Sweetmantra: Domain Name Strategy

New gTLDs – Aren’t We Forgetting Something? (My DOMAINfest Asia 2016 keynote)

Last month I gave a devil’s advocate keynote talk about the new TLDs at DOMAINfest Asia in Hong Kong. Since my talk didn’t get me thrown into Hong Kong harbour, as I feared it might, I thought it would be worth sharing my talk with a wider audience via my blog. The following is an abbreviated adaptation of that talk.

 

(photo courtesy of Jothan Frakes)

What constitutes "success" in the new TLD program? And how could this could be measured?

Many people have strong opinions on this topic. And so they should. I propose we look at the new TLDs through the eyes of end user registrants. That’s a perspective we don’t hear much about, and we don’t talk about, as much as I think we should. I will conclude this article with some suggested – and alternative – metrics to gauge the true success of new TLDs.

But first, a bit of background.

I make my living as a domain buyer broker helping entrepreneurs acquire their dream domain names. Prior to this I spent over 15 years working in marketing and advertising. I love domain names and naming, but I always have my marketer’s hat on. This means I am always thinking about the customer, the consumer, the end user.

When it comes to domain names, I’m TLD agnostic. I will help my clients acquire any TLD domain they want.

Here’s a fact that may surprise you: I often ask my clients if they’re aware of the new TLDs (they usually aren’t), and I’m usually the one who recommends they consider a new TLD domain.

So, as regards the new TLD program, I'm an enthusiast.

When the new TLD program was first announced, I was excited and optimistic.

This was the largest namespace change in the history of the Internet.

We could see some amazing technological innovation.

We could see some very creative naming options and uses.

Physical and virtual communities could use these new names to define themselves.

And brands could have greater control of their own namespace.

I believed the new TLDs could have enormous potential if we as an industry brought them to market in the right way.

Unfortunately, and despite some notable exceptions, I don’t think that’s what’s happened yet. As an industry, I think we lost our way a bit with the new TLDs. In the excitement to launch this bold new namespace, some participants forgot something very important: the consumer. And by consumer I am talking about the end-user buyers of these new TLDs, not domainers (domain speculators).

Don’t get me wrong: I love domainers. I buy domains from them all the time on behalf of my end-user clients. And domainers are an important part of the domain name ecosystem.

But the long-term viability of new TLDs depends on more than just domainers. It depends on consumers becoming aware of these new TLDs, and it depends on consumers registering these new TLDs, and it depends on consumers using these new TLDs.

Somehow, sadly, a number of industry players appear to have forgotten what it’s like to be one of those consumers.

And the reason I say that is that many aspects of the new TLD program don’t seem to consider how consumers think about and purchase and use domain names. The process of buying a new TLD domain is not always consumer-friendly.

How do I know this? Because consumers – end-user buyers – tell me this all the time.

So let’s spend a moment looking at the new TLDs from the point of view of a consumer. Let’s forget about the domainer point of view. Let’s forget about the registry point of view. And let’s forget about the registrar point of view.

Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a consumer. In fact, let’s give this consumer a name. Let’s call him “Adam.”

Adam is a middle-class, white collar business guy. Adam has a day job at an accounting firm. He also has a bit of an entrepreneurial streak and would someday like to start his own music lesson business. Adam knows that he’ll need a business name and matching domain name for his new venture.

Adam is a lucky guy: He lives in 2016, a world where he has a choice of hundreds of new TLD domains to choose from.

We will assume that Adam has already heard about an exciting new TLD called .Banjo. This will be the perfect TLD for his music-related venture.

Let’s also assume that .Banjo is now in its General Availability phase.

Today is Adam’s big day. Today’s the day Adam has decided to name his new business “Flying Banjo”, and so off he goes to his favourite registrar to register Flying.banjo.

Adam is so excited because all he’s been hearing about for the past few months is how this expanding universe of domains beyond .com will give him the opportunity to get his dream domain name.

