written by
Joe Uddeme
Domain brokers like NameExperts.com help clients buy ‘premium’ domains – but what is a premium name, and how do you get one? In this post, domain name specialist Joe Uddeme lifts the lid on high-value web addresses.
Imagine a business today that didn’t have a website. Seems almost inconceivable, right? The internet is one of a business’ primary channels to entice potential customers, meaning any organization that doesn’t have an online presence is massively missing out.
The best way to showcase yourself online is by having a website stating clearly what you or your organization offers. And the way to do that? With a premium domain name.
The domain name is how people will find you on the web, so unless you strike it luck and some cheap random jumble of letters you’ve bought as a domain name suddenly becomes in vogue, you’ll need to dig deep and buy a premium domain name.
But what are the elements of a premium domain – and how much are you going to have to pay? Read on for the full details.
Key Takeaways
Premium domain names are high-quality domain names, giving you greater recognition on the internet. They’re often short, catchy, and memorable. They’re the domain names that people are likely to search for and trust over other names.
A premium domain name would go a long way in drawing organic traffic to your website. They’re usually costly, but one of the best investments you can make.
It’s not a coincidence that most of the successful online businesses we know have premium domain names – see Stripe.com, Amazon.com, Google.com and other big-hitters.
The easiest way to determine if a domain name is premium is the price you see when you search for it for a domain registrar. Likewise, you can use a premium domain checker for this task.
Premium domain names often range from a few hundred dollars to thousands or tens of thousands. They can go for even larger sums – as our post about the most expensive domains ever sold illustrates.
There are also specific characteristics differentiating premium domain names from the pool of all domains, and they include:
“The shorter the name, the better” is the rule of thumb when it comes to domain names. Most two or three-letter domains are considered premium because they’re easy to imprint on customers’ minds.
These short names are also usually abbreviations adopted by various companies, so there’s intense competition for them.
Domain names consisting of generic words fetch a higher value than those with non-generic words. Generic names are easy to remember and brand, so there’s significant demand for them.
You’d have an advantage over competitors if your domain name consists of a word that broadly relates to your industry.
For example, Checkout.com, Bill.com, and Authorize.net are leading payment providers. Crypto.com and Blockchain.com are two famous cryptocurrency exchanges.
Customers need little effort to memorize such generic domain names, so it gives these companies a significant marketing advantage compared to their peers.
Search engines are the primary way people discover websites. Hence, any domain name matching what people mostly search for carries more weight.
CreditCards.com, HouseRepairs.com, and RentalCars.com are examples of domain names with high value stemming from search engine optimization.
Some domain names don’t look attractive at first glance but see great demand from prospective buyers for various reasons. These domains command high values because of the bidding war over them.
Numerous domain registrars let you check for available domain names, and it’s easy to identify the premium ones based on their prices and the other factors stated above.
If the domain name you want is already taken, don’t give up. You could still acquire it by making a direct offer (more on that below).
The first step to buying a premium domain name is knowing if it’s available using a premium domain checker. You can buy it straight away if it is. If not, you’ll need to find the owner.
Many domain names are registered but not utilized to a considerable extent. Sometimes, you’ll see a homepage filled with advertisements and affiliate links but hardly any content.
This is an attempt by the owner to monetize what’s basically an abandoned site. If you encounter such a website, then it’s positive news for you. The owner is more likely to sell than someone actively hosting a site and doing good business.
If the website has a contact form, you can use it to reach out to the owner with an offer. If not, you must get creative in finding them. The easiest way to do this is through the WHOIS database.
It is a public database containing the information collected when someone registers a domain name or adjusts their DNS settings. ICANN, or the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, regulates the WHOIS database.
ICANN allows anyone to search its public database for domain name ownership information. You can do that through the agency’s online lookup tool or your PC’s command prompt.
The official URL of ICANN’s WHOIS lookup tool is lookup.icann.org. Once you open that page, you’ll see a search bar where you can type in any domain name and press the lookup button. We searched for Microsoft.com to demonstrate, and we got the results shown below:
You can see the email assigned to Microsoft’s domain name is [email protected]. Hypothetically, we can contact that email with an offer for the Microsoft.com domain name, but we’re pretty sure the well-known technology company isn’t willing to sell.
