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WHAT DO END USERS REALLY THINK OF DOMAINS?

Hi Gang,

This is an important read for those who think buying generic descriptive domains are valuable investments, and believe that their core market demographic is the end user whose products and services (prodservs) your domain name describes.

There was a recent article in RJ’s LowDown regarding non-domainer companies who “get it” about the purchase of domain names to further enhance their prodservs online.  RJ mainly focused on British examples, so I can’t comment on this part of the article because I’m not familiar with all of the companies nor the generic terms in Great Britain. However, there was a final list in the article provided by my friend and associate, Rob Sequin, who built a page of 250 corporate companies who supposedly “get it”.

The list I based this article on can be found here. Since I have many years of advertising/marketing experience that allows me to give deeper branding commentary regarding domains, end users, and advertising agencies, my article is intended to correct some inconsistencies or “misinterpretations” in the article I read, with no intention of demeaning the spirit of the article nor the services provided by both of my friends.

I wrote to Ron Jackson about his article and he had a spot-on response, as expected:

“There is no doubt that the 200 examples of category-killing domains from Edwin’s list are a better example of corporations “getting it” than the names used for marketing campaigns that Rob covers.  As I noted in my post, Rob took a broad view of how companies were using domains in their marketing campaigns. I cited his list because I see it as a positive that companies are using domains beyond their own brand name as tools for marketing their products of services (even if they are not particularly good domains or names that have any inherent value in the way that category defining names do).

I fully agree with your observation that these agency-inspired names are far less beneficial to corporations in the long run than a generic word or term that defines their products or services would be.  I am hopeful that as time goes on these brand owners, having take the baby step of using domain names as marketing tools, will finally realize that the real rewards lie in obtaining the category killer domains that, for a one time expenditure, would bring traffic directly to their door from now on, eliminating the need to give the agencies millions of dollars for campaign after campaign for decades to come.”

While I understand the overall intention of my friend, Rob, (to whom I also wrote and he gave me a thumbs-up to go ahead with this story) and his goal to improve domainers’ end user expectations on their domain values, his list needs to be honed down, and a lot.

Here’s the problems:

This list, although intended to display domains that companies bought to increase their online marketing brand, in reality, perfectly shows exactly why so many companies do not get it. This is not Rob’s mistake, nor failure in any way on his part. Keeping up with the status of 250 domains you initially thought were used to promote a company is a hard job to do, (and he told me his intention was to list the fact that ad agencies were buying domains to promote ad campaigns, and that’s a good thing).  Kudos to Rob for putting this list together.

Rob actually initiated an obvious goal that we all need to start collecting great examples of generic descriptive domains that are sold to end users and developed, or pointed to working websites. Why? Because we can use these domains being utilized by the companies who bought them to promote all generic descriptive domains to other end users.

Reviewing the list, we find that most of these domains were based on advertising campaigns created by ad agencies working for the companies in question. However, these are not domains clearly representing the prodservs of the companies who hired the ad agencies. These are domains promoting the particular ad campaigns that the ad agency created. This is not in the best interest of the company the ad agency is supposed to represent.  Additionally, the ad agencies who were at least buying domains doesn’t take into consideration that the ad agency campaign domains are horrendous as far as “everlast” values, and even worse for domain flippers, and the ad agency usually buys the domain as a new registration – not from the domain aftermarket.

For a few examples, let’s start with some of the domains on his list:

SuitcaseOfCash.com – It is parked at Smartname.com, under a proxy. Rob has this domain connected with “A&E” but they aren’t the listed owners.

ABetterCommunity.com – It does point to an ABC environmental website, but the domain name would be very weak if appraised. The marketing firm obviously got cute with using the first letters for the acronym “ABC” to buy and promote the domain name, but wouldn’t “EnvironmentalAmerica dotcom” or something more direct regarding environmental awareness work better and be more powerful than just the cute acronym connection to “ABC”, starting with the adjective “a”?

OnlyTheyKnow.com – Another ABC network domain name. It points to their “go” page, with no apparent relevance to any product or service they are offering. Only who knows? What do they know? And who are “they”? How is this domain name valuable?

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Let’s move into an area where the domains themselves have absolutely no value whatsoever, and go against every appraisal method most pro-domainers use in considering a domain’s value.

DontAlmostGive.org – What? A contraction in a domain name? And ironically, or maybe just revealing, the domain is representing “The Ad Council”.  Should we be surprised or disgusted that an organization specifically dedicated to helping promote PSA’s can’t come up with a strong domain phrase? This is the best the ad agency council can do? (BBDO is “credited”, yipes) NOTE: This domain literally has improper grammatical structure (the domain means “Do Not Almost Give” - type that into your Word document with grammar checking turned on). They bought a domain that also features a mistake that is one of the first things most domainers learn, “DONT” buy a domain name that includes a contraction. Why didn’t they buy “GiveToCharity.org” or “BeCharitable.org” or something even remotely sensible?