But when Adam goes to his registrar to try to register the domain, he discovers that Flying.banjo is not available to register and is, in fact, one of the so-called “premium” domains being held back by the registry. The domain Adam was expecting to be able to buy for $20 is actually priced at $5,000.

Adam is confused. Adam is upset. Adam is wondering what happened to all the choice and availability he had been promised – by our industry – with these new TLDs?

I call this the False Promise of Availability. And it’s the first major disappointment for consumers with the new TLD program.

I’m a businessman. I get it. Registries need to make a profit. So I understand why many new TLD registries decided to hold back a portion of their inventory as premium domains. But Adam doesn’t understand this. Adam feels like he has been stiffed.

Nevertheless, Adam’s a good sport. He’s really motivated to get a .banjo domain, so he’s somehow talked himself into investing way more than $20 to buy his .banjo domain. He’s decided to buy a premium .banjo domain for $1,000. So Adam whips out his credit card and starts to register the domain name.

Unfortunately, when Adam tries to complete his purchase at the registrar, he learns that in order for him to get his .banjo domain he needs to prove to the registry that he knows how to play the banjo. Yup, Adam has just found out that this new TLD has special registration requirements.

I call this the Roadblock of Ridiculousness, and it’s another major disappointment for consumers with the new TLD program. Registries should be bending over backwards to make it easy for new customers like Adam to purchase their domains, not throw up unnecessary obstacles to adoption.

(I understand why a handful of new TLDs like .bank need to enforce certain registration requirements. But for most new TLDs with restrictions this has only caused huge problems to adoption. It’s no wonder that so many of the new TLDs that had restrictive registration requirements are now backpedalling on those requirements.)

Thankfully, our good friend Adam is a persistent fellow and he manages to gather the necessary paperwork and provides it to his registrar and – lo and behold – Adam is now the proud new owner of LearnToPlay.banjo.

Adam is so excited. He hires a designer to start working on logo ideas. He starts planning his Learn to Play Banjo Website. He starts writing copy. Everything is going according to plan.

But several more horrible things could happen to Adam’s new domain name in the coming weeks, months, and years.

First, Adam’s new domain name might get clawed back by the registry.

We all know this has happened to consumers, and regardless of the “reasons” given, and regardless of whether the fault lay with the registry or the registrar, this is a terrible way to treat early-adopter customers like Adam.

Thankfully for Adam, his domain isn’t clawed back. But Adam still has a nasty surprise waiting in store for him.

Adam paid $1,000 for his premium .banjo domain name, so he’s expecting to be able to renew it for $20, which is what most .banjo registrations and renewals are priced at and is what consumers are used to. Why is that? Because we as an industry have conditioned consumers to this pattern over the last two decades.

Unfortunately for Adam, he doesn’t realize that his premium .banjo domain comes with a premium renewal price. 12 months later, Adam is shocked to discover he needs to fork over another $1,000 to merely renew his domain name.

So… How would you feel if you were Adam? Do you think he’s got a right to be angry? Frustrated? Disappointed?

I think he does. Because he’s been forgotten.

I think Adam is owed an apology. I think all of us in the domain industry need to remember Adam if we’re involved in making decisions about how we will market, price, and distribute new TLD domains.

Bottom line: Never forget the consumer. Never forget Adam.

I could mention a whole bunch of other irritants and obstacles that consumers have told me they face with the new TLD program, but I don’t want to dwell on the negative.

Instead, let’s turn our attention to defining success with the new TLDs. Because I am a marketer at heart, consumers like Adam figure prominently in how I think we should measure the success.

To me this is quite simple, especially if we keep the consumer in our mind the entire time.