Searching WHOIS through your Windows command prompt is a complex process, so we recommend that only computer geeks take this route.
Step 1:
Download the whois.exe file from this link.
Step 2:
Open the command prompt terminal.
Step 3:
Set the command prompt directory to the folder where you save the whois.exe file.
Step 4:
Type in your query in the following format: Whois domain.com or Whois64 domain.com if you’re running a 64-bit computer. If you want to search for Microsoft’s domain name info, then type Whois Microsoft.com, and you’ll see the contact information.
Sometimes, a domain name owner may have enabled privacy protection through their registrar, meaning you can’t see their information. It implies that they’re likely not interested in selling their domain.
With the contact information, it’s time to negotiate a domain name sale. The process can be hectic and take long periods, so we advise you to hire an experienced domain name broker to help you.
A premium domain name carries more authority on the web, meaning you’re more likely to get found through search engines or social media. It also brings about better brand recognition, making it easy to attract customers through advertisements.
Many domain registrars have a premium domain checker for their users to find and bid for premium domains without stress. Examples include Name.com and Domain.com.
Anybody or any organization can own a premium domain name. Some are owned by business-savvy people or companies looking to flip them for a profit. Some are owned by domain name registrars themselves hoping to find buyers.
There are various factors to consider when valuing a domain name. They include length, how generic they are, search engine recognition, and historical domain name sales data.
There are numerous appraisal tools available online that combine these attributes to value individual domain names. A good example is GoDaddy’s Domain Name Value & Appraisal tool.
The price of premium domains can be high because there’s considerable demand for them. The number of premium domain names is significantly less than the number of potential customers vying for them. Hence, premium domain owners can charge high prices and still make easy sales.
As professional domain name brokers, this is the world we live in – and we help people buy and sell premium domains globally every week. Clients choose us for our years of experience – it means we can help them get hold of names that seem impossible to purchase.
Our expert negotiation skills often save clients large sums of money, too.
Joe Uddeme is Director and Principal of Name Experts, one of the world’s leading domain name brokerage services. He has overseen domain name sales and acquisitions totaling more than $150 million and is renowned worldwide as a go-to expert in buying and selling premium domains. Contact us at: [email protected]
From Amazon to Coca-Cola, strong brand names have helped propel businesses to stratospheric heights for centuries. Here’s how to find one that will take yours to the next level and ensure you have a domain name that supports it.
Got a domain name in your sights? Looking to sell one? Here are 5 ‘safe pairs of hands’ when looking to buy or sell non-premium domain names. 1. Sedo Sedo is a dedicated domain marketplace (similar to GoDaddy) with millions of users. It has been around for over two decades, making it a trusted marketplace for buying and selling domains. Any domain name owner can sign up for free and list their domain for sale on the website, and prospective buyers can easily contact them through the platform to buy domains. On Sedo, sellers can set a fixed price for their domain, put it up for auction, or indicate that they’re entertaining offers with an unspecified price range. When buyers come to the site, they can search for any keyword and check if anyone has listed a related domain name on the market. If you’re in the market for a premium domain name costing upwards of $10,000, consider seeking out an expert domain name brokerage service. These can help you purchase a domain name at the best price – or sell one without leaving money on the table. Sedo Search Sample: The first three results are bikes.org, bikes.co, and bikes.biz, which are premium domain names. Sedo also includes other domain names that are closely related to your search phrase to sell domains. The first two domains in this example have a Make Offer buttons next to them, while the last has a Buy It Now button for your popular domain. This indicates that the domain sellers of the first two domains put them up for auction, while the third domain’s owner set a fixed price for their marketing strategy. As a buyer, you’re free to search for any specific URL and find related domains listed on Sedo to find the perfect domain. Purchasing from the domain marketplace requires added registration and jumping through a few other hoops, but it’s worth it as Sedo has such a large selection of premium domains available for acquisition. 