Great domain names have many ways to gauge value but I think one that is often over looked is Trust! Trust is one of the hardest things to gain on the net because the "bad apples" (scammers) and the lack of face to face business. Some of the best domain names are generic product and service related and I think owning and using one is a great start at gaining that important trust.
Trust is something that can be provided in several ways on the net and some include: Money back guarantees, BBB listings, reviews, past business and other accreditation.
I think with a company simply using a Great Domain Name can nearly instantly take away the worry that many may hold while using the internet and making a purchase of some kind from a website.
Many people already know that Great Domain Names (often called "Premium") are very pricey and secondly are not easily purchased due to the fact that there is only One of them in the world.
Great domain names like Money.com, Business.com, Jewelry.com, Shoes.com, Loans.com, Bank.com, Ask.com, Ad.com etc not only add an extra layer of trust into a business, it shows the company Means Business!
Some other things that I think help the owners by owning a Great Domain Name that can not be gained by owning "some other kind of domain":
Direct Navigation. This is when somebody "skips" the search part and goes directly to the generic domain name using the address bar of their browser. An example would be, if a person is interested in shoes, instead of going to Google and doing a "search" for the term shoes, they simply visit the domain name Shoes.com
No other entity can own Shoes.com besides the one that currently does unless they decide to sell the domain (which is highly unlikely to happen, unless a very large sum of money changed hands).
Partnerships. Making business deals is not easy if you are some small unheard of company. Coming to the table no matter what the size, owning a category killer domain name greatly helps you get your foot in the door and it’s all because of the domain.
Search Engine Rank. It is NOT easy to rank very well for a popular specific term on the internet and a lot of people do not even consider this "important" while making a purchase or finding a company to buy from. The business trying to rank knows it’s important, but often not the buyer! Owning a great keyword domain name, along with a correctly developed website will greatly help in search engine rankings due to direct navigation traffic, Links which often come from "talk" about the domain, trust and the general popularity of the site.
Recognition. This has to be the hardest and also likely one of the most all around valuable aspects what a great domain name can offer. Branding a company name is extremely expensive and very hard for consumers to "remember" the name. Direct Navigation can bring paying customers to your door without a penny spent on advertising. Any ad dollars spent to promote the name are highly more likely to "Stick" due to the already popular term.
So the next time you are considering purchasing any old domain name, you may want to think of the Trust factor of a great domain name and the above stated features only a Great Domain Name can bring to your business and it’s website.
Reece Berg
Well said Jamie! Even before I got into domaining, there is something — that “trust” you mention that I had. It just seems natural in example to buy bodybuilding supplements from bodybuilding.com.
Now that I’ve gotten into domaining, I see it even more that way — who is going to drop $XXX,XXX on a domain just to scam people for $20? You might as well use a regfee domain for that because word will get around before you can scam people for 6 figures.
Given the choice between a generic domain website and one with a poor domain, I’ll take the generic one 10 times out of 10 if the prices are similar for what I’m looking for unless the poor domain has an outstanding reputation.
If someone is going to pay XX,XXX+ for a domain, they obviously take their business very seriously.
David J Castello
Excellent article. Your readers should print it and tape it to their wall. Yes, we immediately discovered there was an inherent trust factor in our names like Bullion.com, PalmSprings.com, Daycare.com, etc and it is every domainer’s responsibility not to squander it.
Jamie Zoch
@David,
Thanks for stopping by number one, but secondly… I think if any company can back up what I said, it’s yours with the category killer domains you own. I have heard several times the benefits of owning PalmSprings.com and how it has helped bring in advertisers and much more. If anybody wants to see the kind of Great Domains that I am talking about, simply visit http://www.ccin.com .
PremiumDomains.com
Nice post Jamie.
A top, great, memorable, high value, … premium domain is a key to success.
This type of names open doors and for be the proud owner of few ones I have experienced the power they give you. You get instant recognition, it’s wonderfull.
In an old post Sahar said that technology can be copied but the names are unique, it’s true, nobody else can own your name and if you have the best one for a product, a service, a concept, an industry, … whatever you will put here you will get a competitive advantage others could never get.
This is why some names worth so much money.
VRtv
>> Sahar said
>> that technology can be copied
>> but the names are unique,
all technologies o’//of ‘the//’ye twitter or ‘ye facebook ,…..
‘r also highly copiable