.biz Can .Biz ever have any success?

JB Lions said:

haha c'mon now. Comparing something illegal to using extensions with words that make sense. Lots of things start out with intentions, things change.

Click to expand...

Nothing's changed, they are still ccTLDs?

Countries like Tuvalu and Montenegro ARE prostituting their extensions so I think it's a fair comparison. And don't forget that these countries ultimately control the fate of their extensions. One day one of them might decide they don't want yanks registering their names.

Big business understands this, therefore no serious company that does its due diligence will operate on one of these "whore" extensions without the .COM backup (in case of fire, redirect). IMO.

"Nothing's changed, they are still ccTLDs?"

Right but Google sees them as gtlds. And they're very recognizable to people since they're English words used daily. I just linked above to New York Times using news.me. There's going to be a place for other extensions since all the .com are pretty much gone, being used or cost too much. And the generations coming up will be more comfortable/adaptable to these other extensions. .com will always be first choice, no doubt, but if you can't get that, you move on down, just like with the site in your sig.

JB Lions said:

"Nothing's changed, they are still ccTLDs?"

Right but Google sees them as gtlds. And they're very recognizable to people since they're English words used daily. I just linked above to New York Times using news.me. There's going to be a place for other extensions since all the .com are pretty much gone, being used or cost too much. And the generations coming up will be more comfortable/adaptable to these other extensions. .com will always be first choice, no doubt, but if you can't get that, you move on down, just like with the site in your sig.

Click to expand...

If that makes you sleep better at night, keep believing it. Keep this thread bookmarked and check back in a few years. Best of luck.

I always sleep fine, just stating reality Plus, I only have a few .biz anyway, like some other extensions better. I have a little here and a little there. Also forgot to mention about this - "Tuvalu and Montenegro"

The average person, doesn't know and doesn't care, they see TV and me.

Another recent example, my own. I wanted this city/country.com. Guy wanted over mid XX,XXX, I bought the .me for like $9. He's not letting it go for any less. So move on down to another extension.

Side note - "Don't ask what .COM can do for you, ask what you can do for .COM."

Looks like the .com is yours also. Why aren't you using that instead of the .net?

JB Lions said:

Looks like the .com is yours also. Why aren't you using that instead of the .net?

Click to expand...

I'm using the uStream.TV Registration Protocol™. Since my background is in the ISP field I like using .NET, but if the need arises, I can reverse the redirect back to the .COM.

It's okay to own (and use) other TLD versions of a trade name, but if you're really serious, you must own the .COM ESPECIALLY if you're playing with fire, aka ccTLDs.

Otherwise, some ruler, in some far away land, might bring your World crashing down.

When you look at the fastest growing areas, it's .com & ccTLDs.

Saying that, most extensions are 'growing' (even the crap ones) but the second/third tier extensions are growing at a much slower rate, so the gap is actually widening.
Today there are nearly 90 million .com and .biz remains hardly above 2M.
Bottom line: .biz is not gaining traction, it's getting more marginal every day.
Yes, in case you haven't noticed I have a bias :sold:

The .SC registry raised standard renewals from around $35 to $95 overnight with no warning or notice. The same thing can happen to other ccTLDs only it could be worse.

Standard renewals could be converted to premium renewals, etc., etc.

[Sorry. I intended for this to merge with my previous post]

Nobody mentioned Google. To me, almighty Google is the one who decided to put .biz in the dump, and it's still keeping it there. Google is also the one who decides that .info is not as respectable as the big 3. They have a lot of sway in domaining.

If I'm not mistaken, when .biz first came out, it was marketed as a cheap extension, like what .info is today. And many spammers jumped in on the cheap price and built lousy sites with it. Google then canned both .biz and .info and swept the spammers away, but the stigma remains - till today. It worked though for Google, since .info is largely avoided till today. Underpricing the extension was a bad mistake with both .biz and .info.

If Google were to respect .biz and .info and make a public statement about it, I guarantee you, .biz and .info values will shoot up. They have always been shifty about it, unfortunately. In the end, Google and the big spammers brigade both indirectly colluded to stigmatize the extensions...

I think that .biz is a very respectable TLD for business related domains, even better than a .com I see future in .biz it is far ahead than .ws and .sc for example.

However, it will never achieve .com/.net value but you can still make money with it, just don't expect a quick and amazing sale.

To me, almighty Google is the one who decided to put .biz in the dump, and it's still keeping it there. Google is also the one who decides that .info is not as respectable as the big 3.

Click to expand...

Where did you get that information?

It's more a case of biz/info domains having far less representation overall and proportionately fewer quality sites. Add in the number of people who have used them for spammy sites because they're cheap, people using them who are clueless about SEO and the likelihood that if you have to resort to info or biz there is probably established competition on .com/net/org.

If Google were to respect .biz and .info and make a public statement about it,

Click to expand...

They've stated that they do not discriminiate among gtlds on numerous occasions. Amit Singhal (head of the ranking team at Google) has his own site on a .info.

malcarada said:

I think that .biz is a very respectable TLD for business related domains, even better than a .com

Click to expand...

NamePros quote of the week. IMO.

sdsinc said:

Overstock is a particular case.
We all know they want to secure O.com one day. That's the only reason why they got o.co & o.biz, to strengthen their TM.

Click to expand...

LOL I did'nt, I just figured that one out last night, damn I'm slow :zzz::red:

...did they find out who killed Jimmy Hoffa yet :blink:

.

enlytend said:

They've stated that they do not discriminate among gtlds on numerous occasions.