2. NamePros NamePros is an online community for domain name owners to interact and discuss events related to their industry. In the forum’s early days, users commonly posted they had domain names available for sale and wanted to connect with potential buyers. Observing this, the owner of the forum launched an official domain marketplace section for buying and selling domain names. On NamePros, any registered user can list the domain names they have available in a forum post. To make the domains easy for prospective buyers to find, NamePros has formal categories that users can attach to their posts to find the perfect domain. How much is it worth? Namepros can also share pertinent details of recently sold domains that are similar in nature to your domain search. Because it is a forum, NamePros only helps buyers and owners find each other and it’s up to them to negotiate and decide how they’ll handle payments for the domain. This is unlike Sedo, which facilitates payments and domain transfers for its users among other services. When using NamePros to buy a domain you should be more careful about your purchase. Set specific terms with the seller before proceeding on any deal and use a trusted online escrow service (e.g. Escrow.com) to ensure that the payment goes through only after the seller has transferred the domain name to your preferred registrar. You can find a large variety of domain names for sale on NamePros, making it one of the best domain marketplaces in the world. 3. Flippa Flippa is a marketplace competing with Godaddy for buying and selling online properties, including websites and domain names. The platform has facilitated millions of dollars in domain name sales since its inception in 2009 and has built a reputation as one of the most trusted domain name marketplaces to find the perfect domain name. The most expensive domain name deal arranged on Flippa was StockPhoto.com, which sold for $250,000. Any domain name owner can sign up on Flippa and list their domains, but it requires a payment of $29 for a base listing and $99 for an enhanced listing. Sellers often pick the second option because it makes their domains more visible to potential buyers looking for the perfect domain name. As a buyer, you can create a free account on Flippa and find domain names matching your taste. You can then search for a specific keyword and find related domain names listed by domain owners to buy domain names based on cost, features and budget. Easy to use: To demonstrate, we searched for “cars” and got the results displayed in the image below: The first three results were OldCarsForSale.com, acars.com, and fastsportscars.com, listed for $5,000, $100, and $1 respectively. OldCarsForSale.com is a premium domain worth its higher price. It’ll be a very good domain for anyone who wants to sell used cars online with a specific destination. Fastsportscars.com seems like a good generic domain name, but it can easily be mistaken for fastsportcars.com, giving it a disadvantage. It’s likely why it’s listed for a very low price and shows that you can find a good deal on a domain name for personal use. When you’re ready to make an offer or buy a domain on Flippa, the platform handles the entire process for you. They have been around for over a decade and built a reputation on the internet as one of the most trusted domain name marketplaces to find the perfect domain name on the net. 4. Namecheap Namecheap is one of the most widely-used domain registrars, serving over 2 million customers and giving Godaddy a run for its money! It also has a premium domain marketplace as well as business resource and forums support for its customers. Popular Domain names Internet marketplace where domain name owners can connect and manage potential buyers. Only domain names registered on Namecheap can be listed for sale on this marketplace and owners can list their domain names at a fixed amount or put them in auctions. If a seller lists their domain at a fixed price, you can purchase it immediately, just like you would purchase a new domain on Namecheap. Auctions If the seller puts their domain up for auction, you’ll have to participate in a timed bidding process for all auctions. If you are selling your domain, Namecheap collects a 10% commission on each sale. You must have a Namecheap account to buy domains from its marketplace and after buying any domain it is automatically transferred to your control. The convenient sale process makes Namecheap one of the easiest domain marketplaces to use over other domain marketplaces. 5. Atom.com (formerly Brand Bucket) Quality Assurance: Each premium domain is carefully reviewed by branding experts to ensure it meets high standards of originality, pronunciation, and memorability when selling domain names. Business Identity Professional Logo Designs: Top designs for your org and branding strategy. Visual Identity Package: Every premium domain listing includes a professionally designed logo for your org, providing a cohesive domain brand package for your business resources and company identity. User-Friendly Search and Navigation Advanced Filtering: Search domains by industry, point, style, length, and other attributes to find the perfect match. FAQ About Buying and Selling Domain Names Where can I sell my domain name fast? If interested, you can quickly sell your domain name on any of these marketplaces. A large platform such as SEDO, GoDaddy, Afternic