Here are some metrics I think we should use – or aspire to use – to measure success of the new TLDs:

• what percentage of the new TLD domains are renewed every year
• how many new TLD domains are developed into actual websites (and not parked)
• how many domains are used as the primary domain by the owner and not forwarded to another legacy TLD domain
• how many new TLD domains are showing up in print ads or TV commercials or on billboards
• how many of the top 10,000 most trafficked Websites are using a new TLD domain

I think these metrics will give all of us a much clearer picture of whether or not the new TLDs are a success – with the stakeholders that matter the most.

In closing, and in case you doubted it, I love this industry. It’s made up of smart and hardworking people who have lots of great ideas and are doing some very cool things.

I’d like to single out Jeff Sass and Colin Campbell of .CLUB who have done a phenomenal job of bringing their new TLD to market in a consumer-friendly manner. I’d also like to congratulate the entire DONUTS team for doing a great job educating consumers about the benefits of all new TLDs, not just the many strings that DONUTS has brought to market. I also think Radix has done a better than average job bringing its new TLDs to market in a consumer-friendly fashion.

As I stated at the beginning, I love the new TLDs. But I think in all the excitement of the new TLD program, some of our other industry friends forgot the consumer, forgot the Adam’s of this world, and lost their way.

All of us in this industry can get back on the right track with the new TLDs – if we focus on the consumer and measure the right things.

A Domain Buyer Broker’s POV on which Domains are Most Wanted

As you may know, I spend the majority of my time working as a domain Buyer Broker helping clients acquire domain names that are owned by various third-parties.

My clients are typically “end-user” buyers of domains versus domain speculators. Most of my clients are startup founders, serial entrepreneurs, or marketing executives and when they approach me (via my company, Name Ninja) they usually have a specific domain name – or type of domain name – already in mind. That target domain will usually be put to use for a new or upcoming business, product, or service.

Because I was curious and had the data on hand in our CRM, I recently did an analysis of 500 of the most recent domains we have been asked to help clients acquire. I had a hunch as to what the results might be, but I figured I would let the data speak for itself. While I cannot reveal the individual domains due to confidentiality clauses, I am pleased to be able to share the high-level results of my analysis.



Before we get to the summary results, keep in mind that this data set consists of domains that are already owned by a third-party. Not only are these domains already ‘spoken for’, but our clients want these domains badly enough that they sought the help of a professional domain Buyer Broker. It's also safe to assume that the buyers of these domains are willing to pay a premium for these domains. In other words, these are domains that are seen as valuable assets by the buyers.

Now on to the results…

Type of Domain

What type of domains do my clients want to get? Generic domain names are by far and away the most sought-after domains by my clients. I suspect this is because my clients want a domain that positions them and their business as the category leader, which is one of the benefits of a generic domain name.

68% - generic (e.g., robots.com or robotparts.com)
15% - invented (e.g., botzilla.com or fluffyrobot.com)
6% - phrases (e.g., herecometherobots.com)
6% - abbreviations/acronyms (e.g., HCTR.com)
5% - surnames (e.g., asimov.com)

Number of Words

Apparently size does matter, and in the domain space what matters is brevity. Half of my clients want a one-word domain and most of the rest want a maximum of two-words. This is not surprising because the shorter the domain the easier it is to type and remember.

50% - 1 word
44% - 2 words
6% - 3 words
<1% - 4 words or more

Domain Extension (TLD)

Despite the introduction of hundreds of new domain extensions like .xyz, .club., and .site in the last few years, my clients clearly believe that .com is still king. Eighty-four percent of the domains I get asked to help acquire are .com domains (94% of the 89% that are gTLDs) with country code domains (ccTLDs) being the second most popular at nine-percent. I rarely get asked to help a client acquire a new TLD domain, although part of the reason for that may be that the new TLD domains are relatively easy and affordable to acquire (compared to a .com) and therefore don’t require the assistance of a Buyer Broker.

89% - gTLDs (global top level domains)
- 94% .com
- 2% .co*
- 2% .net
- 2% .io*
- <1% other gTLDs (.org/.tv/.me)
9% - ccTLD (country code top level domains)
2% - new TLDs (new top level domains)

* Although .co and .io originated as country code domains, they are now commonly used as global top level domains, especially via startups.

