“Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any commodity ever known to man”
Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.
World’s most expensive domain names (USD):
- Sex.com, $12m — purchased in 2005
- Porn.com, $9.5m — purchased in 2007
- Business.com, $7.5m — purchased in 1999
- Diamond.com, $7.5m — purchased in 2006
- Beer.com, $7m — purchased in 1999
Why own a Keyword/ Geo/ PageRank/ LLLL .com Domain Name?
The benefits include:
•Leadership and Respect
•Traffic
•Investment
•Business growth
Leadership and Respect
Owning a strong keyword .com name in your field gives you instant credibility. Many of the world’s top companies already own some of the best keyword domain names in their field. These companies are amongst the leaders or are, in fact, the leaders in their industry.
Traffic
Owning good keyword .com domain names that are relevant to your business will usually attract ‘type-in’ traffic. Whilst some businesses have changed their company name to a keyword domain name, a more common use is to have the keyword domain name traffic redirected to your main site.
‘Type-in’ traffic (or direct navigation traffic) will occur naturally with good .com keyword domain names. Usually you will not know how much ‘type-in’ traffic a domain name will get until you own it and measure it. Search Engines will also tend to boost the position of domains that contain the matching keywords.
Investment
The values of keyword domain names have been steadily increasing over the last 6 years as the importance of these assets becomes ever more realised.
Business growth
Some companies that have adopted a keyword domain name as their company name have benefited from a much faster rate of growth than alternatives. As well as the traffic benefits, the mere fact of owning a strong descriptive name can open doors to opportunities. This benefit comes with the respect that owning a quality keyword domain will give you.
Once you own a keyword name you can do any of these…
Redirect it
Boost the traffic to your existing web site. Redirect the visitors going to the keyword domain names directly to your main site.
Example: Motorcycles.com (redirects to Honda’s web site)
Park it
Get additional revenue by ‘Parking’ the name at a ‘Parking company’. They will put up a web page for you that contains adverts pertaining to the subject contained in the name. Parking companies will split the revenues they receive with you. Recommmended parking companies include Sedo and Name Drive.
Example: Printers.com (parked and displaying ads for printers)
Develop it
Set up a new web site that compliments your main site, then link between the two sites where relevant.
Example: Movies.com (owned by Disney)
Base a company on it
Start up a company (or change the name of your existing company) to use the keyword domain name as your company name.
Examples: Chocolate.com (new company start up), Shopping.com (previously traded as DealTime.com)
Once you own the name you can choose the use you put it to. You could, for instance, redirect it to start with, with a view to developing it later. This popular strategy doesn’t involve any work, benifits from the traffic in the short term and secures the name for a possible future development project. It also removes the possibility of your competitors getting hold of it.