The .PRO Discussion

[InvisionTech]

It seems .PRO is slowly coming out of the cage with cheaper reg prices than they were a year ago and major registrars like netsol taking notice of the extension and promoting it.

Here are some that I picked up in last couple of days:

Alexandria.pro

Anchorage.pro

Arlington.pro

Belfast.pro

Birmingham.pro

Budapest.pro

Durham.pro

Fairfax.pro

Italian.pro

Lisbon.pro

Fire away with your regs after the relaunch on September 8th, 2008.

 

[JoeBiz]

You are not investing money in promoting the extension, none of us are tbh, you're investing in keywords that you assume will give you good ROI.

I have less than 50 .pro domains, the max I've ever had and I'm not worried at all about my investment in .pro - a couple of sales will put me in the black.

Good Morning Wiz. Hope you had a nice weekend.

When I said "as a promoter" I didn't mean to imply that as a domainer I was promoting. What I meant was that if I was a registrar (or anyone else) contemplating promoting the .pro extension, I think that I could easily find a better place to put my money.

I have about 230 .pro's remaining ... down from 240 to 250. Based on my initial registration fees I am well into the black with no more than five or six sales. But I'm spending $3,400 a year just to maintain my Profolio.

The large majority of domainers are simply not aware that the Pro extension is available for purchase. It would only take one or two large registrars to begin supporting Pros to give demand a huge boost along with the resale value.

Let me leave you with one question. Why does GoDaddy support .de, .ca and .co.uk but not .pro?


8^X

 

[Jawed]

Why does GoDaddy support .de, .ca and .co.uk but not .pro?

Because local businesses don't have any alternative to .de, .ca and .co.uk.

I know .com is the default extension for the US but in countries like UK, Germany, India and China etc the local businesses prefer ccTLDs. There are many instances where .co.uk could be as valuable as .com.

 

[mwzd]

MWZD..A NEWBIE HERE. I THOUGHT THAT .PRO WAS FOR PROFESSIONALS, doctors, lawyers.I have seen the craziest .pros here..explain, PLEASE!
Thanks,Serry

You have to be a certified pro to register .PRO domains, but they don't necessarily have to be on the same subject as your credentials.

I have about 230 .pro's remaining ... down from 240 to 250. Based on my initial registration fees I am well into the black with no more than five or six sales. But I'm spending $3,400 a year just to maintain my Profolio.

From a portfolio of 250 domains you should ideally sell 5 per year, that would cover your registration and leave you with a surplus at the end of the year.

Of course the keyword is probably the most important part of this, if you don't have keywords that people would pay $1k+ for in an alternate, not so well known extension, you might consider reducing your portfolio down to those keywords that will work.

 

[JoeBiz]

Because local businesses don't have any alternative to .de, .ca and .co.uk.

That explains why they do support those 3 extensions but it doesn't explain why they don't support .pro.

 

[-EM-]

That explains why they do support those 3 extensions but it doesn't explain why they don't support .pro.

Maybe because it is an unknown gTLD?

 

[MicroGuy]

Maybe because it is an unknown gTLD?

Unknown, unwanted, and unneeded. Kind of like me at a college sorority car wash. IMHO. ()

 

[webdomain]

MG that is just not a true statement. The registry is expanding like it or not.

 

[JoeBiz]

Maybe because it is an unknown gTLD?

But that's how extensions gain exposure, through registrars willing to promote them. I doubt that .co would have done anything to write home about had GoDaddy not promoted it. Same applies to .me's and their sedo auctions.

Extensions don't become well known and then promoted. They are promoted and then they become well known.

 

[Kate]

Exactly the problem, .pro is not carried by mainstream registrars.
Also, the restrictions albeit minor are not a selling point either.

 

[webdomain]

yes, but knowing how tough it is to get a registry to promote an extension at least .pro has many registrars with ads on their front pages! New extensions are going to have the same struggle and competition for that shelf space will only get worse. I think .pro has a big leg up with even their current position as well as the developed registry base of users.

 

[Kate]

Look at .co for example, it's not the cheapest extension, pricing is more or less on par with .tv but they did a pretty good job promoting it.

I think the restrictions are a putoff to some extent, even to domainers the qualification requirements are not always clear. It blurs the message. If people have doubts about their eligibility, they will move on rather than take a chance out of uncertainty. Why bother ?

The problem is that plenty of new extensions are around the corner, and many will be vying for a share of the same pie.

The registrars won't be able to promote all of them at the same time. A few will get more exposure, the rest will just be added to the list with zero visibility. For example, today you can register .pro at Enom but you have to dig for it. It's not prominent at all.

IMO it's game over for .pro & .siblings - the window of opportunity is long gone. But it's your money %%-

 

[JoeBiz]

Exactly the problem, .pro is not carried by mainstream registrars.
Also, the restrictions albeit minor are not a selling point either.

Exactly !!!!

 

[webdomain]

Out of over 1900 applications for new extensions I think the best one is .wow! That's our competition folks...overall all the hype and publicity should just end up shaking the internet tree and waking up the general public to non .com domains..I think this is good.

Most of the extensions are very specific and imho don't allow for mass consumption of millions of registrants. It will be hard to get many of these off the ground, but good for the few niche keyword type websites that those extensions would benefit (.loan) for example will be great for a few hundred websites. house.loan, cash.loan, payday.loan ect..

like it or not, .pro is still very much in the game.

 

[webdomain]

just saw this on dnjournal , cards.pro 1,800 sale on sedo this week.

http://dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

 

[JoeBiz]

I'm wondering how long I'm going to see "The Big Reveal" in every - single - newsletter - I receive. Sounds like something you would do on a reality show.

 

[Federer]

Transport.pro is currently @ Auction. Will be interesting to see how much it fetches.

 

[gkjunior]

Transport.pro is currently @ Auction. Will be interesting to see how much it fetches.

Wonder if the buyers are the same ones that made a couple of inquiries at DNS but did not like the quote...maybe the .pro can get a good price

see attachment with quote

 

[Kuli]

The funny thing is:

According to domaintools.com, transport.pro was solr in September 2008 for $550.

I wonder who's buying a domain and then dropping it not even four years later.

It's not that strange as with video.pro in 2007, but it's still noteworthy.

 

[InvisionTech]

Mart .pro at auction...

https://sedo.com/auction/auction_de...ion_id=128798&tracked=&partnerid=&language=us

 

[JoeBiz]

In case you've missed it, Rick Schwartz has won the UDRP on SaveMe.com. I feel sure that no one just fell out of their chair but the big news IMO is the finding that the Complaint was Brought in Bad Faith along with a Finding Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.

Now if they'll slap a huge fine on the latter I'll be a happy domainer!


8^X

 

[PNW]

How is that relevant to .Pro?

 

[JoeBiz]

How is that relevant to .Pro?

It's relevant because I want my Pro friends to have the information. And this just happens to be where they are.

And it's in fact HUGELY relevant to all TLDs.

 

[webdomain]

fyi..dnjournal reported digital.pro sold for 2,500.

 

[4pm]

Would really appreciate any thoughts from pros on a reasonable end-user price range for Football(.)pro



thanks in advance

 

[webdomain]

4pm, I think this quote would be a reasonable..You could hold out for more if you are willing to wait.

http://appraise.epik.com/football.pro