Hot domain name sales month — Recapping NameJet’s
NameJet had another strong month in April. Here’s a look at its results.
As measured by the number of domain name sales closing at or above $2,000, so far 2015 is shaping up to be NameJet’s best year. Out of 47 months on record, just 8 have racked up 100 or more $2k+ sales. During 2014, no month saw 100 sales; yet 3 of the past 4 months are among those 8. March totaled 94, which is just shy. February set the all-time record.
April’s high sale $32,220 is not as striking as we’ve often seen. (March more than quadrupled that figure.) Actually, as monthly highs go, $32.2k is smack dab in the middle – 23rd from the top out of 47 recorded months. It would rank 8th among the past 12. The TLD distribution is also typical: 5 .NETs and 4 .ORGs, leaving 107 .COMs. Nothing else.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| WaterCoolers.com | 25200 | UncutDiamonds.com | 6100 |
| PrintingJobs.com | 4666 | PaddleBall.com | 3922 |
| SheepSkins.com | 3455 | PostageScale.com | 2545 |
| PoliceRadar.com | 2100 |
Although the top 2 sales were LLL.com domains, there has been so much discussion of that category lately (by me, by Andrew Rosener, by Raymond Hackney, and by everyone else) that I’ve decided to lead with its opposite: exact-match, 2-word, product descriptors. WaterCoolers.com stands head and shoulders above the rest at $25.2k. That was April’s third highest sale, just $400 behind the #2. Pound for pound, uncut diamonds might be more valuable, but water coolers enjoy a much broader market. Personally, I’d rather have a cool glass of H2O than a shiny pebble. A number of of these items were discussed during my weekly articles.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| GovernmentHousing.com | 6200 | DrugTreatmentCenter.com | 2433 |
| DataEngineering.com | 2115 | NationalDefense.org | 2111 |
| SpaceImaging.com | 2000 |
These domains may not correspond to shippable products, but they’re also of the descriptive, exact-match, category-defining variety. DrugTreatmentCenter.com is 1 of 4 three-word domains in this list; and at 19 letters, it’s tied as the longest. GovernmentHousing.com and NationalDefense.org are both notable issues within the national debate – of any nation. Yet I expect that these are meant for the United States, whose citizens (almost alone out of the world’s population) don’t rely on and largely don’t recognize their own ccTLD, .US.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| NWN.com | 32220 | FYL.com | 25620 |
| PQA.com | 17100 | XVZ.com | 11000 |
Alright, you China aficionados! Here’s what you really care regarding: short alphanumeric strings. April had 4 LLL.com sales, counting the month’s 2 highest. For comparison, January and February each had 10, while March had 15. Make of that slow-down what you will.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1035.com | 18020 | 9203.com | 12000 |
| 1474.com | 10688 | 6450.com | 9789 |
| 9206.com | 9390 | 1476.com | 8988 |
| 4032.com | 8928 | 4650.com | 8100 |
| 5346.com | 7302 |
Numerics came in at #5, #9, and #12. With 9 of these NNNN.com’s selling versus 4 LLL.com’s, we could speculate regarding reasons. Greater available supply, lower barrier of entry, pure chance?
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51513.com | 9120 | 06677.com | 5430 |
| 05555.com | 4930 |
Add a digit, and here are another three numerics headed for China. Noticeably, each has a repeating pattern of some kind.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2M.net | 3300 | U5.net | 2600 |
| Q4.net | 2000 |
This trio provides a good reference point for the current value of 2-character .NET domains with 1 letter and 1 number.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 058.net | 5000 | 33Z.com | 4220 |
| CPN.org | 3600 | LL3.com | 2309 |
Here’s a grab bag of short domains of various flavors: NNN.net, NNL.com, LLL.org, LLN.com. Three of those appeal to the Chinese palette, but I expect CPN.org may remain in the West.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| STIL.com | 15100 | HIRA.com | 10000 |
| GEAI.com | 8211 | HNBC.com | 6388 |
| HINZ.com | 6133 | CMSB.com | 5055 |
| CCUP.com | 4533 | HHAA.com | 4109 |
| SSVV.com | 4100 | FOGE.com | 3800 |
| ZAXY.com | 3600 | LCBC.com | 3460 |
| DAIG.com | 2842 | LUNK.com | 2700 |
| EEJJ.com | 2600 | VIOX.com | 2100 |
| EJAN.com | 2050 | IIRR.com | 2001 |
The list of 4-letter .COMs is much larger: 18 in all, which is 15.4% of all $2k+ sales at NameJet during April. Clearly, this is a bread-and-butter category for the industry. Lunk.com might be categorized as a word, since I’ve met lunkheads. And Stil.com, the highest LLLL.com sale at $15.1k, is an notable word in German.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchet.com | 10099 | Slips.com | 9901 |
| Knapsack.com | 7350 | Lumbar.com | 7000 |
| Papoose.com | 4700 | Orangeries.com | 2300 |