or Namecheap offer great options for buying domains quickly and a fast transfer process. How fast do domain names sell? Domain names take anywhere from hours to days, months, or years depending on the demand for them. The amount the domain is listed for also plays a role in how quickly it will sell. If the price is too high relative to its value, there may be no interest from buyers, especially for a premium domain. If a domain is listed on the wrong marketplace, it may not sell. Use a large marketplace like Godaddy for your company’s success. Check out our post about domain flipping for some extra tips. Where do I buy expired domain names for sale? Many domain registrars host auctions for expiring domain names, including GoDaddy, Namecheap, and Network Solutions to buy domains. There are also websites specializing in auctioning expired domains, such as ExpiredDomains and DropCatch market services for other domain name sales on non-active domains. How can I build or develop my domain? Select a registrar, select and pay a hosting company to host the domain and a web builder interface to develop the site. WordPress or Wix are great platforms for easy sales development tools on the internet. Godaddy has a turnkey solution for your company’s development to make it worry free. About the author Joe Uddeme is Director and Principal of Name Experts, one of the world’s leading domain name brokerage services. He has overseen domain name sales and acquisitions totaling more than $150 million and is renowned worldwide as a go-to expert in buying and selling premium domains. Contact us at: [email protected]
If you don’t tread carefully, anyone in the world can find out who bought the web address you just snapped up. Domain name expert Joe Uddeme shares his top tips for staying out of the limelight. In the rush of excitement that comes with securing a name – especially a desirable, premium domain name you’ve been after – it’s easy to overlook one of the most basic elements of name registration: shielding your identity. Millions of people before you have forgotten to do it – precisely because it is so easy to overlook. Or perhaps you spotted the option to stay anonymous but didn’t quite understand what it meant – or felt it wasn’t worth the cost. Here’s how to stay out of the WHOIS database when buying a domain name – and why you might want to. Key takeaways: Understanding your Domain Privacy options Discover which countries keep your name secret by default The benefits of keeping your information private How to ensure your name stays out of the picture Discover Domain Privacy FAQs What Is Domain Privacy? Domain privacy is a service domain registrars offer customers to hide their information from the public WHOIS database. Customers pay for privacy from their registrar, which replaces their contact information in the WHOIS database with a forwarding address. What Does Domain Privacy and Protection Do? It removes a domain owner’s information from the public WHOIS database and preserves their privacy. The WHOIS database is a vast database operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is the agency that oversees domain names, and every individual or company that buys a domain name must provide their contact information to this agency. ICANN, in turn, lists all contact information in a public database called WHOIS. Anyone can search the WHOIS database to get the contact information of a domain’s owner. Many owners are uncomfortable with their contact information being listed publicly, so they pay their domain registrars for domain privacy and protection. The registrar replaces the customer’s contact information with a forwarding or proxy address on the WHOIS database, so people can’t look up the real contact details. Do I Need Domain Privacy? You need to pay for privacy protection if you’re uncomfortable with your email address or phone number being posted online. Many spammers and telemarketers scour the WHOIS database for the contact information of domain owners to sell them products. Domain name privacy protection prevents this from happening. People residing within the European Union (EU) don’t need to pay for domain privacy because they get it by default. On 25 May 2018, the EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ruling. This ruling mandated companies serving EU residents to give customers control over their data. EU customers were granted strict data privacy under this law, so domain registrars began hiding their information from the WHOIS database by default. Many other countries have passed laws similar to GDPR, such as Turkey, South Korea, Argentina, and Brazil. The United Kingdom (UK), a former EU member, also passed a similar law. You may not need to purchase a domain name private registration if you reside in these countries. However, customers in other countries need domain privacy and protection to hide their contact information. How Important Is Domain Protection? It is important because it lets you hide your contact information from the public view. Without this protection, your personal information will be available to anyone who wishes to find it, and malicious actors may take advantage of this freedom to target you