Monthly Archives: April 2012

What is DScore?

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We’ve recently added a new field to the search options of all of our main domain name listings (NameJet PreRelease, SnapNames PreRelease, GoDaddy Expiring, Pending Delete, and Dropped Domains). We call it DScore.

DScore is basically a measure of the desirability of the keywords in the domain name. A Domain gets 1 point for every extension that we track (COM, NET, ORG, INFO, US, BIZ), that was already registered.

For example, consider the domain publicrelationsjobs.net (public relations jobs). At the time this article was published, the extensions COM, NET, ORG, INFO, and US were already registered, while the BIZ extension was free to register. Thus, this domain would get a DScore of 5. Since we’re currently tracking 6 different extensions, the highest possible DScore would be 6.

The number of extensions registered has long been used as a signal of quality among savvy domain name investors, and now it’s easy to apply this criteria to your search here at Generic Domain Finder.

It’s possible to use DScore in conjunction with other search parameters. For instance, you could do a search on all of the NameJet PreRelease listings for all COM domains containing 2 words, that have a DScore greater than 3.

DScore example search

DScore example search

Example search results using DScore search criteria

Example search results using DScore search criteria

We have plans to continue to add innovative new features to help generic domain name investors stay competitive. Stay tuned to the blog for posts about new features!

Is Barack Obama a Domainer?

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As I was randomly glancing over stats for Generic Domain Finder early today, I noticed something very interesting on the new “Real Time” view. The “Real Time” – Overview page shows a live view of all of the visitors to a site, along with a map view that shows the actual geographic location of those visitors.

Usually when you mouse over one of those orange dots on the map, it tells you the actual city name of that visitor. It’s fun to look at now and then, since a website can really get visitors from cities around the world that you’ve never heard of before.

This time, when I put my mouse over the dot, I was surprised to see that the visitor was actually from the Whitehouse. Take a look:

whitehouse website visitor

whitehouse website visitor

Obviously president Obama has been in tune with the power of the Internet as a way to reach a younger demographic, and it was very instrumental in securing his election back in 2008. With the election just around the corner, perhaps he’s researching a few more great domains, to add additional firepower in some key swing states? The president is certainly a very crafty man, and it seems he may be trying to harness the power of direction navigation traffic to sway the election!

Another possibility is that there’s some interest in domain names as an investment. The name obama.org attracted quite a bit of interest when it was auctioned through Namejet last August. With the name pulling in $2,800 in the end.

obama.or namejet auction results

obama.or namejet auction results


The president obviously has some cash for investment, thanks to the healthy royalty payments from the two books that he has written. Perhaps some of that will be used to buy domain names?

New Feature – Universal Expiring Domains Page

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We’ve released a new page on Generic Domain Finder this week – a universal expiring domains page. This page lists the best names which require action within the next 24 hours. The list is compiled with names from 4 separate sources:

This list has a couple of special advances that we’re especially proud of. For one, the list has been filtered for any names that contain major brands or trademarks. It’s not a good idea to buy names containing trademarks, because the trademark holder could easily seize the name without any compensation to you. But, often, trademark containing names appraise high, because those trademark keywords are searched for frequently.

With the new filtering system we’ve built, about 90% of the names that contain trademarks get filtered out. This makes a huge difference in the quality of names that display. Instead of seeing lots of listings for domains that contain ‘ipad’ and ‘ipod’ or ‘microsoft’ or ‘google’ keywords, you’ll generally see a good, clean listing of generic keyword domains.

Additionally, we’re ranking these names based on ‘points’. The points takes into consideration both the appraisal value of the domain, as well as the desirability of the keywords to other domain investors. If more of the extensions have been registered, it’s a signal to us that the name is more desirable, and thus, the scoring algorithm will award the domain in question a higher point score.

The expiring domains page is updated every hour, so you can check back, and keep an eye on any domains that you are interested in.

If it’s your first time to order a domain from a particular type of listing, you should probably give yourself some time to study the mechanics of placing an order. The case of NameJet, SnapNames, and GoDaddy, you’ll need to have an account with any of the services before you can place a bid. With the case of Pending Delete names, we currently link these over to SnapNames drop catching service. You could place an order with any of the other major services that offer drop catching, or even try to catch the name yourself. In most cases, the pending delete names that end up on the listing of top expiring domain names will get snatched by a drop catcher or a drop catching service. The ones that are for some reason less attractive will end up becoming dropped domains and could be freely registered.

