discuss Why Dot-Best new tld may in fact be one of the "best"

[namemarket]

There seems to not be a lot of good potential keywords in front of .best These are my thoughts on that subject.

I believe one of the main perceived and quite possibly valid benefits of dot-best is keyword(s) do not necessarily need to be in front of "best" but can work without the best word in the name by being instead in the extension and which can replace the 'best' word by only being in the URL with extension.

For example, BestDomainName.com can be replaced with DomainName.Best and the search engines may rank it well or possibly even the same ranking, assuming the name is listed in the search index. A good example of that is as Cyril said 'Madeira Best' search results being the same or similar to 'Best Madeira' etc.

So the idea is BestKeyword.com or whatever can be replaced with Keyword.Best URL resulting in a shorter URL with search engines potentially giving value to the term by also using the reverse word order in the search index results. So in that random example the extension replaces a need to put the Best word in front of the dot.

I know it all sounds confusing but I have reasons to suspect this is actually correct and may be valid thinking and in fact I now personally like dot-best a lot and believe it's an excellent new extension, probably the "best" overall potential of any of the new tlds and certainly a good buy with the $1.98 promo, IMO.

 

[Joe N]

It's kinda funny that new TLDs are released all the time, and each time domainers think the new kid on the block is going to perform better than the previous ones.
Promised, this one is going to be the 'bestest' of the best.

That's what I find so unusual... The market domination of .com has been the norm for almost three decades. The battle for dominance happened long ago. It's over now. Done. All other extensions have been relegated to niche status. Why would you invest in them when you have zero personal stake in their success?

The whole thing makes me think of the video format war from the 1980s. VHS vs Betamax. Beta was a slightly better quality product; it even hit the market a year in advance. But JVC made some smart marketing choices with VHS and effectively crushed Beta. It stuck around for years and years as a niche product, but no one in their right mind owned a Beta VCR machine at home.

These other TLDs are the Betamax of domain names, but registries keep dressing up the pig and trying to make it look like something appealing.

Don't be the one little shop on the street corner selling Beta machines when everyone already uses VHS... Sure you'll get the odd sale from people who want to give it a try, but why would you want to limit your potential customer base so much? You'd have to be amazing in this niche to make it work. It just doesn't compute for me.

 

[Joe N]

Would the following strike you as commercial? (I know a few are, but at first glance). All of these sold in the past year (NameBio listed) for $5000+. My point is there is a whole spectrum of types of uses for domains.

• new.earth
• air.space
• have.fun
• candy.club
• spiritual.life
• face.top
• fan.top
• awakening.global
• preserve.life
• life.club
• real.men
• summit.global
• rex.one

Bob

Actually most of those strike me as very commercial, if only because they are well-constructed English phrases that I can envision being applied to huge industries.

I can't envision the application of Act.Best, so I was curious.

Also curious to know how many of the above sales were registry sales...

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I can't envision the application of Act.Best, so I was curious.

OK you have a broader view than I gave credit. My apologies. I just wanted to point out that organizations like the global peace movement that bought new.earth occasionally lay down significant funds for a domain name.

So my good freind @lolwarrior undoubtedly has thought way more than me about his domain name but let me answer how I see commercial worth in the name Act.best.

• There are numerous schools of acting - a natural.
• Also good for a nonprofit drama organization or competition
• Superb for a counselling service that offered help in behaviour modification with issues like anger, etc.
• Superb name for a training program in anger management, road rage, etc.
• It would be a long shot, but occasionally we see sales for an unusual application. Like lets say that hollywood types wanted to respond to some of the issues (i.e. meToo, male dominance in directors, etc.) then Act.best strikes me as pretty great.
• Another use would be for a program whereby actors worked together to promote support of drama for kids for example. Autism.rocks sold for $100,000 for musicians doing charity events to sponsor autism related research and support.
• I see many uses in the education field with effective programs related to student behaviour.
• Politicians could definitely take the domain name to heart. I admit it is probably too cute for this application, but the reputation management industry is definitely growing and will continue to do so. I can see a creative startup in that possibly wanting it.
• I suspect like most of the time the actual end user is one we don't foresee.