NaturesMiracleFood.com – The American Egg Board embraced this domain, (another contraction), which doesn’t even mention the word “egg”. Wouldn’t a domain name like “EggsareHealthy.org”?  Or “EatEggs.org” be better? However, the advertised domain doesn’t even closely represent the product that the American Egg Board represents. It’s a horrible example of a domain name representing the prodservs of a company or organization. But it gets worse. The American Egg Board doesn’t own this domain anymore. Ironically, the new owners of this domain have a website up about food and nutrition, but their “Breakfast Food” link doesn’t even mention the word “eggs”. Really. What did the American Egg Board choose for their official domain? AEB.org.
CAVEAT: They did buy americaneggboard.org, but they don’t yet have it pointing to their website yet.

BeUgly07.com – Another domain name purchased by Disney, except this domain doesn’t resolve. What does it mean, and what was it used for? This would be a domain name, if up for auction, that wouldn’t sell for more than its registration fee, if it sold at all. I believe it wouldn’t even sell on Afternic’s Bazaar for $1.

FindTheArtInTheEveryday.com – For the supposedly savvy Banana Republic company, here’s a domain covered in words we try to avoid as domainers: “the” and “in” where the word “the” is mentioned twice. How well is this domain working for the Banana Republic? It’s working so well it’s on a Sedo landing page and they don’t own the domain. The phrase itself, in quotes, comes up with 33 google results. Hardly a domain name that shows that a company is “getting it”, and if an ad agency did try to “brand” their ad campaign with this loser of a domain, they didn’t leave a mark.

ManLaws.com -  Miller Brewing used this site for a commercial. In fairness to the power of the domain, I did not research this domain or phrase on the internet, other than trying to get it to resolve to a website. It didn’t resolve as of the date I’m writing. I’m using Firefox.  So here’s a domain name that clearly was used for an ad campaign, now defunct, as opposed to buying a domain name to serve as a branding site that can be commonly interpreted by the “layman” as something Miller Brewing provides them.

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Reviewing the whole list, I saw the majority of the domains as really being useless as domainers would see them, and even more useless to the original companies to which they were intended. There are might be 70 good representations of domains that actually serve the companies in this list. That’s less than 30% of the whole list.  Can you find them?

I think just by randomly reviewing these domains, any domainer can see that they aren’t serving the intended end user company very well, and the companies who are/were utilizing them still have no clue as to what domains they should be buying.

Bottom Line: Many of these domains are great examples of lame ad agency domains never intended to benefit their client’s prodservs, or definitely not intended to serve as an appreciable marketing asset for their client. The end user is the final demographic that defines the value of domains, and the best domains are generic descriptive words/phrases of a company’s prodservs. These are the simple but inarguable facts of a domain’s value.

When an ad agency buys a domain for a client’s prodservs and then promotes it within mainstream media vehicles, they aren’t actually serving the company that hired them, they are serving their “ego” and their own interests with a domain that represents the ad campaign they created.  This happens hundreds of times a week.

Simply put, ad agencies are buying domains that promote their ad campaigns, not the generic descriptive domains representing the prodservs of the company that hired them. The correct marketing online push would be that every company captures as many generic descriptive domains representing their prodserves BEFORE they embark on some nutty ad campaign where the agency buys a bloated domain phrase that is worthless, just like the traditional advertising mediums the ad agency uses to promote the campaign.

My estimation right now is that most companies still don’t get it, but they might get it soon with efforts by an organized marketing campaign from the domain community. Who is harshing our high?  The buzzkill comes from the very “professional assistance” these companies seek to promote their prodservs – the ad agencies.

It’s important for you to understand this:

QUESTION: Why don’t ad agencies look for helping their clients obtain their prodservs domain?

ANSWER: A great descriptive domain name of an ad agency’s client’s prodservs defeats the control the ad agency wants – and that control is being able to charge the company hourly/placement/advertising fees that makes the ad agency a lot of money. A premium domain removes that control from the ad agency by providing automatic branding and typein (“name direction”) leads.

This is an extremely important factor in understanding where the value of domains truly is. My decade of active domaining clearly tells me that after all the neon lights and fireworks we’ve undergone in the last 8 years for “PPC” “Multiples” and incestuous flipping, the value of a domain is with the end user.

My apologies to Rob, who started a great idea for a webpage, it just needs to be updated with generic descriptive domains for examples of domains that are truly appreciable marketing assets for their company. They are hard to find, but there are at least 150 good ones.

Ironically, Forbes.com published an article about the “time being right for companies to buy up domain names,” and although filled with some confusing and distorted facts, the story still makes a sale for domainers!

NOTE: I welcome any and all submissions here of domain names that are clearly generic descriptive of a product or service (prodservs) and the companies that own them. I will work with Rob to get these domains on his list if they truly fit the description of:

“THIS DOMAIN NAME CLEARLY STATES THE GENERIC DESCRIPTION OF WHAT THIS COMPANY SELLS OR IF IT IS DESCRIBING THEIR DEMOGRAPHICS”