Valuation

Word-Based Value

This category defines those variables that depend solely on the technical aspects of the word or words used, paying no attention to what the name represents or means.

1. Number of Characters
Short names are simply better than long names. There are a number of reasons why this is so. Small names are generally easier to spell and communicate, and they almost always have more impact. Another aspect commonly overlooked is that only very small domain names provide for the possibility of using easily recognized initials or acronyms.

2. Number of Words
Goldnames believes that the more intuitive a name is, the higher its value. When a businessperson is thinking of a new for his company or website, he brainstorms new names, proceeding from the most intuitive to the least intuitive.  Names can fall anywhere in the following tiers, ranked in descending order of value.

Single word names are good for the two types of domain names.  The first type is the industry label-type name (autos.com, cars.com, drugs.com, cameras.com, etc.).  These names are powerful because they are the first names a person will try when he/she is looking for something specific.  As mentioned in the chart, the simpler they are, the more people will try them out first.

The second type of name is a brand name – a name that is usually unrelated to the type of business the firm engages in. Fewer words are also important for this type of domain. Most of the great brand names in history were short, and (if made up of functional words at all) usually only one word (Ford, Coke, Amazon.com, yahoo, Sony, Busch, and the list goes on and on).

3. Easily Spelled Name
The ideal domain name can be communicated easily by word of mouth; it is hard to misspell, and has no hyphens. Could the name be advertised on the radio?For example, a spoken ad that says, “shop at dogs-for-you-dot-com” could be spelled in any number of ways and will easily create confusion – and therefore, less eyeballs.
Things to look out for in this arena are:names with “for” in it, double N’s (funnet.com or funet.com or fun-net.com), words spelled differently in different countries (color.com or colour.com), or words that people just don’t know how to spell.
Any name that causes misspellings due to confusion (as opposed to a word that is just hard to spell) is not valueless. These names become valuable when bundled with all or most of the other names that it could be confused with. For example, dogs-4-you.com is only valuable to you if you also own dogs4you.com, dogsforyou.com, dogs-for-you.com, dogs4u.com, dogsforu.com, dogs-4-u.com, etc. The hits you will get from any of these names individually will not be impressive; but when you combine all of them, you can achieve a significantly wider grip on the market.
Analogously, the second floor of a building is of low value to a retail store. However, if the property owner can also rent out the first floor of the building, then the second floor will have significant value as an extension.

4. Easily Remembered
A name is only valuable if people will automatically know to go to your site for your product or service (loans.com) or if you have a great name that, once people hear about you, they will not forget about you (e.g., ebay.com, FatBrain.com, AskJeeves.com). If in the high likelihood that you have missed out on a 1 st tier generic domain name, your best bet is for a name that is catchy and easy to remember. The ultimate decider in the value of this variable will be the answer to the question “does my name sound good?”

5. Easily Verbalized
Very similar to the previous variable, verbalization refers to the ease in which the name flows off the tongue (as opposed to how natural and unique it sounds).
The question one must ask here is, “are people going to feel good talking about my company?”
Is it a name that’s fun to say?(ebay, fatbrain, amazon, ubid, etc.)

6. Language
English names are significantly more valuable than non-English names since the largest percentage of Internet users are English speakers. Domains in the other major world languages do have some value, and can be seen as a great investment opportunity as the rates of non-English speakers joining the Internet are skyrocketing. The exact weight of this variable will fluctuate greatly over the next few years as the ratio of English speakers to other world-language speakers will decrease.

7. TLD
Exclusivity breeds value.It’s simple supply and demand. More people want fewer places to be in. If you want to live in any of the exclusive cities of the world, you will have to pay a much but when you combine all of them, you can achieve a significantly wider grip on the marketcould be rented much cheaper in most other cities. Dot-com is the Beverly Hills of the Internet.It’s the only TLD that expresses experience, power, and expertise. It’s “what the pros use. ”Even before a company defines exactly what it is doing, a simple name including “.com” can add instant value and credibility.
“.com” offers instant search possibilities. If one types a domain name alone (e.g., just “amazon”) into Netscape Navigator 3.0 or greater, and Internet Explorer 4.0 or greater, the "www" prefix and ".com" TLD are added automatically by the browser software.
Since trading is much thinner in other top-level domains, estimates of value are more sketchy. However, GoldNames estimates a .Net domain could command up to 25% of the above valuations. Other top-level domains (e.g., .org) could command up to 10% of the above valuations. Country domains (e.g., .co.uk) will vary tremendously in value based on the level of Intern et use and wealth in the country.
All real property investors know that yesterday’s slum can be tomorrow’s high-rent district. It is possible that in 1-2 years, .net and .org names will fetch prices comparable to .com names today.

8. Variation
When possible, one should try to own the relevant variants of a name: the singular and plural forms of the name, any spelling variations, and the addition of a hyphen. For example, NewYorkHomes.com has more value if packaged with NYHomes.com, NY-Homes.com, NYHome.com, etc. If NYHomes.com is an already active site, then another buyer will be unwilling to pay any money at all for NY-Homes.com, or any of the other permutations of the name. All money he spends on advertising will just be directing potential customers to a competitor’s site.
When packaged with the dominant, i.e., most intuitive, form of a name, a subordinate form of a name has approximately 5% - 25% of the dominant form’s value. Without the addition of the dominant form of a name, the subordinate form can have as little as $0 in value.
Similarly, a potential brand name for a new company (e.g., kinetica.com) has significantly more value if sold in a package with the same brand name pre-registered in all the major country domains.