Techshot has hired lead generation company, LeadJen, to help sell its unused domain name, Shot.com.
LeadJen is using email, direct mail and phone calls to identify companies that may be interested in acquiring the domain URL.
Techshot is selling the domain name because it has rebranded to Techshot.com from Shot.com.
More Than 60,000 Online Searches
One reason Techshot opted to use a lead gen company to monetize this URL is Shot.com’s perceived value. More than 60,000 online searches a month contain the keyword “shot,” prompting LeadJen to target companies in industries including sports, weapons and gaming.
The company estimates that as many as 80 companies may be interested in bidding. Shot.com is also valuable because it is short, memorable and uses the .com top-level domain.
According to DN Journal, only seven of the top-selling domains in 2011 were four letter words with a .com top-level domain.
Sex.com Trades for $13M
Certainly, the $13 million that was paid for Sex.com in 2010 supports that point. Monosyllabic, easily recognizable names can also save companies a lot of trouble with their SEO strategies. At the time of the Sex.com sale, Rob Monster, founder, chairman and CEO of Epik.com, told Domain Name Journal that the SEO and content work necessary to promote an unobvious domain name can easily be trumped by a name that gives them a lock on a page one listing by being more memorable.
“Take a look at Candy.com, the domain that Rick Schwartz famously sold for $3 million,” he said. “While we can debate whether Candy.com is the #1 place to buy candy, they are #1 on Google. That did not take them all that long and odds are good that Candy.com will be #1 on Google for a long time to come so long as their site continues to perform well.”
A 2009 study by UK firm MemorableDomains.co.uk made a similar point. It found that generic website names that feature descriptive words of products and servicesdeliver significantly higher click-through rates (CTRs) and overall clicks than those with non-generic domain names.
The .Co Domain
However, some companies that have build a brand around a non-generic name find it important to snap up the URLs of all top level domain names bearing that name to protect its brand—such as Overstock.com’s purchase of O.com in 2010 when the TLD became available.
Overstock.com spent $350,000 for O.com. Overstock president Jonathan Johnson told MarketingVOX at the time the company decided to spend the money because it felt it was worth it to the brand.