the look and placement of the ads can have an important impact.

Even if you can’t predict an exact return on investment, this formula does give you some relative basis for comparison between multiple exact match domain options, or even between keywords in general outside of domaining. Like I said, it does get more complicated than this, but having a starting point for numerical comparison is really handy.

Non-Functional Keywords

Sometimes the volumes and cpc scores are good, but the domain is still potentially not worth buying because of the kind of keyword it is. In scouting for domains for sale at auction, I often come across keywords that were clearly bought for this reason. For example, let’s say ‘garden hose holder’ had great volume and cpc scores, and you could get a good deal on gardenhoseholder.com. While that might be tempting, a site about garden hose holders in particular might come across as a bit strange. Yes, the interest is there, but people searching are likely looking for a site for which garden hose holders represent a single category among others, and as a result, might not so much be willing to click on a domain like yours.

Yes, you might be able to flip the domain to someone not considering this (or who is intending to flip as well), but in general, it’s a better idea to buy sites that could be developed into successes, even if you don’t intend to at all. Have a search for the keyword in question and see what the results show. Would an exact match domain make sense in those results? Even if they don’t, if the volumes and cpc are high enough it may still be worth it. I’m just highlighting a factor to consider.

On the flipside, if a medium volume and cpc could very easily be turned into not only a plausible site but a plausibly clickable search result, then that should boost your interest.

Moving Forward

Do keep an eye out for these kinds of domains. If you’ve been a domainer for a while, didn’t think of domains in these terms, but kept seeing strange amounts of bid interest or high costs on some domains, this could very well be why. Even if this does not become a primary domain evaluation factor for you, it’s still a good idea to always do this kind of check. For some domains it will be totally empty (like short, brandable, meaningless words), but if it seems like the domain is indeed a keyword, it only makes sense to check it out from a keyword standpoint specifically.

But this doesn’t mean search results tell us nothing, or that they aren’t useful. In fact, the quantity of search results, along with the nature of the results themselves, can be a powerful indicator of domain value.

How To Use Search Results Properly

The best case is with an exact match keyword domain, or at least a domain where a keyword figures extremely prominently. A good case for a domain to buy would be one where a search for a specific term in quotation marks yields a high number and high quality results, and where that exact keyword or keyword phrase (without the spaces, of course) is available as a .com.

So, if you see an available domain, check its search results when you add spaces between the words and surround them with quotes. If you can think of a useful phrase that may not be taken, check the results, and check the domain availability. It’s as simple as that.

General Use

If a phrase is used a considerable amount, it is part of society and may be useful. Even if you don’t see the monetization directly, that doesn’t mean it isn’t potentially brandable or useful in another way. I’ve always liked the phrase “what sorcery is this?” and when I ask people about it, most have heard it said before but few could identify it. Sure enough, 55,000 results for the exact phrase, and an available .com. 55,000 isn’t mind-blowing, but the quantity confirmed that it was indeed a said expression. I figured I could use that.

“Official” Use

While the general use section was more about quantity, this is about quality. What’s populating the search results for your exact match search? If you see lots of business, first, and last names, this suggests not only usability and versatility, but potential buyers. This may seem unethical, but you are providing a service in acquiring the domain on their behalf, and should be paid for your time. You aren’t intending to use the domain in bad faith and trying to impersonate their business (hopefully); you are helping them find better and more ways to represent their business.

At the end of the day, search results show the activity of the people, and in trying to gauge the market and value of your existing and potential domains, it doesn’t hurt to have a peek at the search results for your intended word or phrase, no matter what it is. What seems like a random string of consonants can be the acronym of a massive organization. You just can’t know until you look, and it takes less than a minute to find out. Remember the rule: the more you know about a domain, the more you can properly assess its value and potentially justify the buy or sell in your favour.

It times like these, and also when things are a bit less hectic, it can be invaluable to have someone to ask for a second, or third opinion.

Another Domainer

You wouldn’t ask a random friend for a second opinion in a medical situation, nor should you in a domaining situation. You need the opinion of an expert, or at least someone generally familiar with the marketplace.

Trust

Of course, trust is a factor, not just in their assessment skill as above, but that they won’t snatch up the very domains you’re asking about!

It would be a very damaging move on their part, as a friend who steals my domain name is no friend at all, but still, be careful.

Finding Domainer Friends

You can maybe get to know people on messageboards, but physical world friends are better for this. Still, if you have strong webmaster contacts, chances are they’ve dabbled in domains at least a bit, and can offer at least a somewhat qualified point of view.

If possible, try to cultivate domainers among friends and relatives. Encourage webmasters to be domainers, and encourage friends to be webmasters. You can never have too many online associates.

Finally, feel free to ask me! I suppose you have no reason to trust me, but I’m putting the offer out there anyway. I will usually respond fairly quickly, quite often within 24 hours.

I have a fair bit of domaining and webmaster experience, so don’t hesitate, and I’ll try my best to help.

If we seem to shop in the same places, or if I already had my eye on your domain, I’ll be honest about any conflict of interest, but I imagine this will be a rare occurance.