Bottom Line

In summary, based on the most recent inquiries I’ve seen, the most sought-after domains are generic, one-word .com’s (like robots.com) and generic, two-word .com’s (like robotparts.com). Invented, one- and two-word .com domains (like botzilla.com and fluffyrobot.com) are a distant second in popularity, followed by one-word ccTLD domains like robots.ca or robots.de.

Personally, I am very open-minded and can see the merits of all types of domains regardless of the domain extension or length. I’m therefore always happy to help a client acquire their dream domain name, no matter what that dream domain is. I do find it interesting that my data reveals a strong preference by our clients for a certain type of domain, which also explains why I’ve even been asked by different clients to help them acquire the same one-word .com domain. That always cracks me up when it happens, because many clients are surprised to learn that someone else wants or wanted the same domain.

My data set is only 500 domains so I would caution you about drawing any major conclusions from my numbers. The insights I’ve gleaned are from the perspective of my boutique domain buyer brokerage and may not accurately reflect what other people are seeing or experiencing. In other words, I hope you found the results of my analysis interesting, but please remember that your mileage may vary. ;+)

Why Choosing the Wrong Domain Name is Like Burning Money

I often get asked if it really matters to a company’s bottom line whether or not they have a better domain name. While there are quite a few intangible (and therefore debatable) reasons why a higher quality domain name is beneficial, such as the company being perceived as having ‘market leadership’ because of their intuitive domain name, here’s a very concrete example of why a better domain will actually save you a lot of money. And for the record, “better” doesn’t necessarily mean a .com domain; this advice applies equally to domains in other TLDS, new or old.

When I’m on a road trip in my car I like to listen to satellite radio. One of my favourite channels, CNN Headline News, features commercials for an eclectic variety of products and services. Almost all of the commercials end with a ‘call-to-action’ of some kind, and usually that call-to-action is to invite listeners to dial a toll-free number or visit a Website.

I’ve heard hundreds of commercials during my road trips, and I’d estimate that one-third of the Website addresses featured in these commercials use problematic domain names that are not intuitive at all and quite literally fail the Radio Test. What’s the Radio Test you ask? It’s a measure of the intuitive nature of a domain name and focuses on whether or not someone who only hears the domain name (versus seeing it) will know how to correctly spell it. So, for example, the domain WritePanda.com (while not a bad name and domain in general) would fail the radio test because people might not know whether to type “Write” or “Right”.

Now keep in mind these are 30-second commercials and the advertisers are paying thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars a week for their commercials to run. In the commercials featuring the problematic domain names, the announcer usually has to spend five or more seconds explaining how to spell the unintuitive domain name. So, using WritePanda.com as our example, the end of the commercial features the announcer saying something like, “To learn more, visit Write Panda dot com, that’s W-R-I-T-E panda dot com.”

Let’s do the math. Five seconds out of a 30-second commercial is 16.7% of the total commercial time wasted explaining an awkward domain name, time that could have been used for something more productive like describing the product or service. If an advertiser is spending $5,000 a month on radio ads, and that’s a modest budget by typical advertising standards, that advertiser is wasting $835 a month explaining their problematic domain name to listeners. That’s over $10,000 a year from their advertising budget that's going up in flames because of someone’s decision to choose and use an awkward domain name.

And you know the craziest part of all of this? Most of the domains these advertisers use are quirky, two and three-word .com domains where the better, radio-friendly version of the domain could probably have been purchased for under $5,000. I honestly get the impression that for many of these advertisers someone in their marketing department had the choice of spending $2,000-3,000 on a better domain name or registering an awkward domain name for $15 and they chose the awkward domain because the better domain name was considered ‘too expensive’.

