What’s in a name?
Have you ever tried to append a value to a domain name? Domain Name Wire reported last month that NewsForum.com was sold for $10,000, while Leisure.com went for $150,000 and Call.com sold for a cool $1.1 million. Pretty good return for something that costs about $20 a year. With all 3 letter domain names gone, it is easy to see how an easy to remember and easy to market domain name could fetch a decent price. In fact, I know a guy who just sold a three letter domain for $10k. Not bad.
Now, obviously, you can’t just buy a domain name and expect the cash to start rolling in. Cybersquatters did it in the 90’s, and scooped up most of the good domain names. Whitehouse.com, for example, had nothing to do with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when it debuted in 1997; instead, it was a highly lucrative porn site. But I digress…
Even if you have a great domain name (and assuming you have a credible product or service to market), you need a comprehensive brand marketing campaign if it is going to work for you. A name is, after all, only as good as the product it represents.
A great example is the brand Breaking News. Earlier this month, MSNBC bought the domain name breakingnews.com, but also bought the Twitter address @breakingnews.
http://mashable.com/2010/01/05/msnbc-breaking-news-2/
I don’t know about you, but I never quite understood the logic behind the MSNBC brand. I realize it was, at one time, a partnership between Micro$oft’s MSN property and NBC, but the name is no longer relevant. JMHO. The brand “breakingnews” is timeless. It is a universal phrase like “hot soup”, fast car” or in my case “fat guy”. Breaking News can be branded in a number of creative ways, is more relevant to the MSNBC product and is much easy to remember when searching a Twitter feed or just typing a URL.
The other factor that will help the breaking news brand is in search engine marketing. Search results with “breaking news” will appear more relevant to the searcher. MSNBC also has a left leaning stigma – similar to the right leaning stigma associated with Fox News. A more conservative user will see breaking news as a more neutral party.
What are your thoughts? Do you have a domain name worth big bucks? What is your asking price and why?
