Business,  Domain Names

Domain Investment Strategies – Part 2 of 5

Ok, this is part two of my five part series on what kind of domains make good investments. I hope the three people who read my blog will find this interesting. 😉

Investment Strategy # 2: First Names & Last Names
First name domains are extremely rare, specially if they’re common enough and people will usually pay a huge premium to get their hands on a first name. Last names are even rarer and have the advantage of the entire family using the same domain for email and other branding. However, buying one of these is extremely difficult, especially if it is being used by a person with the same name or surname.

A James.com or a Smith.com are certainly worth their ‘weight’ in gold. .Net and .Org come in second. .Biz and .Info – not so much, though it is extremely rare to find common names available in any of these tlds either. ccTLDs do score here, a common name in India would do well with the .in, similarly a common name in china with a .cn

Another popular trend nowadays is to have the name or surname as a hack… I tried to buy Sam.it but it seems its a million dollar company that owns it and to buy it I’d probably have to buy the company. But I guess it just underlines the desirability of such names. Again, getting your name or surname as a hack is a rarity, since not all ccTLDs conform to what your name ends in either.

The third tier names in this type are FirstNameLastName.com or FirstNameLastName.ccTLD where the ccTLD represents your country. I’ve rarely seen other TLDs make a decent dent in this type of namespace but I’m sure a lot of people use alternative tlds too.

You must be extremely careful if you wish to play in this investment slot though, its an extremely fine line between registering for profit or cybersquatting. Trying to profit from someone else name, be it a celeb or a sportsperson or even an author is quite unethical and not a practice experienced domainers would find acceptable. Plus doing this would also expose you to potential UDRPs or TM infringement claims, which are not a risk a smart investor would be willing to take

Getting your own name or surname or that of your kids and family is fine, as is getting popular names and surnames for resale.

Image courtesy: blog.invitingsmiles.com

I’m sure a time will come when kids are named depending on the availability of that particular name in a TLD of choice. And you don’t want to name your kids with weird names since that was the only domain that was available.

In fact I recommend getting a firstname.TLD or firstnamelastname.com / cctld for your kids or even a familyname.TLD for your family as soon as feasible, as the world goes even more digital, these are going to get even rarer and your kids will probably thank you for it when they’re famous.

Samit Madan is an advertising professional with almost three decades of experience. He's known as the MediaWizard due to his expertise in advertising & marketing. He currently heads MediaWiz, a leading Media Company.

14 Comments

  • Don

    What I’d give to be able to own don.com! I’m a huge fan of name/surname domains and have registered the first/last.com of most of my family members, including family that hasn’t yet arrived ;-), just in case they ever have a need/want to use them. TRUST will forever be increasingly important as the digital world continues to grow – and I can’t think of a better spot to showcase yourself to the world than yourname.com (or relevant cctld). Having said that, I should probably get to work on developing mine.. lol!

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