I keep seeing people who want domains with only 3 or 4 letters/characters. I assumed this was for the sake of being easy to remember and therefore, great to market with, etc. Wouldn't a longer, more beneficial keyword be better, though, or is there an appeal for short domain names that I'm missing?

I think that the appeal for shorter names is just as you say. On the other hand having the full business name for a domain name is probably just as easy to remember if you have some name recognition to start with. I'm not so sure that a longer name is going to help with seo.

I must be odd then because I find longer names are more memorable than shorter ones in a domain name. There's a stock photo site I check out every so often that has three letters in its name.

Every time without fail I decide to visit it, I need to go to my bookmarks because I can't remember the dang thing! It's a place I go at least once a week too.

Perhaps some kind of middle ground of a few short words would work best? I don't know... my brain isn't good with just initials in a URL but then I could be the exception.

I always remember sxc, its the .hu that gets me every time. By time I remember that I've visited .com, .org, and .net and have to dig out the bookmark.

I think the shortness and novelty is the draw for short urls. I don't even want to think about the cost or value of such urls though. With unique longer ones costing into the thousands, shorter ones must cost ten times more.

LOL, purple, that's the very site I was talking about! I used to do exactly the same thing. Now I just go straight for the bookmark and admit I have a failing memory.

I don't know if the price of a domain is affected if it's short or long, that's an interesting thought. I did read a piece which said the short ones were literally a more suitable fit for paper-related office supplies, like business cards and forms. It also pointed out that with being short, it reduced the likelihood of someone misspelling it.

I'm beginning to see what the appeal is now for shorter ones a bit more.

Few domain name worth to buy even it is 5 to 9 letters, like for example webhosting.com, which is still hard to get.

I was watching TV last night, a rare activity for me, and saw a commercial for Ebay. I was immediately drawn to the fact that it's only 4 letters because this thread was still on my mind.

Mark made a point in this thread that buymycrap.com is a lot easier to remember than thisisadomainnamethatisfartoolongtoorememberandwil lprobablyloseyoualotofbusiness.com. In that same sense, Ebay is a perfect example of being much more likely to keep the net's short attention span than something lengthy like that. I hadn't really paid much attention to short domain names until people started requesting them, but there's certainly a point there. I keep noticing other short names now, too....like half.com and how TV/radio stations (and now websites) have stuck to the acronyms for a long time now (NBC, CBS, MSN, etc).

I'll bet that the majority of people don't even remember what NBC and CBS stand for.

On the other hand, as I type this post there's and advertisement banner at the top of the page that prominently says 'Web Hosting' and in the background is 'X9', but no URL. I wonder if using a name with two such common words is viable? It may be easy to remember, but probably just as easy to confuse with another company.

Honestly, I think only 3 or 4 characters is TOO short for a domain name. Personally speaking, I would much rather prefer a name that is between 5 and 12 characters long.

To me that seems like the right length, since it should give you enough space to describe what your site is about, and still be easy to remember.

After reading all these comments, I think it all depends on the name. As mentioned previously, ebay is a short name but buymycrap is long. Yet, both are memorable and make you want to visit their site.

Not really, when it comes to the second domain name.

short domain names are easier to remember, and I think that's the reason why they are a lot more expensive than most of the longer ones. Longer ones should also be easier to remember (it's better if it's a combination of few words and not a domain name which are be spelled out, like hsoyaoghodh.com lol).

Shorter ones are also higher in price because of their rarity. The shorter the name, the fewer possible combinations of letters, and therefore the fewer names available at that length.

I think that having enough letters to make your name is what you need, and just hope your name isn't too long to remember.

No need to use long name. It's bad for SEO IMO.

I think it's irrelevant; sure shorter domain names are rememerable but you can still have a very successful site with a very long domain name as long as it's produced well and invest in the Marketing & Promotion aspects.