The LLLL.com buyout occurred one year ago to this day. The LLLL.com buyout has held, however short domain names as a whole have greatly decreased in value, as has much of the domain name world. The LLLL.com buyout has had a roller coaster of a ride since last year, as has most of the short domain name market, with prices for most short domains peaking in February 2008 and falling significantly in the months afterwards. We’ve seen some enormous short domain name sales this year, such as Fund.com for nearly $10MM and many NNN.coms selling for $100k+ each. While domain name investor to domain name investor prices have fallen, end user prices continue to remain strong in the short domain name market segment. One short domain name market which has weather the economic storm rather well has been the NNNN.com market. With increasing global internet penetration, we can expect short domains to be increasingly desirable in the future once the current economic woes subside. While this blog is new, my blogging about short domain names isn’t — I’ve been blogging since November 2007 about short domains, previously over at 4LetterNoob.wordpress.com. Like my previous short domain blog, this blog will be dedicated to domain names of 5 or less characters. To view more information on short domains including information on how we came to having an LLLL.com buyout, please click on the title of this post to read the rest of the content about short domains. All posts on this blog will have an excerpt (such as this), as well as more domain name content accessible only by clicking on the post title hyperlink.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the LLLL.com buyout and a fitting day to start blogging at www.LLLL.com.

Despite criticism regarding the performance of short domains lately, many short domain investors have defied the skeptics and realized enormous sales this year. LLL.coms saw CPC.com and MCC.com realize $210,750 and $195,000 respectively and LLLL.coms saw a flurry of sales among dictionary words reach as high as $9,999,950 for Fund.com. Unet.com led the year for VCVC-type LLLL.coms, bringing in $100,000, Atty.com brought in $48,900 and Kudo.com brought in $40,000. The real winner this year in the LLLL.com space were pronounceables, especially CVCVs which saw enormous returns and weathered the economic storm better than most domaining segments.

The short numeric domain market has been the big winner this year and continues to record solid numbers. NNN.coms reported numerous massive enduser sales this year, led by 173.com and 770.com which sold for $302,790 and $343,000 respectively. Not far behind, 11.com and 880.com saw $188,888 each and 6 other NNN.coms reported sales for over $100,000 as documented by DN Journal. NNNN.coms continue to post solid sales month after month on Sedo and have also seen some enormous sales recently — 8808.com selling for $51,111 and 8008.com selling for $58,889. Most domainers haven’t unfortunately been as successful as Marchex finding top dollar endusers for NNNN.coms, however NNNN.coms in general continue to record solid sales in the $400-$1000 range. After quickly rising in value and popularity from January through June 2008, NNNNN.com investors suddenly found themselves in a market which had more sellers than buyers.

The mobile internet is slowly coming along, global internet penetration continues to grow, and demand for short domains remains high, both among domainers and endusers alike. The past year has been full of highs and lows for most short domain name investors, part of the blame being on current economic conditions and part of the blame being overspeculation in some short domain name market segments.

This blog will be dedicated to short domains of 5 or less characters. If you’re new to domaining and stumbled across this blog, I highly recommend visiting the Namepros Short Domain Discussion forum. It’s full of information on not just LLLL.coms but short domains in general.

Phil, the previous owner of LLLL.com (who goes by the handle “VURG” on Namepros and DN Forum) started sharing information about the LLLL.com market back in early 2006 on Namepros. Thanks to his research and the work of DYYO.com, early LLLL.com investors were able to make more informed decisions about how to go about investing in LLLL.coms.

Research provided by Phil in the Namepros LLLL.com Countdown Thread follows. If you have the time, give the thread a read and relive LLLL.com history as those invested in them back in the day saw it.

22% Remaining - 25th January 2006
19% Remaining - 31st March 2006
16% Remaining - 29th June 2006
13% Remaining - 1st August 2006
10% Remaining - 15th February 2007 (crossed without traffic testing early April)
9% Remaining - 26th February 2007 (crossed without traffic testing early May)
8% Remaining - 2nd March 2007 (crossed without traffic testing in June)
7% Remaining - 21st March 2007 (crossed without traffic testing early July)
6% Remaining - 3rd July 2007(crossed without traffic testing some time in July)
5% Remaining - 1st August 2007(crossed without traffic testing August 11)
4% Remaining - 14th August 2007(crossed late August)
3% Remaining - 15th September 2007(crossed In September)
2% Remaining - 14th October 2007
1% Remaining - 31st October 2007
0% Remaining - 2nd November - COUNTDOWN COMPLETE!

Thanks for visiting www.LLLL.com and I hope you’ll be back soon! If there’s anything related to short domains you’d like more information on, please feel free to leave a comment or send an email to reece(at)LLLL.com and I’ll do my best to cover it in a future blog post. I’ll be adding a short domain name price guide later this month which should help better track the performance of short domains across domain extensions.

Related posts:

1. Some LLLL.com Data
2. The State of the Short Domain Market
3. LLLL.com Buyout Near Failure?