WebRef Update: Featured Article: How to Create Profitable Domain Names | 2

How to Create Profitable Domain Names

Creating Your Domain Name

Now that you have a good idea of what makes a name valuable, it's time to think up some names of your own. Use the following techniques as a starting point, I'm sure you'll add some of your own along the way. Listed at the bottom of each section is one or more examples of names that I registered using the technique described.

1) The Future

It stands to reason that new technologies require new domain names. And the further away the technology is from commercial application, the better chance you have of finding unregistered names for it.

In order to get in early you'll need a news source that has in depth, up to date news coverage. Start by subscribing to one or more daily newsletters that cover hi-tech, try the 'Wired News Daily' for starters.

You could also use Web sites that have live newsfeed on them - two of the best are Moreover.com and Yahoo.com. Both have an enormous range of newsfeeds, and they also use other Web sites as news sources, and turn up lots of interesting stories and articles because of it.

You'll be facing a lot of competition though, especially from industry insiders. It's no coincidence that the majority of good WAP names are registered with Scandinavian individuals, since Scandinavian companies pioneered a lot of WAP technology. To beat these people to the punch, you'll have to get in early and take a risk or two.

My Examples: LiquidTrading.com, SmartphoneTV.com

2) Dictionaries

Most of the usable English language words have now been registered, but there are many salable foreign language words still up for grabs, not to mention longer English language words. The Spanish language in particular is attractive, since it is the second most widely used language on the Web, but has many fewer domain names registered.

WhoIS ULTRA will come into play here. Instead of logging onto the Net every time you find an interesting name, just type the name into a text file. When you have a hundred or so interesting names, load the text file into WhoIs ULTRA and check them all at once.

Specialized dictionaries are another good source of names. The key here is that they don't just contain single words, but subject- related terms as well.

Try scanning a dictionary of business terms, marketing terms, real estate terms, even tax or banking terms. Don't forget to jot down interesting terms so you can upload them later for checking.

My Examples: Cambiste.com, TaxMeasures.com

3) Generic Terms

A generic term is simply a term that represents a particular subject or industry, without referring to individual brands. For example, 'credit cards' would be the generic term for the credit card industry, and the generic Web site name would be 'creditcards.com.'

Web users are getting increasingly domain name savvy. Instead of attempting to locate a Web site for their topic with search engines, they are guessing at Web site names by typing a generic name straight into their browser.

This makes generic domain names very valuable, because once a Web site owner has the name pointing to their site, there's no other expenses involved in attracting a steady stream of site traffic for years to come - a rare form of promotion indeed!

You might guess that since generic names have such value, that they would have all been registered by now. This is not the case at all. I used WhoIS ULTRA to search for *Language.com. I found around ten of the names were still unregistered, even for languages with many millions of speakers. I'm guessing that some of these names are still not registered today.

My Examples: ThaiLanguage.com, Swedish Language.com

4) Buzzwords / Hot Topics

Sometimes subjects that have been dormant for ages get picked up by the media and become white-hot topics of debate, at least for a short while.

One great example was the furor that was created last Christmas over the lack of security on high profile Web sites. A day didn't pass without news that another Web site had been a victim of a 'Denial of Service' attack, or had thousands of credit card numbers stolen. Such bolts of publicity lightning create a great opportunity to cash in on domain names.

My Examples: SecureDealing.com, SecureDeposits.com

5) Prefix - popular words with single-letter abbreviations

This is a fairly simple way of generating new names. Just find popular words, phrases, and prefix them with any of the following abbreviations:

'i' - Internet, Interactive,Instant,I
'e' - Electronic
'u' - You
'v' - Virtual

The most valuable names are normally 'e'-prefixed, but it just depends on the word you are trying to prefix. For instance, both 'ePhoneBanking.com' and 'iPhoneBanking.com' work - 'uPhoneBanking.com' doesn't. As with all names, say them out loud before registering them - if it doesn't sound right, its probably not valuable.

My Examples: eSideload.com, ePhoneBanking.com, eSecureDeals.com, iSecureSolution.com

6) Combine Keyword With Popular Web Site Suffix

There are several hundred suffixes that are popular across a spectrum of Web sites with two word domain names - here are just a few:

*Auctions, *Bid, *Biz, *Central, *Deal, *Exchange, *Find, *Guide, *Index, *Market, *News, *Search, *Secure, *Submit, *Watch, *Web, *World, *Universe

Use the wild-card feature of the domain name search tool at Marksonline.com to find out just how popular they are. If you type in '*World' for example, you will get a list back of all the domain names that have been registered using that suffix.

My Examples: FashionAuctions.com, FreewareNews.com, HolidaysGuide.com

7) Combine Keyword With Popular Web Site Prefix

This method is identical in principle to (6) - except that you are looking for popular prefixes rather than suffixes. Here are a few popular Web site prefixes:

4*, Cheap*, Click*, Free*, Go*, Instant*, My*, Search*, Secure*, World*

My Examples: InstantGaming.com, 4SQL.com, SecureTraining.com, ClickSubmit.com

Even More Techniques

This article originally appeared in the September 21, 2000 edition of the WebReference Update Newsletter.

Comments are welcome
Written by Lee Hodgson and

Revised: Sept 21, 2000

URL: https://webreference.com/new/domainnames2.html