Hyphen Domains .. Sweet Surprise
By Alan on Apr 6, 2008 in Hyphen Domains
We have a long hit list of domains constantly watched for price deals, development signs, ownership change etc. One we had on our list was celebritygossip.net (no idea what happened and why we did not purchase the name since the price was extremely fair – win some, lose some) however today we realized this name was a little goldmine.
According to compete – celebrity-gossip.net (yes, the hyphen version in .net) receives over 250,000 visitors a month. Further research shows it’s on the first page of results in Google for the term “gossip”.
So, the owners of a hyphen domain name (a .net) have done a great development job to realize a bucket load of organic traffic yet they made a big mistake and never purchased the non-hyphenated version. Celebritygossip.net is a true generic name so the new owner will benefit from a lot of traffic driven by one company’s misfortune.
What does this tell you?
- With the right development even hyphen names can get you a lot of traffic (not just .com)
- If you own a hyphen name do a quick search today (not tomorrow) and see if the non-hyphen version is available.
As for those who acquire domains, don’t forget to check and see if the hyphen version is currently in use. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Andrew Reberry | Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I’ve always seen this with experts-exchange.com. A great case study. Estimated Monthly Visits per Month by Quantcast: 797,489. The domain without the dash is simply a parking page. Go figure. Maybe they did not want it because without the dash it could be read as “ExpertSexExchange”? Still I never understood having to type the dash in on this one.
**NF** Thanks for the info. I’ve seen a lot of hyphen .com’s over the years (we used to own one that was getting around 150,000 uniques a month) Can’t say we look every day but it’s rare you come across hypens with .net extensions that garner so much traffic.
Frank R | Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
Great Post! It’s about time that hyphens truth be told!…I mean if it was a question of hyphen or none of course none would be the choice BUT…if you look at the success of The Castello Bros. & Boulevard Media as well as how many hyphen names such as Albuquerque-New-Mexico.com, Boca-Raton-Florida.com, White-Plains, Pittsburg-PA.com, browardcounty-florida.com, Montreal-Quebec.com the have developed successfully and own premium names as Dallas.com, Indianapolis.com, WestPalmBeach.com, PalmSprings.com.
Of course the latter as a type-in are much stronger but seached then hyphen names can be just as good!
I own a large portfolio on single non hyphen .Ca such as Indianapolis.ca, Worcester.ca, OklahomaCity.ca, SanibelIsland.ca, Cincinnati.ca…..and since .Com’s Geo’s like the current asking price for OklahomaCity.com is $800.000 it’s out of reach for you average domainer.
This is where the hyphens can become a solid stepping stone as it has been for The Castello Bros. & Boulevard Media.
As I have notice this I have been able to obtain CarsonCity-Nevada.com, KeyBiscayne-Fl.com, KeyLargo-Fl.com, BrowardCounty-Fl.com, Salinas-Ca.com.
As well I own Airplane-Tickets.ca with is in my top 20 income earners at Parked.com