We were in the process of cleaning up our domain portfolio recently, and decided to purposely allow hundreds of domains to expire, for a variety of reasons.

Some of these domains were LLLL domains. Over the years we had accumulated quite a few LLLL domains in major TLDs such as .com, .net and. org.

I recently checked to see if any of our expired domains were re-registered by anyone. To my surprise all of the LLLL domains were snapped up. As a matter of fact, the new owners obviously had them on backorder, as the new creation date is actually the date on which the domains should have expired.

What are LLLL domains?
LLLL stands for any four-letter combination, such as CARS, FUND, GJTL, GNJL or NKJK.
There are 456,976 possible four letter combinations (26x26x26x26) and in the .com extension. It is believed that all the LLLL domains are taken.

So why the huge demand for LLLL domains?
We have seen the values of LLL (e.g. ABC or CAR) domains skyrocket in recent years. Those who felt that they missed out on the LLL boom are now raiding the LLLL opportunities.

The truth is some LLLL are more valuable than others. This is not a surprise. Some domains will have a lot more meaning than others.

The prices of LLLL .com domains have increased very quickly, but obviously, some LLLL domains are more valuable than others.

When it comes to domain valuation, there a lot of methods used. I follow none of them, as I find most of them to be nothing more than a load of rubbish.

A domain name will only sell for the price at which the buyer and seller can agree. A buyer will not pay more for a domain name than the perceived value that he will obtain in owning the domain, and the seller will not sell for less than what the domain is worth to him.

The factors that would be considered would be the current earnings from the domain name, whether through PPC/domain parking, or any values associated with the branding potential of the domain name.

The value of LLLL.com domains
LLLL domains that constitute a real word, such as FUND, CARE or FIND are most valuable. However most LLLL domains are mere random combinations of the letters of the alphabet. According to some domainers, there are premium letters, average letters and bad letters.

Premium letters: a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t
Average letters: j k u v w
Bad letters: q x y z

Obviously LLLL with only premium letters would be considered to be more valuable, while LLLL domains with a “q” or “z” would value less.

Are LLLL worthy investments?
With our LLLL portfolio, we have noticed that LLLL domains tend to get a lot of traffic. Mostly people in Non-English speaking countries visit the LLLL domains.

This made optimization of LLLL domains difficult. We had some LLLL domains that literally got hundreds of unique traffic but had very low click through rates.

There are as many as over 450,000 LLLL.com domain names. With the law of supply and demand, if a small percentage of these domains were to be placed on the aftermarket, prices would inevitably go down.

Some LLLL domains do not constitute a word in any language whatsoever, and some are not used as an acronym anywhere in the world.

In the domain industry shorter domains are highly favored and are seen to be more valuable. With LLL domains reaching their peak, it is not a surprise that the focus is now being placed on LLLL domains.

Most transactions involving LLLL domains are being conducted between domain investors. This will normally result in lower prices. Domains that are sold to potential developers are more valuable, as the buyers would only spend on domains that have meanings.

Given the current trend, the majority of the 450,00+ LLLL domains are mere collectibles. However, like gold coins and rare stamps collectibles exchange hands for decent sums of money.

LLLL domains are rare and there are “only” 450,000+ of them. They are the new craze of the domain industry, with an ever-growing number of speculators, which inevitably pushes the prices up. LLLL domains undoubtedly have natural type in traffic, and if optimized well, will do well through pay-per-click Monetization.

Other LLLL TLDs get loads of traffic too. We have had some .net and .org domains doing very well. One of domains GAYC.org consistently receives very high levels of unique traffic.