Best of luck, and try to build your network. In the haze of domain addiction, a second opinion can be all the difference. I have about 5-6 friends I check with regularly about domains, and am forever grateful to them.

In short, as domain names are connected to every website in some way or another, working backwards, the potential of creativity in domaining echoes the potentialy of creativity of the web itself.

Sometimes, thinking in a different way, or approaching a problem with fresh eyes can uncover a solution that has yet to be tried, which can be tried on a big scale, or which may even rely on such a big scale.

Multiplicity

It’s nice if you can find a good and available (or affordable) domain name, but much better if it fits within a set of available domains sharing a unifying principle, allowing you to scale that which would successfully turn one domain into a network triumph.

This kind of thinking obviously leads to more risk in investment, as the purchasing of a batch of domains obviously costs more, even with bulk discounts. Plus, bigger scale projects make it that much more likely that you won’t act on your investment. But as is always the case, the greater the investment risk potential, the greater the reward potential. There may be issues to address regarding the management of a network of sites, but there is the potential of just multiplying success.

Year Concepts Example

As an example of this kind of scaling, consider domains with calendar year numbers included. Sure, valentinesday.com is taken, but what about valentinesday2012.com? What about every year? Do people search or browse based on the particular year, such that a site catering to that your would be advantageous?

If the answers turn out to be positive, the correct course of action (budget permitting) could be to buy the next 5, 10, or who knows, 50 years worth of year-domains.

In this example, one year becomes pretty much dead as the next year comes, but this is not always the case. While the scale concept is more valuable and worthwhile with timeless sites and compounding value, the example shows how one concept can apply to multiple domains, and if it can work once, the success of that one can multiply.

The strength is in the efficiency of it all, especially if you intend to build on these domains. Once you put the time into establishing the concept and even potentially building a framework or design, you can in many ways reproduce it and milk more out of your initial time and money.

Finding Scale Opportunities

Keep an open mind, think big, and think out of the box. Look at expiring/expired/for sale domains for inspiration, as you may see bad ideas that can be done better, or something completely new based on a concept you’ve drawn from elsewhere.

Also, get familiar with keyword research tools, as seeing what people search and to what degree can also be inspiring as a domainer or webmaster in general.

While unassuming, Notepad is a brilliant program for helping your methodology along, offering an indispensable stripping directly connected to its intrinsic simplicity.

Getting Down to Data

As anyone who has blogged but written their text in Word instead of directly into the blogging platform knows, Notepad is the best and quickest way to strip formatting of all kinds out of a block of text data.

Programs tend to let you keep formatting if you like, usually with some degree of degradation, but Notepad is deliciously and purely limited in what it will retain.

So, for example, let’s say you search for domains while applying some kind of filter on whatever site you’re using (eg. 7 characters or less, between $100-500). Your search results, irregardless of platform, are likely to be a paginated (meaning results across multiple pages which you can navigate through) table of results.

These results may or may not be available in an easily exportable format like .csv for Excel. If you click and drag to select the data from this table and copy and paste it into Excel, you are likely to be carrying over the formatting of the page you’ve just copied, not only making the sheet ugly but potentially so ugly that basic Excel functionality like filtering becomes non-functional.

The De-Formatting Bridge

If you take your original click drag copy and paste it into a clean notepad file, it won’t look the same as what you’ve copied, but you will see that it already looks a bit more stripped down and table-organized. Now, copy and paste from Notepad into Excel and voila, clean table. At worst, you’ll need to slightly adjust one row or column, but for the most part, the job will be done.

There are likely other places where you will need to use Notepad in a similar way. Just get the thought process hard wired, such that if you ever find yourself in general trying to copy and paste from one area to another and it looks weird, your best bet may be to cross the Notepad bridge.

One warning, sometimes you will want a bit of the formatting you lose in the transition, for example some data being in bold type. As such, you will sometimes need to make a judgement call about what you gain versus what you lose.

Just remember, domaining is a data crunching numbers game, so do your best to keep not only your data as raw and usable as possible, but your process streamlined and quick as can be.

Time, Money, Domains, Life

“Hourly wages” come with a sense of a low-paying, non-salaried frame of earning, but at the end of the day, it’s all that matters. Time is indeed money, and to only focus on the profit regardless of the time taken to earn it is to fall into a trap of a life with a single value orientation. Life oriented only towards money is wasteful of the gift of conscious existence.

So, in domaining, pay strict attention to the time it takes to acquire and manage your domains, and factor that into your buy-sell value assessment. This assessment is complicated when the goal is passive income, but complicated does not mean impossible.

A domain “flip” can be worth the time put in and so can the case be in real estate, but do pay attention and make sure. Domains “paying their own rent” means compensating you for your time in managing them, too.

Streamlining

As you creatively search for domain, whether registered or not, you have to maintain a meta awareness of the methods you’re using, and see if there’s room for improved efficiency. Method improvement produces a potentially highly scalable benefit, and this means reducing your overall time cost and ultimately improving your profit per time.

