We’ve all seen short, intuitive domain names succeed as businesses – Buy.com, Cameras.com, and Tickets.com come to mind for me.
But many domains in this category have been monstrous failures (Toys.com anyone?), and an even greater percentage belong in neither the “winner” nor the “loser” category.
Most are “never was.” As in, they sit today . . . parked. The fact that so many great domain names are still parked is tantamount to the argument no, great domain names are not instant brands.
It takes more than just a ‘dot com’
Clearly, it takes a lot more than a cool .com to create a useful website. This, you’d think, would be a rather simple ingredient to creating a brand in 2011.
What is a “Parked” Domain?
When a domain name is “parked,” it’s basically doing nothing. Parking is a hosting service that syndicates generic text ads from places like Google and Yahoo. Here’s an example of a parked website on a great domain name.
Not much to it. Basically, it’s untapped potential. Many of the best domain names are still parked because they are owned by a small group of lucky/smart individuals who reside in the top echelon of the domain world.
These men and women (and some companies), do not “develop” the domain names into actual websites for a variety of reasons. Let’s look at a few of them.
- There’s a lot of money in parking a website.
It’s turnkey. You buy a domain, sign up for a parking service, and flip the switch. Now you are syndicating ads and getting a revenue share with the parking company on clicks on these ads. If your domain is good, people will simply type it into their browser and hit enter. Not everyone uses search engines or social media to find websites. So the end result is you get a truly passive income stream. The best domainers still make 7 figures a year parking their sites. I’ve seen it firsthand.
- It takes a lot of work to build a site.
Here’s where the argument develops. It takes a ton of work to build an industry-leading, high-ranking website that people want to use again and again. And the bar is always being raised by the competition, by Google, by the prevalence of social media. Just because you plopped down $1 million on Mortgage.com doesn’t mean you wake up tomorrow with a mortgage lead generation business making $1 million.
Content, conversation and optimization
You need content, conversion optimization, someone to buy your leads, nationwide licensing and a presence on social media sites (to name a few). If you own 50 great domain names, how will you build them all into great sites? You won’t. That’s a key reason why a great domain name isn’t an instant brand, or instant “winner.”
- Owning a domain name does not equate to being good at building a business, or a website.
Most top domainers will freely admit they don’t have a clue about how to build a great website. It took a lot of work to get SuretyBonds.com to the top in that industry after I acquired it. And building the business behind is a whole other can of worms. Great domain, yes. But acquiring it was step 1 out of 1,000.
Is it Refinance.com or Refinancing.com?
This is a real life example. A contact sent me an email saying Refinancing.com was on the sale block, for something stupid like $800,000. “Think what a good mortgage company could do with Refinancing.com!”
Do people really search “refinancing?” As in, “I’m in the process of doing a refinance, so I guess I’m refinancing.” No. “ing” domains suck. There’s a big difference between refinance and refinancing. Look at the keyword tools to see search volumes on each keyword. I also know from experience in that industry there’s a world of difference between the traffic volume and quality between the two terms.
What other money are you putting behind it?
Say you did acquire a domain like Refinance.com. Congrats. “It’s a brand.” I’m with you on this one, it could be a brand. It’s short and descriptive. Has a web-friendly and mature monetization option, mortgage lead gen.
But if you just sank $1 million into the domain, you should be ready to triple-down on that investment to make it into a brand. You’ll need web design and development, content development, PR, link building, conversion testing, paid traffic/media buys, retargeting, and maybe TV, radio and other traditional routes. Because that’s what brands do.
You domainers ready to do all that?
I’m guessing not. I think the thought that goes through every domainer’s mind when they say “great name” or “that’s an instant brand” is nothing more than this – “That’s generic enough that some company with a lot of money will buy it.” Or “If I build this up enough, another domainer will buy it off me for a higher price.” It’s like a MLM scheme.
Creating a brand is hard work that takes time
I don’t mean for this to be a treatise against domainers, as I have a lot of friends who are domainers. They’re smart people. But it irks me to witness the foolish group think they all get into stating that simple domain names are “brands.” We all know that building a brand takes a lot of time and effort. It takes consistency over time. You earn it. You don’t buy it with a fat check.
StLouis.com is not an instant brand for the city of St. Louis. It certainly has a better chance to be a leading site in that city than BillTalksSTL.com, but you’ve got to put the work in all the same.
Domain names can be a great head start towards dominating a niche online. They can also be the ultimate trump card, where you and a competitor basically are equals, but your killer domain name pushes you over the top with the search engines and consumers.
Nothing is an instant brand. Don’t believe the hype.
Author:
Nathaniel Broughton is a veteran internet entrepreneur and investor. Dating to 2002, he has helped produce 3 Inc 500 award-winning companies. Nathaniel owns Growth Partner Capital, a venture fund that provides SEO consulting, premium link building and online reputation management services. He is also owner of SuretyBonds.com, a nationwide bonding agency. Previously he served as CMO of VAMortgageCenter.com, a $65 million nationwide mortgage bank which acquired his marketing firm Plus1 Marketing in 2008. A resident of San Diego, Nathaniel often writes from his experience as an investor, marketer, and advocate of “networking like Paris Hilton parties – Nonstop”. Follow him on Twitter – @natebro.
