Saw.com co-founder Jeff Gabriel explains the “radio test” in a saw.com video. He discusses how the radio test is an essential factor in determining the value of a domain name.
Transcript
Hi, my name is Jeff Gabriel, and I’m the CEO and co-founder of SAW.com.
Now what ties into the length of the domain name is kind of an easy thing to look at but it’s also kind of an opinion call, but it takes a lot of common sense to look at. The question is, “How memorable is it?” And, “Will it pass this thing called the radio test?” The question is, “How will it sound on the radio?” “How will it be perceived by your listener?” And when we are talking about the radio test, we are also talking about putting it in a video, putting it on a business card, verbally telling somebody the name of your business at a conference. Will they remember it? Will they be able to go back and be able to spell it? Can a family or people who go and purchase your goods and services be able to say it and remember the name of your business and be able to send you the name of that business.
And then tying into the length and how universal it is, how easy it is to spell. The name achieve.com would be a wonderful domain name, but will people mix up the e and the i? How does it sound to somebody who doesn’t speak English as their first language? Are they going to have a hard time spelling it? There are a lot of people who come to me and ask me to appraise domain names or ask me to help them acquire domain names that instead of using the letter s at the end they use the letter z and pronounce it like its plural. What does that do to your business with the radio test, with people making it memorable? It doesn’t help.
In order for a domain name to be valuable, it needs to be memorable. It also has to be able to pass something called the radio test. It takes a little bit of common sense, but I’m going to give you an example of something with the radio test that would really make you scratch your head. If you were to purchase the domain name read.com, what do you think about it? Do you think about somebody reading a book? Do you think about the action of selling a bookstore? Or what if I told you it’s something that went into a musical instrument and it was spelled reed? What does that do to the value of the domain name?
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