Dictionary Domain Names Revisited: Are they being used effectively?

By Charles L. Harmon

Nearly two years ago in my article on dictionary domain names I was expecting, even hoping, that dictionary domain names would be a rare commodity. That would have driven up the price someone would pay to get a hold of one. After all it is definitely more difficult to find a good dot com domain name now compared to a couple of years ago.

But now quite a few months later I find that has not happened, dictionary domain names don't seem to have gone up in value. Although I recently read of an Internet marketer promoting buying domain names and immediately reselling them for a nice profit I think this is the exception. And he did not indicate anything special about the names that were bought or sold.

My experience the last two years, although it may not be typical, has reinforced to me that domain speculation is very risky at best. Even the so-called dictionary names don't appear to have much, if any, edge over multiple word domains. As an example I have let many of my dictionary domains expire. This was mainly due to an excessive number of names I was able to register. All told I had almost 600 domain names with about a fifth of them being dictionary domain names.

Just tonight I checked on some of my expired dictionary domain names to see whatever happened to them. Not good. Several were parked on directory pages, effectively not being used for much. Some were still unregistered. The clincher was a dual-purpose dictionary domain name I sold a few months ago for a nice four-figure amount was still sitting parked (not even collecting money) at one of the popular registries. That was a name I was actually going to use and had already designed most of the website. But because of the very good offer I sold it. If I had paid that much for a domain name I certainly would not let it sit months doing nothing with it. In all fairness, however, I have been so busy with other activities I too have not used most of the domain names I bought with the intention of using for my own websites.

During the domain check tonight the two of the other three most recent domains I had sold did not look promising either. Although not dictionary domains, one a name with a nice amount of traffic when I owned it was used for a directory totally unrelated to the domain name while the other gave a page not found error. That domain name, however, did have a website attached to it at one time, a nice one for a short time, but no more. Both of those two domain names were names that I sold for many hundreds of dollars each.

So from my perspective it seems like one has to be very careful when contemplating registering too many domain names unless you have a use for them, especially if you are like me and can find dictionary domain names easily. I did not aggressively promote any of my domain names and that surely must have made a difference. Now maybe what I should do is offer a service for those who don't have the time to find dictionary domains but can actively promote them. You can then find out first hand if dictionary domains are truly worthwhile.

Copyright © 2006, Charles L Harmon

About the Author

Charles is a computer programmer and developer turned web entrepreneur. He has written software for many major U.S. Corporations as well as written and sold his own software. He is currently on an Internet training mission so his domain collecting has all but come to a standstill. Charles can be reached via the contact form at his Gateway to Info Product Savings site.