I Bought a 4 Word .com Domain Name

It’s not a secret that I like one word .com domain names. I am almost always on the hunt for a good one word .com domain name, although they are often difficult to buy.

Although I am still in a bearish mood right now, I am still buying domain names. I regularly participate in domain name auctions and I send inquiries and offers daily. The majority of the acquisitions I am making right now are two and three word .com domain names (I only invest in .com domain names), and they are mostly in the 3 figure range.

My most recent auction win, at the time of writing this, is a four word .com domain name that I purchased via GoDaddy Auctions. I bought TheRestIsHistory.com for a little under $150 after the renewal fee was added to the auction price. I think the phrase, “the rest is history,” is well known in the US, and I think the domain name would make a fun brand name for a business.

The downside to this name, beyond the fact that it is four words, is that it will be the type of name that sits in my portfolio until the right buyer comes around. Timing is everything with the domain name business, so that buyer could come next week or in ten years. You never know. It’s unlikely I could or would spend time doing outbound marketing to try and find a buyer for it.

I don’t think this is a super valuable domain name, but it’s the kind of domain name I like to buy even when I am in a bearish mood. Once the domain name has been provisioned to my GoDaddy account, I think it will be one of a handful of domain names of that length in my portfolio.

You are welcome to share your thoughts about the name or share some of the long domain names you have purchased recently.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

52 COMMENTS

  1. Not that recent but I own –

    customweddingdress.com
    thegreenearth.com

    Not a fan of names that begin w/ “the” unless it’s a solid phrase – “rest is history” doesn’t do it for me.

  2. Wow $150 prices are up, that used to be a $12-30 name. Did turncommerce bot bid you up, you will never know because you have no idea who is pumping up prices. Sometimes you can activate a bot if you bid in the last 5 minutes, just depends if they spending that day or not.

  3. Nice buy. I read an article somewhere, some time ago, that phrase domains can be profitable. I just registered a three word today. (BustingMyAss.com)

    Best of luck with it.

  4. “The majority of the acquisitions I am making right now are two and three word .com domain names”

    Where is Snoopy to tell you what worthless garbage three word domains are? He never passes up the opportunity with me.

    Who has been the biggest truth teller about 3 and 4 word (or more) domains in the blogs? Me of course.

    So I must love this domain, right?

    No. Since you apparently have a bit of a “charmed life” (you will almost certainly reject or not like that idea), you may be able to sell it, even for a decent price. But as you might imagine I have a lot of experience with long domains, even some well known two word phrases, and that is not really a good pick. It’s just an expensive lottery ticket. A lot of these well known phrases seem like they surely must have potential, and surely must be a good pick, but it turns out people just don’t care. But like I said, it may work out for you anyway.

    As a general rule the commercial potential has to be blatant. Sometimes they can even be category owning, or sub-category owning. There can be rare exceptions for non-blatantly commercial phrases, but only very rare. I wish I felt at liberty to reveal the three word .com I would say is worth 9 figures, for instance.

    Rick Schwartz’s “Shop til you drop” is a great example of this.

    I just checked a really super snappy two word phrase that’s been used a ZILLION times in public media that I kept for a year or two and then dropped not all that long ago – because people just don’t care – and sure enough nobody even bothered to register it again. From time to time I discover available phrases and I pass them by, knowing that people just don’t care except for the rare exceptions.

    Then again, maybe people like you could stimulate a market for such things, if you can buck the domaining “establishment narrative” and bias…

      • @Snoopy – Lying troll making a fool of yourself, you don’t even know who I am or anything about me since I post anonymously, let alone what domains I have been involved with. Thanks for polluting the blog and harming the community, cause and industry with your reprehensible behavior though.

      • @Bill – Reasons we all understand, i.e. sometimes you absolutely positively don’t want to call people’s attention to something because it’s contrary to your own interests. Especially to an army of big players who are far better at taking advantage of it than you.

  5. I think the full phrase is ‘and the rest is history’ but I like this too. I sold fromseatoshiningsea.com for mid 4 figures. Most colloquial sayings are worth owning imo.

  6. I recently got UnwillingToWork.com

    It has become huge topic in politics in USA.
    Already got few inquiries and good type in traffic for a new domain.

    Everyday there are talk shows and news stories on this topic.

    Already tens of millions of search results in google.

  7. Nice name.

    I personally think longer domain names are highly under appreciated by domainers.

    They can be very catchy, easy to remember, pass the radio test and do a great job of grabbing eyeballs on searches.

  8. I like well known phrase domains like TheRestIsHistory when they have positive or aspirational kinds of connotations.

    They have commercial potential for big corporations as supplementary brands. So a sports shoe company could run a campaign like: “I switched from Brand X, won my first marathon, and the rest is history.”

    (Ending with a link to the domain.)

