The power of branding values

[mole]

Recently, I was eyeing a name which went on sale, the owner had changed their corporate name. I enquired about it, they said $5k. I said $2k. I left it as that. Couple of days later, boom, someone had bought it. That someone had a product that was called by that name.

By all indication, that name was not the kind that would generate a lot of type-ins. It is plausible that Google nor ebay bought their names for some natural, curious, itchy, blind type-in value. It was just their chosen name.

In the blind pursuit of type-in PPC harvesting, have we forgotten that branding values do matter.

And in the blind pursuit of .COM, have we forgotten the meaning of the extension, which is to help classify purpose?

Mostly, have we failed to see and appreciate that skilled webmasters don't need curious type-ins to generate traffic?

 

[yesonline]

Agreed with you very much. I think type-ins are only important for we domainers, most of people do not even know what is type-in, let alone to consider to buy type-in domains with huge money. Most serious businessmen who consider to buy domains would prefer the domains which match their brands or are easy to be branding. They will spend extra money to promote their domains anyway.

 

[ExpireGuy]

And in the blind pursuit of .COM, have we forgotten the meaning of the extension, which is to help classify purpose?

Mostly, have we failed to see and appreciate that skilled webmasters don't need curious type-ins to generate traffic?

That's just it though, end users don't value a domain by extension when they are hit (North American) with billions in advertising by online enterprises for the .com namespace....to them .com is all that matters.

And ask any skilled webmaster to choose between branding a dot com or the same brand with another extension...if they picked the latter their credibility would be questioned at the very least IMO.

 

[mole]

....to them .com is all that matters.

Why should anyone really care about a domain extension, so long as it gets them to what they want?

 

[peekaboo]

Why should anyone really care about a domain extension, so long as it gets them to what they want?

you talk about branding, but u always keep forgetting that .com is essential part of that brand identity in the u.s.

this overdependence on certain extension is not smart or logical, but nor are the people in the wider sense of the word 'people'.

 

[DomeBase]

Recently, I was eyeing a name which went on sale, the owner had changed their corporate name. I enquired about it, they said $5k. I said $2k. I left it as that. Couple of days later, boom, someone had bought it. That someone had a product that was called by that name.

By all indication, that name was not the kind that would generate a lot of type-ins. It is plausible that Google nor ebay bought their names for some natural, curious, itchy, blind type-in value. It was just their chosen name.

In the blind pursuit of type-in PPC harvesting, have we forgotten that branding values do matter.

And in the blind pursuit of .COM, have we forgotten the meaning of the extension, which is to help classify purpose?

Mostly, have we failed to see and appreciate that skilled webmasters don't need curious type-ins to generate traffic?

I think that the value of type-ins and related, documented traffic is tremendous reduction in risk and uncertainty concerning the value of domains/sites -- particularly with the increasing variety and power of various methods of converting traffic to cash. In any market, when there is reduction of risk and uncertainty, and an accompanying greater liquidity, then the market begins to function on a greater scale and with more efficiency. I think that is what is happening with the emphasis on type-ins and traffic and related conversion models. In some respects, this has understandably left "brandable" and "development potential" and similar type domains as second-class, risky things.

However, on the other hand, the certainty of type-ins and related cash may be over-estimated and the value of a good portfolio of carefully-selected "brandable" or "development potential" domains may be under-estimated in today's domain market. For example, to what extent are type-ins that exist today dependent on continuation of today's technology and sociology (url bars, current generation search techniques vs. next generation, etc)? Has competition for established traffic domains brought their purchase prices up pretty close the their expected (NPV) value -- so that opportunities for large profits from buying and selling traffic domains are being reduced? Will the next generation of internet users type in domains with the same frequency as the current generation? How long will it be before non-typing computer interfaces become prevalent? How about the increasing number of users from growing countries?

I do not know the answers to all these questions -- but I think that it is possible that the market for type-in traffic domains is maturing, with both good and bad results, and the market for high-quality brandables is not, with both good and bad results. The trick with the latter is that it is more of a gamble and selection is very important -- as compared with the former which is more of a commodity nowadays.

 

[Biggie]

for tv advertising in the US, the major extensions used by online businesses are as follows.....

.com
.org
.net
.edu
.tv

i have yet to see any business use ....

.us
.info
.biz

in a tv advertisement in the Chicago market.

many "inventor products" that sell for $19.95 or $29.95 often use .tv or .com.
most proprietary schools use .edu or .com
charity/unions/special interest using .org
i've seen many commercials for partypoker.net and debtstoppers.net


so based on what i've seen

those building brands will take .com, if not available will take .tv or .net

but i've seen where a company selling a cheap product only thru tv ads and online will take the .tv extension over the .com

sometimes the "webmaster" doesn't come into play, until after the concept has already been conceived.
thus he/she has no imput on the extension or the domain,he just developes and programs the site.

 

[Dr. Domaining]

I agree with you 100%. Having an easy to remember brandable name is much more important than traffic in many cases. There are many people willing to pay big money for a great brandable name without traffic. With the right marketing they can easily create their own surge of traffic.

However, the typical domainer is usually more interested in traffic because there is less risk involved. You can generally be assured a nice return when investing in traffic. There are many domainer's that only deal with traffic domains and with good reason. Brandable domains should not be counted out though because the can bring in a sizeable return as well.

Agreed with you very much. I think type-ins are only important for we domainers, most of people do not even know what is type-in, let alone to consider to buy type-in domains with huge money. Most serious businessmen who consider to buy domains would prefer the domains which match their brands or are easy to be branding. They will spend extra money to promote their domains anyway.

 

[Steen]

Being a domainer and being a webmaster are two completely different fields.

 

[GT Web]

i have yet to see any business use ....

.us
.info
.biz

VolvoCars.us

 

[seeker]

a little off topic, but about time I said since I didnt in the original volvocars.us thread a while back.

No, Volvo isnt fond of .us specifically.
It is their corporate strategy to use local extension in all countries where they have a direct importer (most of the 'Western world' and beyond)
www.volvocars.
us
de
gr
co.uk
.nl
.fr
etc...etc....etc....
It's a simple business strategy, nothing to do with the extensions themselves.

 

[Biggie]

VolvoCars.us

in a tv advertisement in the Chicago market.


you forgot the above line from the quote!

i was speaking of tv ads in the Chicago market.