Brandable Domains v/s Generic Domains
Picked up the last three dozen posts which mentioned a company on TechCrunch (which is also a brandable) and the general trend seems to be that domains being used are mostly brandable domains, not generics.
And even where the domains are generics, the usage itself isn’t directly related to the term but it’s used in a brandable sense.
So are generic domains overrated? Well, no. If you don’t have funding or a million dollar marketing budget, you would probably be better off using a generic, since it would help you rank better for the exact term that a random brandable. Yes, it’s true, even after Penguin / Panda etc.
If you’re a funded company and plan to go the entire trademark + legal protection route, you can do it with a brandable. Though even there, a lot of companies play safe by using a made up word or term but in .com – of the 36 companies listed below, most are .com, with one each of .me / .pa / .io / .fm
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Glide – Generic term, refashioned tld, used as a brandable.
glide.me
Meritful – Generic term, but used as a brandable too!
meritful.com
Kloudless – brandable term.
kloudless.com
Handle – Generic term, used as a brandable partially at least.
handle.com
AppArchitect – Generic!
apparchitect.com
Stylit – brandable term.
mystylit.com
BlackTag – brandable term.
blacktag.com
Bidzy – brandable term.
bidzy.com
KeenHome – brandable term.
mykeenhome.com
Floored – Generic term, but used as a brandable!
floored.com
Paidpiper – brandable term.
paidpiper.com
42 – brandable term.
42debut.com
GreenTape – brandable term.
gogreentape.com
OpenStreetMap – Generic!
openstreetmap.org
Zenefits – brandable term.
zenefits.com
Share Practice – Generic!
sharepractice.com
Tango Card – brandable term.
tangocard.com
Flipboard.com – Generic term, but used as a brandable!
flipboard.com
Spacebar – Generic term, but used as a brandable!
spacebar.com
Magisto – brandable term.
magisto.com
Betaworks – brandable term.
betaworks.com
Purchext – brandable term.
purchext.com
BuzzFeed – brandable term.
buzzfeed.com
ProBoards – Generic!
proboards.com
Placester – brandable term.
placester.com
Foursquare – brandable term.
foursquare.com
State – Generic term, but used as a brandable!
state.com
Moviora – brandable term.
moviora.com
Uber – Generic term, but used as a brandable!
uber.com
Shazam – brandable term.
shazam.com
Sherpa – brandable domain hack.
sher.pa
Soundrop – brandable term with obscure cctld.
soundrop.fm
Spotify – brandable term.
spotify.com
ThredUP – brandable term.
thredup.com
Square – brandable term.
squareup.com
Rambler – brandable term with obscure cctld.
rambler.io
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What do you think of this trend?
MediaWizard
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.
4 Comments
Steve
A lot of the domains we have sold have been brandables. Returns are better on commercially viable keyword domains though. Which ones do you prefer?
MediaWizard
Interesting info. We prefer generics for our own use and recommend them to clients as well.
Sue Hawkes
Why do you say Handle.com is ‘brandable’? I just do not see it.
MediaWizard
It is a generic if they used it to sell handles. As it is now it seems to be a mail management + crm solution, so in that sense it’s usage is brandable, even though the domain is generic.