Anyway, just a few off the top of my head.

Bob

 

[Joe N]

I don't disagree with what you say, and in fact have said more or less exactly several times on NPs that almost all domain investments are imho risky, that extensions without a record of sales are even more risky, and I have said this I think in two posts re .best in particular.

My argument was not meant as encouragement for others to invest in .best, but rather to point out that I think sometimes the domain name discussion focuses too narrowly on whether a domain name is suitable for a big business brand name as the only possible application. Yes, if you are selling single word .com for 5 or 6 figures or more, that is your market. But tons of domains sell to end users at small amounts for other uses.

Probably the .best people won't like my comparison in following two paragraphs, but I can tell you how I personally view the situation. I like domain phrases and if there is one thing I hope to leave the domain industry with, other than trying to take a balanced, quantitative, logical and respectful look at things (like you always do by the way), is push the needle in the marketing community to use domain names for marketing phrases. That is what got me back into domain names a couple of years ago, and although I own a variety of types of names, that is still my greatest interest personally. I do see that .best works (along with others like .life, .fun, .world, and many others) so i was interested in the extension.

I also am very risk averse. Right now I see an opportunity to get some (to me) nice domain phrases with rather small risk (the Dynadot promotion). I am not looking for $$$$+ sales. If I sell a name for $750 I am ecstatic, even at $200 I have a great day. Yes, absolutely little track record for .best (2 I think public record sales, 1 in NameBio). Although the new owners have only been running it really since mid fall (bought months earlier than that). So maybe too early to know.

When I started investing in .fun, another TLD I liked a lot for phrase possibilities it had been around for some time and there were no sales above $200 and very few at any level (there now is a registry one at $11,500). Anyway, I liked phrases, I spent $20 or so in investing in .fun domains. I sold one two months ago for $160. Not much but 150x my cost of that name and considerably more than all of my .fun in total. My personal view of .best is for me it makes sense to get some that make good phrases while they are still available. If I sell one, I way more than cover all my costs. If I sell none, it is a risk I accept and live with.

Only invest in domains what you can afford to lose. My mantra.

Bob

I see what you're saying, I do. It sure looks like the margins are super thin, though, if they're even there.

I like domains as a hobby, but ultimately I want to scale. I want to build my portfolio and make money. I can't do that by investing in 100 names in new extensions and selling four of them per year at $300 a pop.

I know there's a place for these things, believe me. I know people sell them sometimes. I just think that investing in them instead of the proven dominant TLD is putting yourself at an immediate disadvantage. Being the underdog is fun and all, but I'd rather give myself the best chance to succeed.

 

[Joe N]

OK you have a broader view than I gave credit. My apologies. I just wanted to point out that organizations like the global peace movement that bought new.earth occasionally lay down significant funds for a domain name.

So my good freind @lolwarrior undoubtedly has thought way more than me about his domain name but let me answer how I see commercial worth in the name Act.best.

• There are numerous schools of acting - a natural.
• Also good for a nonprofit drama organization or competition
• Superb for a counselling service that offered help in behaviour modification with issues like anger, etc.
• Superb name for a training program in anger management, road rage, etc.
• It would be a long shot, but occasionally we see sales for an unusual application. Like lets say that hollywood types wanted to respond to some of the issues (i.e. meToo, male dominance in directors, etc.) then Act.best strikes me as pretty great.
• Another use would be for a program whereby actors worked together to promote support of drama for kids for example. Autism.rocks sold for $100,000 for musicians doing charity events to sponsor autism related research and support.
• I see many uses in the education field with effective programs related to student behaviour.
• Politicians could definitely take the domain name to heart. I admit it is probably too cute for this application, but the reputation management industry is definitely growing and will continue to do so. I can see a creative startup in that possibly wanting it.
• I suspect like most of the time the actual end user is one we don't foresee.

Anyway, just a few off the top of my head.

Bob

I like the creativity, but I think the biggest predictor of a future sale of a domain name will always be volume of use of the term that you're selling.

