Commercial Usage of a Domain Name

People often ask me what I look for when buying a domain name. While there are many factors that I consider, I think the single most important thing about a domain name is its potential commercial usage. When evaluating domain names to acquire, I ask myself, “how can this domain name be used, and would it make sense to build a website around this domain name?” If you are able to know exactly what will be on the website before even navigating to it because it’s a category killer name, you probably have a good name.
I hardly ever buy a domain name based on traffic or revenue numbers. There are too many non-controllable factors when buying based on these statistics, so my buying decision is not determined by these stats. Yes, I do ask about a domain name’s traffic, but that is to make sure the name “has a pulse” to get a feel for whether it is worth sinking money into a development project. The single most important thing to me is commercial usage.
Whether I am planning to build a website on the domain name or whether I plan to sell the domain name to someone who will build a website, I want to know whether the domain name makes sense to have a website. Sure, there are plenty of great “brandable” domain names out there, but why do I want to spend my time trying to convince someone about how great it sounds or why that particular domain name would be great for a particular site? I would rather be able to contact someone in the industry or someone in the domain industry and say, I have the category killer name for this particular niche, and the domain name is actually the name of a particular category or niche.
A person should never have to say, “this domain name would make a great xyz website.” A great, commercially viable, generic domain name shouldn’t need any explanation. For example, my newest acquisition is EstatePlanners.com. I believe this domain name needs no explanation, and that’s why I like it.