    I’m trying to only buy short names, but the longest name I acquired in the last few months is:

    HydrogenFuelCells.com

  9. I like it, Elliot. I think the right buyer will come along if you have patience. I’ve been away from the fine art/sport/science of domaining for a little while but, when I was last active, I built a boutique tech support site for bloggers on MommyBloggersBestFriend.com. I hand-regged the domain and sold it (with a small customer base) for a 4-figure profit. I really needed the cash or I would have kept building the business. I recently acquired it again, along with some similar names in other blogging niches, and hope to repeat my earlier success. I am open to taking on the right partner.

  10. I just bought the 3 word domain LickMyNose.com. This is not that great sounding name. But you could find lot of content on web related to pet animals with this name. Lot of pictures and videos of Cats and Dogs licking their owners comes up when i do a web search. This name will make up a nice pet website or Blog. Hope today or in future LickMyNose.com finds a buyer.

  11. You guys need to wake up and realize that 99.9% of the reason why you are going to be in here telling Elliot that it’s good is because of who he is. In the process you are going to miss or dismiss the wisdom of what I wrote. That’s how life works, and certainly this industry. You will lose out in the process.

  12. Personally I’m not a fan of this type of name, because it’s meaningless really. Sure, somebody, some day might pop up and enquire after it, but I wouldn’t hold my breath because it’s a novelty name at best – as somebody else said, an expensive lottery ticket.

    But then, aren’t all domain names in some context?

    Who’s to say what’s good or bad, when some really odd looking domain names sell for huge numbers. I know I’ve got it wrong more times than I’ve got it right.

    My longest name presently is charteredbuildingsurveyor.com – it’s 3 words but describes an exact professional title.

    It’s not for sale, it’s directed to one of the most expensive domain name I ever bough, as are many others.

    I stopped “domaining” a while back now, preferring instead to use my portfolio to promote elements of my niche markets I work in. It’s more profitable for me doing things this way than waiting for the elusive buyer of my names.

  13. I’ve mentioned this a number of times over the years, but I think because it’s me people just gloss right over it. But this is the reality and discovery worth it’s weight in gold:

    It’s all about the quality of the phrase as a commercially authoritative top of mind phrase. If that’s what it genuinely is, then as I mentioned above it can be category owning or at least sub-category owning. This is what people do with such a phrase, no matter how long it is:

    1. They type in the domain.

    2. Search: 2a. They search for the exact phrase. 2b. They actually search for the domain itself. 2c. Not only do they literally search for the domain itself, but they search for it in multiple forms by only adding spaces, so that it matches the domain exactly, but only has spaces employed in the search in numerous different ways.

    And as I’ve also written before, I discovered this with three and four word .coms, but it was the huge COMMERCIALLY AUTHORITATIVE top of mind four word .com that inspired me to want to write about it.

    That is why such domains are valuable to end users and can be built upon.

    And as an end user, I also used to make money because of that, with the bunch I have in mind.

    But phrases like the one here, no matter how well known, are not going to experience that. It’s night and day, apples and oranges.

    And I probably just wasted my time and strength on this again, but you never know…

  14. I think you got a good deal on the domain. There is nothing wrong with having “The” in the domain as long as it is a part of the brand or phrase. Also, this is one of the more popular sayings in the US. Whenever you buy a domain, you always look at the uses and this one has plenty. It can be the title of a book, a movie, a blog, historical company, etc…

    • You don’t seem to be catching on about when things appear as if they surely must make sense, but they really don’t. You think what I wrote doesn’t have the ring of someone who knows what he’s talking about? I’ll bet it does with Elliot himself though. Or being anonymous makes a difference? Let me guess – you think I haven’t already “been there, done that” with the kind of reasoning you are espousing here for this topic, years ago and ten times over even? Even with much better examples? And it’s not about having “the” in it.

  15. I own following 3 & 4 word names:

    1. DireverlessAutoFinance.com – For self-driving vehicle finance / loans.

    2. SelfDrivingBatteries.com – For self driving vehicles batteries

    3. AffordableHealthCure.com – Similar & yet meaningful name for ‘Affordable health care’.

    All domains are planned to sell @ 3 digit price each.

    • This is priceless, but you (and doubtless others) will probably just resist it:

      1. It has to be commercially *authoritative*, not just commercial. It has to be *the* top of mind or, as applicable, one of a small number of the top of mind, category or sub-category owning phrases.

      Normally I avoid saying anything bad about domains except in rare cases, and this is one of those rare times when it is important to say something. Those three examples you just gave are dead, dead as door nails, duds. Dead in the water. If you read all my comments, those do not qualify. If you read what I wrote about how people type in the domain and search for the **top of mind** phrases and even the domain itself, those do not qualify. (Yes I know you will almost certainly just double down and maybe even be a bit upset, been there done that already.) What I’m telling you (and hence everyone) is gold and is the key, but you can reject it if you want. If you want to do yourself a favor though, you will drop those when they expire and start over.

