Buying Domain Names

3 Biggest Factors When I Evaluate Domain Names

I spend quite a bit of time evaluating domain names to buy. Domain name auctions happen around the clock every day. Tens of thousands of domain names are up for auction at any given time, and new platform listings are added daily. Continuing to improve and grow my portfolio is critical, and evaluating domain names is essential.

There are many factors I consider when buying .com domain names. Tools I use daily – like ExpiredDomains.net and Dropping.pro – have many different search categories and filter options. There are a handful of search options I value more than others. I think the three most important factors I consider are these:

Tiny Upgrades to Tiny.com

A year and a half ago, Andrew Wilkinson, Co-Founder of a company called Tiny, shared some thoughts about how he felt when someone referred to his company as “Tiny Capital,” because the company’s slightly off-brand domain name was TinyCapital.com:

You’ll Never Guess How Deel is Now Using Deel.com

Earlier this week, Jamie Zoch reported that the Deel.com domain name was acquired by a startup called Deel. Deel.com had been owned by Francois Carillo, and the startup called Deel has been using LetsDeel.com for its website.

Judging by a few Twitter comments, it looks like the acquisition of Deel.com will be well-received by the startup’s customers and prospective clients who have been mistakenly visiting Deel.com instead of the correct LetsDeal.com. This is unsurprising since people tend to add .com to the name of the website they want to visit assuming the startup has its brand match domain name.

Alex Bouaziz, CEO & Co-Founder of Deel, excitedly mentioned Deel.com on Twitter a short while ago, and the company’s @Deel Twitter account retweeted:

Dharmesh Shah Comments on His $100k Acquisition

Sedo released its weekly domain name sales report yesterday, and the $100,000 sale of WordPlay.com was the largest public sale of the week on the platform. HubSpot CTO and Co-Founder Dharmesh Shah was the buyer of WordPlay.com.

I follow Dharmesh on Twitter, and like me, he is a big fan of the Wordle word guessing game that was recently acquired by the New York Times. Yesterday evening, I clicked one of his personalized Dharme.sh shortened url links related to Wordle, and I ended up on WordPlay.com. I recalled seeing the domain name on Sedo’s weekly sales list this morning and realized he was the buyer.

Commanders.com Was a Smart Acquisition

There has been a lot of speculation about the new team name for the Washington NFL team formerly named the Redskins. For much more than a year, people guessed what the NFL team would be called, and this morning it was revealed that the team would be known as the Washington Commanders.

Interestingly, it was a domain name transfer that put Commanders on the radar of many people. When Commanders.com transferred to MarkMonitor, the domain protection registrar used by the NFL and many of its teams, people speculated that it was because of the impending name change for the Washington Football Team. In fact, this proved to be accurate as Commanders.com is now the website used by the Washington Commanders.

These Domain Names Are Not for Sale!

I have come across quite a few domain names that are not for sale. Sometimes this means the right offer hasn’t been made, but it can also mean that the domain name is actually not for sale regardless of how much money is offered. Perhaps the domain name is being used for something but prospective buyers simply think that is just a stumbling block. Maybe the owner doesn’t need money. There are many reasons for why someone won’t sell a domain name.

Many longtime domain registrants have been so inundated with unsolicited inquiries and offers, so they put a “not for sale” type of message on their landing page. It’s probably not a complete deterrent, but I am sure it does a good enough job of keeping some people away.

I went through some of the landing pages for exceptional domain names that aren’t for sale, and here are some of the best domain names that you can’t buy:

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