New Earth is a powerful statement on it's own. Google shows 25 million exact results, some ads, and tons of brands and organization that use the term right in their domain name. Not to mention all kinds of books and media being sold on Amazon, etc. There are also 1,363 domains currently registered with "New Earth" in them. So for this new TLD name... I get it. Good name. Good investment. Did a domainer sell it? I doubt it, but that's a whole other issue.

Now when you search "Act Best"... only 1% of the exact results that New Earth gets. No one is branding with the term, no one appears to use it in their domain name, and only 21 other names containing this term are even registered.

So while I agree that sometimes a new TLD nails a great term, I think they are few and far between. I also think the registries own almost all of the valuable ones. AND I solid research is required on these things before buying them (as with any name, I suppose). If I ever buy a new TLD name, it will be because the numbers scream at me the way "new earth" does.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

solid research is required on these things before buying them (as with any name, I suppose)

this ^^

Interesting research re New.earth. Thank you. I agree that someone looking at that would foresee the value. Although it should be pointed out that a lot of those results are related to a book with that in title. In fact 9 of the top 10 in my Google search are all related to that book. But I agree a high value term.

But I think many sceptics on here if I was mentioning the .earth extension would scream no sales, junk value. In fact this is the only sale in the extension (well on NameBio at least), ever. And no it was not registry - the seller was Braden and the LegalBrandMarketing folks at $18,800. A nice name and nice sale.

Re act.best I fail to see the lack of commercial value. Even if we only consider the first on my list, schools of drama, there are huge numbers around world. I live in Victoria, BC a city (with nearby included) of a few hundred thousand, but we have at least 3 schools of drama.

Bob

 

[NickB]

this ^^

Interesting research re New.earth. Thank you. I agree that someone looking at that would foresee the value. But I think many sceptics on here if I was mentioning the .earth extension would scream no sales, junk value. In fact this is the only sale in the extension, ever. And no it was not registry - the seller was Braden and the LegalBrandMarketing folks at $18,800. A nice name and nice sale.

Re act.best I fail to see the lack of commercial value. Even if we only consider the first on my list, schools of drama, there are huge numbers around world. I live in Victoria, BC a city (with nearby included) of a few hundred thousand, but we have at least 3 schools of drama.

Bob

@lolwarrior should reach out to the Oscar committee........

 

[Joe N]

Re act.best I fail to see the lack of commercial value. Even if we only consider the first on my list, schools of drama, there are huge numbers around world. I live in Victoria, BC a city (with nearby included) of a few hundred thousand, but we have at least 3 schools of drama.

The question we need to ask is not if we see that use/value, but if many many other existing organizations see it. We can dream up perfect uses for names all we want... If there isn't a single organization or acting school or celebrity in the world already using this term, we need to re-examine our decision to buy.

Edit to add another point here:

If we were to dig even deeper into what type of domain name an art school would use, I suspect we'd find what you find with a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses (unless of course these are schools with a large international base of students): a lot of them use a ccTLD, and a lot of them are content to operate on a long-winded domain name that matches the name of their school/business (or an acronym of that long-winded name).

 

[NYJimbo]

The question we need to ask is not if we see that use/value, but if many many other existing organizations see it. We can dream up perfect uses for names all we want... If there isn't a single organization or acting school or celebrity in the world already using this term, we need to re-examine our decision to buy.

Exactly.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

But your question was "I fail to see commercial value." I was responding to that . You seemed to say that there were not commercial organizations for which act would be a good word when combined with best. I disagreed.

I think we can all agree that the original registry owners for .best were asleep at the wheel with a few thousand registrations. I am quite frankly amazed there were any sales with that few registrations as potential sellers. Neither of us, I would argue, know what the new owners will achieve, or not, with .best.

But you seem to imply that drama would never consider a new extension, but I dont think that is right. So if I want to know about drama and films around the world, where might I end up? On a.life extension!
https://wikipedia.matt.life/wiki/Category:Drama_films_by_country

Or what about .rocks, an extension with many more registrations and liked by the music community. Yup a drama school using that one.
http://duluthmusiclessons.rocks/new-acting-classes/

What about a program helping drama teachers teach more effectively. Anyone using a new extension for that? Why yes numerous including this .online one.
https://www.thedramabox.online/courses/drama-confidence-booster

Do most use .com or .ca (for here)? Absolutely. Will they never consider a new extension even with a great phrase like act best? We will see I guess.