Half a dozen additional dictionary words sold during April. For aggressive, decisive, problem-splitting, the brand name Hatchet.com is not to be messed with. Some words, such as “Slips”, are quite versatile – covering both women’s clothing and boat storage. Lumbar.com is the modest of one’s back; so I’d imagine it will be used for physical therapy. A “Papoose” is word for a Native American infant or the backpack in which it is carried. Quite an interesting coincidence seeing Knapsack.com sell at the same time. “Orangeries” are a kind of building or architectural extension, as seen here.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| TheJet.com | 3288 | BreadWinner.com | 3210 |
| PlayAgain.com | 2935 | PriceWars.com | 2800 |
| 9Months.com | 2500 | LetsWorkout.com | 2222 |
| HotTip.com | 2100 | ItsYourLife.com | 2011 |
| ItsMagic.com | 2000 |
These are multi-word domains that I’d consider common everyday phrases. 9Months.com, of course, refers to pregnancy. HotTip.com implies gambling or the stock market. Earlier, I explained BreadWinner.com for the benefit of anyone whose first language isn’t English. It’s fitting, isn’t it, that TheJet.com was sold by another jet, NameJet. “Play again” is what a gloating video game asks following it has just murdered you. Put in the next quarter …
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| TradePromo.com | 2201 | HouseMover.com | 2100 |
| LocalPubs.com | 2100 |
Phrases such as these may not crop up so often as self-contained everyday sayings, but they’re descriptive and intuitive. They don’t entirely define their topic (as would, say, TradeShows.com or Movers.com or Pubs.com), but they’re not “made up” either.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| OnePass.com | 14199 | DiamondGroup.com | 9433 |
| ProLearn.com | 7200 | ProMedical.com | 4995 |
| MoneyTrade.com | 4100 | HotFun.com | 3400 |
| CapLink.com | 3300 | CasinoTime.com | 3151 |
| LuckyShop.com | 3120 | BrandSearch.com | 3100 |
| CoreLabs.com | 2999 | OnlineStudio.com | 2601 |
| OneTrack.com | 2387 | PinkShop.com | 2311 |
| YummyFood.com | 2200 | OceanTech.com | 2150 |
| DataMarkets.com | 2100 | DigiSign.com | 2077 |
In contrast, every item in this sizable set of 2-word domains is “made up” to some degree. They’re a loose grouping of invented brand phrases. Well, that’s arguable with HotFun.com, since it has been around at least since Sly and the Family Stone in 1969. Some of my favorites are at the bottom end of the price range: OceanTech.com, YummyFood.com, and DigiSign.com. The last of these is ideal for online certification and contracts.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jumpo.com | 5400 | Volantis.com | 2500 |
Here we have a pair of single-word brandables – what I’d call pseudo-words or neologisms to distinguish them from 2-word brand phrases, brandable dictionary words, and common phrases. There were actually half a dozen more such domains that sold during April, but I’ve grouped them differently in the next table.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlRajhi.com | 11200 | Anchi.com | 5620 |
| Daleng.com | 4100 | Alutec.com | 2767 |
| Extabit.com | 2599 | VistaAlegre.com | 2532 |
| BancoBrasil.com | 2415 | Fatec.com | 2210 |
| Abcon.com | 2207 | LArche.com | 2085 |
Each of these domains matches 1 or more preexisting brands, which either use a longer domain or a different non-.COM extension. While they may have intrinsic value – BancoBrasil.com is Portuguese and “L’Arche” is French – these prices were undoubtedly influenced by the availability of preexisting websites to sell to. Nothing wrong with that necessarily. Still, onlookers would be wrong to conclude that similar domains will command similar wholesale prices.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pompeii.com | 19999 | Melisa.com | 6500 |
| Henrique.com | 3508 |
Here we have 3 proper nouns. The name Melissa ordinarily has twice the “S”; so I was surprised to see that $6.5k price. Pompeii, the city famously buried in a volcanic eruption, is luckier today as tourist destination and domain sale than it was in Roman times.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| SuoPing.com | 4320 | Maome.com | 3636 |
| Kuang.net | 3508 | PaoEr.com | 2031 |
Pinyin Chinese domains, it seems.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery.org | 3002 | LuxHomes.com | 3000 |
| HousesForSale.org | 2877 | NantucketProperties.com | 2088 |
| WatersideProperty.com | 2000 |
Montgomery.org could qualify as another proper noun, since it’s a surname. But it’s also an American capital city. Likewise, LuxHomes.com fits as well with the 2-word brand phrases above. But I’ve decided to group both with these other real estate domains. In this category, longer domains tend to be more common, since city place names themselves tend to be long. We have another of April’s 3-worders. And Nantucket gives us the second of two 19-letter domains from last month.
| Domain Name | End $ | Domain Name | End $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| HG7778.com | 5020 | HG3338.com | 3709 |
| wwwHG0088.com | 2100 |
No, I have no idea either. If you care enough to look them up (I don’t), let us all know what’s up with these monstrosities.
