3 character slow down?: NameJet’s August in Review
Joseph Peterson reviews the past month of domain sales at NameJet.
August was a slow month at NameJet – where sales above $2000 are concerned anyway. With that upper price range contributing a total of $399.5k, the auction house fell far short of July’s million plus. But that was to be expected, since July set the venue’s all-time record for total sales; and more than half a million came from a single record-breaking auction. Looking all the way back, August turns out to be right in the middle – 27 months did better, 25 totaled less. In a more recent context, though, August had the lowest total sales and the fewest above $2k (just 79) since November of 2014. Basically, a luke warm month during a hot year.
Yes, 3-letter .COM domains are found at the top: #1 and #2. While they do continue to sell high, “they” is now reduced to a single pair. Indeed, the number of LLL.com sales at NameJet has declined steadily ever since January, which saw 23. Not coincidentally, that was also the auction house’s peak month for volume – with nearly twice as many sales above $2k.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| OAL.com | 33,000 | ISU.com | 25,000 |
| K93.com | 2950 | YN5.com | 2520 |
As lower-priced LLL.com domains grew scarce, market demand spilled over into LLLL.com’s, which have surged in price during 2015. Like fish, most LLLL sales swim far beneath the $2k threshold. Just a few leap into the reportable layer. Beginning in March, NameJet began to see more LLLLs break the surface. Arguably this feeding frenzy peaked in June, and we’re now seeing a relaxation of buyer demand.
Time will tell. For now, here’s the data. In chronological order beginning with January 2014, NameJet noted LLLL.com sales above $2k as follows: 10 … 2 … 9 … 7 … 8 … 8 (June 2014) … 8 … 6 … 12 … 3 (October 2014) … 9 … 13 … 10 … 7 … 15 … 18 … 12 … 21 (June 2015)… 11 … 12 (last month). The quantity of 4-letter domains is so vast that the effect of private sellers liquidating portfolios is diluted. Whereas the number of potential LLL sales at NameJet fluctuates widely depending on seller timing, there are always plenty of LLLLs on offer. To a degree, that smooths out irrelevant fluctuations and allows apples-to-apples comparisons over time.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AISE.com | 19,509 | WUDA.com | 10,200 |
| NOSO.com | 9900 | KIRI.com | 9300 |
| BOPS.com | 3300 | KBBB.com | 3100 |
| EOOO.com | 2999 | NSCS.com | 2400 |
| FRWD.com | 2200 | AZEA.com | 2100 |
| DRLA.com | 2001 | ZELY.com | 2000 |
As a matter of fact, NameJet’s top 4-letter sale (and 4th highest overall) is an impostor. AISE.com is really Chinese pinyin, as explained the prior week. The other 3 pinyin domains were discussed here and here. A fifth Pinyin domain appears at the very end of this article.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChengJie.com | 3920 | JiangJie.com | 3500 |
| KunTou.com | 3100 |
You’ll find a pair of mixed 3-character domains listed alongside the LLL.com’s above. Here are the remaining numerics:
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 89890.com | 4820 | Hg882.com | 4420 |
| 89818.com | 3700 | WNS66.com | 3309 |
| HG7077.com | 2109 |
Leaving behind the monotony of alphanumeric sequences, let’s look at domains with more meaningful individuality. We may as well start with the 2 most popular “not COM” gTLDs – .ORG and .NET. Last month, these 11 constituted 14% of the 79 domains sold at NameJet – a far cry from 4% in December, January, and June or the low point of 2% last November. Although most are .ORG, the highest “not COM” sale – and NameJet’s 5th highest overall – is a .NET.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Degrees.net | 16,500 | LX.org | 8500 |
| Quinoa.org | 3300 | SURA.net | 3255 |
| Cards.org | 2900 | TIPS.org | 2605 |
| QuickZip.org | 2595 | TDI.org | 2555 |
| POD.org | 2200 | MDGMonitor.org | 2100 |
| USHF.org | 2099 |
I find it peculiar that a still somewhat unfamiliar (to most people), difficult-to-spell grain like Quinoa.org outsold a ubiquitous word like Cards.org, which has multiple commercial applications that all fare well online – greeting cards, credit cards, gift cards, etc. But there you have it. Degrees.net has strong ties to education. The other .NET, SURA.net, probably won’t be read as the Arabic it might have been.
