More on the value of generic domain names. April 9, 2008
Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains, advertising, curious finds, music.trackback
By now, my readers must have realized that my real addiction is domain names, not alcohol. One of my favorite activities is scouring the web for examples of how different people utilize their domain names, different development and monetization strategies and such… Fresh development ideas drive this business and create opportunities for old domain magnates and new industry entrants alike, and in general, I can never get enough. My most recent discovery is ElectronicMusic.com
Overall, it is a fairly simple website. I’d say that close to 70% of the total content area is dedicated to banners, google ads, and sponsored links. The only source of content is an infrequently updated news posting system, sort of like a blog, though more archaic (anyone remember NewsPro of the olden days?). It is not even a feed or an aggregator. However, this website is still very highly ranked in Alexa, and probably brings in a revenue stream that pays for its yearly renewal fees many times over.
This is a prime example of the value of a well-chosen, generic name. Clearly, such a generic, category-defining, commercial domain deserves much more development than it has gotten so far, but the very fact that it is still ranked within the top 1 million or so sites on Alexa is testament to the huge potential of ths property.
There is huge untapped value in names such as this one, and huge props to the registrant for scooping it up way back in 1996, and good luck with continued development.
certainly true that a generic domain name can be a huge help from an SEO, thus traffic point of view. google keyword traffic estimator can be of great value and bring new ideas which domain to choose if the your desired name is already gone. but the big BUT is that even the best domain name won´t succeed as a commercial or social venture of the their is no original high quality content constantly updated. another important thing often forgotten in the english speaking world is that their are huge markets in other languages too – and their you will be surprised what kind of names are still available. i´m speaking for the german market here at least.
Thanks for the great comment, Jens. Content is indeed King, and that is never going to change. The importance of the German market is evident in the high prices that .de domains have been yielding recently… Casino.de was sold for 400k Euros last month. Germany IS the biggest market in Europe to my best knowledge, is it not?