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In September 2008, Reece Berg acquired the domain name LLLL.com for $7,900 through Sedo and for a short time ran a blog about LLLL domain names on the website.

The blog included a pricing guide and entries about the LLLL market.

Reece ran a number of sites inside the domain industry, many of which redirect, sold or have gone offline like DomainNameScams.com.

On his original WordPress blog called the 4 Letter Noob, he wrote an article in October 2008 that described his plans for the name.

I’ve been wanting to get back on the LLLL.com blogging scene for awhile now and finally have the right name for the job. Beginning in November, LLLL.com will give you the lowdown on LLLL.com investing and will bring back the LLLL.com price guide which has been noticeably absent for a few months now.

Reece established himself as a LLLL expert – creating an excellent resource in the LLLL pricing guide he published, so it’s disappointing the blog is no longer online.  Though the 4 Letter Noob blog hasn’t been updated since 2008, there is still alot of useful information and interesting statistics from 2007/2008.

Reece’s LLLL blog appeared on Domaining.com, and even asked for guest writers to keep it going, until he finally sold the domain name through Rick Latona’s Brokerage and Auction House at Latonas.com, raking in $4,600 in gross profit (before fees) in little less than 2 years.

The name was acquired by RevenuePartner.com.

Some ask why waste your time with hand registered domain names, when you could spend the same amount of money on one or two good keyword domains. But with the internet still in its infancy as Andrew Rosener likes to say, integrating hand registered domain names into your portfolio could be a smart investment strategy, especially if you’re doing your research on new and upcoming trends.

Short term, you could easily be paying out more in renewal fees than you are collecting in revenue, but long term the strategy could pay off if you can spend the time to develop new sources of hand registered domain names.

Catchy domain names have been drawing attention, not only by domain investors over the years, but by businesses looking to brand their company in the absence of strong keyword names readily available for bargain prices. Companies design their marketing and advertising campaigns around these names, proving that a strong business and marketing model can bring more visitors directly to their website.

Catchy Domain Name Sales

Though big fans of keyword names and search engines, the catchy domain name market is heating up more and more. Check out some of the sales in 2010.

Baibu.com sold for $57,000 which redirects to the Google search page in Chinese, though it’s not owned by Google and an apparent type of Baidu.

Pepe.com sold for $61,200 through Mocus / Sedo. The name originally owned by Francois of Domaining.com, rebranded his catchy domain name marketplace from Mocus to Catchy.com, a website that exclusively features short attractive domain names that could be used for companies, services or products.

So whether you think hand registering domain names is a waste of money or not, with the internet still so young in 10 years you might be saying to yourself, “I can’t believe I missed out on the domain landrush of the late 2000s”.

If you search Google, there are a number of catchy web 2.0 domain name generators.

While here at Fusible.com, catchy domains haven’t been the target of recent hand registrations, some of the names recently hand registered based on other trends include DestroyerGames.com, LocalGroupBuying.com – and a number of roulette domains.

There are very few four and five letter domain names in our portfolio, mostly because we missed out.

Despite building a global brand and successful online gaming operation which has experienced a meteoric rise since the mid-2000s, Calvin Ayre of Bodog still purchased Slots.com in a multi million dollar deal totaling $5.85 million.

But even though Calvin didn’t build up his company on category killer names, he certainly understands the benefits of owning a category killer name.

As he added in his press release from London,

“After Casino.com, we feel that Slots.com is the best gaming domain in the world. Bigger even than Poker.com because there are no strong brands in this space and slots are far more universal than poker. Just look at the amount of space a casino devotes to slots over poker, added to which it’s simple to spell and easy to remember. Slots.com will work for us on a number of levels, not least in generating global traffic to our Bodog branded properties but also to form a number of other targeted websites including one that will be created by and for the female gambler.”

The Best of Both Worlds

Calvin Ayre has the best of both worlds. He knows how to build a successful business and brand, and now, he will blow away the competition with his Slots.com acquisition.

Armed with a category killer name, and the deep branding expertise and financial pockets of Bodog – Calvin Ayre can’t be contained. The press release published earlier this week, states his plans for Slots.com:

BodogBrand will license Slots.com to selected online gaming operators in a fashion similar to the way the Bodog brand itself is currently licensed to gaming operators worldwide. In the interim period all Bodog branded properties (Bodog.com, bodog.co.uk, bodog.ca and bodog88.com) will use it to drive traffic to their casinos and poker offerings.

SerialKiller.com is not necessarily the squeaky-clean domain name most would think of buying, but keyword domains can’t always be taken for facevalue.  HomeRun.com sold earlier this year for $130,000, and while it seems logical that HomeRun.com would be used for a Fantasy Baseball website or something relevant to the sport of Baseball, especially for that hefty pricetag, Homerun.com instead is being used for a “Group Buying” website.

A revived concept that is making companies millions.

SerialKiller.com was included in the April Great Domains auction, but failed to sell after only receiving a high bid of $3,099, below it’s reserve price.  Now its met its reserve over at GreatDomains.

If you’ve been watching the news, criminals like Joran Van der Sloot are making headlines worldwide, so it’s quite possible this name could be used to provide curious web surfers with information about infamous serial killers like Joran van der Sloot and others.