Following the 2 LLL domains, NameJet’s biggest sale last month was LocalMarketing.com. That’s a very big, very lucrative topic. Despite geo-targeted SERPs and PPC ad placements, “local” continues to mean “offline” for the most part. It’s always interesting to watch how online instruments like domains are used to coordinate offline activity; so I’m curious how LocalMarketing.com will be put to work.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| LocalMarketing.com | 20,351 | GreenBusiness.com | 8600 |
| LeatherJacket.com | 6876 | SportsInjury.com | 5999 |
| StaffTraining.com | 4600 | CorporateReputation.com | 4005 |
| ProductLabels.com | 3750 | BoxingGyms.com | 2555 |
| ConcreteFurniture.com | 2189 | LuxuryRetail.com | 2100 |
| LALawyers.com | 2000 |
The items above are all 2-word, “veristic” domains – meaning they’re obvious real-world phrases for definite real-world things. StaffTraining.com and LALawyers.com have by now been discussed. Ditto GreenBusiness.com. Non-expired domain auctions are excluded from my weekly pieces; so ProductLabels.com and SportsInjury.com are fresh. Of these, the first can be monetized with graphic design and printing services, while the second ought to be able to make money through physical therapy and litigation.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| SellDebt.com | 4200 | MoldTips.com | 2900 |
| ExoticTravel.com | 2850 | GoodPets.com | 2656 |
| BuildConfidence.com | 2300 |
The next 5 domains use composite phrases that are descriptive but not “veristic” as stated by my definition. Either they’re partly indefinite, or they’re not things. It’s easy to recognize boxing gyms, L.A. lawyers, or a leather jacket; but it’s not so clear which pets are GoodPets.com, what advice will be given as MoldTips.com, or how far from where constitutes ExoticTravel.com. A couple of these would be call-to-action phrases: SellDebt.com and BuildConfidence.com. As such, they’re imperatives rather than things.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| CiaoBella.com | 10,002 | UniPress.com | 8605 |
| FutureFinance.com | 4600 | LittleFish.com | 3969 |
| HealthTimes.com | 3600 | FirstGov.com | 3350 |
| GoldenCoast.com | 3145 | FanMedia.com | 3100 |
| MyFloors.com | 2888 | WinWell.com | 2532 |
| ColoView.com | 2500 | WeBroker.com | 2200 |
| SweetLand.com | 2021 | RugWorld.com | 2002 |
Another set of 2-word domains – the “brandables” – appears above. Some are invented: UniPress, WinWell, FanMedia, RugWorld, etc. Others personalize the commonplace: WeBroker or MyFloors. And, of course, there are some found phrases versatile enough to apply to a wide variety of topics: e.g. CiaoBella or LittleFish. I’ve written regarding CiaoBella, UniPress.com, ColoView, and RugWorld.com by now.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slava.com | 6036 | Tavares.com | 5725 |
| Icona.com | 5400 | Evesham.com | 3350 |
| Creeks.com | 3080 | Stellen.com | 2837 |
| Avancera.com | 2600 | Fictions.com | 2578 |
| Faceters.com | 2400 | Prancer.com | 2342 |
10 single-word domains sold at NameJet during August – some of them found in the English dictionary, some of them proper names like Evesham (a city) or Tavares (a disco band), and some (like Icona or Avancera) seemingly invented. Stellen is German, and Slava is all manner of Slavic. Both are discussed here. For Icona.com, I listed a number of end users, while Avancera.com seems to best fit a single Brazilian IT firm whose matching .BR domain appears in search results only to forward to Gradibel.com instead.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShuiBaoBao.com | 6300 | MedicalBillingServices.com | 5600 |
| GetAWebsite.com | 3200 |
Last but certainly not least, we have a handful of 3-word domains. ShuiBaoBao.com matches a non-resolving Chinese site built on .CN. The others correspond to .SERVICES and .WEBSITE nTLDs. Similar overlaps are found with TIPS.org and MoldTips.com (.TIPS), GreenBusiness.com (both .GREEN and .BUSINESS), LittleFish.com (.FISH), and LocalMarketing.com (.MARKETING). Even so, it’s the established TLDs whose sales are here to note. And, for all the complaints regarding long .COMs, a 22-letter domain can still sell for $5.6k and rank 18th among NameJet’s top monthly sales, despite competition from a fresh TLD. That states something.