Bob

 

[NickB]

@Joe Nichols ( AKA unstoppable force ) meets @Bob Hawkes ( AKA immovable object )

The results are in anndddd it's the Irresistible force paradox!!

Great reading two different views that are not only well thought out but are good natured as well - been good reading.

Glad I'm sitting on the fence with all this .best conversations

 

[Brands.International]

The question we need to ask is not if we see that use/value, but if many many other existing organizations see it. We can dream up perfect uses for names all we want... If there isn't a single organization or acting school or celebrity in the world already using this term, we need to re-examine our decision to buy.

Edit to add another point here:

If we were to dig even deeper into what type of domain name an art school would use, I suspect we'd find what you find with a lot of brick-and-mortar businesses (unless of course these are schools with a large international base of students): a lot of them use a ccTLD, and a lot of them are content to operate on a long-winded domain name that matches the name of their school/business (or an acronym of that long-winded name).

@Joe Nichols lot of great points,and I agree.

But some of the names I buy purely from semantic and aesthetic pov of view (and this is influenced by my presence in EU, not in USA - for example, for us here it sounds nice, and we do not really care about arguments whether .best is in correct order with keyword, etc, which are probably more important for some of those from USA/Canada/UK). But mostly, it is important whether I personally like it or not.

I purchased this name few minutes after I saw it here on Namepros... I think I paid 50 for it, but honestly I was ready to pay 1000 if necessary...but luckily, we are at Namepros and some members are also happy with 50 bucks, which is very good with me. (This way I built almost my whole portfolio, although I have to admit few years ago also 10-20 was enough to purchase nice name).

I have priced this name fot 50k in 2019, as I can see large org using it very nicely...I wil probably price it even higher in future. Whether I will sell it for 50k is unknown, but honestly I do not care much about it, and I am looking to see what happens in next 15-20 years, which is my investment horizont.

Act.Best is now among five of my most favourite names in my portfolio.

Also, I was able to use it to respond to some unruly members on NP in some threads, that is also not that bad

 

[Brands.International]

OK you have a broader view than I gave credit. My apologies. I just wanted to point out that organizations like the global peace movement that bought new.earth occasionally lay down significant funds for a domain name.

So my good freind @lolwarrior undoubtedly has thought way more than me about his domain name but let me answer how I see commercial worth in the name Act.best.

• There are numerous schools of acting - a natural.
• Also good for a nonprofit drama organization or competition
• Superb for a counselling service that offered help in behaviour modification with issues like anger, etc.
• Superb name for a training program in anger management, road rage, etc.
• It would be a long shot, but occasionally we see sales for an unusual application. Like lets say that hollywood types wanted to respond to some of the issues (i.e. meToo, male dominance in directors, etc.) then Act.best strikes me as pretty great.
• Another use would be for a program whereby actors worked together to promote support of drama for kids for example. Autism.rocks sold for $100,000 for musicians doing charity events to sponsor autism related research and support.
• I see many uses in the education field with effective programs related to student behaviour.
• Politicians could definitely take the domain name to heart. I admit it is probably too cute for this application, but the reputation management industry is definitely growing and will continue to do so. I can see a creative startup in that possibly wanting it.
• I suspect like most of the time the actual end user is one we don't foresee.

Anyway, just a few off the top of my head.

Bob

Few of the possible uses, thank you Bob

 

[Joe N]

@Joe Nichols lot of great points,and I agree.

But some of the names I buy purely from semantic and aesthetic pov of view (and this is influenced by my presence in EU, not in USA - for example, for us here it sounds nice, and we do not really care about arguments whether .best is in correct order with keyword, etc, which are probably more important for some of those from USA/Canada/UK). But mostly, it is important whether I personally like it or not.

I purchased this name few minutes after I saw it here on Namepros... I think I paid 50 for it, but honestly I was ready to pay 1000 if necessary...but luckily, we are at Namepros and some members are also happy with 50 bucks, which is very good with me. (This way I built almost my whole portfolio, although I have to admit few years ago also 10-20 was enough to purchase nice name).

