For those of you unfamiliar with ICANN, let me give you a brief low-down. ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. In short, they are the ones responsible for “domaining.”  Let me draw you a picture of how they literally print money through the issuance of domain names. On a semi-regular basis, ICANN recognizes that most of the good properties for a particular TLD (top level domain–.com, .org etc.) extension get eaten up by the demand to own property in the digital world. So, every other year or so, ICANN releases some new extension to the public. The .com phenomenon was the first, along with all the most recognizable .net, .org, .gov and even the occasional .biz. Most recently they released .co and if you’ve not seen some of the latest land grabs, take a look at a semi-recent WSJ article. Soon, you’ll be able to release your own TLD, for a hefty six figure sum, of course. With the ever expanding domain name real estate universe, there will continue to be an overwhelming demand for the traditional .com. Why? It’s the original, it’s what is remembered and, in some instances, it is even the default on mobile devices. With that in mind, here are a few other reasons why I will hardly ever purchase a domain that has not already been registered previously.

1. It’s nearly impossible to obtain-a-new-domain-that-has-any-worth.com. Go ahead and register that domain name right now on GoDaddy, it’s probably available–it and a million more worthless domains just like it.

2. Old sometimes means there are links. If you can find a great, old brandable domain it’s dynamite. If you can do that and get links, it’s even better. That means the site will rank much more quickly and will get indexed faster. Some of my old sites are indexed very rapidly.

3. People only like, and more importantly, remember .com. Talk to anyone over the age of 55 and they’ll almost invariably say “yes, go to double-u, double-u, double-u dot Amazon dot com.” It’s painful, but it’s true–most people don’t even know .biz even exists at all.

Hundreds of thousands of domains drop each month, many of which are pure crap. Those which are pure gold can be highly difficult to find–like the proverbial needle in a haystack. But when you do find them, they are great. Take it from me, it’s often better to spend a couple of hundred dollars on a good, old domain that is a .com, than waste your time trying to find some misspelled alternative to what you had originally planned. Plus, it’s going to cost you at least that much money to get the domain ranked anyway. It’s what I like to call a “back-loaded ROI.” It may cost you more on the front-end, but in the end, your return is going to be a whole-lot sweeter.