Well guess what? They might have ‘saved’ three grand on the domain purchase, but their short-sighted decision is actually costing them thousands of dollars (or more) a year in wasted radio airtime.

If you intend to advertise your Website on the radio and you pick a domain name that fails the Radio Test, you’ve just depleted the potential effectiveness of your media budget by nearly 20%. When you think about it that way, that better quality domain name isn’t so ‘expensive’ after all.

Here’s a handy rule of thumb to remember: If you have to explain your domain name to someone when telling it to them in person or over the phone, that’s not a good domain name to use for radio advertising -- and probably not a good domain name in general.

I’m Heading to Collision to Discuss Startup Domain Name Challenges

I will be attending the Collision startup conference in Las Vegas May 4-7. According to conference organizers, over 10,000 people from around the world are expected to attend this downtown Las Vegas event devoted to the fusion of entrepreneurialism and technology.

To stimulate dialog about the many domain name challenges facing startups, my domain name consulting firm Name Ninja analyzed the domain names of 491 startups attending the upcoming conference.

Our analysis revealed that 79% of the startups at the Collision conference may be using a “risky” domain name that could play havoc with their marketing efforts. Choosing a hard-to-spell name that fails the “Radio Test” was the number one problem we uncovered, followed by not having the exact match .com domain.

Here’s a link to the official press release about the results of our analysis. We also published a handy infographic that summarizes the results and includes some startup domain name best practices, common mistakes to avoid, and other useful information.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I sympathize with the challenges that startup founders and other entrepreneurs face when it comes to acquiring the optimal domain name. For those on a tight budget, free tools like LeanDomainSearch.com and NameBot.com can help an entrepreneur come up with a name and matching .com domain name for their new venture.

Since I will be in Vegas attending the Collision conference, I am going to make myself available to any startup founder that wishes to discuss their domain name challenges. Startup founders that would like to book a complimentary in-person meeting with me can do so by emailing collision [at] nameninja.com.

See you in Vegas.

 

Happy Birthday to Name Ninja!

It's been exactly one year since I launched Name Ninja. To celebrate this major milestone, we created the following infographic that reveals some of the data behind the company's first year of lethal domain name consulting. Check it out! (You can click on the graphic for a larger version.)

Thank you to our many clients, partners, and friends for an amazing 12 months.

Taken: The Myth of Domain Name Unavailability

I hear it all the time from startups and entrepreneurs:

"We tried to get a better domain name, but all the good ones were taken."

And therein lays the rub. "Taken."

Taken means the domain name has already been registered by someone else, but that doesn't mean the domain is unavailable. It just means you are probably going to have to pay more than $10 for the domain.

 

In my conversations with people who get frustrated by this reality, I noticed a number of common themes emerging.

They are usually in a hurry and need a new domain name within a few days. Because of this, they feel frustrated that they can’t just buy the domain instantly. In reality, the domain name may be available for instant (or very quick) purchase in some marketplaces or other venues they are not aware of. In most cases, there is ample time to get the right domain name.

They are concerned that they will have to "pay a fortune" for the domain name. This is a legitimate concern, of course, but one person's "fortune" is another person's bargain. People often assume that the owner of the domain they want will ask for five or six figures, but the vast majority of domain names change hands in the $2,000-5,000 range, which is not an unreasonable amount for a business to permanently acquire its brand online. There are good deals to be had out there if you know where to look and how to negotiate.

They resent, almost on principle, paying a third party more than standard registration fee for "their" name. The thing is it's not their name. Someone else already thought up that name, and that someone put their own money down and registered the matching domain name. That someone did nothing wrong. There are billions of people on the planet. Ideas and names can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. And there will be overlaps every now and then. It’s inevitable. Try not to take it personally. And whatever you do, don't let your feelings of resentment stop you from pursuing your desired domain name.

Yes indeed, many of the good domain names are taken. But that doesn't mean they are unavailable. In fact, the domain name you want (or perhaps an even better one) might be available faster than you assumed and cheaper than you feared, even if that does mean -- horror of horrors -- you will be buying it off another party.