The clearest example is probably bulk domain searches. If you have a list of domains to check for availability, especially if you plan to search lists on a regular basis, then you wouldn’t be smart to search them one at a time, and you would be wise to pick a tool or registrar that can best accommodate bulk domain searching.

That’s one example, but keep this awareness and you’ll find more, whether they’re keyboard shortcuts, managing your screen space better, or outsourcing part of the process.

They’re Long and Ugly

How many 4-letter extensions are there? Granted, this is a minor reason, but man they’re bulky.

Nobody Uses Them

The public transport system in Montreal blew my mind when they located their site on stm.info. The 3-letterness of it all does make it more palatable, but still. Blech. Name 3 well-known .info sites. How about 2? I imagine most people stop at 1, if that.

Not used means not trusted, especially when most are just trying to leverage a keyword-domain in the hopes of easy rankings. You likely won’t succeed anyway, and you’ll just seem sketchy.

Why won’t you succeed? Because while Google can be dumb, they’re not stupid. How far do you think you can leverage one on domain name alone? The only way to have a shot is by investing in a design, content, marketing, and the rest, and let’s be honest: are you really going to end up putting that much into a .info?

You Look Cheap

How much success are you going to have when you’re going out of your way to save 6 bucks on something as important on your domain name? Wasting 3 bucks isn’t better than investing 10, and one .com is better than three .infos.

Do you really want to be a domain name slumlord?

Extension Undercut

Every .net purchase has to stand in at least some fear of its .com brother. The .com may be parked, but for how long? With .infos, you have just about every other extension on earth ahead of you in the credibility line, except maybe .biz, the used car salesman of the domain name world.

Did YOU Ever, Hypocrite?

Yes, and I regretted it instantly. It was a decent keyword-domain that was suitable for an information-related search, so in a moment of late night weakness, I bought it. Then I realized everything you’ve just read and let it die.

Have a .info success story? I’d love to hear it.

Too Long To Type?

How often do you really type out full domain names? Once I’ve visited a site, whether on my phone or computer, my browsers give autocomplete suggestions after the first character, no matter how long the final domain is.

I also visit sites via links, and even when linking to a site, I usually copy and paste the domain if it’s anything but teeny tiny.

Then, of course, there are bookmarks.

So, in many cases, you’ll type the full domain just once. Is it really that inconvenient?

Not Just Short, But Short and Sweet

It’s not impossible to make a long name catchy, but it isn’t exactly easy either. That said, the reason why catchy is good is because it’s potentially easier to remember. Depending on how you play it and how creative you are, long names can be plenty memorable. Take Toothpaste for Dinner. 19 characters I’ll never forget.

Now this is about buying fresh domains, and the potential a longer one can have, using real words to conjure up real imagery the way a short but pronounceable word like… I don’t know… ‘zilpy’ cannot.

But make no mistake, unless it’s a well known phrase or name, or has a ton of content/site along with it, your odds of buying let alone selling a domain of that size are low.

Toothpaste for Dinner is a lovely name, but once you’re going that far, there’s a decent chance you can come up with something decently catchy at that size, if you’re creative. So it loses its intrinsic value.

The Tiniest I’ll Go

Three character dot coms are expensive, of course, and you can maybe have a chance at throwing money at a useless domain like q5j.com. Yay. For three or four characters, you’ll pay good money for dot nets and dot orgs, too. Numbers and hyphens will lower prices, but in most cases they aren’t worth it unless you have somehow found a perfect use.

The shortest names I will buy are 5 characters, because it’s only at that point that anything reasonable becomes at all useful. At five, you can still get some all-letter names that are pronounceable, or that can plausibly mean something, if you get lucky.

As an example, I bought mclol.com for $5 (plus the cost of the registration) from a closeout sale. ‘Mc’ like Irish, and ‘lol’ is lol. Not outstanding, but certainly worth the price for the size, and usable. I suspect in a few years, names of this kind won’t be available at 5 characters, so if you find a brandable 5-letter option for pretty cheap, go for it.

Short domains are fun to look at, and have a legacy as sought after items that to me inflates their price unreasonably. The shortest name I ever bought was pun.nu. Shortest dot com, 5-letters, but a few of them.

Non-Traditional Extensions

I got that 3-letter domain with the funky extension because it was a word and I was intrigued by .nus at the time (which is a story for another day), but in general I won’t bother. They often cost more and I see them just sitting on the shelf never getting developed.

I don’t have experience selling other extensions, so if anyone has thoughts, please weigh in, but to me you’re going to have a hard time selling if that’s the only reason you’re buying.

If you can make a word out of it (eg. shaz.am), then go for it, but your odds are slim for finding anything good, and you aren’t likely to see them for sale in a marketplace, likely because you’re filtering for only the major extensions.

Ok, But There Is Too Long Yes?

I think beyond 20 characters and you’re probably being silly. If it’s just a few large words, you might be ok, but other than that, don’t bother. (fun fact: the largest domain names allowed are 253 characters)

I told you my shortest… The longest domain I ever bought is… 41 characters. But that’s also a story for another day!