In Australia, domain names can be valued on similar principles to real estate ( in many ways).
Rule 1: The address determines the value.
Rule 2: What’s built on the address adds to the value.
Simple as that in my opinion.
And when we’re talking “addresses” in relation to domain names, a prime keyword domain name (one or two words) – or a sensational one word “brandable” or “generic” domain makes for a good digital address.
Important Ground Rules / Some Exceptions
If you’re operating your online business or entity in Australia, then .com.au is absolute king. Approximately 86% of the 3,000,000 domain names in Australia are .com.au. There is obviously a reason for that!
Don’t settle for a .net.au domain just because the .com.au may appear too costly to acquire. It is the difference between the value of a beachfront property versus a home in the outer suburbs.
A geographic location included in a domain name can be very good (even though this extends the domain length to 2, 3 or 4 words).
“Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten”. Aldo Gucci
Examples
In yesterday’s article about Online Education Domains, I gave some examples of premium domains in that sector. Domains like Training.com.au; Student.com.au; Learn.com.au and Teach.com.au.
Those are the equivalent of beach front properties in my opinion.
What would be a premium domain if you’re in other sectors / niches?
- If you’re a Vet – Vet.com.au or Vets.com.au
- If you’re involved in Coaching – Coach.com.au or Coaching.com.au
- If you sell or design Wedding Dresses – WeddingDresses.com.au
- If you offer trademark registrations – Trademark.com.au; Trademarks.com.au – though TM.com.au is also a superb domain.
- If you manufacture or sell Heaters – Heaters.com.au or Heater.com.au
- If you market New Zealand holidays – NewZealandHolidays.com.au
- If you sell real estate in Bowral – Bowral.com.au or BowralRealEstate.com.au
- If you build houses in Perth – PerthBuilders.com.au
- If you have a mobile mechanic business – MobileMechanic.com.au
I’m sure you get the picture!
Lethal Weapons
If you have a 3 word company or business name, then you should definitely try and acquire a 3 letter acronym domain. They are just so valuable – and becoming more so every month as supply diminishes. Have a look at a previous article of mine – The Power Of Branding.
You don’t have to give your “long” name up – but better for you to have the 3 letter domain as well. You certainly don’t want your competition to have it.
Let me give a couple of fictitious examples.
If you had a firm called Abernathy, Gordon and Dennison, what would be the best domain name for branding purposes? AbernathyGordonDennison.com.au – or AGD.com.au?
Or a business called Adelaide Garden Designers – what’s best? AdelaideGardenDesigners.com.au – or AGD.com.au?
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great article and a new way to look at a domain name and the building side of the website as adding to an already established domain asset , sometimes i am surprised as with new technology ie hologram , vr or ar that so many .com.au are still available so i have snapped a number up ie adult and casino the dot coms many went in the 90’s but .com.au still available in the same name
Whilst .com.au is currently king in Australia, the inevitable release of .au will no doubt have an effect.
In what way do you foresee .au impacting on the value of .com.au domains?
@Joel
Why do you say it is inevitable Joel? Do you know something I don’t? 😉
Values on .co.uk domains have not been affected – and .uk continues to be the “poor relation”. Don’t take my word for it though – check the numbers out here from Nominet (importantly look at the table that reflects “new registrations”. These are brand new registrations not affected by “prior rights”):
http://www.nominet.uk/news/reports-statistics/uk-register-statistics-2015/
As for New Zealand, to my knowledge values haven’t changed one iota. In fact, many businesses chose not to even reserve the .nz. Can give you heaps of examples.
The .uk experience gives you the answer @Joel, 17 months on and only 4.25% of .co.uk holders have bothered registering the .uk equivalent. Moreover, .co.uk values have held strong and continue to increase. For example, Gold.co.uk just sold two months ago for £600,000 (AU$1.28 million). A read of previous articles (on this blog) and an understanding of the issues will further tell you that, in any event, .au is far from inevitable.
I simply meant in my opinion it’s inevitable, I doubt I know anywhere near as much as you Ned in regards to domains?
I have read all the previous articles on this blog Paul 🙂 It’s one of my favourites.
So the general consensus is that the release of .au will not dilute the .com.au space but strengthen it?
@Joel – I’m sure you know heaps more than me about lots of things to do with domains!
I’m still not convinced that the introduction of direct registrations is “inevitable”. Lots of minefields to clear first imo.
As to your question about diluting or strengthening the market (if .au does get introduced), I’ve thought about that a lot. There are lots of variables depending upon how it is done imo. I will do an article soon setting out my thoughts – would love to hear what other people think when I do.
My apologies Ned, I meant to use an ! at the end of my first sentence, not a ?
There is no doubt in my mind that you know truckloads more than I do in regards to domains!
Yes @Joel, among the two dozen foremost ‘domainers’ in Australia, the consensus would be that .au would push up the value of .com.au. That could be one reason why prices for .com.au names on the drops are still rising (the other being dwindling supply).
That understanding is based not only on the .uk experience but principally on the effect that the new TLDs have clearly had on .com, which has surged more than 200% in four years.
Every time a new extension is introduced it draws in more investment in domain names -period. And it’s not long afterwards that newbies start regretting their investment in the new extension. For example, only a few weeks ago I had a contact call me wanting to sell their [suburb] ‘.melbourne’ address that they had registered corresponding to their .com.au name that was being developed. He asked me what he could get for it. My answer was zip/nil, “dump it”.
Domainers that were around for .us, .biz, .travel, .asia, .cn and .com.cn know what folly it is to buy anything but .com and the best ccTLDs like .co.uk, .com.au, .de and .nl. And no, .co.nz does not make the grade -neither does .ca, nor .ie, nor .it, nor .co.za.
I like the real estate analogy. Sedo have done a great video which helps explain its application http://bit.ly/1OU5loa. I’ve heard stories about how little Melbourne real estate was worth in the 1930s, 1950s, even 1970s, compared to today. Some places that were $80k in the 1980s are now approaching $1 million. A lesson in the sovereign economic law of scarcity.
The place I rent in Melbourne sold for $100,000 in 2000 and is now valued at ~$700,000. Five years of rental payments and I’d have the house!