Click to expand...

Every SEO expert in the world has stated that but it still doesn't register with the average domainer.

I agree with Microguy, there is a risk with ccTLDs like .tv, .me, and .co that one day a government will reclaim their extension for local businesses or kill their golden goose by overcharging the registry which in turn overcharges registrants.

It amazes me that registrants pay so much for premium .tv domains. 2-3 years of paying $1,000-$5,000 in premium renewal fees and there is no chance of ever recovering your investment.

I disagree with Microguy that .biz or any extension is not needed. There is a market for alternative extensions because people want certain keywords but can't afford them in .com, .net or .org or they just don't want to pay silly money for a site that probably won't generate much revenue anyway. Developing a site that is well known online even amongst niche users is a 1 in 10,000 chance.

Most domainers assume domain names confer more benefit to a developer than they actually do. Whether you start a site with a particular keyword on a .tv, .me, .info, or .biz, it makes little difference, it's not an aged .com with backlinks so you are going to have to develop a site that is better than every existing .com in that niche and that is out of reach for 99.99% of amateur developers using templates and Wordpress.

When somebody puts money, high quality original content and technical skill into a project on an alternative extension, it can end up ranking well. Vienna.info, Austria.info, and Slovenia.info are good geo .info examples.

The mistake domainers make is to over-register alternative extensions. Registering the 2,000,001 st .biz domains for resale is as good a throwing money down the drain. If you have 10 years to spare to get a return on your investment, you'd be far better off buying $100 of shares in a company with some new invention worth a couple of million dollars, forget about it, and check in 10 years if is worth several hundred millions dollars.

When I was buying .pros, there were about 6,000 registered. That are now 46,000 domains registered, renewal fees have fallen by 90% and I have been able to recover 1/3 of my investment by selling 10 of my 250 .pro domains. I don't regard a 66% loss to date as a success but from a standing start, there is no mileage in .biz or .info because there are too many registered to pick up saleable keywords and the horrendous illiquidity is not fully priced in to reseller prices.

I have made quite a bit of coin selling .biz domains to end users, on the other hand I have never sold an .info to an end user, take from that what you will.

Sounds like we got a couple here that would make great snake oil salesmen. :notme:

MicroGuy said:

Sounds like we got a couple here that would make great snake oil salesmen. :notme:

Click to expand...

Statements like that only serve to highlight your ignorance of the subject at hand, no offense intended. I only state my experience of the extension, end of story.

VirtualT said:

Statements like that only serve to highlight your ignorance of the subject at hand, no offense intended. I only state my experience of the extension, end of story.

Click to expand...

No offense taken. Just calling it like I see it. :gl:

... come to think of it, maybe it's just your avatar.

enlytend said:

Where did you get that information?

It's more a case of biz/info domains having far less representation overall and proportionately fewer quality sites. Add in the number of people who have used them for spammy sites because they're cheap, people using them who are clueless about SEO and the likelihood that if you have to resort to info or biz there is probably established competition on .com/net/org.



They've stated that they do not discriminiate among gtlds on numerous occasions. Amit Singhal (head of the ranking team at Google) has his own site on a .info.

Click to expand...

Saying one thing and meaning another is the name of the game, or..... didn't you know?

All these years, my .biz and .info domains are routinely not indexed by Google if I left them parked, compared with parking those .com - All things being equal. Google does index parked .coms though....except for spammy sounding domains.

Need I point out that Google also won't easily index .com domains that have adult related terms or spammy themes like weight loss and teeth whitening IF they are parked.

Matt Cutts has never said anything about this.....it's just knowledge gained from experience. Google does discriminate. And you can pick up the signs from these little experiments, quite easily.

BTW, .biz pricing is no longer a cheap tld, in fact it is the same as other TLDs and yet people still shun it, because of the stigma originating from like, 10 years ago. If they didn't get brainwashed by the .com brigade that is....many businesses out there have no problem with .biz.

I blame Google and the spammers.

MicroGuy said:

If that makes you sleep better at night, keep believing it. Keep this thread bookmarked and check back in a few years. Best of luck.

Click to expand...

If you think this topic will still be alive in a few years Micro you are even crazier than I am!

Never underestimate my ability to kill a topic prematurely Muwhahahaha

Honestly though I like the differing viewpoints, it seems quite evident what is happening both with registered domains and peoples ideas that registering .biz is a bloody bad idea all around unless you have the few category killers.

I have just gone through every word in the English dictionary to test this, almost every word of value is taken, leaving the scraps and if that cannot help an extension I don't really know what will :p

And your conclusion about cctld's is interesting too, and I did see that something like Mike.tv has a yearly renewal fee of $5000

Wtf are they thinking??!

In that respect I would agree not to register domains from those countries because they are so damn greedy and cannot see that a well priced domain is to the benefit of all and not just corrupt politicians...however can the same be said true of the strongest of all extensions like .uk or .de where there aren't only a few thousand people getting their balls mangled but millions?

If one bloke registers a domain for $5000 on an obscure extension who really gives a shit in all honesty?

If one million people are suddenly facing renewal fees of 15,000% then that will make headline news, not just in domainer circles but worldwide. No politician can afford to put that many businesses to the gutter

Datalife said:

Google does discriminate. And you can pick up the signs from this quite easily.

Click to expand...

My experience tells me you are correct. They are hard at work trying to deliver the best "user experience" in terms of search. They routinely implement methods to achieve this for example penalizing sites using known parking company servers.