How much does a .COM name really cost?

It’s getting so hard to find a decent .COM domain name that a big weed patch of businesses has grown up hawking really terrible names for enormous prices — and they’re finding buyers. They’re catering to people who are just trying to find something — anything! — that will work for their new web site. The problem is especially acute for those who are trying to start a business.

For instance, have a look at Brand Bucket, a shop that specializes in “unique brand-rich domain names for your business.”

Despite this fine write-up, their names will kill a business before it even gets started — assuming the prices they charge don’t kill it first. These are from the “Internet” and “consulting” areas of their site:

• seodaddy.com – $4895 (Get sued by GoDaddy!)
• mockit.com – $4895 (OK – neener neener neener)
• credulo.com – $1495 (If you’re credulous, buy credulo.com!)
• cacheup.com – $1295 (Would you like some mustard too?)

But maybe (you’re thinking), this BrandBucket business is just for the unwary, just as you can pay $25 for a bad cup of coffee at certain New York hotels. It must be better on the open market, right?

No, it’s not any better anywhere. Check out AfterNIC, one of the larger domain name auction platforms.

AfterNIC has a different style of terrible name. They don’t choose the names, like BrandBucket — these are names being offered for sale by their sellers, à la eBay. At AfterNIC, there’s a different — but consistent — style of awfulness. If instead of a doomed-from-the-start Web 2.0-type name from BrandBucket, you prefer a second-class affiliate marketing name, this is the place. I searched AfterNIC for .COM names in the categories “internet” and “consulting” to try to get a good comparison with BrandBucket. I also started at $5000 or less, skipping such must-haves as ontheinternetmortgage.com at $125,000:

• einternetconsulting.com – $5000 (The extra “e” is for effort)
• internettwopointoh.com – $5000 (Oh! Oh!)
• internetdisabilityinsurance.com – $3900 (Huge market there)
• 64kinternetmarketing.com – $2000 (Even Bill Gates learned you need more than 64K)

I’m not just cherry-picking — try it yourself. And although BrandBucket and AfterNIC are my examples, the names they offer are no worse than you’ll find at other sites. Like any business they’re just responding to a need — in this case, the need for decent, brandable names for web businesses. Domain names under .COM, at any venue, are without exception jaw-droppingly bad below about $50,000, and often above that price as well.

When people are paying thousands of dollars for horrible names, it’s hard to credit the argument that we don’t need new generic top-level domain names.

New top-level domains will not only make it easier to find a decent domain at a decent price, they will, just by the fact of being introduced in large numbers, make people realize that there’s more to life than .COM. In Europe, in Asia, they already do: many business use, as well as .COM, the top-level domain for their country as well as for neighboring countries, as well as .EU and .ASIA. With the introduction of a spate of new top-level domains, we will see some sanity returning to pricing here in the U.S. as well.