with cyberattacks and domain name scams. Benefits Of Privacy Protection 1. Protects Personal Information Buying privacy protection when registering a domain removes your personal information from the public eye. People won’t be able to find your contact information by looking up your domain name on the WHOIS database. Instead, they’ll see the contact information of your domain registrar, which they can’t trace back to you. 2. Minimizes and Prevents Spam Spam is the biggest problem on the internet. It refers to any irrelevant and solicited message sent over the internet, usually to advertise products or steal information via phishing. Spammers search every possible medium to harvest emails and phone numbers, including the WHOIS database. Domain protection hides your details from this database so spammers can not target you with unsolicited messages. 3. Anonymity Many people are uncomfortable with their personal information being on the internet for whatever reason. Domain privacy and protection grants you anonymity even when you control many domain names. 4. Prevents Competitive Data Mining Businesses often mine public databases for information about their competitors. For example, if you run a popular blog anonymously, rival blogs may want to discover your identity and research potentially damaging information about you. Domain privacy and protection ensures that competitors can’t trace your identity through your domain name. 5. Prevents Domain Theft Hackers often target owners of valuable domain names with phishing messages to steal their registrar login details. They do this by sending a link to a website that looks exactly like your domain registrar’s page but is actually a different web address. The end game is to log into the owner’s registrar with the stolen details and transfer their domain name to another account. Purchasing domain privacy means that hackers won’t find your contact information in the first place. You can hold onto your valuable domain names without fear of being targeted by sophisticated cybercriminals. (Check out our post about what to do if you lose your domain name). How To Get Domain Privacy And Protection When Buying a Domain Most registrars display the option to add privacy protection to your cart when you choose to buy a domain name. It’s an effective method of upselling because they know many customers want privacy. Look for “hide WHOIS information,” “domain privacy,” “domain protection,” or a similar phrase on the domain registration box and select it. Head to the checkout page and pay for the registration, privacy protection, and any other item you selected. After paying, you’ll automatically have WHOIS protection for your new domain. Add To An Existing Domain You can always buy privacy protection for a domain name you already own. Follow these steps; Log into your domain registrar account. Head to the domain management section. Click on the specific domain name you need privacy for. Open the Security tab, and you’ll likely find a button that prompts you to buy WHOIS protection. Click on the button and proceed to your checkout page to pay. Wait for some time after the payment confirmation for your registrar to update the WHOIS database information. There are dozens of domain registrars, and the steps to add privacy protection to an existing domain are similar to what we explained above for each of them. FAQs on Domain Privacy Should I add privacy protection when buying and selling domains? Yes, you should add the option to hide domain registration info because it has many benefits. It prevents spam, competitive data mining, and potential domain theft. It also guarantees anonymity on the WHOIS database, which is desirable for privacy-conscious customers. If you are working with multiple domain names, especially high-value ones, an experienced domain consultant can ensure all of this is taken care of on your behalf. How Do You Buy A Domain With Privacy Protection You’ll usually see an option to buy privacy protection on the page where you search for an available domain. Add the privacy protection item to your cart alongside the domain name and pay, and you have successfully acquired privacy protection for your new domain. Is privacy protection available on all domains? It’s available for most domains, but there are some exceptions due to government rules. These include .US., .CA, and .FR, among others. Is there a cost to domain privacy and protection? Most registrars charge between $10 and $20 annually for privacy protection while registering a domain. However, a few offer it for free, e.g., NameCheap. About the author Joe Uddeme is Director and Principal of Name Experts, one of the world’s leading domain name brokerage services. He has overseen domain name sales and acquisitions totaling more than $150 million and is renowned worldwide as a go-to expert in buying and selling premium domains. Need help? Contact us at: [email protected]
Name Experts offers personalized domain brokerage services, assisting clients in buying or selling premium domain names with expert appraisal, negotiation, and complete transaction management while ensuring confidentiality.
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