Not all one-word .COMs are good investments

There’s no doubt that the most valuable domains in the world are one-word .COMs. From Voice.com selling for $30M, Diamond.com for $7.5M or Ice.com for $3.5M it’s no secret that one-word .COMs sell for six and seven figures all the time.

All that being said, I’ve seen people attempt to dive into the one-word .COM space with domains that while yes, they are one-word .COMs, they aren’t going to make great investments. In some cases it’s the addition of the letter “s” that kills the name, in other cases it’s just a word that people are just never going to use as their company or product name.

One example I’ve given before is Fast.com vs. Fasts.com. IMO, Fast.com is a solid seven figure name, if it sold for $3M or even $5M I wouldn’t fall off my chair. Fasts.com, sure it’s still valuable but there’s no way it’s a seven figure name and it’s also probably not a six-figure name either.

This morning when I was poking around on Go Daddy Auctions I spotted a great example of a one-word .COM that I think wouldn’t be a very good investment – Licks(.)com:

While I don’t think Licks.com is worthless, I could see someone buying it and thinking, “hey – I have a hot one-word .COM!” and pricing it in the six-figure range…in which case they’d likely be waiting, really forever, for a buyer that would likely never come.

It’s amazing what a difference one letter can make or how the value between one word and another can vary so drastically, but that’s part of what makes the domain name world so interesting. If you’re ever unsure about a domain, there’s no shortage of people on Twitter and in forums who will give you their opinion and help keep you on the right track.

The moral of the story here is that while one-word .COMs are unquestionably the most valuable domains, not all one-word .COMs are as valuable as you might think.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton