Finding the right domain name can be one of the most critical steps towards ensuring your online success. That's why many high-quality keyword-rich domain names can and do fetch exorbitant prices. Here's some high-profile examples...

• Drugs.com sold for $830,000
• CreditCards.com sold for $2.75 million
• Wine.com sold for $2.9 million
• AsSeenOnTv.com sold for $5.1 million
• Business.com sold for $7.5 million
• Poker.com is estimated to have sold for over $20 million! (reports vary)

By owning the .com version of the most sought-after keyword in an industry, businesses secure themselves three critical advantages...

1. Authority - They are often seen by users as the de-facto authority. A domain like CreditCards.com immediately gives a business strong credibility with visitors.

2. Type-in Traffic - They can benefit from type-in traffic. Many users have no idea how search engines work, and simply type keywords into the address bar of their browsers and see where it takes them. Owners of generic keyword domains like College.com benefit from huge amounts of free traffic this way.

3. Improved Rankings - If your domain name exactly matches the keyword query a user is typing into a search engine, most search engines will automatically give that domain a significant ranking advantage.

Because of the advantage of a domain name exactly matching a targeted keyword, even longer domains targeting less competitive phrase can be quite pricey. For example...

• UsedMotorcycle.com sold for $39,000
• FinancialCounseling.com sold for $7,550
• CarpetInstallations.com sold for $5,000
• SanFranciscoPersonals.com sold for $1,000

The competition for exact match keyword domains is fierce, and m...