Recently, I was trying to purchase a domain name for a new Web site, and of course I tried every possible combination for the URL that made any sense, but they were all taken. I don’t mind at all if people are using the domain names that are registered, but it would appear that about 75% of the ones that have been taken are not in use! In fact the vast majority of them directed me to a page that said, “This domain name is for sale.” .Dear YNOT,

Recently, I was trying to purchase a domain name for a new Web site, and of course I tried every possible combination for the URL that made any sense, but they were all taken. I don’t mind at all if people are using the domain names that are registered, but it would appear that about 75% of the ones that have been taken are not in use! In fact the vast majority of them directed me to a page that said, “This domain name is for sale.”

Those six words piss me off more then you can imagine. Just the other day I tried ten combinations of words and six of them came back with 404 errors and the other four came back with “this domain name is for sale” pages. It seems some people still believe that in 2003, they can buy a domain name for $10 and turn around and try to sell it for a quick $10,000. We need to shake some sense into these people in the worst way.

Yes, in the mid to late ‘90s a FEW people got lucky, bought a domain name, and turned around and made a few bucks. Those days are over. Does anyone in their right mind honestly think there is a domain name out there right now that is not being used, that no one has thought of yet, and that they can register it and then turn around and sell it for more than what they paid for it?

I believe that there are a select few domain names (sex.com and free.com for example) that in and of themselves are worth a lot of money. These select few domain names generate a lot of traffic due to the simple fact that people type those words into a browser to see what site comes up. This, in turn, can make the owner of the Web site money and gives more value to the worth of the domain name as the name itself is responsible for the traffic.

But how many sites with two words and a dash in between them generate traffic on their own? Or how about sites that use a “z” instead of an “s”? Several of the combinations I tried that were taken and are now up for sale were domains that no one would have ever typed in by chance. However, if I wanted to purchase them now I would have to pay anywhere from $500 – $10,000! In one case the person trying to sell his domain name to me had just purchased it a few months earlier. I replied back asking him, “If no one bought the name over the course of 10 years for $10, what really makes you think someone is going to buy it from you for $10,000 now?” Of course, I never got a reply back.

These domain name junkies are hoping they can sit on their lazy asses, think up combinations of names and hit a home run, when in essence that ball game has been over for years. What they are really doing (besides making domain name registries rich) is hurting legitimate Webmasters. The majority of our traffic arrives to our Web sites from banners and links and in those instances the visitor of our Web sites would not care if the URL had three dashes in it or a couple of random numbers. But, if that same person tries to revisit our site at a later time by typing in our domain name, what are the chances that they will type in the URL incorrectly? Pretty high. This does not make that URL with one dash in it that is for sale worth any more money. It actually just pisses off a lot of Webmasters and surfers that have a much harder time trying to find what they are looking for!

My personal opinion is that domain name registries should not allow people to sell domain names for more than what the domain name registrar is charging everyone else to use them. What these people are really trying to do is the same as ticket scalping. In the end, we all lose. Things need to change. NOW.

Will

sales@3xmarketing.com

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