The majority of you will know that four letter .COM domain names have rapidly risen in value over the past year, and particular. Letters which were deemed to be poor investments a couple of years ago are now sought after by Chinese investors and those hoping to cash in on China's insatiable demand for short domains.
A website called LLLLSales.com tracks the sales of four letter .COM domains, and has done a remarkable job of collating data in easy to read graphs. You'll be able to see from the graph below how much four letter .COMs have taken off over the past few months:
(image courtesy of LLLLDomains.com)
I don't think it's too late to buy four letter .COM domains, but you do need a deep pocket to afford any with decent prospects of reselling for a profit. With that in mind, what are the best new areas to invest in if you're looking to cash in on Chinese trends?
Please note that this is only my opinion, and therefore shouldn't be followed without research and due diligence from yourself. I'm not responsible for any investments you make based on the opinions below!
5 Letter .COM
The next logical step would probably be 5 letter .COM domains, if China's acquisition of three, four and five number .COMs are anything to go by. Judging by the data from NameBio.com, it would seem that patterns are, again, the best way to go.
Over the past few days, grggg.com, ggggj.com, qqhhh.com, pppyp.com and yyypp.com have sold for hundreds of dollars a piece. As with four letter .COMs, vowels seem to be very unpopular if you're planning on reselling to a Chinese market.
6 Letter .COM
Will the next step after 5 letter .COMs be 6 letter .COMs? There is no data to support this from NameBio.com, but time will tell whether six letter patterns are the next domain trend to take off. In my opinion, they probably won't be - if they are, it will take quite a few years to come to fruition.
Letter-Number Combinations
If you read my article on what domains I'm buying, you'll have seen that I buy LLNN.com domain names, and it seems that I wasn't alone. Yesterday, the domain VG88.com was sold on GoDaddy for $898. Repetitions and the number 8 prove successful again.
Other recent sales (according to NameBio.com) include yh13.com, sp33.com, tp99.com, qb77.com, bq66.com and jh66.com. As always, numerical patterns look to be the most popular acquisitions.
Whilst researching for this article, I noticed a number of combinations of letter-number domains at auction with bids. These include:
LNNN.com domains, LNNL.com domains, NNLL.com domains and NLLN.com domains.
My latest acquisitions include four LNNL.com domains (all containing "88"), so I'll see within the next year or so whether these acquisitions were good or bad.
6,7,8 Number .COM
I've seen plenty of six, seven and eight number domains at auction on NamePros, and one of the most popular threads on NamePros this month has been a discussion on whether 8 number domain names are worthy of investment.
From what I've seen, six number domain names may be a worthwhile investment as there is a lot of activity in this niche - 45 six number .COM domain sales were reported on NameBio.com yesterday, with prices ranging from $105 to $810, depending on the pattern. Again, patterns will do well. From yesterday's sales it looks like numerical domains ending in "doubles" (such as 88 or 77) are producing a lot of interest.
I'm not sold on all seven and eight number domain names, aside from those with strong patterns.
Other TLDs?
Are other TLDs worthy of investment? I'm not sure. My personal opinion is to stick with .COM domains, as a good .COM is recognised the world over, not just in China. Extensions such as .TOP, .XYZ, may produce short term gains in a select few areas, but overall I'm not convinced.
The .NET and .ORG TLDs may still provide some value in premium areas (two number, two letter, three number and three letter domains), but my adage is "Stick To .COM".
What are your thoughts about future investment areas? Comment below.
A website called LLLLSales.com tracks the sales of four letter .COM domains, and has done a remarkable job of collating data in easy to read graphs. You'll be able to see from the graph below how much four letter .COMs have taken off over the past few months:
(image courtesy of LLLLDomains.com)
I don't think it's too late to buy four letter .COM domains, but you do need a deep pocket to afford any with decent prospects of reselling for a profit. With that in mind, what are the best new areas to invest in if you're looking to cash in on Chinese trends?
Please note that this is only my opinion, and therefore shouldn't be followed without research and due diligence from yourself. I'm not responsible for any investments you make based on the opinions below!
5 Letter .COM
The next logical step would probably be 5 letter .COM domains, if China's acquisition of three, four and five number .COMs are anything to go by. Judging by the data from NameBio.com, it would seem that patterns are, again, the best way to go.
Over the past few days, grggg.com, ggggj.com, qqhhh.com, pppyp.com and yyypp.com have sold for hundreds of dollars a piece. As with four letter .COMs, vowels seem to be very unpopular if you're planning on reselling to a Chinese market.
6 Letter .COM
Will the next step after 5 letter .COMs be 6 letter .COMs? There is no data to support this from NameBio.com, but time will tell whether six letter patterns are the next domain trend to take off. In my opinion, they probably won't be - if they are, it will take quite a few years to come to fruition.
Letter-Number Combinations
If you read my article on what domains I'm buying, you'll have seen that I buy LLNN.com domain names, and it seems that I wasn't alone. Yesterday, the domain VG88.com was sold on GoDaddy for $898. Repetitions and the number 8 prove successful again.
Other recent sales (according to NameBio.com) include yh13.com, sp33.com, tp99.com, qb77.com, bq66.com and jh66.com. As always, numerical patterns look to be the most popular acquisitions.
Whilst researching for this article, I noticed a number of combinations of letter-number domains at auction with bids. These include:
LNNN.com domains, LNNL.com domains, NNLL.com domains and NLLN.com domains.
My latest acquisitions include four LNNL.com domains (all containing "88"), so I'll see within the next year or so whether these acquisitions were good or bad.
6,7,8 Number .COM
I've seen plenty of six, seven and eight number domains at auction on NamePros, and one of the most popular threads on NamePros this month has been a discussion on whether 8 number domain names are worthy of investment.
From what I've seen, six number domain names may be a worthwhile investment as there is a lot of activity in this niche - 45 six number .COM domain sales were reported on NameBio.com yesterday, with prices ranging from $105 to $810, depending on the pattern. Again, patterns will do well. From yesterday's sales it looks like numerical domains ending in "doubles" (such as 88 or 77) are producing a lot of interest.
I'm not sold on all seven and eight number domain names, aside from those with strong patterns.
Other TLDs?
Are other TLDs worthy of investment? I'm not sure. My personal opinion is to stick with .COM domains, as a good .COM is recognised the world over, not just in China. Extensions such as .TOP, .XYZ, may produce short term gains in a select few areas, but overall I'm not convinced.
The .NET and .ORG TLDs may still provide some value in premium areas (two number, two letter, three number and three letter domains), but my adage is "Stick To .COM".
What are your thoughts about future investment areas? Comment below.
