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Brandable or Media Domain?

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domains

Since the beginning of 2008, I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve made a lot of really good domaining decisions that have resulted in a good amount of generated income.   Add that to my affiliate income, which has at least tripled since the first of the year, and things are really starting to look up!

One thing that came with this success was my decision to form an online business to keep everything under.   This has obvious benefits come tax time and will make it a lot easier for me to calculate earnings vs. expenses, etc.   If things go as planned, this business will eventually become a LLC and be operated completely separately from my personal interests online.  

Anyway, as I’ve begun to make this transition, I quickly realized that I had a VERY important decision to make before I get started.   That is of course selecting the name of the business (and the corresponding domain name).  

Of course, I felt that finding a good name shouldn’t be a problem as I have a huge portfolio of brandable domains that would work great.  The problem I’m running into is that I would like the name to include the word “Media” at the end of it, but that kind of goes against my instincts as a domainer.   An example would be something like using FireballMedia.com instead of Fireball.com. 

Obviously we all know which is better and more valuable, but if you were starting up your own media company, would you rather use the media version?  All input is appreciated.

Strategy When Investing in LLLLL.com Domains

By Kyle Eslick | Filed Under Domainer Tips

With the LLLL.com domains long gone, it is domainer nature to move on to the “next big thing”.  Each domainer may have a different opinion of what exactly that is, but it seems many are moving on to LLLLL.com domains, with CVCVC.com domains getting most of the focus.   Without checking, I’m pretty sure that many of these domains are already gone! 

One term that has become popular on the domain forums is the word pronouncable when advertising these domains.  It is the same tactic that was used with LLLL.com domains.  Pronouncing many of these domains is quite a stretch, and the ones that are pronouncable in type, may not be when verbally spoken. 

One thing people need to ask themselves before investing in one of these types of domains for a potential end-user sale is whether or not it can be spelled multiple ways when pronounced verbally.  The goal of having a brandable domain is to associate the name with the product or service, and this includes verbal association.

When spoken, if saying the domain name results in several possible spellings, then it isn’t a brandable domain name in my opinion.   One example would be Colo.com.  When pronounced, it could sound like it would be spelled Solo.com or Kolo.com.   What about Pedi.com.   Is that spelled Pede.com?  Or Pedy.com?  Or even PD.com?  This is something to keep in mind when investing in this market.

With that said, there are many great brandable domains in this market, includes established sites like Sedo.com, Bido.com, etc.  I love domains ending in ”o” and think they are brilliant.  But there are other CVCV.com domains that would work great as well.

What do you look for when investing in LLLL.com or LLLLL.com domains?