I have priced this name fot 50k in 2019, as I can see large org using it very nicely...I wil probably price it even higher in future. Whether I will sell it for 50k is unknown, but honestly I do not care much about it, and I am looking to see what happens in next 15-20 years, which is my investment horizont.

Act.Best is now among five of my most favourite names in my portfolio.

Also, I was able to use it to respond to some unruly members on NP in some threads, that is also not that bad

Well that's another thing, and understandable. I certainly have my share of names that likely have no business in a portfolio except for my own opinion of them.

Interesting to hear that parts of the EU don't care about word order of English domains. Are there a lot of sites operating on odd-sounding phrases?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

It's been a fun debate @Joe Nichols. Thanks for various well argued points. I learned a lot and it was interesting. Just cause I seem stubborn does not mean you have not impacted my views.

Have a great evening. Or as some like to say, all the best, eh?

Bob

 

[EbookLover]

.CC beats all TLDs in many respects including marketing and memorability and speed of typing. It needs to make a comeback.

IWishYouAllThe.BEST

ButIJustAintFeelin.IT

 

[namemarket]

That's what I find so unusual... The market domination of .com has been the norm for almost three decades. The battle for dominance happened long ago. It's over now. Done. All other extensions have been relegated to niche status.....

Thanks Joe for your views however I am not quite sure about dot-com dominance continuing in the future. Up until the sudden popularity of dot-best I was negative toward new tlds and owned owned only a few.

However, I now think Dot-Best may possibly be equal to or even surpass dot-com in several interesting ways, not necessarily from a resale or value position but more like a way to have the same name but a shorter length term too, with good potential.

That was from eliminating .com extension and not requiring a keyword in some of the the names (maybe replaced with the best ext), and at a lower reg cost, with the added ability to possibly get more targeted traffic (if the URL is indexed) in search engines.

What with the ongoing major decline in dot-com type-in traffic I now see many dot-com's and dot-org's going down in value and more difficulty trying to sell them with far less inquiries. The exception is a few niche categories like great 1 word com's, which keep on selling at very high levels.

It's interesting that I have been registering a lot of $1.99 dot-best names and there were some where I already owned the dot-com (even forgetting I owned it) but after realizing I did own it went ahead and registered .best anyway because i thought in some ways it was BETTER vs my well-aged .com.

In addition, there were a few names with Dynadot first displaying .com as being unregistered but I reg'd the dot-best anyway, not bothering with the .com, which I know is hard to believe!

 

[Domains - Wanted]

...In addition, there were a few names with Dynadot first displaying .com as being unregistered but I reg'd the dot-best anyway, not bothering with the .com, which I know is hard to believe!

I believe you... so, could you PM me those names that you've left with .com's unregistered?

 

[Joe N]

However, I now think Dot-Best may possibly be equal to or even surpass dot-com in several interesting ways, not necessarily from a resale or value position but more like a way to have the same name but a shorter length term too, with good potential.

All interesting points above, but I think the bolded section is what domain investors are most concerned with.

 

[johnnie018]

In addition, there were a few names with Dynadot first displaying .com as being unregistered but I reg'd the dot-best anyway, not bothering with the .com, which I know is hard to believe!

Are you just trying to mess with people's heads or are you serious on doing this? Lolz if real. Whose paying your cc bill?

 

[offthehandle]

It stuck around for years and years as a niche product, but no one in their right mind owned a Beta VCR machine at home.

This is funny. No one? Sure maybe after VHS took over and no more rentals or blank tapes. The newgtld comparison to Vhs vs Beta, well I dunno Beta was first in market, early adopted for adult videos in the home ~1976 and at least Beta sold millions of videos and $millions in machine sales. So I looked and Sony had 18 million Betamaxes sold.

Beta btw was still used in Pro Video Broadcast cameras production even after Digital formats arrived. Consumers stopped after local Video stores stopped renting Beta tapes.

