The Shrinking Pool of Short, Mobile Friendly .COM Domain Names
Reader Equity78 writes:
“”Frank this is not a question did not know how to contact you, this is for a post on the blog. A buyout of L-L-L.com going on, only 500 out of the 17576 left… [***FS*** that’s industry speak for “LETTER[dash]LETTER[dash]LETTER[dot]COM” for those of you new to the space… NNN = 3 Numbers .com and so forth] ..These are getting snapped now at $60 to $300. These are a great alternative for a company that cannot get or cannot afford the LLL.com. There is a great site (not mine) at www.bluebecker.com with all the info and stats and an updated scan. I know you do not love LLL.com but this is another opportunity for those looking for another market. End Users should love the ability to get an L-L-L for $3000 instead of an LLL.com for $50,000.
BuyDomains surprisingly is a player in this niche too.
Thank you”"
***FS*** Not surprised that Buy Domains is a player here as they buy stuff that ’sells’ .. who it sells to is to isn’t that important when you’re in the name-sales biz.. Not sure if BD is having more success selling these L-L-L.com names to other speculators or end-users. I’d prefer a good 4 letter vs an L-L-L.com because those dash-names are technically 5 character domains and if you type a lot (like I do), finding that dash key isn’t always as immediately intuitive (in repeat fashion) as another alpha numeric character. Not as memorable either IMO. Your point about short names vanishing is valid though.. You’ve probably seen this recent post about 4 letter .com names on Domain State. I still Afternic chat in 1999 and reading live conversations about limited quantities of 3 letter .com names remaining… others chiming in about three letters with Q’s, X’s and Z’s being worthless. Funny how perspective changes .. a three character .com containing all three such characters could be worth $$$$ thousands today.
There are actually many developped L-L-L.com’s as business websites. There are also long threads on this subject at dnforum.com and namepros. It was these posts that made me think it was a good idea to buy a few before they were all gone. I think it’s another case of a domain category not looking so good when they are still cheap and available, but give it some time and they will be more in demand. Generally I hate the dash, but with L-L and L-L-L domains they are not so bad, and even might make the letters stand out more. A dash also isn’t too bad between a two word term, like domain-names. Search engines don’t seem to pick up the dash, and recognize ‘usa’ and ‘u-s-a’ as the same. Don’t think they will get to LLL.com levels, but they are a reasonable acronym alternative, short, and already being used as websites. When they are all gone demand will rise. It’s interesting to watch these domain categories get fully regged, for example all N-N-N.com’s were fully mined just this past summer.
Thank you Frank for posting the L-L-L.com got bought out this morning with people mentioning this blog post. It is amazing how many L-L-L.com are developed u-a-g.com u-a-t.com u-b-m.com US JAPAN and GERMAN sites
8512 L-L-L.de are regged mostly developed.
If an LLL.com costs $50,000 someone who wants their initials may see L-L-L.com as a nice alternative for $3000 to $5000 IMO
I think I will stick to the single keyboard stroke of my IDN dot coms if it is all the same to you. Actually, these already get far more traffic than even top generics although converting it is not quite so obvious.
Just saw posted in dnforum that all L-L-L.com are now registered.
Frank in the future if you could not allow comment spam it would be appreciated but I know you are busy Thank you I mean when you post .com arbitrage post I do not say well I just made 3 .tv sales because that would be nothing more than comment spam OFF TOPIC POST HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SUBJECT TO PROMOTE ANOTHER AGENDA
COMMENT SPAM
I think I will stick to the single keyboard stroke of my IDN dot coms if it is all the same to you. Actually, these already get far more traffic than even top generics although converting it is not quite so obvious.
There are a few IDN investors who try to bring IDN domains into every discussion, related or not. Don’t know why they always do this.
The relevance is length. A single character in a familiar script is going to be far more interesting to much of the World than some Geeky looking 5 character domains.
Most domainers in the West still regard a hyphen as death knell.
Frankly, I just cannot see the L-L-L domains having any appeal whatsoever. It is just another symptom of the ASCII.com being completely played out as far as viable speculative new registrations is concerned.
That maybe true and I am not disputing the value of single character IDN’s. L-L-L.com are a completely different play.
Facts are corporations do not care about hyphens. Secondly price of LLL.com continue to go up and rise in value. Making them more expensive and the L-L-L.com is an alternative play. This is not going to make anyone rich like a single character IDN but provides another play for those interested in the 3 Letter market.
To equity78:
Character domains whether one or three have very little value in terms of search. Single character domains do seem to get very significant type-in, but they should really be considered as Brandables. This new craze fits into the same category. Their real value is in their brandability. I think your assertion that Corps are not concerned about the hyphen would take a hell of a lot justification. If we look at the current market, most major sites just don’t use hyphenated domains. Marketing trends, however, can take funny turns, but I just don’t see this one on the radar.
Equity pay no attention to the idn trolls it is funny now there is an anonymous posting the same single character idn as wrixon. Was the post about idn’s in anyway?
ROBB you are right they post I mean spam I mean post everywhere
Oh I don’t GFY especially from anyone using anonymous what a joke,
first off Bluebecker has a biglist of developed L-L-L.com http://bluebecker.com/developed.html
THe number of developed L-L-L.de is large too.
Again showing corporations do not care about the -
Names are being picked up on the drops from $60 to $300
Lastly this was sent to Frank to mention the buyout nothing more what someone else feels is the value means nothing to me was not asking or care about others appraisal
Yes, that post should have been attributed to me. There was no intention to post anonymously.
IDN are just domains the same as any other. It is Americans that have the problem. They think that all Indians speak English apart from one or two that still speak Navajo.
I have news for you. The Internet and Domaining is now a global business. The status of the US within global rankings is shrinking daily. If you want to be a global player you need to understand global markets. Even AOL is now operating in about a dozen different languages in India. If they can get it, it has to be pretty bloody obvious.