A domain name hack has traditionally used ccTLD’s to form words and made it a brandable domain.
Some of the more famous hacks are bit.ly, and del.icio.us
instagram.com started out as instagr.am
But now with the new gTLD’s people are using them to form words with longer extensions to the right of the dot.
So .Land with 4 characters to the right of the dot, has become a popular hack in terms of registrations with domains like statenis.land, virginis.land, fireis.land as well as lake.land just tot name a few.
.Estate has also become the subject of a lot of “hack registrations” locking into “real.estate despite there will be a .realestate.
Some of the .estate domains hack I saw include
ALBANYREAL.ESTATE
ATLANTICCITYREAL.ESTATE
BAHAMASREAL.ESTATE
BERMUDAREAL.ESTATE
BOCAREAL.ESTATE
BRONXREAL.ESTATE
CUBANREAL.ESTATE
DAYTONAREAL.ESTATE
EASTHAMPTONREAL.ESTATE
HOLLYWOODREAL.ESTATE
PALMBEACHREAL.ESTATE
SOUTHHAMPTONREAL.ESTATE
I saw a bunch of hacks registered using the new gTLD .Red which launched this week to form words including:
| blur.red |
| captu.red |
| clea.red |
| docto.red |
| empowe.red |
| enginee.red |
| expi.red |
| explo.red |
| favo.red |
| featu.red |
| flou.red |
| gea.red |
| inb.red |
| inju.red |
| lawye.red |
| laye.red |
| offe.red |
| onehund.red |
| orde.red |
| pai.red |
| pou.red |
| powe.red |
| prefe.red |
| prepa.red |
| procu.red |
| pur.red |
| refer.red |
| remembe.red |
| savou.red |
| spi.red |
| sponso.red |
| sto.red |
| suga.red |
| uninspi.red |
| uninsu.red |
| wage.red |
So what do you think about hacks and the new gTLD’s?
At least 1 will become something huge but it might have been hand registered. A few (likely less than 10 and certainly less than 100) will sell for less than $10k, and thousands if not 10s of thousands will be registered.
Don’t you think MB,that MOST of the new gtld’s are only good for a hack.I think some are good,or at least you can put decent words to the left,like .web If you have to start hacking them to come up with something..whats that say about them….food for thought? SPIDER.WEB anyone??
I like very much the domain hacks, but I fear that all the best names are already registered
Personally i’m not into the hack names and i think .red is starching it but i think .estate flows better with left of the dot.So i bought some like: BirminghamReal.Estate i also bought in to .glass like BuyAuto.Glass it flows better then Uninsu.Red in my opinion.
there is no limit.. the best hacks are going to be 2 words because they have to be. the ones that break up a single word with a dot in the middle (or 2+ words with a dot where it doesnt belong, like in the middle of a word) like:
statenis.land, virginis.land, fireis.land = GARBAGE
something like lake.land, well at least the dot is separating what is pronounced as 2 words even if the city is actually “lakeland” and pronounced as a run-together word. this crap they were doing with del.icio.us and instagr.am was cute but a nightmare to say out loud. while the anti-gtld people will try saying hacks such as “modern.technology” are awkward to say out loud, its WAY easier to communicate than “instagr.am” or “del.icio.us”
and yeah, both those eventually moved to .com but they also didnt have this many gTLD available to make GOOD domain hacks. GOOD domain hacks cant be a single word unfortunately.. it’ll almost always suck as a single word cause how do you say it out loud? INSTAGR “dot” AM… or INSTAGRAM with a dot after “R”… saying “modern dot technology” out loud is much easier and less confusing.. eventually it wont be confusing at all when people are used to putting dots in the middle of stuff.
the reason people even tried these cute little novelty hacks like “instagr.am” and “del.icio.us” was probably because:
1) they knew most the good .com’s are taken (shut up, yes they are)
2) there weren’t 1,000+ gTLD choices available to make good domain hacks
is there a difference between a hyphen and a dot
as in
bermudareal.estate
and
bermudareal-estate.com
or even
bermuda-real-estate.com
the only reason for 3 trillion new tld’s is so that domainers can give money to the registries.
and yes i know there is not 3 trillion new tld’s i merely jest.
and therein is the point, some fool will comment on my comment with a brain dead, there is not 3 trillion new tld’s, they may even be enlightened and know the exact number of tld’s
but here’s the point, are you in this to make money or to be a pawn in someone else’s game.
great no not even great, just good keyword dot coms with a clear end user in mind is the recipe for success for the average domainer.
everything else is you being a pawn, a resource, a stooge.
and some will make money from the new tld’s but most won’t.
I am not a big fan of the hacks. The dot has become a moving target with the hacks and new tlds. Probably not good for the marketers who want easy to remember names with a simple .com on the end. However, the times they are a changing.
For a hack to really work, people visiting the site would need to know it’s a hack. Otherwise something like ‘sto.red’ just plain reads strangely. I prefer unique words to hacks… flickr.com for example. Even though it’s not a real word, it works better because it’s brandable. Something like flic.ker, if it was available, is just plain odd until one begins to understand that it’s a hack. If they ever even visit the site, because they have no idea what it means. But even then, it’s not as brandable as Flickr.
I think hacked domains have some potential, but agree that there will be a few hits amongst many misses (in the interest of fair disclosure, I registered some of the .red domains listed in this post). Some of the dot RED domains are short and quite aesthetically pleasing, and being a color there is some branding potential. But it’s interesting to see that there has been a low uptake in .reds to date. Will be interesting to see how this extension develops.
As with all the new gTLDs, their success will not be determined by domain investors, speculators or commentators. It will be content that determines their success or failure. If and when some good quality content or high profile sites arrive on these new gTLDs we will start to understand what sort of future lies in store. Until then, we’re all guessing…
“It will be content that determines their success or failure.”
Yes, this is true of any website, .com or otherwise. The huge problem is, which many people seem to not really recognize, is that high-quality content is much harder to produce than simply registering a domain name. Many resources (time, money) are required to produce such content, whereas it only takes a few minutes to register a domain name.
Creating a high-quality piece of software, which I’ve done since the ’80s, is its equivalent. I can give any clever name I want to a game or other piece of software, but then comes the hard work of potentially years to create the actual finished product.
I believe that this idea of registering a domain name and doing absolutely nothing with it… some might think this is the road to riches… but those “some” will be in the very definite minority.
Past shows that hacks are not that pricey as are the jing.ly nam.es ,)
This is why .me are so popular. And some .ly (bit.ly, but not multip.ly).
Name easy to read and to remember mean a lot to marketeers.
Hence many “hacks”, or rather brandable phrases will emerge from new TLDs.
The pity that those are pricey to get, think about names like my.club, instant.coffee, etc.etc …
Mike knows which one to buy (watch his love.me and meet.me 😉
My.club can not be sold or registered its a two letter domain,
The registry needs permission from ICANN to sell any of those and they won’t give permission for any two letters that are already a country code which .My is
Shame, my.club, my.coffee … all seem to be top names.