Why do premium domain names cost so much?  What is the difference between a premium domain name versus a domain name?

Domain names are quite powerful entities in the world of the internet.  In fact, they can make or break a business when an owner allows the domain name to expire.

If the owners fail to pay the domain name renewal fees, then the domains become the property of the domain registrar.

You may know this or have already experienced this costly lesson.

Nevertheless, expired domain names become available to the general public once again if no one purchases the domains in a public auction.

Expired domain names sometimes become the property of domain investors, known as domainers, or sometimes trademarked expired domain names end up in the hands of unethical cybersquatters.

However, no matter who owns a given domain name, there is a different class of domain names on the market known as premium domain names.

Typically, premium domain names were registered in the early to late 1990s.  Some of these domains are actively developed.  Others are parked, and a small percentage simply doesn’t resolve to a web page.

In most cases, many of these valuable domains are redirected while others are parked in hopes that someone would come along want to purchase the domain name for their business.