Before you compromise and settle on an inferior domain name out of frustration, speak to a domain name broker such as myself or one of my industry colleagues, professionals who buy and sell domain names for a living. You've got nothing to lose, and you might learn that the domain name you really want is more available than you thought.

Time is Your Best Friend When Finding a Domain Name for Your Startup

One of the first and most important questions I ask a prospective client when they approach me wanting my help acquiring a domain name for their startup or new business venture is, “when do you need to have control of the domain name?”

The answer to that question will often have a huge impact on the likelihood they will get their first (or second or third) choice of domain name as well as how much they will pay for it.

Put simply, the more time you have, the more options you have. Way more...

For instance, if you don’t need to have control of the domain name for months, it might be possible to wait and see if the current owner lets the domain name expire. If that happens, and you’d be surprised how often it does, then it may be possible to scoop up the domain name for peanuts post-expiry. There are a whole bunch of companies that now own some fantastic .com domain names because I convinced them to patiently wait a few months for the former owner to let the domain expire, and then I swooped in and grabbed the domain, often for less than $100. Had we approached the owner of the domain name prior to them letting it expire, chances are they’d want way more than $100 for the domain name.

But not everyone has months to wait, and I totally understand that. If you have several weeks, then at least there’s time to try to contact the current owner of the domain name and see if there’s a chance to buy the domain name from them. Sometimes the owners are easy to track down and they respond promptly. Sadly, most are not, and do not, which is why I like to joke that my job as a domain name broker is part detective and part hostage negotiator. Every extra day of negotiation time you have as the buyer or broker the better, since a good negotiator can use this extra time to their advantage. You certainly don’t want to appear desperate to buy the domain name; that will only drive the price up.

With more time, you can also identify alternative domain names for the client and how much they might cost to acquire compared to your first choice domain name. In essence, you have time to prepare a Plan B or Plan C, and sometimes by going through this contingency planning process you will find an even better domain name.

Another advantage to having at least a few weeks to hunt for a domain name is that it opens you up to a wider range of inventory. Sure, there’s the inventory that’s currently listed in the well-known public marketplaces like Sedo and BuyDomains, but if you have some additional time your domain broker can source inventory that is not publicly listed for sale. Truth be told, not all the good stuff is listed in the marketplaces, and a good domain name broker knows how and where to source this ‘hidden’ inventory.

If you only have a few days, you are sadly limited to the inventory that is currently listed with fixed “buy it now” prices in the big marketplaces since you or your broker probably won’t have time to engage in any “make offer” negotiations. So not only have you vastly reduced the universe of inventory you can choose from, but you are forcing yourself to pay list price versus negotiating a discounted price.

Finally, if you only leave yourself with a few hours to find that perfect domain name, your choices will be even further limited. You will either have to choose from a subset of existing inventory that is “fast transfer” enabled (meaning it can be purchased instantly) – and good luck figuring that out on your own, by the way – or you are going to be stuck with hand registering a domain that is likely not your first, second, or even third choice.

So do yourself a big favour. Start your naming and domain hunting process as early as possible, and give everyone involved as much runway as possible. You’ll end up with a better domain name and will likely get a better deal on it as well.

My New Domain Name Consulting Firm, Name Ninja, Launches Today

I'm excited to announce that today I unveiled Name Ninja, my "lethal" new domain name consulting firm. This is the first domain name venture I have launched since leaving my dream job at Tucows last month.

I'm the firm's President & Lead Ninja, and our tagline is "lethal domain name consulting."

Name Ninja is a boutique domain name consulting firm that helps companies acquire, manage, protect, and profit from their domain names.

