Firstly, I believe the term “brandable domain name” confuses a lot of people. In my mind any domain name that makes sense can be a brandable domain name, including the best of one-word generic domain names.

When I use the term brandable domain name, I refer to a premium domain name that meets the C.O.M.M.E.RC.I.A.L. test that I outlined in this premium domains article. These domains can be anything from Fly.com to Aeroplanes.com to Blue.com to GetARoom.com.

For some people, what they refer to as brandable domain names are domains that do not form a particular word, but are just simply pronounceable. Twitter.com, Bing.com, Yahoo.com, Lycos.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and Opodo.com are all powerful brands using domains that does not necessarily contain real words found in the English dictionary, but are pronounceable, and in some cases, catchy.

I personally prefer to refer to these domains as Concept domains. It is really all about creating something new from something that didn’t exist before. It is a concept, an idea, a general notion or something like that.

So, in the past when I used the term brandable domain names, I was referring to domains that meet the C.O.M.ME.R.C.I.A.L. test. What people seem to call brandable domain names, are what I prefer to call concept domains.

Now, how much are concept domains worth?

We can easily tell how much a domain name such as Fly.com could be worth, even prior to its recent sale. This is because we knew the industry it belongs to and its worth to any major player in that industry.

But with a concept domain name, it is really tricky business. Personally, when I sell a concept domain, I price it based on the length, letters in the domain name, and the domain extension. If I personally have development plans for the domain name then it becomes of trade-off between what the domain means to me, and how much the buyer is willing to pay.

You see, a concept domain name could be the new name for a local car wash, as well as it could be the new name for a major search engine.

If you know who the buyer is, then of course who are in a better position to judge its worth to the buyer. You could then proceed to price the domain name for the maximum selling price.

Again, however, that is very tricky. You wouldn’t want to overcharge a big buyer/spender, as they could easily take their cash somewhere else, or even afford to splash out on a generic domain name. Also these big buyers often prefer to spend minimal amounts on domain acquisition, and then splash out on developing and marketing the new brand.

The reality is that concept domains will depend heavily on savvy, and most likely very costly marketing campaigns before they become household names. That is the case even if you going via the social networking route. You may not pay for the massive promotions, but you will have to pay for the costly upfront web development and ongoing hosting and website maintenance fees.

So, how much are concept domains worth? Quite simply, they are only worth just as much as the buyer is willing to pay for them.

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Here in London, when people are looking to buy used cars or get a new place to rent, they use sites like GumTree.com or Loot.co.uk. These sites are extremely popular and are mostly advertised via word of mouth. At least that’s how I learnt about them, and I often tell friends about them.

I have also come across HotFrog.co.uk, which has an Alexa ranking of 10,573 at the time of writing.

These are not senseless directories that no one visits. Although you can post for free to some of these directories, or at least under some categories, they are not like the hideous and useless Free For All (FFA) directories.

These directories are used by millions of people on a daily basis to find cars, rooms, houses, furniture, jobs and just about anything for sale. Yet, the choices of domains are not the kind of domains that are category killer or even keyword-rich domains.

These directories are very rich in their content and user-functionalities. When a directory is useful its users will advertise it via word of mouth. If users believe that they can find what they are looking for via your directory, they will keep coming back.

It is no surprise that the popular directories that cover all categories and wide geographical areas all use concept/brandable domains. Simply, they need domains that will not focus too much on one sector (keyword) and end up making it hard to sell other service/product listings.

So, if you have pronounceable concept domains, you might want to try launching a directory. You can choose to start by covering just one category, such as houses or cars. You can also choose to start with a specific geographical location.

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