A look back at November’s NameJet Sales

November for Namejet – as measured by domain auctions that closed above $2,000 – was a slow month. Just one month prior, 12 out of the 66 charted sales surpassed $10k, with the highest attaining $91.8k; but last month only 1 out of 61 sales climbed into the 5 digits. To be fair, the high end of the domain market is always the most erratic. Trends are mainly to be found in the low and mid-value ranges and over a longer period of time.

Interestingly, activity in the domain sector seems to be quite seasonal.
Cycles in NameJet data during the past 3 years suggest that the aftermarket heats up in Summer and cools off by late Autumn:

Season	Quantity > $2k (Mean by Year)	Sum of Sales > $2k (Mean by Year)
Summer (6,7,8)	254	$1.49 million
Autumn (9,10,11)	223	$1.07 million
Winter (12,1,2)	251	$1.46 million
Spring (3,4,5)	264	$1.40 million

That’s a very quick glance – far too crude to bear scientific scrutiny. Still, it’s suggestive. But what actually sold?

Meixi.com ($27,108) – This was NameJet’s lone 5-figure result during November. Time and time again, China has topped 2014 sales charts. Meixi is an important district of a Chinese capital city, as you can see from pictures included in one of my weekly articles. (Worth 2 clicks, I promise!)

NYC.co.com ($4,245) and/or CityMag.com ($4,322)  – Month to month, the menu of domains on offer at high-profile outlets like NameJet varies quite a bit. Last month, NameJet was auctioning off a number of large cities within the .CO.COM subdomain. Either because of .NYC publicity or despite it, New York City was the top subdomain sale. It’s worth noting that NYC.com, alongside CO.com, also leases its subdomains. City-centric marketing is big business, as CityMag.org – a U.S. association of member magazines – would tell you. Yet the buyer of CityMag.com resides in China.

FB2.com ($2,500) and/or NS4.com ($2,400) – Aside from NYC, these were the only two 3-character sales that charted at NameJet last month. Considering that LLL.com domains normally contribute multiple sales in the lower 5-figure range, their absence partly explains the apparent slump. No, FB2 isn’t a new and improved Facebook. There’s an ebook format called “Fiction Book” that uses the .FB2 file extension. Meanwhile, NS4 may stand for “New Sedan 4”, a Toyota hybrid.

SIGI.com ($8,788) and/or WITE.com ($6,500)  – These were the most expensive CVCVs sold by NameJet. Those of you who speak Old Scots will recognize the word “wite” as “a fine imposed by a king or lord on a subject who committed a serious crime”. More recently, it has been used as an ETF ticker symbol. Personally, if I were using SIGI.com, I’d be concerned by homophones like CIGI, SIJI, Ciggy, Siggy, SeeGee, etc.

DOWO.com ($6,000) and/or WODO.com ($4,100)  – You can’t ask for a better side-by-side comparison than these nearly identical domains selling at the same venue at the same time. The cheaper of the 2 is audibly more distinct – in English if not in German.

Atlantico.com ($7,599) and/or Magnetix.com ($7,502)  – Both of these are solid brand names, although “Magnetix” does face some ambiguity with respect to “Magnetics”. As you’d expect, Atlantico isn’t just similar to the name of an ocean; it is that ocean in several languages, including Spanish. Want your company to seem big? Name it after something large or widespread!

StartSmart.com ($6,801) and/or Conchita.com ($6,100)  – I’ve written about these here and here, respectively.

PrescriptionSunglasses.com ($7,580) and/or eClothing.com ($5,100)  – On the one hand, we have a single, exact-match, e-commerce item; and, on the other, we have a much shorter brand name for one of e-commerce’s most comprehensive categories. Basically, it’s the choice between a very specific niche, laser-targeted in terms of relevance in SERPs, and a broad brand name that can encompass wider inventory. Neither option is right or wrong. Sometimes 22-letter, 6-syllable domain names are actually very succinct ideas. After all, there is no shorter way to say “prescription sunglasses” than “prescription sunglasses”.

KitchenTowels.com ($2,569) and/or VidaliaOnions.com ($2,200)  – Here are another 2 domains that define narrow product niches.

Theremin.com ($2,511) and/or PetChef.com ($2,550)  – If you’ve ever seen a 1950s scifi movie, then you’ve heard the eerie, electronic, alien voice of the theremin. Einstein considered it revolutionary, and it paved the way for synthesizers. The Beach Boys used it too in their song, “Good Vibrations”. Named after its Russian inventor – who was later forced by the KGB to work on secret science projects in a Gulag labor camp – this is the only instrument I can think of that is played without physical contact. Since theremins ship easily, Theremin.com would be great for e-commerce; but it can just as easily brand some other venture.

As for PetChefs.com, if you’re not the sort of dog / cat owner to be found sautéing gourmet grub for your pet, you might have more fun perplexing Fido / Mittens with the Theremin’s high-pitched whine!