      • John, I’d like to discuss this with you further but I don’t want to go too far off-topic or jack Elliot’s post. If you’d like to share your knowledge & experience, please email me tim at timbury dot com. Essentially, I agree with you. My main concern is financial. Most aspiring domainers can’t afford to buy the commercially *authoritative* names and they are rarely available to hand reg. That leaves us doing the best we can with 2nd or 3rd rate names. I’ve decided to let go of most of my names, and develop the better ones to generate revenue and/or sell outright. I welcome contact from anyone else on this subject, also.

        • Tim, not only is Elliot not going to mind this discussion right here at his blog, but:

          1. It is on topic.

          2. He will like it very much, because it just enhances the value and potential reach of his blog. Just like some things make “good tv,” it makes “good blog.”

          It’s really not rocket science. It’s simply applying everything we already know about 1 and 2 word domains to 3 and 4 (and in rare cases more) domains.

          Only on very rare occasions would I ever actually buy one. In fact the last time I bought one must have been just to recover one I regretted letting go. I have also bought a few before, up to a max of low $x,xxx which I sold for $xx,xxx.

          They often are available to reg. Why? Precisely because the industry is so full of pigheaded, stubborn, zero sum thinking, selfish bigotry and bias, and domaining industry “establishment narrative” brainwashing that people don’t even consider them. Perhaps I shouldn’t even be sharing that since it’s a valuable secret, but whatever, don’t really care anymore.

          But yes, we tend to get a little carried away, so from time to time you have to let them go and start over after you’ve improved your sense. I’ve just discarded the better part of a 1,000 even, though many are also pretty short, even some two worders and a one worder.

          Because this is another part of the secret: even if you pick a good one, there’s no guarantee of anything. And the domaining industry has been so successful at also brainwashing the end user market and poisoning them with things like Estibot that you are often dealing with that too.

          Then as you purge the flock you watch as HugeDomains and other people pick up almost all of them, which means clearly they think they are valuable, but your regret rate should get close to zero as you improve, because inevitably some of what you picked was really not worth it. My regret rate is close to zero, though there have definitely been some regrets. One or two recoverable, but some not.

          And yes, there really is a super EMD out there at three words .com and worth easily 9 figures to an end user, long term maybe even 10, at least 8 minimum would be the bargain level for a sale. The current holder probably doesn’t realize that, however, and probably would take 7.

        • PS, when I say “recover” I mean I was able to buy it back from someone who already had it. And the news I was expecting to bring its value to light occurred and is in progress now.

  16. John, thanks very much for sharing your knowledge and experience. I try to learn something from everyone I meet in this field. Congratulations on the success with your recovered domain. I recovered a domain I had accidentally let expire once, but it was only valuable for sentimental reasons.

    While searching unsuccessfully for an available domain for my Web Studio business back in 1996, my brother suggested “Timbury” since I was Tim and lived in Woodbury, CT at the time. I was surrounded by Danbury, Middlebury, Waterbury, and Southbury (where I worked at IBM). He couldn’t remember in which ‘bury’ I lived. All three top TLDs were available, so I took Timbury.com. When I realized I had lost it, it cost me $250 to get it back from one of those Internet REIT companies. I believed I was believed I was being ‘ripped off. ‘ Then I started getting letters from a scammer trying to trick me into registering my domain for some outrageous fee. (I still get letters from this scumbag.)

    Years later, when I discovered “domaining”, I thought back to these early experiences and I didn’t think highly of domainers, at first. Since then, I’ve discovered a wonderful group of honest, generous people who, like yourself, have shared their know-how quite freely with me. I’ve made some money and, more importantly, made some friends. I took a leave-of-absence from domaining for a bit, but I’m back – still hoping to grab that ‘once in a lifetime’, ‘Mike Mann’ name of gold that will allow me to retire. Lol! Until then, I do the best I can with hand-regged silver (no pun intended, Elliot), making grocery money. But your advice gives me hope, John. I just have to be more discerning in what I choose to register.

    • That’s great Tim, and I appreciate the thoughts. Yes it’s very possible to get carried away and this latest round is not my first big purge. The domaining industry itself has ruined it really, aside from the external enemies like Google. While there are occasional small pockets of acknowledgment that good longer names have value, they are almost nullified by the prevailing brainwashing and self-serving narrative. There appears to have been a whole lot of zero sum thinking. If someone is trying to sell or broker a short one for 6 or 7 figures, the last thing on earth they have any incentive for is to acknowledge that good longer names have any significant value at all to end users, so they drumbeat the opposite message. By doing that they have only been shooting themselves and everyone else in the foot, however, and drinking and serving Kool-Aid. And in the process they’ve been greatly devaluing the ones they have been so self-serving about to begin with as well. Even doing crazy insane things like slapping Estibot “appraisals” on auction listings so that if any person from the real world shows up they will perceive that the industry’s de facto standard “appraisal” service is telling them a great domain’s worth is vastly less than its reserve price. Talk about a script right out of a sitcom or episode of The Twilight Zone.

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