I would bet 4 and 8 track tapes were even more successful in dollar volume and sales, end users bought them and wore them out more than any ngtld.

https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-says-it-will-stop-producing-its-betamax-tapes-in-march/

Do the Ngtlds have *end user* adoption of real websites in 18 million units? I don’t know the exact stats. Or huge dollar revenue or volumes to end users (consumers). Its more like if you hypothetically rolled back time and nobody bought a Betamax, so they never sold many and all the Electronics stores (Registrars and Domainers) are stuck with dead inventory of Betamaxes (ngtld’s) they never could sell right from the gate. Which of course didnt happen with Betamax.

NGtlds might be more Like a Yugo. An unfortunate car that sold to a few people due to cheap price (800,000 units) and the poster child of product failure.

 

[johnnie018]

This is funny. No one? Sure maybe after VHS took over and no more rentals or blank tapes. The newgtld comparison to Vhs vs Beta, well I dunno Beta was first in market, early adopted for adult videos in the home ~1976 and at least Beta sold millions of videos and $millions in machine sales. So I looked and Sony had 18 million Betamaxes sold.

Beta btw was still used in Pro Video Broadcast cameras production even after Digital formats arrived. Consumers stopped after local Video stores stopped renting Beta tapes.

I would bet 4 and 8 track tapes were even more successful in dollar volume and sales, end users bought them and wore them out more than any ngtld.

Do the Ngtlds have *end user* adoption of real websites in 18 million units? I don’t know the exact stats. Or huge dollar revenue or volumes to end users (consumers). Its more like if you hypothetically rolled back time and nobody bought a Betamax, so they never sold many and all the Electronics stores (Registrars and Domainers) are stuck with dead inventory of Betamaxes (ngtld’s) they never could sell right from the gate. Which of course didnt happen with Betamax.

NGtlds might be more Like a Yugo. An unfortunate car that sold to a few people due to cheap price (800,000 units) and the poster child of product failure.

Betamax, laserdisc, new tlds, it fades in the memory but never really dies. Usually these products are still for sale in small numbers 20 years on.

It is a big world and maybe in Latvia ntlds will live on for a long time yet. It is the type of product that is hard to kill entirely because some will be using them and Icann has all its rules to try and prevent shutdowns.

 

[frank-germany]

However, I now think Dot-Best may possibly be equal to or even surpass dot-com in several interesting ways, not necessarily from a resale or value position but more like a way to have the same name but a shorter length term too, with good potential.

sounds like paid advertising to me

or you have a profound sense of a (strange) kind of humor

 

[johnnie018]

sounds like paid advertising to me

or you have a profound sense of a (strange) kind of humor

Agree, it is a very unusual post.

 

[Ostrados]

I am not a fan for .best but lets be honest about the importance of the order, how is .best different from .top? why the order is not important for .top but very important for .best?!

.top is topping sales for new gTLD although it is in reverse order like these sold domains for example:
games.top 22,636 USD => should be top.games
house.top 12,823 USD => should be top.house
domain.top 9,598 USD => should be top.domain
health.top 9,084 USD => should be top.health

So IMO the order is not very importing in estimating the potential of this new extension.

Things against .best:

• It seems to me .top is direct competitor to .best and it is hard for .best to compete with it because .top is currently the most popular new gTLD extension.
• No direct market: there are too many options to end users that make .best hard to sell, considering that end users may go with new gTLD that is directly related to their niche (like: .cars, .finance, .store..etc)
• Limited to few .best domains per niche, for example if hosting.best is taken then the chances are very slim that another hosting company will pick .best
  
• Because it is a new extension it still requires a lot of marketing.

Things in favor of .best

• Broad market: .best is generic and can work with any niche (supermarket.best, domains.best, hosting.best..etc) and thus there is potential for the extension to become popular over time
• Because the direct competitor .top is doing well we can speculate that there is some potential value in this extension (competition is not always bad, competition can be a good sign)

Regarding SEO:
There is popular myth that domain extensions affect Google ranking, any new gTLD extension has zero benefit to SEO, unless competition is very low and the domain gets high CTR in google search results due to the ngTLD extension showing up in the domain name, which is very rare to happen because CTR in search engine is mainly related to optimized Title & Description.