Name Ninja offers a suite of domain name consulting services to three types of clients: startups, entrepreneurs and marketers; individual and corporate domain name owners; and new gTLD registries and operators. Based in Toronto but serving clients around the world, the firm will focus on domain name acquisition (buyer broker), domain name rescue, domain name protection, corporate domain name strategy, and domain name portfolio management. Name Ninja will also assist new gTLD registries and operators with distribution, marketing, and secondary market services.

With the massive expansion of the Internet namespace due to the upcoming rollout of hundreds of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), the global demand for expert domain name advice and strategy is going to explode. Name Ninja intends to help meet that demand.

I'm looking forward to collaborating with my global network of domain industry colleagues and partners to service the domain name needs of Name Ninja’s clients. I hope to see many of you at next week’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain name conference in Las Vegas.

For more information about Name Ninja, head on over to nameninja.com.

I'd like to thank everyone that has helped make today's launch a reality, especially my amazing and supportive wife, my business advisors and mentors, my close friends, and my creative collaborators (Renald and Andrew).

Get lethal. Go Ninja.

Pricing Guidelines for Startup Domain Names

When it comes time to choosing a name and matching domain name for your startup or new product, the following domain pricing guidelines I have developed based on the class of the name will help you stay within budget, whatever that budget might be. I believe that if you have a pricing framework in mind early on in the name development process it will save you time and headaches (and money) later on.

One-word .com Domain Names: If you're hoping to call your new venture "Robot" or "Pink" or "Banana" then the most ideal domain name is going to be the matching .com. If you are not able to acquire the matching .com domain, and choose an alternative domain name, you will eventually come to regret that decision and it will be costly or impossible to correct your mistake. The two big challenges you will face here are availability and price. These are the most valuable and sought after domain names, so the matching .com domain may not be available at any price (current owner has no interest in selling) and if it is available it will not be cheap. Expect to invest $50,000 to $150,000 to acquire a one-word .com domain, and that number could be way higher (10 times higher) if it is a common business word. Set aside a budget of $100,000 and be open to new names and new naming directions if you can't get the one-word .com domain name you desire.

Two-word .com Domain Names: If you want to go with a name that combines two English language words in a creative fashion -- such as "Pink Robot" or "Robot Banana" -- then you will open yourself up to a much larger inventory choice and the price will be way lower. This is especially true if you are willing to consider all names that feature a specific word, e.g., any name that starts with "pink" or ends with "robot." Chances are you should be able to acquire a two-word .com domain name that fits your brand strategy for less than $5,000. When I have helped clients with this, I've sometimes been able to find them their domain for the cost of registration. Regardless, compared to one-word .com domain names, two-word .com domain names are way more affordable. Set aside aside a budget of up to $10,000 for this class of name as long as the two words are not a common business phrase: FixCars.com is going to cost you way more than FixBanana.com.

Whimsical / Invented .com Domain Names: These are completely made-up names that you will never find in a dictionary, names like "Pinkero" and "Botopia." These are a great class of names in general because they are easier to trademark and easier to get ranked higher in search engines. From a domain name perspective, many times you will be able to acquire these for the cost of registration, however there's a lot of great whimsical inventory available in the market for under $5,000. Set aside a budget of up to $10,000 for this class of name.

Web 2.0 .com Domain Names: By "Web 2.0" I mean taking an English word and dropping a vowel or two from it. So, for example, instead of calling your startup "Banana" you want to use "Bnana" instead. This can seem appealing, at first, because chances are you can pick up the matching .com domain name for registration fee, however you will eventually come to regret your naming decision. Sooner or later you will realize that you are losing traffic, customers, and emails to the folks that own the correctly-spelled version of your name, and by then it may be too late or too costly to undo your mistake. I encourage my clients, and anyone else, to avoid Web 2.0 names like the plague.

Please keep in mind that these pricing guidelines are approximated. Every domain name is unique and pricing on some domain names can be all over the map. But, in general, these pricing guidelines will apply to most domain names in their class, and an experienced domain name buyer broker will be able to get you the best possible selection and price.