Numeric Domain giveaways just don't seem to work

DNF24, a new domain forum founded in November 2008, launched a first-claim first-served contest during the first 25 days of December that gave away LLLL.com's and 'numeric domain names to brandable keyword domains.' That was according to a press release by DNF24 on December 1. Surely that must have been an amazing opportunity for newby NuDoms to get some aftermarket numeric domains that spell or 'could spell' brands, right? The word 'brandable' apparently doesn't mean existing brands but words that could possibly become brands, like the un-generic words 'Twitter' or 'Youtube' before those brands were popularized.

So we checked it out, since it's after Christmas and the contest is over with.

So, the post on the forum that announced the contest reads:

'Free Domain Names incl. LLLL.com's. As a part of our launch promotion I will give away one free domain name per day. I will post numeric domain names, LLLL com's and a few random names.To grab a domain name simply post "Sold" and send me your...First come first serve.'

So, it turns out that they did give away numeric domains. Here's the unofficial list:

04795.com 04798.com 04821.com 04823.com 04826.com 04829.com 08513.com 08531.com 08532.com 08538.com 08539.com 08572.com 08573.com 08577.com 08579.com 08591.com 09017.com 09025.com 09026.com 09027.com 09032.com 09061.com 09062.com 09065.com 09085.com 09087.com

Uh huh. So, can someone PLEASE tell me how are these 'numeric domain names to brandable keyword domains?'

What 'brandable keyword' does 09026.com spell? A keyword is a set of letters, right? With no ones or zeros, right? If you have two zeros breaking up the wordnumber 926 (that spells Y-A-M), how is this a keyword that will be brandable? Who's going to brand 0Y0AM.com [zero]-Y-[zero]-A-M as their web 2.0 project?

These numeric domain giveaway items aren't brandable keyword wordnumbers but seem be the same illiquid NNNNN.com's that folks have been trying to sell for dirt cheap on every other domain name forum for the past 6 months. They ALL HAVE ZEROS and don't spell anything; look at your phone keypad: zero spells NADA! These aren't future brandable keywords!

Hey, nothing against DNF24.com, they're doing a great service to their community by bringing attention to numeric domains. But, next time please don't call these 'numeric domain names to brandable keyword domains.' If you want one of those, go to the Alexa top 500 sites in the U.S. and you'll find a few brands for which no dotcom wordnumber is regged.

And for all you companies out there, you actually already missed out on a another lapsed giveaway contest. That was Mr. Scott Smith's contest at NumericDomains.com when he launched a giveaway sweepstakes of one of his dotcom wordnumbers to the first company or celebrity - owners of their brand - who claimed it and actually implemented it as a 'primary access point' for their mobile web destination. To our knowledge, no company took him up on his offer. We were wrong when we predicted that Dr. Dyer was going to win and use the domain to help others 'connect to their (mobile) source.'

Even the company ChaCha, that bought their dotcom wordnumber numeric domain (242242.com) from Smith still doesn't have that domain forwarded to a mobile-friendly website. Although it wasn't a contractual stipulation from Smith that ChaCha use it in any specific way, the domain still only forwards to their plain vanilla web site. Does ChaCha even have a mobile-friendly website? It seems like the answer is 'no.'

So why are numeric domain giveaways such flops (in our opinion)? When you're giving away priceless numeric domains, no one wants them. And when you're giving away worthless numeric domains, everyone wants them. And then there are plenty of new brands for which the corresponding wordnumbers are still unregged. Low-lying fruit, people!

I guess it must be that wordnumber numeric domains are still not fully understood and appreciated. Scott Smith and Jamptap and WordDial all have prime examples and demos on our respective sites about how much easier it is to type in a number than the corresponding word or brand. But people still don't get it. Or understand what a wordnumber really is! It doesn't have zeros in the domain, that's a clue for starters.

Giveaways or not, it's a long way off still until that day that we all agree on what is a numeric domain to brands or generic words or 'brandable keywords,' understand the functional advantages of these domains, and wordnumbering becomes 'de rigueur.'