Domain investing glossary
59 terms every domain investor, broker and founder should know.
Aftermarket
The secondary market where registered domains are bought and sold between owners, as opposed to registering new names.
Auth code (EPP code)
A password-like code from the current registrar that authorises transferring a domain to another registrar.
Backorder
A request to a drop-catching service to try to register a domain the moment it is deleted.
BIN (Buy It Now)
A fixed price at which a buyer can purchase a domain immediately without negotiating.
Brandable
An invented or creatively combined name that is short, pronounceable and suitable as a brand, such as a startup name.
ccTLD
Country-code top-level domain, a two-letter extension assigned to a country or territory, like .ca, .de or .io.
Chip
A short domain made only of characters favoured by Chinese buyers, commonly excluding vowels and the letter V.
Closeout
A low-price, last-chance sale of an expired domain that received no bids at auction.
Comparable sales (comps)
Reported sales of similar domains used to support a valuation or price.
CVCV
A pattern of consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel, describing pronounceable four-letter names.
DNS
The Domain Name System, which translates domain names into the addresses computers use.
DNSSEC
Security extensions that let resolvers verify DNS answers have not been tampered with.
Domain hack
A domain that uses its extension to complete a word, such as youtu.be.
Domainer
Someone who buys, holds and sells domain names as an investment.
Drop
The moment a deleted domain is released from the registry and becomes available to register.
Drop catching
Using automated systems to register domains the instant they drop.
End user
A buyer who wants a domain to use for their own business or project, rather than to resell.
Escrow
A neutral third party that holds the buyer's payment until the domain transfer is confirmed.
Exact match domain (EMD)
A domain that exactly matches a search phrase, such as BestRunningShoes.com.
Expired domain auction
An auction run by or with a registrar for a domain its owner did not renew.
Grace period
Time after expiry during which the owner can still renew at the normal price.
gTLD
Generic top-level domain such as .com, .net, .org or the newer extensions like .app.
Hand registration (hand reg)
Registering a never-registered or freshly available name at standard registration price.
IDN
Internationalised domain name, using non-ASCII characters and stored as punycode.
Inbound inquiry
A purchase inquiry that comes to the seller unprompted, usually via a lander or marketplace.
Lander
A landing page shown on a domain, typically stating that it is for sale and how to buy it.
Lease to own (LTO)
A sale where the buyer pays in installments and receives ownership after the final payment.
Liquidity
How quickly a domain can be sold at a fair market price, often to other investors.
LLL / LLLL
Shorthand for three-letter and four-letter domain names.
Make offer
A listing without a fixed price that invites buyers to propose an amount.
MX record
A DNS record that tells mail servers where to deliver email for a domain.
Nameservers
The DNS servers that hold a domain's records; changing them moves control of the domain's DNS.
New gTLD
One of the hundreds of extensions introduced since 2013, such as .app, .shop or .xyz.
NNN / NNNN
Shorthand for three-number and four-number domain names.
Outbound
Proactively contacting potential buyers who might want a domain.
Parking
Placing ads or a placeholder page on an unused domain, sometimes earning click revenue.
Pending delete
The final five-day stage before a deleted gTLD domain drops; it cannot be restored.
Portfolio
The collection of domains an investor owns.
Punycode
The ASCII encoding (starting xn--) used to store internationalised domain names in DNS.
Push
Moving a domain between two accounts at the same registrar, often instant.
RDAP
Registration Data Access Protocol, the structured replacement for WHOIS.
Redemption period
A roughly 30-day window after deletion when the previous owner can restore a domain for a fee.
Registrar
A company accredited to register domains on behalf of customers, such as GoDaddy or Namecheap.
Registry
The organisation that runs an extension's database, such as Verisign for .com.
Renewal
Paying to keep a domain registered for another period, usually a year.
Reverse domain name hijacking (RDNH)
A finding that a complainant used the UDRP in bad faith to try to take a domain.
RPM
Revenue per thousand visitors, used to compare parking or advertising income.
Sell-through rate
The share of a portfolio sold in a year; around 1–2% is common for investors.
SLD
Second-level domain — the part before the extension, like 'example' in example.com.
Squatting (cybersquatting)
Registering a domain matching someone else's trademark in bad faith to profit from it.
Transfer lock
A status that blocks transfers, including the 60-day lock after certain changes under ICANN policy.
TTL
Time to live: how long resolvers cache a DNS record before checking again.
Type-in traffic
Visitors who reach a domain by typing it directly into the browser.
Typosquatting
Registering misspellings of popular domains to capture mistyped traffic.
UDRP
Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy — the process trademark owners use to recover domains registered in bad faith.
URS
Uniform Rapid Suspension — a faster, cheaper process for clear-cut cases that suspends rather than transfers a domain.
WHOIS
The legacy protocol and database for domain registration data, now largely replaced by RDAP.
Wholesale
The price investors typically pay each other, well below what end users pay.