Power Searches for Finding Valuable NameJet PreRelease Domain Names

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It’s no secret among domain investors that one of the best places to find great domain names these days is through the NameJet PreRelease listings. When domain names expire from registrars like Network Solutions, eNom, BulkRegister, Tucows, Fabulous, and RegistryPro, the names will eventually end up being listed for backorder on NameJet. Domain investors can get the first chance to grab these names by placing a backorder on these listed names. If a backorder is placed on a name here, it won’t go through the redemption period and later on be dropped.

Generic Domain Finder has been tracking the best names that show up in the NameJet PreRelease listings since the start of 2012. Just because a name gets listed in the NameJet PreRelease listings doesn’t automatically mean it’s any good. In fact, at any given time, there may be around 300,000 names classified as PreRelease by NameJet. Generic Domain Finder applies an initial screening process to the list, and finds the names that have the most potential to be interesting to domain name investors.

Our screening process makes use of our free domain appraisal technology, to cut up each domain name into it’s component keywords, and to track any which contain misspellings, which reduce the potential resale value of the domain. It then tries to make an estimate of the value of the domain, based on the search volume of the keywords, the potential economic value of the keywords, as well as other properties of the domain name, including the number of characters, and the number of keywords in the domain.

The screening process cuts off more than 90% of the list of PreRelease domain names. That leaves more than 20,000 names to filter through – which is still more than most domain name investors want to take the time to filter through. Here are some tips that will help you find some of the undiscovered gold that exists in the listing of 20,000 names.

Searching for two word domains and three word domains

There are lots of other tools out there that attempt to find valuable domain names in the PreRelease listings. Several of them use a dictionary database to find exact match single keywords, to highlight for their users. As a result, single keyword domain names tend to attract a high volume of bids on NameJet. For example, as of April 1st, 2012, police.net has already attracted 191 bids from interested buyers, who have discovered the name and are interested to buy it.

police.net prerelease listing at namejet

police.net prerelease listing at namejet, 191 bids

However, it’s not as easy to find the great domain names that have 2 and 3 keywords, since there are very few tools online that offer that data. Generic Domain Finder provides an easy filter to select the number of keywords in the domain.

filter to find 2 and 3 keyword domains

filter to find 2 and 3 keyword domains

The search results show both the original domain name, as well as the associated keywords in the domain name. Our keyword splitting technology is smart enough to recognize foreign language keywords and even names of people and places.

2 word domain name auction listings

2 word domain name auction listings

Currently, based on recent domain name sales, there seems to be a sweet spot with 2 and 3 word domain names – so this is a tool that should help to put money into your pocket.

These filters are available on all of the domain name listings on Generic Domain Finder, including our growing list of dropped domains.

Searching for short brandable .COM domains

Another trend among domainers has been to invest in short brandable domain names. Generally, these names don’t have meaning associated with the word already. Ideally, the word will be short and pronounceable.

For these domains, it’s key to have the .COM. Since the potential buyer is a startup company, they will only having interest in buying a premium domain name if they will be able to buy the .COM extension.

A service called Wordoid generates these kinds of names automatically. However, as a frequent visitor to their site, it’s clear that even for a site like Wordoid, it’s harder and harder to find good, short, unregistered, brandable .COM domain names. That makes the domain aftermarket a perfect place to search for these names.

To find these kinds of names on Generic Domain Finder, the settings I suggest are to limit the characters to something in the range of 6 to 8, the number of words to 1, and to only check .COM.

finding short brandable com names

Suggested filter settings to find short, brandable .com domains

Lots of other screening services will help you to find the short .COM domain names in the NameJet PreRelease listings. Generic Domain Finder has the advantage that it prefilters the NameJet listings to only select the names that have a higher chance of being valuable to an investor.

example short brandable com names

Example short brandable com names

As always, there’s nothing certain about the process of using Namejet. Often times, a name you’ll be tracking will turn to wishlist status on the final day before your backorder would have been processed. Generally, that happens if the owner of the domain name renewed the registration of the domain. That can be frustrating. But there are so many good names available in the NameJet listings, that you’ll surely be able to find other great names to invest in.